The rise in AI startups comes despite a 49% decline in deal value and a 35% dip in deal volume in the first half of 2023 compared to H1 2022. Nearly a fifth of total global venture funding from August to July came from the AI sector, according to CrunchBase. The Y Combinator summer 2023 batch is seen as a reflection of this trend, with AI technologies driving investments.
Key takeaways:
- Startups in Y Combinator's latest batch are presenting their products, with a significant number focusing on AI technologies. This comes as nearly a fifth of total global venture funding from August to July came from the AI sector.
- Several startups are focusing on AI infrastructure, such as Shadeform, which provides a platform to enable customers to access and deploy AI training and inferencing workloads to any cloud provider, and Ceralyze, which translates AI research papers into functioning code.
- Other startups are developing AI tools, such as Sweep, which autonomously handles small dev tasks like high-level debugging and feature requests, and Nowadays, an AI co-pilot for corporate event planning.
- FleetWorks, another startup, is aiming to automate the freight brokerage process by triggering calls and emails, sharing load details, discussing price, booking a carrier, and updating account teams on issues.