Flashback – 2014 LDV Vision Summit Showcases How Visual Technologies Will Change Our World

The majority of data our brains analyze is visual. Therefore the majority of data artificial intelligence will analyze will be visual.

Evan Nisselson founded LDV Capital in 2012 with a thesis of investing in people building businesses powered by visual technologies

At that time, some said such a thesis for a venture fund was “cute, niche, and science fiction” but now we do not hear that anymore.

Now it is more understood the critical importance of visual technologies such as computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze visual data across all business sectors. We are still the only venture fund with this thesis today. 

LDV Vision Summit in 2014 © Robert Wright

LDV Vision Summit in 2014 ©Dan Taylor

We launched the LDV Vision Summit in 2014 – an annual event for entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, media executives, and creators. The goal was and still is to bring together our visual tech ecosystem and create a space where we can discuss what's happening today, and what, most importantly, will happen tomorrow.

Here’s a flashback from 2014 – a year when Facebook bought Oculus VR and Ellen Degeneres temporarily crashed Twitter with her selfie with a bunch of celebrities during the Oscars broadcast – watch Evan Nisselson’s opening word at our very first LDV Vision Summit:

Visual tech has evolved since then. Many companies now leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision to analyze visual data. It’s all called deep tech and it disrupts logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, autonomous vehicles, mapping, robotics, healthcare, security, and much more.

We were honored to showcase many early visual tech success stories. Among them:

  • Jan Erik Solem, Co-Founder & CEO of Mapillary sold to Facebook.

  • Todd Sawicki, CEO of Zemanta sold to Outbrain.

  • Tobias Peggs, CEO of Avairy sold to Adobe.

  • Tamara Berg, Co-Founder & CEO of Shopagon sold to Facebook.

  • Adam Singolda, Founder & CEO of Taboola.

  • Eric Berry, Co-Founder & CEO of TripleLift.