Why 7 Top-Tier Venture Capitalists Are Investing in Visual Technology-Powered AI Businesses
/Which business sectors will be the most disrupted by visual technologies and AI in the next 10 years? In the lead-up to our 9th Annual LDV Vision Summit – the premier global gathering in visual tech – hosted virtually on March 28, investors from Seedcamp, Northzone, Insight Partners, DCVC, VAS Ventures, Air Street Capital, and we at LDV Capital share insights.
In the next 10 years - which business sectors will be disrupted the most by visual technologies, and why?
Reshma Sohoni, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Seedcamp: Healthcare - given the increased awareness around personal health and well-being, medical imaging technologies will transform early diagnostics and even the relationship with our bodies. Industrial manufacturing – the supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19 has led manufacturers to rethink how they design, produce, and ship their products. Automotive – autonomous driving has made significant progress in recent years. Advances in visual technologies will make AVs mainstream and reshape cities and mobility overall.
Martín Varsavsky, investor via his family office Jazzya, VAS Ventures, Myelin VC and MVB Fund: Visual tech disruption: self-driving, personnel training, personal interaction for professional use and entertainment, virtual travel.
Wendy Xiao Schadeck, Partner at Northzone: There are many sectors we find particularly interesting at the moment as early-stage investors. The capital markets seemed quite open to big investments in ‘theoretical concepts,’ with people looking really far out at Web3, AI, and climate over the last couple of years. But moving into a more challenging economic climate has changed what investors are looking for. AI can no longer be far out with a theoretical promise, it has to be based on tangible, material tools with real traction and moats to get funding. I expect the same will be said for Web 3 in the future as well. As such, we see things like generative AI-supported traditional SaaS become exciting topics.
Nikhil Sachdev, Managing Director at Insight Partners: Innovation at the intersection of visual technology and AI will revolutionize the way we live, work, and experience in the coming decade. The impact will be far-reaching across AR/VR, retail/commerce, design and engineering, healthcare, mobility, and sectors and applications we cannot even imagine yet.
Kelly Chen, Partner at DCVC (Data Collective): I’m excited about the huge step changes we’ll see in healthcare, from how we perform surgery, how we multiply capabilities of medical specialists, to how we diagnose diseases. In the industrial space, we’ll see transformation in manufacturing and supply chain automation, including a noticeable form factor difference (not humans!) in how we do repetitive and dangerous work, powered by visual technology. On the contrary, I think our roads and highways will look incredibly similar to today, coupled with increased short-to-mid-distance options in the sky.
Nathan Benaich, General Partner at Air Street Capital: I see a lot of potential for disruption in the life sciences and scientific exploration more broadly. Computer vision is a key unlock to making sense of vast amounts of imagery this industry generates, including how normal and diseased cells behave in response to experimental medicines. Indeed, the future of biology is technology-driven and increasingly AI-first by design, giving rise to emergent “techbio” companies.
Evan Nisselson, Founder & General Partner at LDV Capital: There will be tremendous opportunities across healthcare, life sciences, longevity, manufacturing, biotech, nanotech, and the Internet of Eyes. It was very early when I coined the term “Internet of Eyes” in 2016 and it is becoming validated. Every inanimate object we interact with may not only have the ability to see but could also improve our lives.
What is one visual technology company that you have invested in, and why?
Reshma Sohoni: One of the many visual technology companies we invested in is Ezra, a New-York based company that provides full-body MRI screening for potential early cancer and abnormalities in up to 13 organs. Ezra’s annual scan catches potential cancer earlier, empowering patients to understand their risk for cancer and enabling early detection.
Martín Varsavsky: Synthesia, an AI-driven video production platform, great team, great use-case.
Wendy Xiao Schadeck: Healthcare still hasn’t seen its big tech disruption. The current market focuses on people that pay for healthcare in order to treat or manage symptoms rather than actually diagnosing or addressing the root cause of the problem. This presents a considerable window of untapped opportunity. A big area of focus is mental healthcare. It has been proved that AI can actually be better at providing therapy than a human therapist because people feel they can be more open with it. It’s also interesting to look at the trend of group therapy and how people access that through different digital platforms and formats, for example, Roblox and Minecraft. This is something we’re particularly exploring, as it’s clear that technology has a huge role to play in evolving healthcare solutions in one of the biggest markets in the world.
Nikhil Sachdev: Recently, I’ve been really inspired by the way AI/visual tech is being applied to healthcare and life sciences. For example, I work closely with our portfolio company Viz.ai, which uses AI and visual technology to identify and diagnose diseases based on medical images, then intelligently routes those images (and analytics) to help providers coordinate care in the hospital when time is of the essence. In life sciences, I work closely with Apprentice, a software company that integrates AI and visual technology to deliver an intelligent manufacturing system for life sciences companies. Apprentice’s products transform how teams work in manufacturing facilities with AR/VR, wearables, and mobile that connect seamlessly to a cloud-based platform that helps accelerate the high-quality production of life-saving drugs.
Kelly Chen: The vast majority of my investments are rooted in visual technologies, so I’ll highlight a company that is de-stealthing in the next week that I’m looking forward to finally being about to speak about. Grocery chains traditionally have low margins in store. With the growth of online purchases in the last couple of years, they have struggled to get those margins positive with the additional labor needed to pick and pack bags, in addition to delivery costs. On the customer side, gripes to online grocery include quality issues in produce, lack of selection in SKUs, out-of-stock and thus unwanted substitution, and importantly, overall cost. Our portfolio company is solving all of the above using visual technology and robotics – more to come very soon!
Nathan Benaich: I’ve actually invested in a few! V7’s data engine for AI is the workhorse infrastructure for computer vision companies to build continuously improved AI systems that depend on high-quality data. Intenseye is having an enormous impact on workplaces by improving environmental health and safety with AI. They’re both addressing huge markets with unmet high-priority customer needs that can only be solved using AI-first products. Both teams are insanely dedicated and capable.
Evan Nisselson: We have been investing in AI and people who build businesses powered by visual technologies for over 10 years to date. LDV Capital invests horizontally across all sectors such as healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, food, content, security, mobility, climate, energy and more. See more information about our portfolio companies.
Earkick, the first data-driven mental health tracker, automatically tracks mental health in real time by analyzing the bio-signals via voice, video, heart rate, and other data points. Many apps on this market ask users to track their mental health manually, and Earkick is fully automating this process with AI. Since we led their pre-seed in 2021, the team led by Dr. Herbert Bay and Karin Andrea Stephan has made impressive progress building out & improving their unique tech and achieving success with enterprise customers.
What visual technologies excite you the most?
Reshma Sohoni: Medical imaging technologies. Text-to-video synthetic media. Computer vision for robotics.
Kelly Chen: Technologies like lidar and radar have received significant buzz in recent years from self-driving news, but there are so many verticals that can be transformed with simple RGBD cameras. I’m excited by the breadth of applications that can use low-cost sensors, particularly in the industrial supply chain spaces. Tracking, inspection, all the way to full-on robotic solutions will change the industrial landscape.
Nathan Benaich: I’m more excited by problem spaces that become tractable as a result of a new technology capability. As we’re seeing the default architectures for computer vision and language converge, I’m excited to see what real-world problems become addressable with multi-modal and multi-task models.
Evan Nisselson: Visual data is the crux of artificial intelligence & automation for the future of all industries. All visual technologies that enable more effective automation across manufacturing, logistics, and everyday activities excite us at LDV Capital.
What is the best and the worst personality trait of an entrepreneur?
Reshma Sohoni: The best trait is curiosity. Curiosity is an opener personality in that it opens towards learning, respect for others, and a growth mindset. The worst trait is inflexibility. The entrepreneurial journey is filled with a lot of unknowns and if you can’t be inflexible you’re going to be trapped on a certain path.
Martín Varsavsky: What excites me the most is their tenacity when I see that they will never give up, that there are people that will bite and not let go. There's something close to the tenacity that can be equally harmful, which is stubbornness or inability to see change or inability to see something that your tenacity may drive you off a cliff. It's a fine line between being tenacious and being stubborn. I admire one and I reject the other.
Wendy Xiao Schadeck: The honest answer is that there's no profile. We look for founders with a deep drive and personal motivation to be an entrepreneur, paired with a growth mindset and openness for self-development. This, in turn, enables them to attract talented people around them when scaling the business. We view having a healthy dose of self-confidence as a positive attribute that enables founders to go through rough patches while staying humble. Finally, in terms of skill sets, we encourage founders to identify their own superpowers and evolve into thought partners across other business areas without needing to exert too much control across all areas.
Kelly Chen: Best: tenacious. Worst: pessimism.
Nathan Benaich: The best trait is a borderline irrational yet boundlessly energetic obsession with solving a meaningful problem in the world. The worst trait is an occasional byproduct of the best trait: tunnel vision where one ignores signals or what’s happening in the surroundings and fails to adapt.
Evan Nisselson: Best: passion. Worst: Selfish.
What are you most looking forward to at our 9th annual LDV Vision Summit, on March 28th?
Reshma Sohoni: I’m excited to connect with founders working at the bleeding edge of visual tech and fellow investors focused on this space. Also, I’m thrilled to discuss investing Trends in Visual Technologies alongside stellar investors Nikhil Sachdev of Insight Partners, Sarah Guo of Conviction, and Nathan Benaich of Air Street Capital.
Wendy Xiao Schadeck: Visual technologies are the most exciting innovations in the tech space and I'm looking forward to meeting entrepreneurs at the Summit.
Nikhil Sachdev: I’m looking forward to hearing from and sharing my insights with builders and other investors who are passionate about how visual tech and AI can enable a better future. Even more so, I’m excited to listen and learn from this group!
Kelly Chen: Looking forward to it all. Particularly interested in areas further from my focus of industrial transformation, such as cognitive and longevity applications. It’s incredible how broadly visual technology will transform every part of our lives.
Nathan Benaich: I’m excited to learn about the ever developing playbook for turning advanced technology developments into successful businesses!
Evan Nisselson: Wow! We are just one day away from our 9th Annual LDV Vision Summit! Can’t wait to hear the wisdom of our 28 expert speakers from companies like DeepMind, Mural, Snap, BioAge, Synthesia, Salesforce, Harvard Medical School, Insight Partners, Useful Sensors, Conviction, Niels Bohr Institute, Air Street Capital, Uizard, Pano, Humanity, Northeastern University, Seedcamp, Forbes, and more!
Learn more about these investors
Reshma Sohoni co-founded Seedcamp back in 2007. Over a decade later and Seedcamp has pioneered the European early-stage investment landscape and backed over 300 companies including three unicorns: TransferWise, Revolut and UiPath.
Reshma is frequently listed as one of the most influential women in technology and VC and sits on the Digital Economy Council, working alongside the UK government and leading tech industry experts to provide policy advice to support tech startups and innovation in the UK.
Reshma was recognized on Forbes Midas List for Europe as one of the most influential VCs on the continent in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In 2019 she also made it to the no1 spot on the FT’s most influential BAME tech leader list.
Martín Varsavsky is an extremely successful serial entrepreneur, professor and investor who has founded 8 companies (3 with unicorn status) in the US and Europe in the last 30 years. Today, he is focused on revolutionizing fertility as the founder and CEO of Overture Life, an automated embryology company; as well as the Founder and Chairman of Prelude/Inception Fertility, the largest chain of fertility clinics in the US. He is passionate about autonomous driving as CEO of Goggo Network. He is also Chairman of Gameto.
He invests via his family office Jazzya, VAS Ventures and MVB Fund. We are thrilled to co-invest with Martin in Synthesia; LDV led their seed financing.
Martin spoke with LDV Capital General Partner, Evan Nisselson, about his experiences turning technological innovations into billion-dollar companies that can have a significant impact on humanity and build significant value.
Wendy Xiao Schadeck is Partner at Northzone, where she has been investing in early stage companies for the past five years. Wendy has been fascinated with the progression of the web ever since joining Northzone.
Wendy started her career as a management consultant in New York. While working with clients from banking, retail and transportation industries, Wendy realized very early that tech would be taking over the world. It became clear to Wendy that there is something fundamentally special about early-stage companies and the people who build them.
While studying her MBA at Columbia University, Wendy also started CoHatchery, a coworking space with childcare.
Check out our interview with Wendy, “Visual Tech Is One of the Key Ingestors of Data That Is User-Friendly for Web 3 Use Cases”.
Nikhil Sachdev joined Insight Partners in 2020 as a Managing Director. In his role, he works with companies in the software and fintech ecosystems starting at Series A and well beyond. He invests through a global lens, partnering with founders close to his home base in California and stretching across the US into Europe, India, SE Asia and Latin America.
Nikhil began his career advising technology companies at Goldman Sachs, where he was an investment banker focused on cloud and mobile. His start in the investing world came at private equity firm Bain Capital, where the team took an operational lens to invest and partner with companies. Nikhil developed a passion for how businesses can play a positive role in helping better the world. This passion led him to Harvard Business School, where he had a chance to spend his summer working with the founder of a Sequoia-backed startup, which sparked his interest in technology and inspired Nikhil to pursue a career in venture capital.
After HBS, he joined Altimeter Capital, a long/short equity hedge fund that was scaling a venture capital practice. As a Partner at the firm, Nikhil led investments in multiple venture and growth-stage private companies across the SaaS, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, Internet marketplace, gaming, and social media categories.
Kelly Chen, Partner at DCVC (Data Collective) is a Partner at DCVC, a deep tech silicon valley venture capital firm overseeing $3B AUM. Kelly’s interest has always been how to use data and optimization to push boundaries, faster. From her career as a fixed income trader to building out a new product line for a global investment bank, she has focused closely on building the best models, structuring, and sales teams to optimize outcomes. At DCVC, she enjoys working on problems arising from fundamental population and labor driven shifts. She is especially excited about teams building revolutionary tech in AI, robotics, manufacturing, sustainability, and future of work.
Kelly received a joint BS/MS in Financial Engineering and Operations Research with honors from Columbia University and an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from Wharton, where she served as President of the Entrepreneurship Club.
Kelly took part in our last year’s panel discussion on investing opportunities.
Nathan Benaich is the Founder and General Partner of Air Street Capital, a venture capital firm investing in AI-first technology and life science companies. He co-authors the annual State of AI Report and writes the monthly Guide to AI newsletter. Nathan also founded The Research and Applied AI Summit, a community for entrepreneurs and researchers in AI, and serve as Managing Trustee of The RAAIS Foundation, a UK-registered charity with a mission to advance education and research in artificial intelligence for the common good. He is also leading Spinout.fyi, which seeks to improve university spinout creation starting with open anonymized data on deal terms.
Nathan earned an M.Phil and Ph.D. in computational and experimental cancer research as a Gates and Dr. Herchel Smith Scholar at the University of Cambridge, and a BA in biology from Williams College. He published research that leverages both experimental and computational approaches to understand how we might stem the fatal spread of cancer around the body.
Evan Nisselson is Founder & General Partner at LDV Capital. Evan has been investing since 2012. Prior to investing, he built four businesses powered by visual technologies as a serial entrepreneur for 18 years from Silicon Valley, New York to Europe. He is a professional photographer and digital media expert since the early 1990s. He started making pictures with his Nikon FM at 13 years old.
He thrives on helping people build teams and businesses that leverage technology to entertain, increase efficiency, and solve problems. Evan's international expertise ranges from assisting technology startups in raising capital, business development, marketing, content development, recruiting and product development.
We’ll start our 9th LDV Vision Summit tomorrow with Evan’s keynote “LDV Capital Has Invested in People building businesses powered by Artificial Intelligence for Over a Decade: Where are the investment opportunities in The Next 10 Years?”.
