The Cyberport Venture Capital Forum 2024 empowers seasoned investors, start-ups and market leaders to unlock more opportunities in AI and Web3

Vibrancy has returned to the venture capital market for innovation. VC-backed companies raised US$42.9 billion in Q2 2024, representing a 29-percent increase from the US$33.3 billion raised in Q1 2024. More crucially, it marked the second consecutive quarter of growth following a year of decline.
 
AI-related companies accounted for 37 percent of total VC funding in Q2 2024, with a single deal topping US$6 billion. Within generative AI, foundation and large language models attracted the highest share of funding due to their capital-intensive nature.
 
Fueled by the strong performance of AI-related companies, information technology (IT) accounted for nearly 50 per cent of all funding in Q2 2024. Consumer services and healthcare are on track to surpass their annual total amount raised in 2023. Moreover, one of the top healthcare deals this quarter was AI-driven, raising US$1 billion in Q2 2024.
 
Apart from AI, more VC investors recognise the power of Web3 as an increasing number of developers build decentralised applications, or dApps, and crypto bounces back. The sector has matured from a developing community to a budding industry, which will continue to grow and receive more attention from investors.
 
VC funding for Web3 startups is stabilising after a year-long decline in 2023, with crypto ventures securing some US$2 billion in financing in Q2 2024. The first half of 2024 reversed the downtrend in Web3’s quarterly VC funding. In July 2024, VC investments in Web3 startups topped US$1 billion across 118 deals. As the market experiences more liquidity and investors regain confidence in the crypto ecosystem, new ways of raising capital are emerging. Optimism has returned as a decentralised internet becomes more established.
 
Experts believe that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts in the United States will stimulate the global economy and the start-up ecosystem.
  
Meanwhile, growth in China is expected to accelerate as Beijing has announced policies supporting science and technology VC to drive industrial upgrades and economic growth.
 
Many potentially game-changing innovations will continue to emerge, energising the VC landscape. Under the theme “Innovation Challenger: Building New Venture Visions,” the Cyberport Venture Capital Forum 2024, will be held at Cyberport on October 24 and 25. It’s the essential platform that brings together leading VC investors, start-ups, thought leaders, and other stakeholders. It helps them navigate the dynamic yet complex environment and forge collaborations to unlock emerging opportunities.
 
Web3 
Web3 start-ups have seen an uptick in VC funding. Some experts believe the infrastructure of the ‘decentralised internet’ is sufficient, and now is the time to focus on solving business needs.
 
“We need to see business applications built on blockchains and demonstrate how this technology helps real internet businesses grow before we regain investors’ confidence,” says Kang Shen, Founder of Hash Global. To continue attracting VC funding, blockchain companies need to focus on developing dApps, protocols, and platforms that either generate more revenue or save costs for businesses, adds Shen, who will be on the panel discussing “The New Direction of Web3.0 Tech & Venture.”Shen’s view is echoed by Max Rebol, CEO and Managing Partner of Harbour Industrial Capital and Director of Polkaport East. “As the Web3 space in general, and the Polkadot ecosystem (a protocol connecting different blockchains) in particular, is more mature, we shift our focus from infrastructure to Apps that bring in new users and transactions, and have the potential to lead to mass adoption.” Rebol will share more of his views on the new direction of Web3.0 Tech and Venture panel.Rebol advises that dApp projects should bring out the genuine value of blockchains. “Blockchains are most useful when solving the issue of trust in a central party, when data immutability is a concern, or when privacy-related questions get solved,” he continues. “Polkadot is a powerful platform to build such dApps. Developers with a great idea and the technical ability to harness this power should come to us – we’ll be the first ones to write them a cheque.”
 
Moving forward, Shen believes more Web3 Apps will emerge in the Asia-Pacific region than in the US. “We will probably see more innovations in the underlying protocols and infrastructure layer in the US,” he adds.
 
The crossover between AI and Web3 will eventually come together to build intelligent businesses, Shen thinks. “We spend a lot of time on Web3 projects that unlock value from data. Web3 is the next generation of the internet. Web3 is not just crypto3; businesses built upon Web3 need to see the data on-chain. The core of Web3 business is on-chain data. On-chain is the next online. We invest in many projects under this investment thesis.”

AI
Investments in generative AI and foundational models are expected to dominate venture capital funding through the remainder of 2024 and into early 2025, according to Jack Ren, Partner at Eminence Ventures.“AI is emerging as a transformative computing platform, akin to personal computers, mobile devices, and public cloud computing. The rapid growth of foundational models is evident. For instance, OpenAI reached an impressive US$3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by May 2024, marking a staggering 580 percent year-over-year increase. The opportunities at the application level are also vast, spanning various sectors: AI for Content (platforms like Viggle.ai), AI for Productivity (tools such as Microsoft Copilot), AI for Insight (applications in drug discovery), AI for Services (automation replacing human services), and AI for the Real World (innovations like robots with embodied AI). We maintain a bullish outlook on AI’s future.”
 
“In our engagements over the past year, most startups are either integrating AI or adopting it natively. We anticipate this trend continue over the next several years,” notes Ren, who will address delegates at the panel on “Investing in AI’s Future.”

Co-founder and partner at SparkLabs Group, Bernard Moon, believes the AI space remains vibrant, with new ideas continually emerging and a palpable sense of FOMO (fear of missing out). “The beauty of entrepreneurship is that people continue to create and innovate, so we always see new startups not just in AI, but also in enterprise software, logistics, gaming, consumer sectors, and across all industries.”However, Moon sees a potential shift in focus in the VC investment landscape. “The AI sector is already maturing, from foundational models and platforms to vertical LLM agents as well as picks and shovels that enhance the reliability, functionality, and overall usage of AI technologies. What has been hot in 2024 will begin to shift by early 2025,” says Moon, who will share his insights on the panel “Powering Up in Challenging Times with Crafted Strategies.”