2017 set a record for first financings to ".ai" companies.
Investors, startup founders, and public company execs are banking on the AI boom, as a record number of startups with “.ai” in their URL suffixes raised funding in 2017.
Using the CB Insights’ platform we identified companies with “.ai” in their URL suffix to see if more new companies were raising first fundings with that domain name. In the past, we noted that the “.io” domain was picking up steam, but it looks like “.ai” companies have surged in the past year.
Last year over 220 such companies raised first-time financing, with a peak of 66 companies in Q3’17 alone. In total the number of first financings to “.ai” companies more than doubled in 2017.
The US accounts for over half of all startups tracked by CB Insights with “.ai” as their domain name suffix, closely followed by Canada, the UK, and India, each with more than 20 startups.
Silicon Valley accounts for over half of all US-based “.ai” companies. Interestingly, Montreal has recently established itself as an AI-research hub, which is reflected in the growing number of AI startups coming out of Canada in recent years.
Some notable “.ai” startups that have recently raised funding are Primer, Ever AI, and Precision Health AI.