Manifesto
We are living through a platform shift
Since the Second World War, tech has progressed through a series of compounding platform shifts: semiconductors, mainframes, personal computers, networking, the web, cloud, and mobile.
Each shift has produced a new generation of category-defining companies – and reshaped how people live and work, often in unexpected ways.
The rise of artificial intelligence is the most consequential of these waves. In part, this is because it builds on previous waves. AI stands on the shoulders of a global installed base of networked computers, ever growing cloud computing capability, and billions of relatively cheap smartphones providing compute on the edge.
AI systems now rival or exceed human performance, in ever more complex and valuable domains. They can generate content, interpret complex information, reason across vast data sets, and act autonomously within loosely defined constraints.
This is an unprecedented structural change in software’s capabilities and surface area.
AI is the new industrial revolution
Every platform shift reshapes the economics of company-building. AI will do so more profoundly than others.
AI-native products reach scale faster, deliver step-function improvements in productivity, quality, and cost, and enable entirely new categories of products and services.
In many cases, AI does not just improve workflows – it replaces them. High-value, specialized, or scarce human labour can now be augmented or automated at scale.
As a result, our hypothesis is that the most durable value will be created at the application layer: products tightly coupled to real user problems, with AI embedded deeply into core workflows, and advantages that compound through data, distribution, and learning.
We’ve been investing in AI for a decade
At Mosaic, we have been investing in AI since 2015. Since we started the firm, the majority of capital we’ve invested has been in AI-first companies.
We have backed companies starting with the early breakthroughs – from early computer vision, through natural language processing, to today’s large, general-purpose models. Over time, this has given us strong pattern recognition around what endures, and what does not.
We have learned that lasting AI companies are rarely built by chasing the latest model or research breakthrough. They are built by founders who combine technical depth with product judgement, customer empathy, and a path to long-term defensibility.
That experience shapes how we invest today.
What we look for in AI-native companies
We are focused on AI-native applications – businesses where AI is not an add-on, but central to why the product exists.
In practice, that means companies with one or more of the following characteristics:
Superhuman capabilities
Products that generate or interpret information in ways humans cannot – at scale, speed, or cost.
High-value automation
Applications that augment (or replace) expensive, specialized, or scarce human labour.
Greenfield products
New categories enabled by AI, rather than incremental improvements to legacy software.
TAM expansion
Businesses where AI meaningfully increases market size by lowering cost, increasing accessibility, or enabling new use cases.
What we don’t invest in
We are cautious about:
thin interfaces built on commoditized models
capital-intensive expeditions (including foundation models), without clear defensibility
applications likely to be absorbed by the general-purpose platforms
Why Europe matters
We believe European founders are well positioned to produce the next generation of AI category leaders.
The region combines world-class research institutions, deep technical talent, and a growing base of experienced startup execs and repeat entrepreneurs. Much of the technical leadership at the largest AI & tech companies worldwide, hail from this continent.
At the same time, the region remains structurally undercapitalized relative to its world-class talent base. Companies can be built capital efficiently, then scaled with global ambition.
This creates an opportunity for those starting in Europe, to compete globally at the highest level, particularly in the US.
Our mission is to help founders win, doing exactly that.
How we partner with founders
We believe early-stage investing works best when built on deep conviction, trust and genuine engagement. We often using Socratic dialog to explore important questions.
We are a small partnership by design and selectively invest in 6-10 new companies per year. When we back a founder, we commit the entire team’s time and attention to the journey – not just capital.
We aim to be clear-eyed and intellectually honest, particularly when decisions are challenging — as inevitably they will be under uncertainty. We help founders think through strategy, hiring, go-to-market, and financing, drawing on decades of experience building and backing companies through multiple cycles.
Above all, we are on your side of the table. We invest our own capital alongside our LPs, swing for outsized outcomes, and accept the risks that come with that ambition.
Our conviction
Artificial intelligence will reshape the world economy, and almost every industry.
The most important startups of this era will not follow the crowd.
They will be built by founders with vision, who understand both the potential and the limits of AI, and who are focused on solving big pain points as well as greenfield opportunities.
Our purpose is to support these founders. We’re optimistic about what we can do together to positively impact an AI future that prioritizes individual empowerment, and collective wellbeing.
If that resonates, we’d love to partner with you.