CB Insights AI 100 Chart ranks companies by innovation, value and funding, among other criteria.

CB Insights Rates Startups According to Strengths, Disruptive Potential

The technology analytical research group CB Insights highlighted the disruptive effect of startups to a wide range of industries in a ranking of the “AI 100” startups at its December 2017 A-Ha! Conference in San Francisco, the group. Raising $11.7 billion in 367 deals, these companies were ranked according to investor profile, tech innovation, team strength, patent activity, funding history, valuation and business model, among other criteria. Here are some of the highlights:

◆ Most well-funded: China-based ByteDance (known as Toutiao) has raised $3.1B so far. It uses artificial intelligence for personalized news recommendations.

◆ Geographic distribution: Startups from 9 different countries – including France, Israel, Spain, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, and United Kingdom — made it on to AI 100 this year. Majority of the companies, 76%, were from 13 states in the United States. China’s AI startup scene has been buzzing with activity. Five of the 8 companies from China are unicorns, with 4 of them reaching $1B+ valuations just this year.

◆ Active investors in the 100: Data Collective has backed 14 startups on the list, including Vicarious Systems, Trifacta, and Recursion Pharmaceuticals. Intel Capital has invested in 20 of the startups, followed by GV, which backed 8 companies. Other top investors include The SoftBank Group and Lux Capital.

The top 10 include the following:

1.     SoundHound, a news and media company based in Santa Clara, CA.

2.     Endgame, a cybersecurity company based in Arlington, VA

3.     Invoca, a marketing and sales company based in Santa Barbara, CA

4.     C3 IoT, an Internet of Things company based in Redwood City, CA

5.     InsideSales.com, a marketing and sales company based in Provo, UT

6.     CrowdFlower, an enterprise AI company based in San Francisco

7.     Narrative Science, a natural language company based in Chicago

8.     ZestFinance, a “credit-decisioning” technology company based in Los Angeles

9.     Aquifi, a 3D inspection solution company, based in Palo Alto, CA

10.  CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity SaaS company based in Irvine, CA.

Read more at CBInsights.com