Financing to invest in Europe. For a flat yearBut this may confuse the fact that European AI startups are thriving.
According to VC firm Balderton Capital and Dealroom; 25% of VC funding in the region (approximately $13.7 billion) went to AI startups this year, compared to 15% four years ago. It gave birth to many new unicorns. By the pool versus Stray.
For James Wise, general partner at Balderton Capital, the most important thing is that “If you have an innovative technology that you can do in Europe, you can raise hundreds of millions of euros, even billions of euros, as an AI company that can be successful in Europe. The United States.”
It counters what he sees as a “negative narrative” around Europe: collectively; European AI companies have doubled in value in four years, reaching $508 billion. According to these new figures, This category represents nearly 15% of the entire technology sector by value three years ago, up from 12% three years ago.
This means that funding is available for AI startups, whether at early or later stages, although not always from Europe. In addition, US AI companies see Europe as a talent pool to tap into.
“We're probably still a derivative of the US market. still dependent on it; But it's not as if nothing is happening here. It's a really vibrant ecosystem,” Wise told TechCrunch.
This isn't news to TechCrunch readers who are as familiar with European AI rising stars as TechCrunch readers. Mistral AI versus Photo boothBut also new people like it. Dottxt. But what's unexpected is Dealroom's finding that AI companies in Europe will employ 349,000 people this year, a 168% increase from 2020.
This may come as a surprise, as the AI teams are on the small side. But for the wise, This is consistent with the thesis of his recent book;Startup Century: Why We All Become Entrepreneurs” Wise says: “Large, You'll see the growth of hundreds of small, highly profitable companies rather than one medium-sized manufacturing company.”
There is also a snowball effect as AI companies make others more productive.
“In our CTO survey, 93% of the companies we work with said next-generation AI tools have significantly changed their business operations in the last year,” Wise said. Some of these say their engineering teams are twice as efficient as they are now, while others are seeing an impact on other functions — saving up to 20% in operating costs on average.
All of this makes Wise think that adoption of AI will continue to grow. Is this good news for Europe's AI sector? Although Wise and his colleagues now think “the AI sector is gone,” perhaps it is. This could make the same data next year meaningless.