Spanta Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Britain has the most generative AI (GenAI) start-ups in Europe and Israel, followed by Germany and Israel, according to a survey by venture capital firm Accel.
Accel analyzed 221 GenAI startups and found that 30% were founded in the UK, 14% in Germany and 13% in Israel, with France accounting for 11% and the Netherlands for 6%.
GenAI is an artificial intelligence that can generate text, images, videos and other data based on models developed using vast amounts of information.
The UK’s top universities, the founding of AI company DeepMind in 2010, and investment from US tech giants have all contributed to strengthening the UK’s position in AI.
Nevertheless, GenAI companies founded in France led the way in funding, raising $2.29 billion, followed by the UK with $1.15 billion, Accel said.
Paris-based Mistral, widely seen in Europe as a rival to OpenAI, raised 600 million euros ($644 million) last week at a valuation of 5.8 billion euros.
According to Accel, GenAI startups are expected to raise more than $25 billion in funding worldwide in 2023, rising to around $45 billion this year.
“When we dig deep into the roots of these companies, we see where the major GenAI talent hubs are in the region and the common paths their founders take,” said Harry Nellis, partner at Accel.
He said a quarter of startups had at least one founder who had worked at companies such as Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, DeepMind, Meta or Microsoft, and more than a third had held positions at academic institutions.
According to Accel, a quarter of its founders were educated at British universities, including Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London and Oxford University.
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(Reporting by Spanta Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Mark Potter)
