Thank you for Making our 11th Annual LDV Vision Summit a Great Success! Check out highlights, videos, insights

Our 11th Annual LDV Vision Summit was our most attended event to date, bringing together deep tech entrepreneurs, technologists, academics, researchers and investors for engaging discussions on cutting-edge visual tech and AI innovations.

We were thrilled to welcome speakers from Sequoia Capital, NVIDIA, IBM, Kleiner Perkins, Phare Bio, IVP, Mitra Chem, BAM Corner Point, Duke University, Fortune, Argonne National Laboratory, Princeton University, The Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Fieldstone Bio. Three of our LDV Capital portfolio companies also presented: the powerhouse Synthesia and our newest additions: DANNCE AI and ResiQuant.

We hope our 2 fireside chats, 8 lightning keynotes and 2 panels inspired you with the incredible opportunities for visual tech and AI to transform businesses across all sectors and improve our life. You can always re/watch all sessions on our LDV YouTube channelhere’s the newly created playlist.

A special thank you goes to our speakers and attendees!

In this fireside chat with LDV Capital’s Evan Nisselson, Luciana Lixandru, a Partner at Sequoia Capital, discussed trends and early-stage investment opportunities in businesses leveraging visual technologies and AI.

We love getting perspective from our community so we have gathered insights and quotes:

“It was great to be part of the LDV Vision Summit and speak with Evan about the opportunities we at Sequoia see in Europe, what it takes to build an enduring company today and share stories from the outlier founders I’ve been honoured to partner with. We see tremendous opportunities to build valuable businesses that leverage visual technologies & AI!” — Luciana Lixandru, a Partner at Sequoia Capital

“It was an honor to have a fireside chat with Evan at their 11th annual LDV Vision Summit. The Summit is always a great gathering of entrepreneurs building the next generation of AI businesses. LDV Capital has been a great backer since leading our Seed round in 2019.” — Victor Riparbelli, Co-Founder & CEO at Synthesia

“My first AI investment nearly 6 years ago was at the intersection of AI visual technology and healthcare, and it’s (almost) unbelievable to see how rapidly the technology and space have expanded in that time. I was delighted to be invited by Evan and the LDV team to participate in this year’s Vision Summit – bringing together this innovative community building the future.” — Kristin Baker Spohn, Co-founder & Managing Partner at BAM Corner Point

“The LDV Vision Summit never fails to deliver engaging insights from leaders in Visual Tech and AI from the full spectrum of investors, founders, researchers, and beyond. The fireside chats are a highlight, filled with honest reflections and bold predictions, thanks to the relaxed and fun atmosphere that Evan cultivates throughout the event.” — Dr. Serge Belongie, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen, Head of the Danish Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence and LDV Capital Expert in Residence

Dr. Jan Kautz, VP of Learning & Perception Research at NVIDIA, spoke about humanoid robots and specifically GR00T N1, the robotic foundation model they built and announced in March at GTC 2025.

Dr. Serge Belongie enlightened us with computer vision & machine learning trends from autoregressive token prediction to agentic AI, physics engines and much more.

“The 11th Annual LDV Vision Summit was a powerhouse of ideas and innovation. From bold entrepreneurs to forward-thinking investors, the range of conversations was exciting and stimulating — I personally enjoyed hearing about life sciences applications, where AI is being harnessed in truly groundbreaking ways to solve complex, real-world challenges in drug discovery and development. As always, the summit was an oddly thrilling gathering—equal parts salon, science fair, and séance for the future.” — Dr. David Rabuka, a serial biotech entrepreneur, investor and LDV Expert

“It was a pleasure to speak at the LDV Vision Summit and to be part of a community that is on the forefront of visual tech and AI innovation at the most exciting possible time. I can't wait to reflect on all the new milestones and companies that will change our industry between now and the next summit.” — Annie Case, Partner at Kleiner Perkins

"The LDV Vision Summit provided an invaluable platform to share how AI and visual technology can help align incentives to make our communities resilient to natural hazards. The thought-provoking fireside chats and keynotes energized me to continue building ResiQuant alongside an amazing group of technologists and entrepreneurs from the LDV Capital atmosphere." — Dr. Francisco Galvis, CTO & Co-Founder at ResiQuant

“As a newcomer to the LDV Vision summit, it was refreshing to see the breadth of challenges being tackled by entrepreneurs using AI + visual technologies. Specifically, in the space of new materials innovation, there was clear resonance around how the next ten years will mark a change from AI-assisted discovery to AI-led synthesis by design." — Dr. Chirranjeevi Gopal, Co-Founder & CTO at Mitra Chem

“I was honored to participate in the 11th LDV Vision Summit and to meet some of the visionary entrepreneurs building businesses powered by visual tech & AI. The Materials Science Panel was great fun and I agree that visual technologies will have a significant impact on the future of materials discovery and development. The conversation with the other panel members and attendees on AI and computer vision advances that are driving our community was very inspiring.” — Dr. Amanda Petford-Long, Director of the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Lab

A panel moderated by Ash Cleary, Associate at LDV Capital: Visual Tech Advancements in Materials Science Structuring New Material Discovery & Development. Panelists: Dr. Kristin Schmidt, Strategy Assistant for Accelerated Discovery & Vice-Chair of Physical Sciences Council at IBM, Dr. Chirranjeevi Gopal, Co-Founder & CTO at Mitra Chem and Dr. David Smith, Associate Chair, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of ECE at Duke University, and Dr. Amanda Petford-Long, Director of the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Lab.

Visual technologies will continue to be the crux of advancements in materials science, across nanomaterials and metamaterials, resulting in the transformation of various industrial, medical and consumer applications. Embedded AI will enable materials to reconfigure themselves autonomously in response to their environment. As sensing abilities and algorithms improve, the full potential of navigating the compositional and configurational possibilities of materials will catalyze widespread transformation for optics, biomarker diagnostics, robotics, 3D printing and more.


"I have a lot of respect for Evan and the whole LDV team for being quite early to several trends (visual technologies, applied AI, AI-enabled content creation) that are now massively in vogue. It was a pleasure to join the VC Panel at LDV's Vision Summit to discuss interesting applications of AI and how software & consumer technology will create extremely valuable businesses." — Karthik Ramakrishnan, Partner at IVP

“It was a privilege to join the panel on Visual Tech Advancements in Materials Science Structuring New Material Discovery & Development. The discussion highlighted how AI is not only accelerating the discovery of new materials, but also transforming lab and production workflows—enabling the design of safer, more sustainable compounds that truly perform in end-use applications.” — Dr. Kristin Schmidt, Strategy Assistant for Accelerated Discovery & Vice-Chair of Physical Sciences Council at IBM

“Once again, I was impressed by the quality of the speakers at the LDV 2025 Vision Summit, spanning a wide range of topics related to visual processing systems, as well as the depth of the informative panels. Having worked in vision for 25 years, it's truly exciting to see how, over the past decade, the field has evolved from a primarily academic discipline to one with real-world impact—especially when systems are effectively deployed. It's particularly inspiring to witness vision technologies making such a meaningful difference in the world. As an investor in Fund III, I feel confident in the exceptional due diligence the LDV team is doing. Being (indirectly) part of the next generation of vision systems is incredibly exciting. I'm especially looking forward to how vision, AI, and robotics will converge over the next decade to unlock the promise of personal robotics—and I’m certain LDV Capital will play a key role in making that future a reality.” — Dr. Fernando De La Torre, a Research Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and LDV Expert

“LDV has catalyzed our mission to improve patient outcomes in neurology. The LDV Vision Summit was an incredible opportunity to learn from fellow industry leaders about how they’re using visual technology and AI to transform their sectors.” — Rob Baldoni, Co-Founder and CEO at DANNCE AI

Akhila Kosaraju, CEO and President of Phare Bio, spoke about supercharging drug discovery and advancing critical new classes of antibiotics through AI.

Dr. Brandon Fields, Co-Founder and CSO of Fieldstone Bio, spoke about how synthetic biology, hyperspectral imaging, and AI are advancing environmental monitoring in agriculture, climate, and national security.

"LDV Capital's Annual Vision Summit brings together some of the most accomplished people in their respective fields. The presentations and discussions are interesting and thought provoking. I always walk away with new ideas and perspectives to consider." — William O'Farrell, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School

In this fireside chat with Evan, Victor Riparbelli, Co-Founder & CEO at Synthesia, the worldwide market leader in enterprise AI video and our LDV portfolio company, discussed Victor's entrepreneurial journey, Synthesia's rapid growth and the future potential of AI video.

"LDV’s vision around vision and AI continues to spawn great companies, driven by people with vision!” — Esther Dyson, an investor, author, commentator, philanthropist and founder of Wellville. Check out our interview with Esther in the Women Leading Visual Tech series.

“Thank you again for the invitation to participate on this panel! The fusion of science, technology and business topics was a really unique aspect of the summit and something very much of value. On the specific topic of artificial intelligence and machine learning in materials research: AI/ML is a very interesting and emerging tool for materials research! For those areas of materials research that search across massive materials databases looking to find or synthesize specific properties, I think AI/ML provides a potentially unparalleled accelerator that could drive many other technologies that depend on advanced materials. But even more interesting is the prospect that AI/ML may one day have enough intelligence to predict new materials based on actual physical reasoning, now almost exclusively in the domain of physicists and chemists. The experts you brought together for this discussion were top notch and brought really though-provoking perspectives to the table.” — Dr. David Smith, Associate Chair, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of ECE at Duke University

“Long before "AI" was an industry catchphrase, the LDV Summit was hosting thoughtful conversations on the topic. And now they have done it again. The LDV Vision Summit 2025 was another informative event. Thanks to all who shared their wisdom and insights." — Robert Levitan, Co-founder and President at AEGIS Response Team, a serial entrepreneur who has launched six companies, has had four successful exits

“The LDV Vision Summit was a fantastic opportunity for us to share how we are combining synthetic biology, hyperspectral imaging, and AI for environmental surveillance. As a technical founder, I appreciated the balance of technical talks at the forefront of visual technologies and AI with the insights and advice from the investment community funding these innovations.” — Dr. Brandon Fields, Co-Founder & CSO at Fieldstone Bio

“The 2025 Annual LDV Vision Summit did not disappoint! I particularly enjoyed the panel “Visual Tech Advancements in Materials Science Structuring New Material Discovery & Development” expertly moderated by Ash Cleary. Advanced materials companies are notoriously difficult to build, but the opportunities unlocked by the latest advancements in AI/ML are very exciting. I could see long range impact on whole new fields within Quantum that are materials dependent, for example.” —Dr. Laura Smoliar, Executive Director of the Taiwan Science & Technology Hub at Stanford and LDV Expert.

"Once again, the LDV team assembled a deeply relevant cast of experts and innovators to share insights in a friendly, engaging format. I look forward to this event every year, and I'm never disappointed. The LDV Vision Summit is required viewing for anyone involved in the deep vision tech startup ecosystem. If you want to stay abreast of game-changing companies and technology shifts, I'll see you at the next one!" — Andy Parsons, Sr. Director of Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobe, Co-Organizer of The New York CTO Club, LDV Expert and advisor to entrepreneurs and startups

A panel moderated by Allie Garfinkle, Senior Finance Reporter at Fortune and Writer of the Term Sheet newsletter: Finding The Diamonds In The Rough: Where Are The Billion-Dollar Investment Opportunities Leveraging Visual Technologies & AI? Panelists: Annie Case, a Partner at Kleiner Perkins; Karthik Ramakrishnan, a Partner at IVP; Kristin Baker Spohn, Co-founder & Managing Partner at BAM Corner Point.


“The LDV Vision Summit brought together a community of technologists, scientists, and founders all working toward a better future. I was proud to share Phare Bio’s work in generative AI for antibiotic discovery -- and excited by the breakthroughs being made across the ecosystem.” — Akhila Kosaraju, the CEO and President of Phare Bio

“Evan and LDV Capital have been on the forefront of visual AI before it went mainstream. Attending the 11th LDV Vision Summit was a glimpse into the future. I haven’t seen such a breadth of visual AI applications at another conference!” — Vivek Sharma, CEO at Movable Ink

“LDV’s Vision Summit always delivers a thoughtful mix of investor perspective and techno futurism. If you want to get a snapshot of cutting edge and bleeding edge visual technologies and AI, it’s not to be missed.” — Robert Belgrave, COO at Pax8

“LDV events are always terrific — great people, great mix of topics. This year's summit was particularly good — despite going into it feeling up-to-date on visual tech and AI, I was impressed (humbled even?) by how much I learned. Great stuff.” — Joshua Auerbach, Chief Operating Officer at Aura

“Attending the LDV Vision Summit felt like stepping into a science fiction film — except the technologies presented aren’t fictional, they’re on the verge of transforming our reality. LDV is clearly leading the charge at the cutting edge of Vision and AI, and I’m proud to support their mission as an LP.” — Bernhard Niesner, Entrepreneur & Impact Investor


Since 2012, LDV Capital invests in people building businesses powered by visual technologies and AI. We thrive on collaborating with deep tech teams leveraging computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to analyze visual data. We are the only venture capital firm with this thesis. Earlier this year, we shared that we have returned our LDV Capital I & II funds. We continue investing out of our LDV Capital IV fund.

Building a business that leverages visual tech/AI? It’s never too early to reach out. We are looking to partner with outliers who are building leapfrog deep tech solutions aimed at improving the world and making all of us a lot of money while we sleep!

Rob Baldoni, Co-Founder and CEO of DANNCE AI, spoke about using AI to quantify movement, enhance drug efficacy and improve the lives of people with movement disorders.

Dr. Felix Heide, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University and Head of AI at Torc Robotics, spoke about bringing 3D holograms to everyday eyewear.

When we started our LDV Vision Summit in 2014, visual tech and AI were still considered 'cute, niche, and science fiction' – but not anymore. As Serge Belongie said in our most recent interview, “The difference is – now the whole world is paying attention to AI.”

Thank you for tuning in from Barcelona, Alberta, Boston, Shizuoka, Bristol, Zagreb, San Francisco and hundreds of other locations around the world and making our 11th Annual LDV Vision Summit special!