Majority Of Investors Bullish On AI Startups For 2025

If 2023 was the year when generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) took the world by the storm, 2024 was all about enterprises adopting the technology in their day-to-day operations.

As a result, last year saw many founders take the AI route for their new ventures, making the AI-led disruption apparent in the Indian startup ecosystem. Investors, too, were more than happy to back new AI startups. 

Such was the clamour for GenAI startups that Polygon cofounder Sandeep Nailwal’s  blockchain-based AI startup Sentient Labs bagged a massive $85 Mn in seed funding while Cultfit cofounder Mukesh Bansal’s venture Nurix AI secured $27.5 Mn in seed funding last year. 

Buoyed by such big-ticket rounds in early stage AI startups, total seed-stage funding zoomed 31% year-on-year (YoY) to $893 Mn in 2024. 

This high interest in AI-led startups is expected to continue in 2025 as well. According to Inc42’s annual investor survey “The Pulse Of Tech”, a majority of startup investors are on the lookout for startups in the AI and GenAI segment. 

The survey, which gauged the priority list of over 75 investors in 2025, saw about 56% pick GenAI/ AI startups as their top investment picks. 

Commenting on this, marketing firm GrowthJockey’s founder and CEO Ashutosh Kumar said, “In 2024, AI startups captured a substantial portion of investor attention and resources, reflecting the industry’s confidence in AI’s transformative potential. AI is expected to remain a cornerstone of venture strategies, with firms leveraging AI-driven analytics for decision-making and focusing on AI-native companies across various sectors”.

But, while AI is seen as native to the enterprise tech sector, the emerging technology is witnessing adoption and use cases across the board. 

Marketing & Sales To See The Biggest AI-Led Disruption

AI was the buzzword among founders across the board in 2024. The effect was such that startups across sectors like healthtech, deeptech and ecommerce quickly embraced the emerging technology to leverage the first-mover advantage and fine tune their AI models. 

But, while the tech is poised to disrupt industries moving forth, startup founders believe that GenAI will have the biggest impact on marketing and sales functions. Over 39% of the surveyed founders said they believe that GenAI will have the biggest bearing on these verticals. 

This sentiment is in line with the increasing use of AI by companies to drive marketing and sales campaigns. For marketing professionals, AI’s utilisation emerged as a norm this year. According to a report by Infosys, titled CMO Radar Report 2024, 96% of 2,600 marketing executives across 14 industries said they were deploying AI in their activities.

Moving on, about 26% founders surveyed by Inc42 foresee chatbots and AI assistants taking over traditional support roles.

An example of increasing usage of AI for these roles is that of Paytm. The fintech major leveraged AI to optimise its employee expenses in 2024. During its earnings call for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2024-25 (Q2 FY25), Paytm CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that the company’s support staff costs declined by 60% over the previous 10 months.

How Are Companies Building Their AI Tech Stack?

With AI now moving ahead from just being a buzzword to a critical business component, its adoption is no longer a choice but a necessity. 

As companies continue their tryst with the new tech, a critical question is what approach will they take to integrate AI in their operations. According to 100+ founders of seed, growth and late stages startups, most are trying a hybrid approach. 

When asked about the preferred method for incorporating the tech, a third of the surveyed startup founders said they are taking a hybrid approach, meaning a combination of building and buying AI models. 

Meanwhile, 28% of the founders are relying solely on the AI solutions offered by established AI vendors or companies. Further, 18% are trying their hands on off-the-shelf GenAI products or services. Only 16% of startups have in-house capabilities to address custom GenAI solutions, highlighting the complexity and resource demands of such an undertaking.

[Edited by: Vinaykumar Rai]

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