Artificial Intelligence witnessed highest number of VC investors in 2019, finds GlobalData

In the past decade, the rise of AI has revolutionised both workplace and computer science. On the other hand, a lot of experts are raising questions about what AI means for the future of human intelligence.

According to the latest report published by GlobalData, Artificial Intelligence (AI) attracted the highest number of venture capital (VC) investors during 2019 while big data and internet-of-things (IoT) led in terms of investors-to-idea ratio (number of venture capital investors/number of funded companies) and average deal size.

As per the report, around 2,300 AI startups received funding worth $30 billion (approx €27.7 billion) from around 4,000 investors during 2019, which is the highest among all emerging technologies.

However, AI lagged behind other technologies (including cloud, Fintech, Big Data, and IoT) in terms of average deal size and had the second-lowest investors-to-idea ratio. It’s worth mentioning that the key funded companies across these disruptive technologies were mostly located in US or Asia-Pacific regions such as China.

Some of the key funded AI companies of 2019 included US-based Nuro, Chinese firm Megvii Technology, and US firm UiPath.

Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, comments:

AI has already made its way through many sectors and virtually no major industries today remain untouched by AI. However, with different companies, industries, and countries at different phases of their AI journey, the technology is gearing up to play a more significant role in conjunction with other disruptive technologies. One such example is big data, which has been witnessing the use of AI for data analysis. Interestingly, big data registered the highest investors-to-idea ratio of 1.87 in 2019. With the huge volume of data generated and used for making decisions on a daily basis, big data plays a crucial role in data processing. Consequently, companies working in the space are gaining prominence, and investors are also taking note.

On the other hand, IoT occupied the top position in terms of average deal size in 2019, riding on the back of some of the big-ticket VC investments announced in the space during the year.

Main image credits: metamorworks/Shutterstock

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