AI investors
AI investors back companies whose product depends on models, on the data that trains them, or on the infrastructure that runs them. That covers applied products built on foundation models, the tooling that developers use to build and deploy them, and the data and compute layers underneath.
The firms on this list name AI or data infrastructure as a focus on their own website. Some are specialist funds and many are generalist firms with an AI practice. Each cites its own site as the source for what is written here.
Founded in 2020 by brothers Ammar and Mohammed (Mo) Amdani, Adapt Ventures operates as a boutique early-stage venture firm and venture studio. The firm is known for its highly…
Alpha Wave is an investment company that has three main verticals; private equity, private credit, and public markets. The objective of the private equity partnerships is to invest in…
Draper Associates is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded in 1985 by Tim Draper. The firm has more than 40 years of experience backing transformative technology companies…
Founder Institute is a pre-seed startup accelerator that offers structured accelerator programs to help entrepreneurs launch and grow technology startups. It provides a core program…
Goanna Capital focused on private companies in the global Internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries. The company manages a large pool of discretionary capital…
International Blockchain Consulting, also known as IBC Group, is a venture capital firm and global consulting agency founded in 2017. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, the firm…
KBW Ventures is an asset management company focusing exclusively on venture capital, value creation, and growth equity. It targets direct investments in some of the world's most…
MH Ventures is a venture firm focused on accelerating the decentralized future. It backs and builds the next generation of open blockchain infrastructure, supporting founders and…
One Way Ventures is a venture capital firm that backs exceptional immigrant founders. The firm engages with early-stage startups and invites founders who are starting up to pitch…
Portal Ventures is a fundamentals-driven early-stage crypto investment firm. The firm focuses on making investments in the cryptocurrency sector, emphasizing rigorous analysis and…
Protagonist is an investment firm that invests in ambitious founders and startups. It highlights portfolio companies and financing rounds, including pre-seed and seed-stage deals in…
Quadri Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in enterprise software companies across the US and Europe. It focuses on providing capital to support the growth of…
Robot Ventures is a (pre-)seed investor in exceptional fintech and blockchain companies led by founders with big ambitions, and contrarian worldviews.
Seedify is an incubator and launchpad platform for blockchain games and gamers.
01 Advisors was founded in 2018 by former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and former Twitter COO Adam Bain, later joined by former Facebook CRO David Fischer. Positioned as 'For Operators…
10x Founders is a network-driven investor backed by over 200 entrepreneurs and angels. The founding partners (Andreas Etten, Andrej Henkler, Claudius Jablonka, Felix Haas, Jan Becker…
Founded in 2012, 1818 Venture Capital is a Guernsey-based VC firm specialising in early-stage financial services innovation. The firm partners with ambitious founders building…
212 invests in growth-stage tech companies across Turkey, CEE, and MENA. Currently, our fund manages €75 million of committed capital, and 25 investments. Our strategy is to invest in…
Founded in 2018 by a group of seasoned executives including Steven Price and Matt Fremont-Smith, 25madison operates a unique, multi-pronged investment model. The firm incubates…
Founded in 2020 by former Rocket Internet executives Alexander Kudlich and Ludwig Ensthaler, alongside Mesosphere founder Florian Leibert, 468 Capital bridges the European and US tech…
4DX Ventures is a technology-focused investment firm active across Africa. The firm highlights more than 10 years of track record, over 50 portfolio companies, and operations in more…
500 Global is a multi-stage venture capital firm with US$2.4 billion in assets under management that invests in founders building fast-growing technology companies. We focus on…
Founded in 2018 by former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, alongside Theo Osborne and David Fisher, 9Yards Capital is a growth equity firm that backs technical founders…
Abu Dhabi Growth Fund is a sovereign investment fund established in July 2021 with the mandate of pursuing a differentiated investment strategy to generate high financial returns for…
What AI investors look for
An advantage the model providers cannot take.
A product that a general model could replace with its next release is a hard case. Investors look for proprietary data, a workflow the company owns, or a distribution position that a model alone does not give.
Evidence that the product is used, and how.
Usage that persists after the novelty. Investors want to see retention, the tasks the product completes for its users, and what those users stop doing elsewhere.
Economics that survive inference costs.
Gross margin after the cost of running models. A product that costs more to serve than customers will pay is a research project until that changes.
A team that understands both the models and the domain.
The strongest companies pair people who know what the technology can do with people who know what a customer in the sector needs done.
A clear view of where value accrues.
Investors ask whether the value in this category goes to the model, the application or the infrastructure, and why this company sits where it does.
Raising in AI
Rounds in this sector move faster and price higher than in most others, and the same firms that write cheques quickly also walk away quickly when the next model release changes the picture. A clear account of why the company still matters after that release is the core of the pitch.
Have ready: usage data that shows retention and depth, unit economics that include inference costs, a description of what data or workflow the company owns, and a view on the model providers' roadmap. Investors in this sector will have read the same papers the founders have.
Many AI investors are technical and will want to see the product work. A live demo, with the failure cases shown as plainly as the successes, does more than a deck.
Questions
Do I need to train my own model to raise from AI investors?
No. Most funded AI companies build on models they do not own. What investors want is a reason the company keeps its customers when the underlying model is available to everyone.
What is an AI wrapper, and is it fundable?
A product that adds a thin interface to a general model. Investors use the term for companies without a defensible position. A product becomes more than that through owned data, deep integration into a workflow, or distribution that competitors cannot reach.
How do AI investors think about compute costs?
As a line in the gross margin. Founders should know the cost of serving each customer, how it changes with scale and with model prices, and what the margin is once the company stops subsidising usage.
Are generalist funds investing in AI?
Nearly all of them. The list on this page includes generalist firms that state AI as a focus, alongside specialist funds. The difference is usually the depth of technical diligence.
What does an AI investor mean by proprietary data?
Data that the company generates or has exclusive access to, which improves the product and which a competitor cannot buy. Usage data from the product itself is the most common form.
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