AI Start is a collaborative venture involving Katapult, Seedstars, and Bakken & Bæck. The idea is to investigate how AI can bring nuanced insights into analyzing early-stage startup investment. The project aims to foster a broader perspective encompassing diverse factors influencing startup success.

New Perspectives in Early-Stage Investment

Investment in early-stage startups carries inherent risk, especially when traditional methods primarily rely on financial data and investor intuition. This process can be challenging when relevant data is lacking or incomplete. With AI Start, the goal is to consider a wider range of data, potentially helping to reduce risk and highlight opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked.

Linn-Cecilie Linnemann, CEO of Katapult Group, shares, "With AI Start, we're exploring how focusing on non-financial data and integrating it into a user-friendly dashboard could possibly reshape how decisions are made in early-stage investment."

Exploring AI's Role in Predicting Success

A central aspect of AI Start is the development of an AI engine, designed to predict the likelihood of a startup successfully raising a Series A/B investment round. This process aims to integrate both qualitative and quantitative data, from factors like the number of founders to media coverage and ecosystem data.

Pierre-Alain Masson, Co-founder and Co-CEO at Seedstars, explains, "We recognize that each startup has its own unique journey, and success can be influenced by a variety of factors beyond financials. With AI Start, we wanted to investigate how we might capture this complexity to provide deeper insight."

A Closer Look at the AI Start Dashboard

The AI Start dashboard is a central part of this project. Here, raw data is transformed into comprehensive insights, allowing for a closer look at a startup's predictive score and offering a detailed analysis.

Designed with clarity and ease of use in mind, the dashboard aims to present various data points in a visually simplified manner. Tobias Bæck, Co-founder and CEO of Bakken & Baeck, says, "With the AI Start dashboard, we aim to make complex data more accessible and easier to understand, hopefully guiding more informed investment decisions."

The Powerhouse Team Behind AI Start

AI Start is made possible through the collaboration of Katapult, Seedstars, and Bakken & Baeck. Each organization brings its unique expertise to the table: Katapult and Seedstars offer their knowledge of venture capital investment, a wide-ranging network, and invaluable startup ecosystem expertise. Bakken & Baeck, on the other hand, contributes its remarkable AI proficiency, backed by a track record of world-class AI solutions. This fusion of distinct skills sets the groundwork for the project.

AI Start demonstrates the potential of merging artificial intelligence, robust startup data, and innovative thinking. While it's still early days, we're excited about the possibilities and the lessons to be learned. We appreciate your interest in AI Start and look forward to sharing our journey as we delve deeper into the potential of predictive AI in startup investment.

To learn more about AI Start, reach out to Zeb Hastings at [email protected].

This blog post is part of a series on AI Start, our AI-powered project to reimagine investment analysis.