Investor funding in AI startups increases 10-fold in 5 years: Report

A global report by management consulting firm Zinnov, titled ‘The AI Spring — Innovations for the next decade’, says investor funding in AI startups has increased more than 10 fold over the past five years, from $94 million in 2011 to $1,049 million in 2016.
The study very significantly pointed out that Artificial Intelligence (AI) today is disrupting some of the oldest and disruption-immune verticals like Automotive, Manufacturing and Finance, while witnessing a considerable interest in terms of funding as well.
Divulging details on the geographical spread, the study pointed out that with 2277 Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups globally and the current market of over $14.28Bn, U.S currently dominates the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Startup landscape. Europe’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Startup ecosystem is also emerging and growing rapidly with a total of 441 startups currently and an overall investment of $1Bn across UK, France and Germany; with Fintech, Healthcare and Retail being the top verticals. Global organizations are also well leveraging the European startup ecosystem, it pointed out.
In India, there are around 170 AI startups with total funding of $36 million. Bengaluru leads the list with 64 startups that have raised $27 million so far, followed by Delhi that has 26 startups which has raised around $330k so far. The country has witnessed acquisitions of 8 AI startups until now, the report said.
It also stated that there are three kinds of companies that are investing into Artificial Intelligence (AI) today – Startups, Top 500 Global R&D spenders’ and World’s five largest software companies.
Talking about this fast growing segment, CEO, Zinnov, Pari Natarajan said, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the disruptive force of our time that will change industry structures drastically. It is just not enabling some new product features but is playing a role across the value chain of industries and is the fastest technology deployment to happen across industry verticals.”