Join Basis Set Ventures Founding and Managing Partner Lan Xuezhao for a session on investing in artificial intelligence in Silicon Valley and beyond.

1. What does investing in Artificial
Intelligence looks like in and outside
of Silicon Valley
Lan Xuezhao
Founding Partner
Basis Set Ventures
@xuezhao

2. Basis Set
Ventures
Transforming the way people work through
Artificial Intelligence

3. AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes by
machine
Office Factory Farm Home/Construction Deskless workers
Full stack
Applications
Horizontal use
cases
Programing,
Platform,
Algorithms
Core
computing
tech
*Core investments not here include Rylo (consumer AI) and Verge (healthcare AI). Non-core investments here include Maven, in which we own ~6% and will potentially do super pro rata in the
next round

4. How we think about investing in AI
Office Factory Farm Home/Construction Deskless workers
Full stack
Applications
Horizontal use
cases
Programing,
Platform,
Algorithms
Core
computing
tech
Autonomous welding
company (stealth)
*Core investments not here include Rylo (consumer AI) and Verge (healthcare AI). Non-core investments here include Maven, in which we own ~6% and will potentially do super pro rata in the
next round

5. Investments in AI companies continue to increase rapidly

6. …and being deployed in many functions in many
organizations

7. AI is transforming
how everyone
works
Not just the
people who work
in offices

8. Trend I: Startups that democratize access
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S2AeEEqnck
• AI significantly reduces the cost of
serving amass market which
allows everybody to enjoy the
benefits of premium services
• 24/7 security guards used to be
only available for the rich, now
with $50/month, everybody can
enjoy the benefit
Location:
Bay area
24/7 security
guards

9. Trend II: Startups that automate repeatable
processes with clear ROI
Rasa helps organizations develop their own automated front-facing
interface
Location:
Berlin/NY
Impact for enterprises:
• Easier to manage
• More accurate
• Cheaper
• Faster
• Always available
• Completely in control
of the tools and data

10. Trend III: Startups that help solve labor shortage issues
• Labor shortage is common in industries
such as manufacturing and agriculture
• 246,000 arc-welders currently working in
a manufacturing environment (2016,
USA).
• Population of welders is shrinking at a
rate of roughly 7% yearly, while job
growth is increasing at a rate of 3.9%
(USA).
• An estimated 400,000 unfilled welding
positions will exist by 2024 (USA)
Autonomous welding
company: The future welders
Location:
Ohio

11. Farm Wise’s autonomous weeding
robot

12. Trend IV: Startups that augment human
potential
The future of drug
discovery
• Startups that work on solving
problems that we were unable to
solve in the past
• Drug discovery used to take a lot of
guess work and a long time
• With machine learning, scientists are
able to process the “bar code”
(genetic information) and discover
the best treatment for each disease
Location:
Bay area

13. Trend V: Startups that scale AI infrastructures
Mythic pushes local AI to any devices with no compromises on throughput or
battery life
Location:
Texas

14. So where is this
going?
…for every individual and business to have real time
access to the highest quality products and services
at the lowest prices

15. Have you noticed
that many of
these startups
are not in Silicon
Valley?

16. More great AI companies are getting started in and
outside of the Silicon Valley
TX: Mythic, Ojo
Home, Disco
NY: Lemonade,
Workfusion
CA: Zymbergen,
Automation
Anywhere,
Crowdstrike,
Bright Machines
MA: Drift, Cogito,
BrainCo,
WA: Icertis,
Xnor.ai
CO: Phase
change, AMP
Robotics,
MI: Duo security
FL: Wine Plum
VA: Fractal
industries
IL: Instana
MO: Benson Hill
Biosystems
OH: Autonomous
welding company
Source: 438 AI deals tracked by Pitchbook
Number of AI companies

17. Startups are catering to the
strengths of their regions
They solve problems the
local ecosystem needs
solved

18. Emerging tech hubs solving local problems in the United
States
DC — Defense industry &
government contracting
Pittsburgh — Robotics
New York — Financial
Services & D2C
Chicago — Commodities & logistics
Detroit — Autonomy
Ann Arbor — BioTech/Deep tech
Phoenix — Self driving vehicles & drones
Nashville/Atlanta — Logistics &
enterprise
Baltimore — EdTech
Houston — Oil & Gas
San Diego — Biotech
LA — Defense,
aerospace, satellites &
consumer
San Jose —
Semiconductors
& Infrastructure
Number of AI companies

19. Many AI unicorns have emerged outside of the United
States, particularly from China
Chinese AI Unicorns
Oct. 2018
Source: Forbes

20. Chinese companies are so ahead in several areas that
American companies are following them
Source: Sustainable Transport
2014 2016
2017
2018
US Scooter sharing companies started in mid
2017 and quickly became unicorns after a year

21. What’s your unfair advantage?
• Proximity to customers
• Availability of top technical and sales talents
• Availability of capital
• Understanding of technology and the local ecosystem
• Local government and tax incentives (e.g. opportunity zones)
• ….

22. Basis Set Ventures
@xuezhao

23. THANK YOU