By Brooke Sinclair
- AI startups will remain center stage for venture capital 2024 tech funding trends
- Funding for AI-related startups surpassed $68.7B in 2023 with generative AI startups like OpenAI, Stability AI, and Anthropic getting big-ticket checks
Invention and innovation used to be the cornerstone of America’s economy, but not when it comes to venture capital. These types of investments were created when the people of this nation had a powerful grip on its collective imaginations. However, VC and startup funding has dropped from the highs of 2021 and 2022 and that has meant a nervous time for many founders, for whom the runway is shortening and valuations are falling. In 2024, Silicon Valley is headed for a correction phase, as the days of recklessly writing checks to familiar founders will not fly in 2024.
Why This Matters: Funding for AI-related startups surpassed $68.7 billion in 2023 with generative AI startups like OpenAI, Stability AI, and Anthropic getting big-ticket checks. Even though AI continues to peak the interest of many funds globally. Other industries like shipping and logistics are also making major waves. Experts with knowledge of the trucking industry know that 93% of trucking companies today are independently owned small carriers with a fleet of 6 trucks or less. More than half of the 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S. today work for a small carrier, and those carriers are the foundation of the $875.5 billion industry.
Small carriers move 72.5% of America’s freight. Lately, there has been a downturn in this industry including the collapse of Convoy, once valued at $3.8 billion. Only people unfamiliar with the trucking industry, or communicating a bias that helps their business would blame Convoy’s failure on a shift in today’s business climate because the trucking industry has always been a treacherous challenge for newcomers.
Situational Awareness: Fleeting founder, Pierre Laguerre, about his experiences adjusting to the downturn in the freight and shipping industry and the news of Convoy. “Fleeting saw a precipitous decline in revenue but along the way, we figured it out,” he said with a grin. Fleeting is the digital platform of shippers and carriers with flexible reliable fleets of CDL driver operators, drivers on the Fleeting platform are vetted and hired in as little as 36 hours. Truck drivers love Fleeting, it allows companies to maximize the use of their fleets whether they own one truck or five. The company just announced a collaboration with Michelin Connected Fleet, of the Michelin Tire Company, the world’s second-largest tire manufacturer.
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