What happened
Venture capital firms have shifted AI startup funding criteria, now prioritising companies demonstrating distribution advantages, strong unit economics, rapid customer ROI, repeatable sales engines, and proprietary workflows. This change reduces the frequency of mega-rounds, with Series A and B funding now contingent on unmistakable momentum, high net revenue retention, and disciplined spending. The US, particularly Silicon Valley, continues to dominate AI funding, while European hubs struggle to scale. This shift also impacts energy sectors, which must adapt to support power-intensive AI data centres.
Why it matters
The revised funding landscape introduces a significant operational constraint for AI startups, demanding demonstrable distribution advantages, robust unit economics, and high net revenue retention. This places a heightened burden on finance and operations teams to implement disciplined spending and establish repeatable sales engines and proprietary workflows. Furthermore, the increased demand for power-hungry data centres raises due diligence requirements for procurement and infrastructure teams in the energy sector, necessitating adaptation to support AI industry growth.
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