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Startups offering AI-powered business solutions are emerging at a rapid pace this year, as companies big and small rush to take advantage of the tech in order to develop new products and boost efficiency. But which of these startups are winning the battle for enterprise dollars? A new report from a16z and fintech company Mercury attempts to answer that question.
The report was created by analyzing transactions made through Mercury’s business expense platforms between June and August, and then ranking the companies that received the highest amount of enterprise spending.
Unsurprisingly, OpenAI was the top company on the list, with Anthropic trailing in second. But other startups, which often use the AI models developed by these labs, are also gaining traction.
Here’s a look at three surprising stories that emerged from the report.
A vibe coding split
Despite being founded in 2016, it wasn’t until late last year that Replit’s growth took off. The company, which placed at number three on a16z’s list, credits most of its good fortune to Agent, a vibe coding tool that can turn natural language prompts into working applications and websites. Since the debut of Agent, Replit’s annual recurring revenue has increased from $2.8 million to over $150 million.
Other vibe coding companies that have received significant money from enterprises include Cursor (number six), Lovable (number 18), and Emergent (number 48). According to a16z researchers, Replit generated 15x more revenue from enterprise customers than Lovable, which has been much more popular with everyday consumers. An earlier a16z report, published in August, found that Lovable’s website gets significantly more unique monthly visits than Replit.
The venture capital firm’s researchers theorized this split in Replit and Lovable’s customer base is due to a difference in focus. Lovable has focused its efforts on quickly generating user interfaces and components, while Replit “goes beyond front-end design by enabling the development of enterprise-grade, fully functional apps, agents, and automations.”
Cluely goes big
One of the biggest surprises on the list is Cluely’s placement, at number 26. Roy Lee and Neel Shanmugam founded Cluely earlier this year; they are two former Columbia University students who were suspended for creating a tool that used AI to help students cheat during interviews with tech companies.
Rather than apologize to Columbia, Lee and Shanmugam decided to move to San Francisco and turn their tool into a business. Cluely launched in April with a cringe-inducing video in which Lee uses the app to lie to a woman about his age while on a date.
In practice, Cluely operates as a desktop app that provides users with AI-generated insights before, during, and after meetings. Before meetings, Cluely generates a report containing details on the meeting’s attendees. During meetings, Cluely provides live insights and even offers suggestions for what users should say or ask at any given moment. After meetings, the app generates follow-up emails and notes based on the meeting’s content.
It’s also notable that Cluely is an a16z portfolio company. In June, the firm announced that it had led a $15 million series A round in the company. Cluely has been criticized on social media for prioritizing viral marketing over actual product quality, but according to the a16z report, it has found an audience in the enterprise.
Vibe coding has been the dominant story of enterprise AI use over the past few months, but the report also found that some AI-powered media offerings are finding success. Freepik, a graphic design company founded in 2010, notched the number four spot.
The company started as a search engine for stock images, and then started selling stock images of its own. In 2023, following the release of powerful AI-powered image generators like OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 and Midjourney (also on the list at number 28), Freepik pivoted to AI-generated stock photos.
Just under Freepik, at number five, is another creative tools company, ElevenLabs. The company offers highly-advanced AI voice solutions that enable users to turn text into speech, change the sound of their voice, create an AI-powered clone of their own voice, and develop voice-based AI agents that can handle customer support work. This demonstrates the growing impact of AI beyond coding, with creative tools like Freepik and ElevenLabs finding significant success in the enterprise market.
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Ben Sherry
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