BECO Capital

Today we're sharing our final excerpt from the first of our 4-part AI series (link below). Stay tuned for Part 2, "Decoding Dynamics for Builders and Businesses", next week. 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆. Strategic decisions and partnerships, beyond sheer speed and resources, have shaped the AI landscape, highlighting the interplay among major players and the evolving competitive environment in the tech industry. Examining the trajectories of OpenAI, Microsoft, and Nvidia reveals how pivotal milestones and maneuvers have positioned these companies as leaders in AI, today: • OpenAI transformed from a research-driven organization into an AI powerhouse with key developments including the launch of GPT-3 and influential partnerships. By making AI more accessible and collaborating with giants such as Microsoft and Apple, OpenAI has solidified its market position and advanced global AI capabilities. With Microsoft, OpenAI has forged an unusual partnership that resembles more of a friendly rivalry. This collaboration gives OpenAI access to all the compute power they need to train and run their models. Additionally, it offers distribution to enterprise customers by bundling OpenAI into Microsoft's Azure offering as well as Microsoft 365 Copilot. On the consumer front, OpenAI's partnership with Apple grants access to over 1.35 billion iPhone users. • Microsoft's early recognition of OpenAI’s potential and its strategic integration of GPT models into its products and Azure cloud platform were game-changing moves. This partnership not only provided OpenAI with essential resources but also gave Microsoft a competitive edge in the AI arena. • Nvidia’s dominance in AI infrastructure is well-established, thanks to its early investment in high-performance computing. While researchers initially drove many of Nvidia's early AI use cases, today its growth is fueled by major players such as Tesla, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, and others, with estimates suggesting that these four players contribute close to 40% of Nvidia’s revenue. However, Nvidia now faces increasing competition as industry players invest in developing their own chips and AI services, challenging Nvidia’s once-unassailable position. Meanwhile, the UAE has carved its own unique path in AI, mirroring the global trajectory where much of the early AI work was research-focused across various fields, including computational biology, robotics, and cybersecurity. Now, having moved beyond the research phase, the UAE is entering the early stages of the Revolution phase, with a clear strategy and thoughtful partnerships. This shift is driven by a priority to capitalize on years of R&D investments made by various government entities. We will delve more into this later on in our series. For Part One: https://lnkd.in/gGJinaha #Partnerships #Strategy #Leadership #AI #BECOCapital

𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸, 𝗔𝗜 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗩𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲. As venture capital investors, one of our main concerns is when a founder takes their eye off the ball, or isn’t sufficiently paranoid about competition. It's a life-and-death paradox: one day you're on top of the world, and the next day you’re irrelevant and overtaken by an unassuming competitor. It’s especially amplified in the age of AI. A notable example is the trajectory of Google/Alphabet who had the initial lead from the lot, in 2015 and actually paved the way for GenAI as we know it on the back of the launch of the transformer architecture which is critical in powering Gen AI models. While 2015 might seem unremarkable to many, it was a landmark year for those in the data science space. Google (now Alphabet) released TensorFlow on November 9, 2015, followed by the founding of OpenAI a little over a month later, on December 11, 2015. TensorFlow, available as an open-source library, had a quick and immediate impact, allowing developers, researchers, and companies worldwide to use it for their Machine Learning projects. Google, a giant in its own right, also embedded TensorFlow into its products, such as Google Search. OpenAI, on the other hand, initially focused on groundbreaking research projects, with its GPT series released gradually over the years. Google continued its AI advancements, achieving a significant milestone in 2016 when its AlphaGo program defeated legendary Go player Lee Sedol. In 2017, the Transformer architecture was introduced which allows models to understand the interplay of words in a sentence (therefore understanding context). Then, in 2018, BERT was released, marking a significant advancement in natural language understanding and paving the way for numerous new applications. Despite these advancements, Google's initial dominance faced fierce competition as the AI landscape evolved rapidly. Google was met with intense competition from other tech giants and emerging startups. The lesson here is clear: while it’s monumentally difficult to be first; it’s even harder to remain in the lead. The huge strides Google has taken over the years have significantly contributed to where AI is at today and have enabled projects such as Bert and GPT-3/4 to come to life. Yet even industry leaders like Google must remain vigilant and agile to stay ahead in the fast-paced AI race. Their journey, while just one example of many, underscores the importance of continuous innovation and adaptability in maintaining a competitive edge and capitalizing on one's own innovation. This is an excerpt from our series "Strategy in AI's Shifting Sands". To read Part One in full: https://lnkd.in/gGJinaha #VentureCapital #AI #Google #Innovation #BECOCapital

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜, 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗪𝗵𝘆? The AI arena is a unique playing field where diverse teams compete, driving unprecedented advancements and democratizing access to cutting-edge technology. Notable models like Claude from heavily funded startup Anthropic, Falcon from the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in the UAE, and LLaMA from Meta illustrate how world-leading AI innovations are emerging from a diverse array of stakeholders. These include multi-trillion-dollar companies, multi-billion-dollar companies, startups, and sovereign entities from around the world. This diversity in contributors is particularly remarkable, as few sectors showcase such a wide range of players competing at the highest level. OpenAI, with its ChatGPT series, has emerged as the face of the AI revolution, single-handedly leading the way for the next wave of innovation at levels likely to surpass what mobile and the cloud achieved, all within a much shorter time frame. While OpenAI popularized and made LLMs mainstream, others quickly followed suit. The exciting theme that emerges from all these different stakeholders is the fundamental approach they are taking around how they access the data required and their mindset as to whether they build with an open vs. closed source approach and so much more. It’s very hard to say what approach ends up dominating but with the overall theme of all things GenAI, we will likely end up at a place where companies leverage both closed and open source models depending on the use case. This is an excerpt from our series "Strategy in AI's Shifting Sands". To read Part One in full: https://lnkd.in/gGJinaha #Government #Startup #BigTech #Competition #BECOCapital

𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗜 𝗜𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗢𝗻𝗲. When is a major technological breakthrough truly a breakthrough? When it achieves mass adoption. When consumers adopt technologies, it democratizes access and spurs an influx of builders and innovators. GenAI's trajectory has been interesting for so many reasons, not least because it’s adopted elements from the Internet, smartphone, and social media revolutions. This entails three key components: 1. Research Origins: The Internet's widespread adoption in the 1990s transformed it from a research tool to a global commercial and social platform, leading to the dot-com boom and the rise of tech giants. Similarly GenAI emerged from decades of academic and industrial research. 2. Applications and Services: Mirroring the smartphone revolution ignited by the iPhone in 2007, GenAI is spawning a diverse ecosystem of applications and services, fostering innovation among developers and startups. 3. New Monetization and Business Models: Similar to how social media platforms like Facebook/Meta and Twitter/X democratized content creation and distribution, GenAI is giving rise to new forms of value creation and monetization. GenAI's journey from research to application layer is now paving the way for innovative monetization and business models. The triangulation of hyperscalers, data centers, and GPUs - the infrastructure backdrop discussed earlier - has created the perfect environment for GenAI to flourish, unlocking unprecedented creativity and innovation among a new generation of entrepreneurs and users. Read more, in Part One of our four-part series 'Strategy In AI's Shifting Sands,' via the link in comments. #Research #Monetization #GenAI #Entrepreneurs #BECOCapital

Data is the essential building block for training and developing AI. Today we're sharing an excerpt from Part One of our four-part series, "Strategy In AI's Shifting Sands". To read Part One in full: https://bit.ly/BECO_AI 𝗜𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲, 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. It’s often been repeated that “data is the new oil”. Like oil, data requires refinement to unlock its true value. However, unlike oil, data isn’t capitalized based on geographical fortune. The emergence of sophisticated architectures such as data lakes and data warehouses has democratized data science, making it increasingly accessible. This democratization has been a key catalyst in igniting the GenAI revolution, enabling a broader range of participants to harness the power of large-scale data analysis and generation. Governments in the region are recognizing the potential of structured, accessible data. For instance, the Saudi government has integrated 130 government databases and created a data-sharing marketplace for over 250+ government systems integrated in the national data catalog and accessible via API. This structured approach allows for the leverage of vast datasets with AI, exemplifying how data consolidation can drive AI innovation at a national level. From such government initiatives to big tech giants investing billions in research and development, and a new wave of well-funded startups, actors at all levels are vying to capitalize on GenAI's potential. This widespread engagement underscores GenAI's perceived transformative power and its potential to reshape industries and economies. #AI #Data #GCC #GenAI #BECOCapital

Last week, we released Part One of our four-part series, "Strategy In AI's Shifting Sands". Today, we're sharing a little history with you on the rise of AI. 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝗚𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗻 While AI's rise to prominence might seem like an overnight success story, its journey to get here took 70 years. It has been a journey marked by perseverance, and one with no guarantee of making it this far. The field's origins trace back to the 1950s and 1960s, with pioneer scientists Alan Turing and John McCarthy laying the foundational theories and concepts. While Turing's work is widely recognized, McCarthy's equally significant contributions often receive less attention. To fully grasp AI's roots, it's crucial to examine the backgrounds and key insights of these two visionaries: • 𝘈𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘯, 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘐. 𝘐𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 1950 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳, "𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦," 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯-𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. • 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘔𝘤𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵, 𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮 "𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦" 𝘪𝘯 1956 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘐. 𝘐𝘯 1958, 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘐𝘚𝘗 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘈𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩. Early AI efforts sparked optimistic predictions, but progress stalled due to limitations in computational power and the scarcity of data, leading to periods known as "AI winters". The field regained momentum in the 1990s and 2000s with advancements in computing, notably through Nvidia's innovations, and the advent of big data. This resurgence culminated in a significant wave from 2015 to 2019, marked by breakthroughs in machine learning and deep learning, demonstrating AI's potential in image recognition, natural language processing, and other complex tasks. The stage was set for GenAI's explosive arrival in 2022. The convergence of purpose-built infrastructure (GPUs), cloud computing provided by major players like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and the Internet's accessible dataset provided the ideal conditions for GenAI and in turn Large Language Models (LLMs) to flourish. The public launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT marked a turning point, sparking widespread interest and excitement. To read Part One in full, please view the link in comments. #AI #History #Data #GenAI #BECOCapital

Structural tailwinds are positioning the GCC, particularly the UAE and KSA, as incubators for globally competitive AI businesses. As AI continues to evolve and reshape industries worldwide, the region’s forward-thinking strategies ensure it's ready to harness AI's potential for economic growth, societal advancement, and global impact. At this juncture, we believe it may be of value to share key themes of BECO Capital's internal discussions on AI, and surface observations and implications for the region and the wider global business community. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll explore how emerging AI players are poised to seize new opportunities while uncovering potential implications, intriguing dynamics, and unexpected power plays - plus some key areas to watch. This is the first of a four-part series. We hope it sparks insightful discussion. #AI #GCC #UAE #KSA #BECOCapital

It was great to be part of the roundtable with H.E. Alia Abdulla AlMazrouei and fellow VCs. Coming together as an ecosystem is so important. Having tough, forward-thinking conversations with key stakeholders is essential to building the support system for UAE entrepreneurs. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/eiNXqgpW

🎉 Excited to announce a major milestone for FlapKap! We've just closed a $34M Pre-Series A funding round, mix of equity and debt. This funding will accelerate our mission to revolutionize SME financing, ensuring businesses can access capital faster and smarter than ever before. A huge thank you to our investors for believing in us and backing our vision, including BECO Capital, QED Investors, Pact VC, Channel Capital, A15, Outliers Venture Capital and Nclude. Your support will be crucial as we continue to scale and innovate in the fintech space. To the entire FlapKap team—this is a testament to your hard work and dedication ❤️ The journey has only just begun! 🚀 Ahmad Coucha Sherif Bichara Kunal Harisinghani 🔥

Some great insights in the new Jada Fund of Funds Valuation Report, where we joined industry peers and academics from INSEAD in discussing the first principles of setting valuations, and how setting thoughtful valuations is critical for long-term success. We look forward to more reports like these that dive into these important conversations around governance as our region's venture ecosystem matures. Bandr Alhomaly, CFA, Claudia Zeisberger, Mohammed S. Alyahya, Felix Zimmermann, CFA, Khaled Talhouni, Arnav Danthi, Sarah Abu Risheh, Abdullah Altamami, Abdulelah Alsharif, Waleed A. Alballaa, Omar Al-Mohamdy, Arwa AlDryhim, CFA, Naif Alobaidi Mazin Alshanbari