Faces in the Crowd - Spotlight on AI
As I’m sure you’re aware, AI has been just about all that financial media has wanted to talk about over the past few years, and the buzz just keeps getting stronger.
It’s changing the world so quickly that it’s hard to keep with everything that’s happening.
But in terms of investing, options that are heavily levered to AI are pretty limited. Once you get past NVIDIA and the major tech firms—who, let’s face it, are massive companies that have already seen some pretty big share price moves by this point—things start to get a little strained.
Everybody is going to USE AI, but after those first few mega-firms, we start running a lot more into companies who will be customers of those advances, or who will be riding the same AI efficiency wave that everybody else in the market will be riding.
And in doing that, they probably won’t be doing much to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack, other than maybe which innovative AI startups they might acquire.
So… here’s a crazy idea…
Why not take a look at some of THOSE companies?
Those disruptor startups?
After all, it’s possible for us to invest in those as well, as long as they’re doing a crowdfunding round.
But where to start?
The AI Crowdfunding Landscape
Fortunately, our data partner CClear has just the expertise to help make some sense of things.
The group’s latest monthly report just dropped over the past few days, and the subject is…
You guessed it…
AI!
First let’s touch on a couple of big picture observations about how AI and crowdfunding are currently playing together, then we’ll dive in to some crunchy details about a few AI issuers with active crowd deals now.
CClear reports that the percentage of crowd issuers deeply involved in AI has nearly doubled in recent months, reaching 6.2% of all Reg CF deals in 2024 compared to 3.5% the previous year.
All told, 425 AI companies have launched Reg CF campaigns so far, raising a total combined $345.3 million to date. And more than two-thirds of that sum has been raised through CF offerings over just the past year.
A lot of these deals have also been successful as well, with more than 85% reaching their minimum raise targets. We also know that investors are cutting checks to AI crowd issuers at an outsized rate, accounting for ~12% of investments made.
Remember, that compares to AI deals in crowd at just 6% of the total number of deals, so that essentially means folks were moving into these deals at twice the rate they were coming to market.
So, with everybody so fascinated by AI these days, appealing to the crowd appears to be a pretty successful approach for these companies to get the cash they need to grow.
A little more detail on these companies:
AI issuers using crowd have an average of four years of history, up slightly year-over-year.
They’re also increasingly post-revenue, with 63.5% of AI crowd issuers having sales last year. Take a look at the graph below for how the share of AI issuers with sales has been rising.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Let’s look at a few of the AI crowdfunders currently making waves.
CClear did a short feature on meeting notetaker Fathom.
Which was interesting to me, because I don’t always recognize these early-stage companies by name, but I did Fathom.
Because I’d just seen them pop up with an offer for me to download their app on a Zoom call just the day before I saw the CClear report.
Fathom does real-time transcription, summaries and analysis for virtual meetings.
And it turns out it’s the most installed notetaker app on both Zoom and Hubspot.
The company had a crowdfunding live on WeFunder, but unfortunately the deal is now offline. You can find the raise page here for all kinds of details about the company.
Turns out, Fathom raised a total $17 million as part of a larger round with support from Telescope Partners and others.
And in a savvy move, they carved off 10% of the round for their users, who pushed in more than $2 million over a mere two-week period.
This is a great example of two trends we’ve been watching:
1) Companies with large user-bases have a big edge when trying to raise money through the crowd; and
2) Venture capital groups are becoming increasingly comfortable teaming up with the crowd in “combo” funding rounds.
Now on to a few companies whose raises are still live!
CClear’s #1 AI-related deal by amounts invested to date is Immersed. The company focuses on “spatial” or headset-controlled computing, which it views as the next big shift in how humans use computers after the smartphone. AI comes into play with the company’s smart assistant, called Curator, which takes verbal instructions from the user, making hands-free computing possible.
The company’s CEO claims that immersed is the industry leader in this early segment, with 1.3 million users spending a combined 1,800 years(!) in the company’s app to date. It also has landed partnerships with Google, Samsung, Meta, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Intel and other global tech leaders.
Immersed reported over $220,000 in revenues in its latest financials, and has raised a over $20 million through ~5,500 investors. You can check out their deal page on WeFunder here.
Another top-ranking firm with AI exposure is Acme Atronomatic. That’s a mouthful—their branded product is an easier to remember MyRadar.
MyRadar provides an AI-powered app that helps users predict weather and environmental threats such as storms, wildfires and road weather conditions. Its tech is getting some traction, currently with over 15 million users, and the company grossed nearly $9 million in sales last year!
Acme’s next move is ambitious. The company plans to build a constellation of monitoring satellites to orbit the planet.
While CClear normally focuses its research on the Reg CF crowdfunding segment, Acme maxed out its CF with a full $5mm raised, and has shifted its crowd efforts to a larger offering on StartEngine under Reg A+. You can read all about that here.
Sean Levine
Managing Editor
InvestmentX
InvestmentX RECEIVED NO COMPENSATION FROM—NOR HOLDS ANY POSITION IN—ANY CROWD ISSUER MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE.