Leonardo Ai, a Sydney generative artificial intelligence start-up, has become the most hyped company in Australia’s technology scene after pulling in $US1.6m in revenue in its first five months charging for its image creation software.
Despite the investor fever Leonardo faces high levels of churn, with users and subscribers leaving its services, and a raft of large US rivals offering similar services. Those challenges, and the nascent state of the industry, have led more sceptical investors to question whether AI firms should be measured as having genuinely recurring revenue at all.show its rapid early success. As well as gaining revenue from 28,000 subscribers in four months, it racked up more than 3.
Niki Scevak, a founding partner at Blackbird, has taken a board seat at Leonardo. Blackbird refused to comment, but privately its staff and the rest of the industry have been talking about little else. Leonardo’s early success is even more important for another local VC firm, Side Stage Ventures. It is trying to raise the second half of its planned, and was an early investor in Leonardo. Industry sources said that gaining exposure to Leonardo is a key part of Side Stage Ventures’ pitch to prospective investors as it tries to raise in a depressed market.
Leonardo users can select the model, which determines the visual style of illustrations generated, or use custom models that could reflect a company’s brand. Leonardo forbids pornographic imagery, making it more likely to attract corporate clients than some rivals.Leonardo Ai