increasingly being driven by the rise of AI. Startup Genome’s analysis of sectoral growth shows that AI has been the fastest growth sector of recent years. This growth is also being exhibited in terms of the numbers of new startups being formed in the sector: as a rough indicator, about 4-5% of startups formed in Canada in the past 5 years have been AI-related – but if one looks at the past 2 years, this rises dramatically to around 20%. Moreover, Startup Genome data also shows that the funding environment for ‘AI Native’ startups – that is, startups that have AI at their core – is different: globally, such firms are being funded faster (Fig 22), and typically at larger amounts.
Fig 23: Time to First Raise for ‘AI Native’ startups versus all startups (Global)
3.8.1. Seed Round Size for AI So how does Canada fare for AI? At present, Toronto-Waterloo is the most ‘AI intensive’ Canadian ecosystem (and ranks in 7th place in our forthcoming AI Cities Ranking) with around 25% of VC funding into new companies in the past 5 years being AI-related; this is above most ecosystems, but below Silicon Valley at 47%.
Startup Genome | San Francisco • Berlin • London • Delhi • Tokyo • Abu Dhabi • Bangalore • São Paulo
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