{"id":187822,"date":"2025-10-03T16:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/187822\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T16:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:24:13","slug":"a-new-a16z-report-looks-at-which-ai-companies-startups-are-actually-paying-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/187822\/","title":{"rendered":"A new a16z report looks at which AI companies startups are actually paying for"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, Andreessen Horowitz released its first AI Spending Report<\/a> in partnership with the fintech firm Mercury. Using transaction data from Mercury, the report analyzes the top 50 AI-native application layer companies that startups are spending money on, similar to the previously published Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

a16z partners Olivia Moore and Seema Amble say the data shows companies are still adopting a range of different AI products for certain tasks \u2014 and new apps are rising and falling very quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a proliferation of tools,\u201d Amble said.\u00a0\u201cIt hasn\u2019t just coalesced around one or two in each category.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report also shows a lot of spending on \u201chuman augmentors\u201d or \u201ccopilots\u201d that can help boost productivity among the workforce, suggesting startups aren\u2019t ready to fully shift into agentic workflows. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs computer use becomes more of a mode and there\u2019s more of the ability for there to be end-to-end agentic flows built, I think that shift will happen, where we\u2019ll see fewer copilots and more end-to-end agent tools,\u201d Amble said. \u201cEspecially as people are really eager to give them a try.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:a16z<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the top of the list was dominated by major labs, with OpenAI taking the top slot and Anthropic following up at No. 2. Vibe-coding tools were also well represented, with Replit at No. 3 and Lovable at No. 18. Cursor landed at No. 6 and Emergent at No. 48.\u00a0Cognition, which operates more enterprise-oriented coding tools like Devin and Windsurf, was at No. 34.<\/p>\n

When a16z produced a similar list for consumer habits, Lovable ranked much higher than Replit <\/a>on pure traffic alone because a lot of people were using it to create projects. But startups are not spending as much money on Lovable as they are on Replit, in part because of the lack of enterprise features. But the variety of companies on the list seems to suggest there\u2019s room for plenty of different companies at once.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an open question going forward on vibe coding,\u201d Moore said. \u201cDoes the space start to consolidate, and one place becomes the best platform to vibe code? Or is it the case where there\u2019ll be four or five more vibe coding companies that are really big businesses for different types of applications? We don\u2019t have the answer to that yet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moore was also surprised to see startups adopting consumer-oriented tools like CapCut and Midjourney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing that a lot of these [consumer] companies are getting yanked into enterprise faster and faster because they make such delightful consumer tools that then people adopt and use as individuals and bring into their teams and workplaces,\u201d Moore said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Horizontal applications overall made up at least 60% of the names on the list, and 40% consisted of vertical applications. The most popular vertical software companies fell into three buckets: sales, recruiting, and customer service.\u00a0But the report also found AI making progress in many sectors that previous generations of startups had struggled to crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat maybe previously would have been, like, service firms or consultancies are now software companies in the age of AI,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Amble gave Crosby Legal as an example, which can quickly review a legal contract for a user, replacing what at one point would have been a meeting with an in-house general counsel, rummaging through thoughts and research. She said right now, most of the tools are used to aid employees (like a co-pilot) in making decisions faster, rather than replacing entire workforces and talent suits with automated workers (end-to-end agents).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Melanie Perkins\u2019 Canva is one of the top enterprise apps Image Credits:Nina Franova\/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the tech gets better, and we\u2019re actually able to build out full agent co-workers, you\u2019ll see that mix shift more toward end-to-end agents and away from co-pilots,\u201d she said, later adding that AI tools can do much more work, like outreach, faster than a human can.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were also a lot of note takers on the list, such as Otter.ai<\/a>, Read AI, and HappyScribe \u2014 with no single option dominating. This is what Amble meant when she said there isn\u2019t one product yet that has dominated the market; rather, startups are still picking \u201ctheir own flavor\u201d to see what tools they like best. This is also good for employees, who, with so many options, can pick what applications help them work best, rather than using a one-size-fits-all product \u201cpushed down from the top,\u201d Amble said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AntonAnton Osika\u2019s LOvable receives more traffic than rival Replit, but not much enterprise spendingImage Credits:TechBBQ<\/p>\n

The last big find in the report was the increasing intertwining of consumer and enterprise businesses. People are bringing the personal applications they use at home to work, and people who have started companies are using their favorite personal applications to help build their businesses. Before, there would have been a delineation between the two: a set stack for what to use while building a startup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amble and Moore cited Canva as an example: It\u2019s a popular consumer app that also has a sizable enterprise audience. It took years for Canva to even add an enterprise plan. But as individual and enterprise use cases become harder to distinguish, companies are more willing to blend the two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYour TAM [total addressable market] is no longer one or the other, but you can sell into both,\u201d she continued. She said companies building these products might also \u201cprofessionalize\u201d faster, meaning building out enterprise teams, like go-to-market, sales, and support, so they can start selling and accruing enterprise revenue sooner, rather than depending on individual consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moore and Amble are expecting the list to change quickly in the coming years. Older companies are now launching AI features to stay relevant and accessible, while new entrants arrive with new ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegacy players, legacy almost means, \u2018what was 12 months ago,\u2019\u201d Amble said. \u201cIf we pull this again in 12 months, will the same note-taking apps even be on there? Or will there be a whole new set?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This piece was updated to reflect the note-taking apps. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, Andreessen Horowitz released its first AI Spending Report in partnership with the fintech firm Mercury. Using…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[119485,256,254,255,64,63,119486,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-187822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-a16z","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-startup-spending","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}