In recent times, we’ve witnessed a slowdown in venture capital (VC) investments as the economy struggles to keep up with rising interest rates. This has affected global investors in both VC and traditional investment positions. Despite this, there have still been notable investments made globally.
One such investment is the €100m raise by Mistral AI, a generative AI company that was only incorporated a few weeks earlier.. This investment, led by Lightspeed Ventures, was a surprise to the market and highlights the current desire to invest in the AI space. Mistral AI was founded by key members of Meta’s and Alphabet’s AI research teams and aims to provide businesses with the foundational technology to automate existing processes and develop innovative new products with state-of-the-art large language models.
This investment was also one of the largest cheques written to a European company.
Data from Bloomberg also indicates a growing interest in AI and its potential applications for businesses of all sizes. As such, analysts are predicting significant capital flows towards VC in the near future as the market seeks to invest in AI startups.
With Sequoia, the world’s largest VC firm, announcing that they will be opening a new office in London, we can expect to see an increase in deal flow from Europe. This highlights a shift away from an American-centric investment universe.
Sequoia also announced that they will be splitting their operations into three different businesses: Sequoia Capital in Europe and North America, Peak XV in Asia and India, and HongShan in China. This transformation from an American-centric model to a more diverse one with regional expertise, also likely due to the changing political landscape in China, as well as the rise of the Indian startup economy, reflects the changing nature of the VC landscape.
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