Air Avenue Capital, a London-based enterprise agency with backers together with Spotify head Daniel Ek, has introduced a $121 million second fund, capital from which is predicted to succeed in synthetic intelligence firms.
Three-year-old Air Avenue, which was based by “State of AI Report” co-author Nathan Benaich, only recently revealed the shut of its second fund. Between 2019 and final 12 months, the agency’s preliminary fund supported a wide range of AI and “life science” firms, amongst them a number of lab-grown meat operations, AI picture creator and editor ClipDrop (which now belongs to Stability AI), and AI drug-discovery startup Allcyte (which Exscientia owns).
However Air Avenue’s second fund, which is particularly outfitted with $121,212,121, will again “AI-first firms” particularly, in line with Benaich. Public curiosity in synthetic intelligence has “exploded” since final summer season, Air Avenue’s founder emphasised – additionally underscoring that the expertise is “in its early real-world deployment part.”
In closing, the Spinout.fyi founder Benaich took the chance to thank his agency’s angel buyers – together with (in addition to the aforementioned Daniel Ek) Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean and professionals related to ChatGPT developer OpenAI.
“I believe the alternatives for AI are genuinely international,” Benaich mentioned throughout a Bloomberg interview concerning the second fund. “What’s fascinating about Europe is it has this very sturdy tutorial and analysis base. For a few years, most of the main contributors to landmark AI analysis papers that type of underpinned the expertise that works immediately had their early careers in Europe.
“I’m investing each in Europe and in North America. I’ve been notably excited by prescribed drugs and drug discovery, the place I believe AI is considered one of these wonderful native languages to elucidate biology. I’m additionally excited by enterprise software program and automation, and likewise rising sectors like robotics and nationwide safety and protection,” he continued.
Increasing upon the latter level, it’s price noting that Air Avenue is teeing up an funding in a enterprise specializing in “protection methods,” in line with its web site.
In November of 2021, Ek – who didn’t appear to have commented publicly on Air Avenue’s second fund on the time of this writing – invested (by way of his Prima Materia firm) a cool €100 million in AI-powered protection enterprise Helsing.
Extra not too long ago, the Stockholm-born billionaire – whose backing of Helsing elicited criticism for a time – scored a $65 million Collection A for his AI-focused preventative-health firm, Neko Well being. And with regards to Spotify and the broader music house, the 40-year-old hasn’t hesitated to precise his bold imaginative and prescient for AI.