The Impact of AI on Early-Stage Investments: Insights from Miri Fenton of Maverick Ventures Israel

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, investment landscapes, and how venture capital (VC) firms assess startups. Miri Fenton, an investor at Maverick Ventures Israel, shared her insights into how AI is influencing the investment process in a recent interview with CTech. The core takeaway? While AI is reshaping the business world, the fundamentals of early-stage investing—particularly the emphasis on talented people—remain unchanged.

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Miri Fenton, Investor at Maverick Ventures Israel, highlighted how AI is playing an increasingly important role in the venture capital world. She emphasized that, despite the technology’s evolution, successful investing in early-stage startups still centers around the same key traits: resilience, adaptation, vision, and hard work. These are the qualities that investors, like Fenton, look for in founders, especially when they are navigating the fast-changing competitive landscape of AI.

Maverick Ventures Israel has recently made several investments in AI-native Israeli startups, capitalizing on the country’s emerging AI talent. While AI tools are making day-to-day operations more efficient—such as using note-taking tools that create action items in Hebrew—there is still much work to be done in automating workflows.

Fenton also discussed how her firm evaluates AI startups. Unlike traditional investments where financial performance indicators like revenue are crucial, Maverick Ventures Israel focuses more on the founding team, their ability to execute, and the market they’re targeting. Notably, the firm avoids investing in startups with high infrastructure costs or those heavily reliant on data dependencies. Additionally, Fenton stressed the importance of focusing on unique access to data and defensible technologies, such as compute hardware, in distinguishing AI startups.

As AI’s role in regulated industries grows, Fenton believes that the ability to manipulate and “unlearn” data will be vital for the widespread adoption of AI in critical sectors, such as healthcare and defense. The firm is particularly interested in Israeli startups developing AI in the defense sector, an area where AI has strong exit potential in the coming years.

What Undercode Says: An Analytical View

The insights shared by Miri Fenton offer a fascinating glimpse into how AI is influencing the venture capital landscape. One of the most compelling points she makes is the emphasis on “people” over technology, which echoes a timeless principle in early-stage investing. In the past, investors would look at the capabilities of the founding team, their adaptability, and their ability to execute their vision. AI hasn’t changed that—at least not in the fundamental sense.

However, what has changed is the sheer speed at which the competitive landscape is evolving. With AI, products can be developed faster than ever before, and the time to market is shrinking. As Fenton points out, the ability to pivot quickly and build resilient teams is more crucial than ever. This agility allows startups to adapt rapidly to new challenges, and those that are able to attract talent and adjust their business models quickly are often the ones that see the most significant growth and increased valuation.

AI-native startups have the advantage of developing tools that are increasingly in demand, yet their success often hinges on the ability to solve real-world problems with unique solutions. The ability to gather and analyze data—and importantly, to provide value through that data—is essential. This is especially true for startups focused on emerging technologies or those operating in regulated industries, where AI’s potential can be transformative.

Fenton’s focus on the Israeli tech ecosystem also highlights the role that geography plays in the investment process. Israel, often referred to as the “Startup Nation,” offers a unique combination of entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and government support. This environment makes it an attractive region for AI investment. However, the competition in Israel is fierce, and identifying companies with defensible technology and unique access to data is key for success.

The question of “what differentiates AI startups?” is particularly intriguing. While some may focus on cutting-edge algorithms, Fenton suggests that the true differentiators lie in the access to data and the ability to solve problems in industries that are ripe for transformation. This opens up a conversation about how AI can potentially disrupt not only traditional sectors but also niche markets with unmet needs.

Fact Checker Results

AI’s impact on the VC landscape: ✅ Miri Fenton’s emphasis on “people” being the key determinant in early-stage investments is in line with broader trends in venture capital, which prioritize strong founding teams over technical specifics.
Use of AI tools in VC operations: ✅ The mention of using AI tools to automate workflows and summarize meetings is accurate and increasingly common across industries, particularly in VC.
AI’s role in regulated industries: ✅ Fenton’s discussion of AI’s future in highly regulated industries like defense and healthcare aligns with emerging trends in AI applications.

Prediction 📊

Looking forward, the impact of AI on early-stage investments is poised to expand even further. As AI tools become more integrated into daily operations, we can expect more VC firms to adopt AI-powered analysis tools for assessing market trends, team performance, and potential risks. Additionally, with industries such as healthcare, defense, and cybersecurity becoming more reliant on AI for solutions, Israeli startups in these sectors are likely to see a surge in investments, with a strong focus on those offering unique, defensible technologies. AI’s continued evolution will drive innovation, and early-stage investors will need to stay agile, adopting new technologies just as quickly as the startups they back.