Prosus Report: AI Investment Set to Shift Toward Business Applications
GLOBAL, 30TH APRIL, 2025,– The newly released report from Prosus and Dealroom.co titled
“Shaping an AI-enabled Future: How Prosus is Investing in the Next Wave of AI Applications”
reveals that the future of artificial intelligence investment lies not in foundational models, but in the application layer – real-world use cases that deliver measurable value across industries.
After $110 billion raised worldwide in 2024 by AI startups alone, making up a third of all venture capital activity, Prosus forecasts a decisive shift.
Whereas the initial adjusted boom of venture capital intended investments in foundational technologies such as large language models and generative AI, it is now completely skewed toward startups integrating artificial intelligence directly into the fabric of business workflows.
These applications range directly from e-commerce to health and insurance to fintech and enterprise software, creating new dimensions of value matched in efficiency gains, personalization, and scalable consumer engagement.
Fabricio Bloisi, Prosus Group CEO, said: “As companies increasingly leverage AI to accelerate their relevance to consumers, enhance personalisation, and drive growth, we’ll see a shift in investment capital from foundational AI models to the powerful ecosystems built around them. At Prosus, we’re already seeing this shift globally across our portfolio and have strategically invested in companies around the world that are using AI across e-commerce, fintech, healthcare, and beyond.”
Such applications would be highly beneficial for startups in the application layer, as most of them would be generating revenue and, to some extent, have deployed the application in a real-world environment.
With over 2 billion consumers using products from companies in its portfolio, Prosus continues to be one of the largest global investors in AI-backed consumer internet businesses. Through Prosus Ventures, the group actively backs startups across high-growth sectors, including B2B software, logistics, health, and fintech, all increasingly powered by AI.
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