As we can see As unicorns cut staff and the prevalence of low rounds increases, it can seem like the startup ecosystem is chock full of bad news and little else. That is not exactly the case.
While AI, and in particular the generative AI subcategory, are as hot as the sun, not all attention is directed at the handful of names you already know. Sure, OpenAI can get you nine- and ten-figure rounds from a row of tech investor killers and large-cap corporations. And startups like Hugging Face and Anthropic can’t stay out of the news, proving that smaller AI-focused startups are doing more than well.
In fact, new charter data, which provides capitalization table management and other services, indicates that AI-focused startups are outperforming their larger peer group in both the seed stage and Series A.
The data set, which shows that AI-focused startups are raising more and at higher valuations than other startups, indicates that perhaps the best way to avoid a dip today is to build in the AI space. .
What the data says
According to Carta data relating to the first quarter of the year, seed funding for non-AI startups in the US market using its services dropped from $1.64 billion to $1.08 billion, or a decrease of about 34%. That result is directionally aligned with other data we’ve seen regarding Q1 2023 VC totals; data points below.
