Turns out investors and founders alike are heavily influenced by the success stories around them. Both today and 10 years ago, we see their impact in the seed-funding arena.<\/p>\n
Marketplaces and consumer platforms<\/p>\n
So what did we see then? Marketplaces were a big seed funding trend in 2015. More than 400 companies<\/a> with the word \u201cmarketplace\u201d in their Crunchbase profile raised seed capital that year. Scalable, consumer-facing platforms were de rigeur.<\/p>\n The funding pipeline 10 years ago also reflected confidence in the ability of startups to disrupt entire industries as well as restructure our approach to day-to-day tasks. We see this in areas from insurance to school transport to cannabis delivery, and even planning dinner.<\/p>\n Autonomous driving was another big theme. The period gave rise to a good-sized class of companies that have mostly struggled or flopped, although a broader push for driverless vehicles remains very much alive.<\/p>\n To help illustrate the mindset of seed investors a decade ago, we put together a curated list of some of the period\u2019s largest seed-funding recipients. Most have long since flopped but a few are still recognizable names.<\/p>\n OpenAI is the big success story<\/p>\n Looking back, it\u2019s obvious that the runaway success story among companies launched 10 years ago is OpenAI<\/a>.<\/p>\n With its addictive ChatGPT app, a post-money valuation of $300 billion, and the recent announcement of the largest funding round<\/a> in venture history, it\u2019s clear, in hindsight, that OpenAI was the company every seed investor should have backed.<\/p>\n But at the time, of course, it was far from a no-brainer. Certainly there was attention. OpenAI publicly launched<\/a> in late 2015 with a star roster of AI experts, along with Sam Altman<\/a> and Elon Musk<\/a> as co-chairmen.<\/p>\n However, the startup was also a nonprofit, so presumably few envisioned the path it would later take. In fact, OpenAI openly discouraged such thinking, asserting in its launch announcement that: \u201cOur goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.\u201d<\/p>\n Times change.<\/p>\n Then and now<\/p>\n Looking at seed investment trends of the past year, by contrast, AI is of course the dominant funding theme. Since generative AI pioneers are later-stage now, top recent seed recipients tend to be applying AI to more specialized niches in areas such as biotech, robotics and enterprise software.<\/p>\n Per Crunchbase data, roughly 40% of U.S. seed funding over the past year has gone to companies in AI-related industry categories. That pencils out to nearly $5 billion<\/a> across more than 1,300 deals.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a big number, and also underscores how the size of seed funding rounds has trended upward over time. Back in 2015, there were just four seed rounds of $25 million. This past year, there were more than 10x that number. That includes nine-figure seed rounds for hot startups including Lila Sciences<\/a> and The Bot Co.<\/a><\/p>\n Maybe in another 10 years, we\u2019ll take a look back and see how these big seed-stage bets have performed. Looking at how the startup pipeline is shaping up, however, if things go the way investors would like, there\u2019s a strong chance it\u2019ll be an AI bot putting together this analysis.<\/p>\n Related Crunchbase Pro lists:<\/p>\n Related reading:<\/p>\n
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