In the not-that-distant future, robots and AI assistants will be taking on a much larger share of our work. Humans will consume growing quantities of increasingly elaborate digital content. And we’ll find more creative ways to store the carbon generated by all our activity.
That, in very broad strokes, is the futuristic vision one might imagine after scrolling through a sample set of 1,000 seed-stage companies on Crunchbase that raised funding in the past six months. Funding activity shows especially heavy enthusiasm around artificial intelligence, with roughly a third of funding in our sample set 1 going to AI-related companies.
Not all areas are showing similar momentum. In particular, seed investors are moving away from consumer products, food and beverages, gig economy platforms, and other areas that were mainstays for seed dealmaking in the past.
To shed some light on where seed dollars are going, we highlighted four areas where seed funding looks robust. These include robotics, carbon capture, legaltech and AI assistants.
No. 1: Robotics
In Greek myth, Sisyphus was sentenced to spend eternity rolling a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down. This frustrating existence bears resemblance to much of modern work — repetitive tasks that go on seemingly without end.
For some time, robotics startups and established enterprises alike have been working to ease this burden — building machines capable of doing our most dirty, dull and dangerous jobs. Recent seed funding shows investors continue to see merit around this theme.
To illustrate, we used Crunchbase data to put together a list of eight robotics-related startups that raised seed funding in the past six months.
No. 2: Legaltech
AI is coming for the legal profession. Or so it looks based on recent seed funding data, which shows vigorous investment at the intersection of legaltech and artificial intelligence.
There’s a particular focus on startups applying AI to add automation and efficiency to many of the time-consuming, repetitive tasks currently shouldered by lawyers and support staff. To illustrate, we put together a list of 18 legaltech startups that raised funding in the past six months.
No. 3: Carbon capture, storage and reutilization
So far this year, we’ve seen robust funding of all types and stages to companies focused on carbon capture, storage and reutilization. Seed is no exception.
In the past six months, at least 10 companies in the space have raised good-sized seed rounds. Of these, the largest funding recipient is Germany’s Phlair, a developer of direct air capture technology. Second is Israeli startup Carbon Blue, which develops a process for removing CO₂ from water.
No. 4: AI assistants and agents
Last but not least: Probably the single biggest theme for seed investment in recent months centers around AI-enabled assistants and agents.
The space accounts for several of the largest seed-funding recipients. This includes startups like Mindtrip, an AI assistant for travel planning; Medbill AI, an assistant to help consumers manage medical bills; and Ario AI, which bills itself as an AI life assistant.
Using Crunchbase data, we aggregated a list of 23 startups working on AI-enabled assistants and agents that raised seed funding in the past six months.
Welcome to the AI future
We can look at seed funding as a sort of proxy for the way founders and their backers see our tech-enabled future unfolding in coming years. And, if their activity is any indication, our future will have a heavy dose of AI baked into everyday activities from shopping to bill-paying to customer service, a heightened degree of automation, and continued innovation in the hopes of lessening the negative impacts of climate change.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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