To better expose the 9,000+ members of NVIDIA Inception to venture capital funding, we’ve introduced a new program benefit to connect these startups with our rapidly growing community of 200 VCs and investors.
The NVIDIA Inception VC Alliance will open new paths for startups to engage, create introductions and accelerate potential funding, which will facilitate global startup innovation.
Expanding Access to Investors
Similar to a virtual matchmaking service, this new benefit from NVIDIA Inception — a program designed to nurture startups revolutionizing industries with advancements in AI and data science AR/VR, HPC, and beyond— enables members to indicate funding interest and then connect with VCs and investors, who might not otherwise be reachable.
To engage these VCs, members provide specifics on their upcoming raise such as amount of funding, lead investor, and details on how they’ll deploy raised capital. This confidential data — provided only to VC Alliance members — helps VCs and other backers quickly identify startups that match their investment thesis, such as industry, investment stage, region and lead.
Once a startup is identified, with a single click inside the VC portal, both parties are directly connected and can discuss an investment opportunity.
Engaging Across the Startup Ecosystem
Launched in April, the VC Alliance offers venture capital firms and investors insights to the startup landscape, a closer relationship with NVIDIA, direct portfolio support and exposure to promising startups.
The types of investors who have joined the alliance as members have broadened as well, and now includes private equity, family offices and sovereign wealth funds.
Investment in startups is on pace this year to exceed all previous records, and valuations are at all-time highs. Meanwhile, exits since the third quarter of 2020 have more than doubled, as U.S. venture-backed startups that went public or got acquired totalled $582 billion in value, according to a PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.
Inception Membership Jumping
NVIDIA Inception members, which have grown 29 percent since the start of the calendar year and more than 8 percent in the last quarter, account for roughly two-thirds of AI startups worldwide, based on industry estimates from Pitchbook.
These numbers continue to grow. Inception members now represent more than 100 countries, notching upwards of $65 billion in funding, making it a leading indicator of the global AI startup ecosystem. VCs and investors can apply to access our ecosystem. If you’re a startup, apply to become an Inception member.