AI
Next-generation AI gains steam as Jasper gets $1.5B valuation
October 18, 2022
After tempering early excitement about the promise of artificial intelligence, venture capitalists are now turning their attention to a subset of AI-powered startups.
Despite the market downturn, companies that use AI to generate text, images and videos have raised substantial rounds over the last few months.
Jasper, which has raised new capital at a $1.5 billion valuation, is the latest example of investor enthusiasm for so-called generative AI. Jasper's $125 million round, which was the company's first outside funding, was led by Insight Partners, with participation from firms including Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP and Foundation Capital.
The nearly 2-year-old Austin-based company says its revenue is on track to reach an annual rate of $90 million by the end of 2022. Marketers and other professionals use Jasper's technology to create blogs, social media posts and other content.
Earlier this week, Stability AI, the developer of text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion, raised $101 million at a reported $1 billion valuation in a deal led by Coatue, Lightspeed and O'Shaughnessy Ventures.
"In the last year, generative AI across voice, images and text has started to approach human [capabilities]," said Jeremy Kaufmann, a partner at Scale Venture Partners. Last month, his firm joined a $14.8 million Series A for Regie.ai, a startup automating blog posts and sales emails.
Kaufmann said that the first generation of AI was focused on understanding the world. That encompasses computer vision companies such as Viz.ai, which analyzes medical images for cancer, and voice transcription businesses like Gong and Observe.ai, which aid sales and customer interactions.
But Kaufmann said the second generation of AI is "generating or creating the world."
"It was an unexpected [development]. People that prognosticate about AI tend to make a lot of mistakes," he said. "Five years ago, everyone thought autonomous vehicles would be rolled out in 2022. Yet those same people would never have guessed that a computer can generate an image or text."
Featured image by teh_z1b/Shutterstock
Despite the market downturn, companies that use AI to generate text, images and videos have raised substantial rounds over the last few months.
Jasper, which has raised new capital at a $1.5 billion valuation, is the latest example of investor enthusiasm for so-called generative AI. Jasper's $125 million round, which was the company's first outside funding, was led by Insight Partners, with participation from firms including Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP and Foundation Capital.
The nearly 2-year-old Austin-based company says its revenue is on track to reach an annual rate of $90 million by the end of 2022. Marketers and other professionals use Jasper's technology to create blogs, social media posts and other content.
Earlier this week, Stability AI, the developer of text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion, raised $101 million at a reported $1 billion valuation in a deal led by Coatue, Lightspeed and O'Shaughnessy Ventures.
"In the last year, generative AI across voice, images and text has started to approach human [capabilities]," said Jeremy Kaufmann, a partner at Scale Venture Partners. Last month, his firm joined a $14.8 million Series A for Regie.ai, a startup automating blog posts and sales emails.
Kaufmann said that the first generation of AI was focused on understanding the world. That encompasses computer vision companies such as Viz.ai, which analyzes medical images for cancer, and voice transcription businesses like Gong and Observe.ai, which aid sales and customer interactions.
But Kaufmann said the second generation of AI is "generating or creating the world."
"It was an unexpected [development]. People that prognosticate about AI tend to make a lot of mistakes," he said. "Five years ago, everyone thought autonomous vehicles would be rolled out in 2022. Yet those same people would never have guessed that a computer can generate an image or text."
Featured image by teh_z1b/Shutterstock
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