2023 Investments into Early-Stage Machine Learning and Generative AI Companies
ML Dev Tools, Content Generation and Conversational Search are some of the categories with the most potential for AI-fueled innovation
Curious about what new companies have been funded in 2023 in the ML and Gen AI space?
Below is a collection of 12 early-stage start-ups (defined as Pre-Seed through Series A) that received VC investments in 2023 in three of the most prolific categories in AI: Machine Learning Dev Tools, Content Generation and Conversational Search, in rounds led by a16z, Sequoia Capital and Greylock.
The list includes:
ML Development Tools, featuring Modular, LlamaIndex, Replicate and Dust
Content Generation, represented by Zibra AI, Ideogram, Eleven Labs and Tavus
Conversational Search, including Rewind AI, Mirage, Character.ai and Ex-Human
ML Dev Tools Include Model Training Platforms and Frameworks for Customized AI Workflows
Modular, who raised a $US100M Series A round in August 2023, provides a unified AI deployment and inference engine. With the tagline “The future of AI starts here”, Modular’s value proposition is to reduce latency, increase throughput and improve resource efficiency across CPUs, GPUs and accelerators.
The company’s vision is to allow AI technology to be used by anyone, anywhere and its development platform allows customers to defragment their AI technology stack, push more innovation into production faster and realize more value from investments into AI. The offering is made up of a suite of tools that simnplifies the AI infrastructure, which includes the Modular AI Engine for inference and the Mojo programming language and SDK.
Modular is based on Palo Alto, CA, and it has been backed by General Catalyst, Google Ventures, Factory and Greylock, among others.
Llamaindex raised a US$8.5M Seed round in July 2023 to develop its framework for connecting data sources to LLMs. With the tagline “Unleash the power of LLMs over your data”, the company provides tools to augment LLM apps with data, including features for:
Data ingestion for various formats (e.g. APIs, PDFs, documents, SQL)
Data indexing and integration with vector databases
Query interface for prompts and knowledge-augmented responses
Applications that can be built with LlamaIndex include conversational agents for unstructured data, data augmented chatbots and structured analytics.
Based in San Francisco, California, LlamaIndex has been backed by Greylock.
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Replicate is a model hub and platform for running models in the cloud at scale with an aim to make ML learning as easy to use as software. The hub includes open source models for language, video creation and editing, image restoration, image-to-text and text-to-image generation.
Based in San Francisco, CA, Replicate raised a US$32.4M Series A round in July 2023 from VCs including Sequoia, a16z and SV Angel.
Dust specializes in the building of custom LLM apps on top of your company data. It provides a flexible framework to define and define enterprise AI applications that is built to handle entanglement and speed, introspection and versioning. With headquarters in Paris, France, Dust last raised a EUR5M Seed round in June 2023.
Recently Funded Content Generation Tools Focus on Image and Video Personalization
Zibra AI wants to revolutionize the creative process with the power of Generative AI. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, the company is building a platform for creating AI-Generated assets from virtual worlds and experiences.
Founded in 2021, their mission has been to accelerate game development with their asset creation tools and since their launch they have expanded into domains such as VR/AR, filming and production, and edtech. Zibra’s products - Zibra Effects and Zibra Generation - are focused on simplifying VFX creation and streamlining the generation of 3D content and characters.
To date, the company raised US$2.5M, including a US$0.5M Seed round from a16z in August 2023.
Ideogram is helping people become more creative with its text-to-image generation tool targeted at artists. Based in Toronto, Canada, the company raised US$16.5M in Seed funding in August 2023 from VCs such as a16z, Index Ventures, AIX Ventures, Golden Ventures and Two Small Fish Ventures, among others.
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Eleven Labs provides tools for generative AI Text-to-Speech and Voice Cloning for users to “create lifelike voiceovers for your content or use our AI voice generator as an easy-to-use text reader.” With use cases such as voiceover for videos and games or the creation of audiobooks or voice-enabled chatbots, Eleven Labs aims to provide human quality audio experiences in 28 languages.
Based in New York, NY, the company recently raised a US$19M Series A in June 2023 from a16z, Creator Ventures and SV Angel, among others.
Tavus claims to be “The most advanced AI Video Personalization Platform”, as it provides a tool which generates multiple versions of a user-submitted video that are customized with unique voice variables and messages for various audiences. Targeted at marketing and sales professionals and customer support and recruiting teams, Tavus helps with growing conversions and creating more personalized connections with potential customers.
Based in San Francisco, CA, Tavus raised a US$6.1M Seed round in March 2023 from Sequoia, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures and YC Continuity, among others.
Conversational Search Tools include Custom Chatbot Assistants and Content Organizers
Rewind AI provides “ A truly personalized AI” which runs imperceptibly on the user’s computer and captures the screen and audio and can then answer questions from the user about what they’ve done on that device. The AI also performs tasks such as summarizing meetings, drafting emails, finding details and retrieving lost information. All of the recordings are stored locally on the device and users have the option to decide which applications to not be recorded.
Based in New York, NY, Rewind AI raised a US$17.8 Series A round in May 2023 from VCs such as a16z, First Round Capital and NEA.
Mirage offers a digital asset library search and organization tool for artists, designers and creators who generate thousands of them. To grow its product with features such as natural language interface and similarity search, the San Francisco-based company raised a Seed round in March 2023 from Sequoia.
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Character.ai is optimizing AI to take on a variety of personalities of famous people or fictional characters and develop the fun, joyful and imaginative side of intelligent assistants. The company focuses on the user’s ability to shape the personality and attitude of the AI and train the model to be as creative as possible. Whether chatting with Daenerys Targaryen, William Shakespeare or Zelda from The Legend of Zelda, users are meant to receive a fun, imaginative and friendly conversation companion.
Based in Menlo Park, CA, Character.ai raised a US$150M Series A round in March 2023 backed by a16z and SV Angel, among others.
Ex-Human offers a tool to “Design your digital human to boost engagement in your communications.” With photo-realistic talking heads, engaging and emotion-driven chats and fully customizable look and personality, Ex-Human’s avatars are meant to help enliven interactions with chatbots, games and metaverses and virtual influencers.
Based in San Francisco, CA, the company raised a US$2.5M Seed round in March 2023 from VCs such as a16z, Terra VC, Soma Capital and Asymmetry Ventures.
This list is only a snapshot of the breadth and variety of early-stage ML and Gen AI start-ups that are being funded and growing. As we enter Q4 of 2023, we will see even more investments from VCs into interesting ideas and innovative, AI-enabled products and services.