As we highlighted in our 2023 Annual Report, the year behind us will go in the record books as the year the world sat up and took notice of Artificial Intelligence. Will the hype cycle continue into 2024, or will the dust settle? We're already seeing the emergence of power players in this new field, how will entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators follow suit? All this remains to be seen, but one we'll be keeping a keen eye on.
In the meantime, let's have a look at the top 10 AI companies that marked 2023.
Aleph Alpha
Country: Germany
Last round: $500 million
Aleph Alpha deploys transformative AI like large language and multimodal models and runs the fastest European commercial AI cluster.
The company Aleph Alpha raised more than $500 million in a Series B funding round. The investment was led by the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (Ipai), Bosch Ventures, and the companies of Schwarz Group, Europe's largest retailer and owner of Lidl and Kaufland.
Mistral AI
Country: France
Last round: €385 million
French generative AI startup Mistral AI closed two deals in 2023. In its first month of existence, the company raised €105 million in a seed round, and in less than 6 months, they secured additional €385 million investment in the Series A funding round.
The late round was led by Andreessen-Horowitz with LightSpeed Ventures, Salesforce, and Motier Ventures, the Parisian family office of the owners of the Galeries Lafayette Group participating.
Helsing
Country: Germany
Last round: €209 million
Munich-based defence AI firm Helsing has secured €209 million in Series B funding, solidifying its status as Europe's most well-funded defencetech startup and among the leading AI companies in the field.
The round was led by General Catalyst. Swedish group Saab is joining the round as a strategic investor, deepening the existing partnership.
DeepL
Country: Germany
Last round: €93 million
The Cologne, Germany-based deep learning in language translation startup DeepL, raised €93 million.
The round was led by a new investor, in the form of Silicon Valley/San Francisco VC IVP while the other participants include Bessemer Venture Partners, US/Japan-based WiL and Atomico. The earlier investors btov and Benchmark also participated in the round.
Synthesia
Country: UK
Last round: $90 million
London-based AI video creation platform Synthesia has raised $90 million in Series C funding round which will see it continue to simplify video production with the use of AI.
The round, which values the company at $1 billion, was led by Accel with investment from NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, and included existing investors Kleiner Perkins, GV and Firstmark Capital.
Pixis
Country: UK
Last round: $85 million
Pixis, a codeless AI infrastructure company focused on enabling brands to enhance performance marketing, has raised $85 million in its series C1 funding round.
Touring Capital led the round while existing investors participating in the funding round include Grupo Carso, General Atlantic, Celesta Capital and Chiratae Ventures.
Everseen
Country: Ireland
Last round: €65 million
Cork, Ireland-based Everseen provides AI-powered computer vision and automation services primarily to retailers, helping them keep an eye on inventory shrink, i.e. theft, and streamline overall operations.
Ther company has raised €65 million in a Series A funding round, provided by existing investor, private equity house Crosspoint Capital Partners.
Stability AI
Country: UK
Last round: $50 million
The artificial intelligence startup Stability AI, raised about $50 million through a convertible note.
The company is recognized for its stable diffusion image-generating software.
PhysicsX
Country: UK
Last round: €29 million
UK’s PhysicsX is a company that is bringing the power of generative AI to enable breakthrough engineering in advanced industries including automotive, aerospace, renewables and materials production.
The company raised €29 million in a Series A round led by General Catalyst. Standard Investment, NGP Energy, Radius Capital, and KKR co-founder and co-executive chairman, Henry Kravis, also participated in the round.
DRUID
Country: Romania
Last round: €28 million
Bucharest-based DRUID secured €28 million in a Series B funding led by TQ Ventures, with participation from new investor Smedvig Capital and existing investors GapMinder, Hoxton Ventures and Karma Ventures.
DRUID is an end-to-end platform for building Conversational Business Applications and AI Virtual Assistants specialized in completing business tasks.
