How we create enduring value in the AI Era
By Jose Gaytan de Ayala, Investor at Kinnevik
The search for enduring value
At Kinnevik, we believe that Artificial Intelligence is the most profound technological paradigm shift of our time. All foundational conditions (energy, compute, data, distribution, and talent) are in place, resulting in a speed of adoption faster than any previous tech wave. As a result, AI is reshaping both the software and the services markets, with new tools expanding beyond software budgets and eating into labor spend. This dynamic is creating multi-billion-euro opportunities across sectors.
We have seen first-hand how AI has been transformational for our later-stage platforms by automating customer service, enhancing decision-making, unlocking product localization and personalization, and improving efficiency. These learnings have also been instrumental in shaping how we identify, select, and invest in the next generation of AI-native category leaders.
In this article, we want to share i) how AI is reshaping our own later-stage portfolio; ii) what we look for in companies that are transforming markets through AI; and iii) why we are incredibly excited about our new AI-native category leaders.
AI - an accelerating force across our portfolio
Our vertically integrated companies share characteristics that make them particularly well positioned to capture the benefits of AI. Specifically: i) their platforms serve as the central operating system for their clients; ii) they have accumulated years of rich, proprietary data; and iii) they maintain high-performing product teams. Together, these strengths enable them to embrace technology to drive innovation and efficiency.
Spring Health, a leader in precision mental health care, uses machine learning to analyze each individual’s symptoms, risk factors, and engagement history, enabling faster and more accurate matching with the right care provider. This means less wasted therapy, fewer dropouts and more effective use of provider time, resulting in better health outcomes. The company also streamlines clinical workflows through automated note generation and real-time insight extraction from therapy sessions, easing administrative burdens on providers. Additionally, by applying AI-driven analytics to workforce mental health data, Spring Health helps employers and health plans identify high-risk individuals early and intervene proactively, preventing issues before they escalate.
Mews is transforming hotel operations through automation and personalization. By analyzing booking patterns, past stay behavior, housekeeping data, and guest preferences, the platform empowers staff to anticipate returning guests’ needs and expectations. Through its acquisitions of Atomize and DataChat, Mews has also integrated advanced AI-powered revenue management capabilities that leverage historical data, market trends, competitor pricing, and forward-looking demand signals to optimize room rates in real time. Together, these innovations reduce administrative workloads, minimize manual tasks, and free hotel staff to focus on delivering exceptional guest experiences.
Perk continues to invest in AI innovation to remove friction from the travel experience. Its platform uses machine learning to instantly build complex, multi-stop itineraries that align with both employee preferences and company travel policies, while seamlessly integrating expense management. Fully autonomous AI agents automatically confirm credit card details with hotels before arrival, while the company’s customer service chat, Juno, is deeply integrated across systems, enabling it to answer questions, add baggage, modify bookings, and resolve issues in real time. These investments are driving significant growth and profitability improvements. Perk’s gross margins now exceed 70%, up from 40% at the end of 2022, and the company grew revenues by 50% in the first half of 2025.
Backing the next generation of AI category leaders
In addition to supporting the innovation happening within our companies, we are highly selectively assessing young AI-native, vertically focused businesses in markets and industries we know well.
To invest in this new landscape, we have had to evolve our frameworks for evaluating what “extraordinary” looks like. Even as revenue curves have gone from exponential to parabolic, existential risks in AI businesses persist regardless of capital raised. In contrast with previous SaaS and biotech cycles, scale and maturity provide no protection against disruption, whether due to model degradation, over-reliance on external data sources, or shifts in customer behavior and preferences.
First, we are disciplined in applying the same core criteria we use for our later-stage investments to early-stage AI companies: large markets, scalability, defensibility, and exceptional teams are non-negotiables.
Second, we have chosen to focus on the application layer of AI. That is, businesses that translate raw model capabilities into real products and services for customers. Through deep sector understanding, new players will be able to gather new, valuable data and to rethink the existing workflows.
Third, we look for companies that can deliver high, measurable ROI for their customers, whether through revenue uplift, productivity gains, or labor replacement. We assess this based on durable adoption, evidenced by retention, engagement, and expansion into enterprise-grade contracts.
In the last couple of months, based on the framework outlined above, we have chosen to back Strand Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, Tandem Health, Europe’s leading medical scribe, and Nory, an operating system for restaurants. The investment in Nory builds on our expertise in the hospitality sector and draws on our successful partnership with our core company Mews. It reflects both our selective approach and how we leverage our strengths when sourcing new opportunities - just as we did in Strand Therapeutics and Tandem Health, where we drew on our pattern recognition and network across healthcare, biotech and software.
Kinnevik’s edge: leveraging deep sector expertise to win in the AI era
Kinnevik’s differentiated high-conviction, high-concentration investment approach allows us to focus exclusively on companies that we believe have both transformational and enduring characteristics. Through our previous investments in companies such as Spring Health, Mews and Perk, we have cultivated deep expertise in sectors such as healthcare, biotech, travel and hospitality. In short, we know what great looks like and what it takes to win in these sectors.
Moreover, our active, hands-on ownership model means we can support the next generation of category leaders as they grow and fulfil their potential. In all our companies, we strive to be the first call the founders make to share good and bad news, discuss new product pipelines, and refine growth initiatives.
While we remain focused on continuing to mature our growth portfolio, staying close to the innovation and company creation happening at the early stage is essential to our strategy. Dedicating a small share of our capital and portfolio to these promising, and potentially exponential, investment cases is not only attractive from a return perspective. It also sharpens our insight into emerging trends within our focus sectors and strengthens our position as a relevant, forward-looking partner to our larger, more established companies.
