Kindred Ventures, an early-stage venture firm based in San Francisco, predicts that the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to a massive explosion of startups. Despite being a generalist firm that invests in various sectors, including climate tech, consumer internet, fintech, and mobility, among others, Kindred Venture’s success led its investors to increase their investment in the firm. After closing a $56 million fund in 2019 and a $101 million fund in 2021, it closed a $200 million fund last year and a $112 million later-stage fund for growth-stage firms. The firm has invested in more than 100 nascent startups, including Uber, Postmates, and Coinbase.
The directors of venture capital firm, Steve Jang and Kanyi Maqubela, believe that more people will be able to build companies with the increasing accessibility of AI-centric software tools, supporting the trend of moving up the abstraction layer. Jang said that making it easier for more people to build their product ideas is beneficial for society. Meanwhile, Maqubela notes that customization of information, particularly in personalizing content and making it flexibly applicable across industries, is very powerful. A new way of thinking about business models, new metrics, and benchmarking should lead to interesting changes in the starting point of innovation, which differs from the previous cycle.
