The investors backing the hottest companies in this highly competitive venture capital market have also changed drastically since 2021, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. While private equity investors dominated during the pandemic boom, Silicon Valley鈥檚 traditional VC firms have reclaimed ground in leading rounds of $50 million and over, our analysis indicates.

A review of 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows the extent to which peak-year investors such as and , both headquartered in New York, have ceded ground back to the big names of Silicon Valley.

The firms that dominated in those larger financings in 2021 鈥� when over $500 billion in capital went toward deals of $50 million or more 鈥� were private equity and alternative investors. At that time, the two firms topping the list were 4x more active by counts when compared to those at the top two slots in 2025.

In 2025, by contrast, venture capital firms dominated the list of most-active leads in those larger financings with eight of the 10 most active being VCs. Last year, roughly $300 billion went to $50 million-plus deals.

In 2021, the top 20 firms leading rounds north of $5 billion were predominantly private equity. But in 2025 a smaller cohort of investors, 10 in total, each led or co-led rounds totaling $5 billion. That included five private equity or alternative investors; three venture capital firms, , and 听 and more active corporate strategic investors with and joining the top 10, each with a single outsized investment.

Private equity was also still active in leading by dollar volume in 2025, though less dominant.

PE leaned in

One year into COVID, as digital services took off, global venture funding doubled to $702 billion. And the most-active investors in the largest rounds invested at an unprecedented pace.

The top five most-active investors in $50 million-plus rounds were all private equity firms, including Insight Partners, which operates as both venture capital and private equity.

But the majority of these active investors have scaled back counts significantly at this size in 2025.

Leading the list, Tiger Global Management and the have cut back more than 95% by count. Insight Partners, , and , while still active in 2025, led or co-led fewer deals last year, by as much as 75%.

Of the seven venture capital firms that make this list, two firms 鈥� Andreessen Horowitz and 鈥� noticeably cut back deal counts by 35% and 60%, respectively, in 2025.

Venture capital more active in 2025

In 2025, by contrast, the most active in $50 million-plus deal counts were largely venture capital firms. However, counts by the leading firms were far lower than in 2021 with 30 at the top of the list compared to 182.

has the highest count at 30, followed by a16z at 24, and Lightspeed and Accel matching at 22. Each of these firms was slightly more active in leading deals in 2021 compared to 2025, while Lightspeed Venture Partners counts match 2021.

A host of venture capital firms have increased counts by more than 100% at this size including , , , , and . The firms also were all up by more than 100% in led or co-led counts when compared to 2021 for deals at this size, along with one private equity firm , which invests largely in biotech.

Dollar volume in 2021

Of the 21 most-active firms in 2021 by led or co-led deal amounts north of $4.8 billion, 18 were private equity firms and three were venture capital firms. However, the largest funding deal that year 鈥� a $3.6 billion funding to led by SoftBank Vision Fund, , and 鈥� was much smaller than the largest deal in 2025.

Not surprisingly, the firms that led or co-led the largest rounds in 2021 were SoftBank Vision Fund and Tiger Global Management. Coatue, and Temasek round out the top five, all down by more than 75% when compared to 2025.

Three venture firms make the list of investors leading the largest rounds. The most-active venture firm, , cut back on amounts led or co-led by more than 50%, while cut back by more than 75%. The other venture firm to make this list, Andreessen Horowitz, led or co-led more by dollar amounts in 2025 compared to 2021.

New guard in 2025

In 2025, the largest deals were much larger, in the tens of billions of dollars rather than the single-digit billions seen in 2021, with the five leading investors propelled to the top of the list due to a single deal at $10 billion and above.

topped the list in 2025, leading the $40 billion funding to . It was followed by Meta, which led the $14.3 billion funding to .

Lightspeed, and co-led the $13 billion funding to . The top five firms leading by amount in 2025 all led individual deals north of $10 billion.

Of the 27 firms most active by deal amounts led in 2025, four were strategic investors, nine were venture capital firms, and 14 were either听 private equity or alternative investors.

Looking forward

An analysis of 小蓝视频色情网页版 data makes it clear: Venture capital has reclaimed its lead in this AI wave, as private equity, overindexed in private companies, has scaled back significantly since 2021. In 2025, large rounds and valuations picked up once again, setting the stage for a very active funding environment in 2026.

Despite the shift from private equity to multistage venture actively leading the largest deals, the question remains: Will this new cohort of highly valued companies deliver outsized returns in the coming years?

Related reading:

• Global Venture Funding In 2025 Surged As Startup Deals And Valuations Set All-Time Records
• As Funding To AI Startups Increases And Concentrates, Which Investors Have Led?
• In The Era Of Unicorn Valuation Escalation, A Trillion Dollars Isn鈥檛 What It Used To Be
• What We Learned In 2025 From 6 Active AI Investors Backing Startups Across The Stack

Illustration:

That world is gone.

Over the past few quarters, markets have quietly flipped from 鈥渞eward any AI headline鈥� to 鈥渟how me the economics.鈥� Not because AI stopped mattering, but because it started costing real money. Annual AI-related capex is now pushing past $600 billion, and investors are no longer debating whether AI is strategic. They are debating whether companies are overfunding it relative to their ability to turn spend into cash.

That shift does not just affect public stocks. It changes how AI companies should be built, financed and exited.

The early signs are out

Look across , and even the – relationship, and you see the same pattern repeating. First come massive commitments, huge infrastructure plans to build capacity well ahead of proven demand. Then comes the uncomfortable question: Are we spending because this makes economic sense or because we fear not to?

Hyperscaler capex for the 鈥淏ig Five鈥� 鈥� , , , and Microsoft 鈥� is projected to reach around $600 billion in 2026, up roughly 36% year on year, with about 75% tied directly to AI infrastructure, which is also heavily funded by debt.

That begs the question: Will these investments be converted into durable cash flows?

Microsoft鈥檚 recent earnings . Capital expenditures jumped roughly two-thirds year on year, exceeding $37 billion in a single quarter, while Azure growth slowed and AI capacity constraints limited upside. The stock fell sharply, losing 21% over the past six months, wiping out hundreds of billions in market value.

Oracle faces a different version of the same issue. Demand for AI cloud infrastructure is real. Cloud revenue is growing around 50% year on year, and GPU-related revenue is surging. But Oracle plans more than $50 billion in capex for fiscal 2026 and expects to raise $45 billion to $50 billion through new debt and equity on top of an already leveraged balance sheet.

Even Nvidia and OpenAI are not immune. The widely publicized idea of a $100 billion Nvidia-backed infrastructure commitment has died down, with Nvidia that no firm commitment was ever made. At the same time, OpenAI has been actively diversifying suppliers, exploring , and others, to reduce over-concentration risk.

If the market is questioning AI overfunding at Microsoft, Oracle and the very center of the AI ecosystem, no one else gets a free pass.

What founders should take from this

For founders building AI companies with exits in mind, the implications are immediate.

• First, your product cannot be a capex sink. Acquirers want assets that make existing AI spend more productive. Lower cost per inference, better GPU utilization, faster deployment or higher revenue per dollar of compute will soon join the traditional SaaS-based unit economics.
• Second, flexibility matters. The Nvidia-OpenAI wobble is a warning. Multi-cloud, multi-model and multi-chip architectures reduce buyer risk and make deals easier to approve internally.
• Third, run your company as if public-market skeptics are already in the room. Clean unit economics after infrastructure costs, sustainable growth strategies and KPIs that matter also in the public markets, as these will be your future acquirers.

is a strategic adviser to tech companies and investors, specializing in strategy, growth and M&A, a guest contributor to 小蓝视频色情网页版 News, and a seasoned lecturer. Learn more about his advisory services, lectures and courses at . for further insights and discussions.

In the first three months of 2025, venture investors have poured nearly $2.9 billion into Lone Star State companies, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . That represents a clear high point for the past year, charted below, as well as the largest quarterly total in more than two years.

All about the mega-rounds

It鈥檚 all about big rounds. Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, roughly two-third of this year鈥檚 Texas investment has gone to just five companies.

Of those, the largest funding recipient was , a developer of autonomous nautical vessels that picked up $600 million at a $4 billion valuation in February. led the financing for the Austin-based company, which is scaling up amid a boom period for defense tech venture investment.

Two later-stage security-related deals also provided much of the Q1 total. Austin-based , a provider of automated endpoint management, secured $500 million at a $5 billion valuation in February. And Dallas-based , developer of a secure enterprise browser, locked up $250 million last week.

Robots and mammoths

Robotics is another growth sector for venture funding, and Texas is no slouch in this space either.

Austin-based , which is developing workplace humanoid robots, two weeks ago that it added another $53 million to its Series A, bringing total funding to more than $403 million.

For those who prefer our lab-engineered creatures a bit more warm and furry, meanwhile, it was encouraging to see secure a $200 million Series C in January. The Austin-based startup is applying gene editing technology to de-extinct woolly mammoths and other species.

Fewer rounds, larger investments

While overall funding to Texas startups is on the rise this year, fewer rounds are getting done.

Some of this may be attributable to delays in reporting of seed deals, so round count totals should rise a bit over time. Even accounting for this, however, it鈥檚 apparent that investments are skewing larger.

To illustrate, we charted round counts and investment totals for the past few years below.

If 2025 continues at the current pace, funding round counts would hit the lowest level in years. That said, when investors do like a Texas company, they鈥檙e willing to write very large checks, which goes a long way toward balancing out the drop in deal numbers.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 Pro lists:

Related reading:

• NinjaOne Snags $5B Valuation In Massive $500M Round
• Cybersecurity Firm Island Raises $250M, Jumps Valuation To $4.8B
• The Year Of Humanoid Robots
• De-Extinction Startup Colossal Biosciences Hits Decacorn Status After $200M Raise

Illustration:

For founders launching today, the data indicates that the journey to unicorn status would likely conclude around mid-2031, with the typical timeline averaging 6.6 years from founding.

However, there are significant outliers in both directions.

Companies such as and reached unicorn status within months of their inception, while and achieved the milestone in just one year. and followed suit in two years.

On the other end of the spectrum, and took two decades to achieve unicorn status. The ultimate test of patience belongs to and , which took 22 and 25 years, respectively, to join the ranks.

Chart source:

The timeline of venture funding has its own rhythm. Early institutional backing is typical for (not so) soon-to-be unicorns. Of nearly 1,000 startups that achieved unicorn status through private funding rounds, 453 secured their first venture round within months of founding, and another 281 did so by the end of their second year.

After that, the numbers drop significantly 鈥� if you’re building something with unicorn potential, investors typically recognize it early. That said, late-stage success is still possible. Companies such as and are standout examples of thriving despite raising later in their journey.

Securing your first funding round is just the starting point. Most startups achieve unicorn status between two and seven years after their initial round, with the peak period typically falling three to eight years after founding. More than 100 companies reached this milestone during each of these peak years, with years four to five seeing the highest concentration.

However, achieving unicorn status is no guarantee of lasting success. Some companies ascend rapidly but struggle to sustain their momentum 鈥斕�‘s dramatic journey from a $47 billion valuation to bankruptcy in 2023 serves as a good example.

As for the number of funding rounds, most unicorns require around five, although there’s significant variation. We found 125 companies managed to achieve unicorn status after fewer than two rounds, while 331 needed eight or more rounds, with three companies requiring as many as 18 rounds.

Our data suggests that while rapid growth is certainly possible, these cases remain atypical. Some companies such as Inflection AI and World Labs achieved unicorn status within months, but the unicorn path typically demands extraordinary patience. Both founders and investors should embrace patience, even though today’s successes may come faster than in the past.

Most unicorn stories we read about focus on rapid success, and perhaps the pace of transformation is accelerating. While it took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, crossed 100 million monthly active users just two months after launch.

This stands in stark contrast to historical patterns. It took more than 65 years for electricity to reach 90% of U.S. houses, and the telephone remained a luxury for three quarters of Americans after decades of availability. The pattern for most ventures still involves early losses and periods of slow growth before potential returns, but the timeline may be compressing.

Consider how rapidly transportation transformed: In the early 1900s, horses dominated city streets, yet within just half a dozen years, cars had become the primary mode of urban transport 鈥� perhaps an early hint that when transformation comes, it can reshape our world with surprising speed. For founders and investors, the light at the end of the tunnel is that these transformations will be shaped by startups that have yet to become future unicorns.

is the foremost academic expert on venture capital. As the founder of the Venture Capital Initiative and a professor of private equity and finance at , where he teaches a popular class on venture capital, his research has been widely published in leading academic journals and featured in , , and the . He frequently leads workshops and executive sessions for senior business and government leaders around the world and has consulted for companies and investors on the venture industry trends and corporate innovation. In 2023 he was named a Top Voice on . ().

Note on methodology and sources: For this study, we define unicorns as VC-backed, U.S.-based companies that achieved a confirmed $1 billion-plus post-money valuation in a primary private round or had a liquidity event (such as an IPO or an acquisition) at a confirmed $1 billion-plus valuation between 1997 and 2024. While some industry observers consider only 鈥減rivate path鈥� companies to be 鈥渢rue unicorns,鈥� this distinction may not always be relevant. For early-stage investors and founders, both paths represent significant success outcomes. When analyzing startup success rates or founder achievements, both types should be considered unicorns. However, for specific analyses 鈥� such as studying how long unicorns remain private 鈥� focusing solely on private-path unicorns makes more sense.

To construct our unicorn list, we started with 鈥渦nicorn candidates鈥� from well-known sources such as and , as well as from datasets that report private funding round and liquidity event details, such as 小蓝视频色情网页版, and . We then manually confirmed and cross-checked the location and funding details to decide on the inclusion of each company in our final unicorn list. This process resulted in a total of 1,516 unicorns.

Illustration:

The AI boom was particularly concentrated in North America, which saw a 21% jump in startup funding last year, while venture investment in Asia dropped to a 10-year low.

That鈥檚 the broad takeaway from 小蓝视频色情网页版鈥檚 2024 venture funding data. Other trends emerged from our reporting and data, too, including a cooler seed funding environment and hotter M&A market.

Let鈥檚 take a look, with a dozen charts that underscore the major trends in startups leading into 2025.

North America leads AI investment, Asia suffers

Artificial intelligence took the lion鈥檚 share of global startup funding in 2024, with about 1 in 3 venture dollars going to an AI-related startup.

All told, a staggering $100 billion was invested into AI-related startups globally in 2024, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, with a handful of companies including , , and alone raising tens of billions dollars.

The growth in AI investment pushed total global venture funding in 2024 to nearly $314 billion 鈥� a notch higher than the $304 billion invested in 2023. (While that鈥檚 above the pre-pandemic year of 2019, startup funding still remained below 2018 and 2020 levels.)

Last year鈥檚 funding gains were also not equally distributed.

Funding to startups in North America jumped 21% year over year to more than $184 billion, driven by those big AI deals. The AI boost was particularly obvious in Q4, with about 62% of all North American startup funding going to companies in the space, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Conversely, investment in Asia-based startups tanked to a 10-year low in 2024, largely due to a big decline in venture funding dollars in China. The Red Dragon also hit a decade-low for funding last year, with venture investment to China-based companies falling 32% year over year to $33.2 billion.

Europe鈥檚 startup funding stabilized last year, with an estimated $51 billion invested in startups on the continent, down about 5% year over year but above pre-pandemic funding levels, including 2020.

Latin America also settled somewhat, with fintech remaining as a particularly strong sector for the region.

Familiar names among top investors

The busiest startup investors overall in 2024 were generally the top investors in AI companies.

That includes (a16z), , and , all of which appear on both our lists of busiest startup investors in 2024 overall, and most-active investors in AI startups specifically.

Seed funding dips despite AI gains and larger deals

Seed-stage investment in the U.S. dipped in 2024, even as overall venture funding gained, underscoring a more difficult environment for the very earliest-stage startups.

Our data also shows that startups are, on average, staying longer at the seed stage and that fewer startups are progressing to Series A (or an exit) 鈥� raising their risk of failure.

That said, those startups that do raise seed rounds are generally raising bigger deals at this stage than they did in the past.

And while industries including food tech, augmented and virtual reality, and cannabis-related tech saw significant drops in seed funding last year, other sectors bucked the trend and continue to get investor interest, including robotics, AI, legal and accounting-related startups.

Unicorns surpass $1T in funding, but new creations dwindle

Private, venture-backed companies with billion-dollar valuations collectively surpassed $1 trillion in funding raised by the end of 2024, according to The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board.

The milestone underscores the massive influx of funding that has gone to large and late-stage startups in recent years, including, of course, the billions invested in the AI giants.

Unicorn creation, however, has also tapered off significantly as venture funding has fallen off its peak of three years prior.

And with IPOs still few and far between, many unicorns minted during 2020 and 2021 are now stabled on the Unicorn Board with outdated valuations that will no doubt be called into question should they make a run at the public markets this year.

Startup M&A heats up

Still, while IPOs remain rare, there is one bright spot on the exit front: M&A involving venture-backed startups ticked up 7% last year, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

The fourth quarter was particularly active, marking the most-active deal-making quarter in seven quarters.

What鈥檚 next?

As we enter 2025, we鈥檒l be watching closely to see how these trends play out 鈥� including whether the scare last month puts a dent in AI investing (or only in the space, as some predict), whether the IPO markets thaw, and whether more startups again start to flourish beyond the seed-stage.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 Pro lists:

Related reading:

• Led By A16Z, Active Investors Upped Their Game In 2024
• North American Startup Funding Spikes To Close 2024听
• Eye On AI: Who Were The Most-Active AI Investors In 2024?
• Europe鈥檚 Startup Funding Stabilized In 2024, But Remains Far Off Market Peak
• Latin America Startup Funding Ticked Higher In 2024
• M&A Activity Involving VC-Backed Startups Picked Up In 2024
• Seed Rounds Got Larger Through The Downturn. Why Is That?
• Seed Funding Rose In These Spaces
• Seed Funding Fell Hard In These Sectors
• 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board Tops $1T In Funding Raised
• Will DeepSeek Burst VC鈥檚 AI Bubble?
• Forecast: 2024 Was Slow For Tech IPOs, But 2025 Could Be Different
• Far Fewer Seed-Stage Startups Are Graduating To Series A 鈥� Raising The Risk Of Failure

Illustration:

reportedly is looking to invest between $15 billion and $25 billion into , the creator.

While SoftBank would be OpenAI鈥檚 largest investor in terms of dollars, would still have a larger stake since it invested what is believed to be about $14 billion earlier.

The new investment would come after OpenAI reportedly committed $19 billion to the new Stargate Project, an initiative that is anticipated to help build out $100 billion to $500 billion in AI datacenters and infrastructure.

Others involved in Stargate include and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm .

Big cash

Just last October, locked up a $6.6 billion raise at a post-money valuation of $157 billion led by . The round made the AI giant one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

That money is in addition to Microsoft鈥檚 massive investment from January 2023.

The news of the potential SoftBank deal comes just days after OpenAI and the entire AI world was thrown for a loop as the Chinese AI app sent shock waves through the industry.

DeepSeek, birthed by a China-based hedge fund, claims to have created AI models that rival even those of OpenAI 鈥� but at much lower cost and using less energy.

Related reading:

• MGX鈥檚 AI Role In The US Grows
• Will DeepSeek Burst VC鈥檚 AI Bubble?

Illustration:

The funding was co-led by , and . Other investors include , , , , and , the venture capital arm of .

It was reported just last month that the Stanford, California-based company had raised a pair of financing rounds two months apart, and that the latest valued the company at over $1 billion.

World Labs is co-founded by artificial intelligence pioneer , commonly referred to as the 鈥済odmother of AI.鈥� She previously has led AI at and is a co-director of the . She has spent much of her time trying to solve the issues surrounding building Large World Models for AI that can perceive and interact with the 3D world.

鈥淲e aim to lift AI models from the 2D plane of pixels to full 3D worlds 鈥� both virtual and real 鈥� endowing them with spatial intelligence as rich as our own,鈥� the company on its site announcing its launch. 鈥淗uman spatial intelligence evolved over millennia; but in this time of extraordinary progress, we see the opportunity to imbue AI with this ability in the near term.鈥�

AI鈥檚 hot as ever

The round is just the latest huge raise by an AI startup 鈥� once again showing investors鈥� insatiable appetite for the technology.

Just last week, AI research lab raised $1 billion from a litany of big-name investors including Andreessen Horowitz and . The round valued the company at $5 billion, per , which first reported the round.

Then this week AI-enhanced work assistant and enterprise search startup raised more than $260 million in a Series E funding at a $4.6 billion valuation co-led by and .

Of course, none of that even comes close to the reported $6.5 billion reportedly is in talks to raise at a mind-blowing $150 billion valuation.

Related reading:

• AI鈥檚 Big Day 鈥� Startup Safe Superintelligence Raises $1B At Reported $5B Valuation
• AI-Powered Work Assistant Glean Doubles Valuation To $4.6B In Less Than Seven Months

Illustration:

We鈥檙e slogging through what鈥檚 shaping as the . at an alarming rate. And fossil fuel consumption .

Now, here comes another grim data point: Equity funding to startups focused on cleantech and sustainability is down this year.

In the first half of 2024, around $9.6 billion went to seed through growth financings for companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版鈥檚 . That鈥檚 a decline of 61% from the second half of last year, and about 10% from year-ago levels.

For perspective, we charted investment and round counts for the aforementioned categories below:

As industries go, cleantech-related sectors overall weren鈥檛 as hard hit in the post-2021 downturn as other categories like consumer products or fintech. Funding to the space last year was flat for example, even as overall investment declined.

This year, even though overall equity investment declined, the broader picture is more nuanced. For one, we鈥檝e seen huge sums go into debt-based project financing.

Sweden leads in this arena, with two giant rounds for Stockholm-based companies in January. , a sustainability-focused battery manufacturer, $5 billion in project financing to expand its facilities, and $4.6 billion in debt financing to go toward what it described as the world’s first large-scale green steel plant.

Those aren鈥檛 the deal sizes we see for sectors in decline. Since infrastructure-heavy cleantech companies commonly turn to debt financing as they scale, the shift from equity rounds to project finance may be more an indication of a maturing startup pipeline than a change of heart among investors in the space.

Hot themes include EV charging, battery supply chain and hydrogen

Back to equity rounds, meanwhile, a few investment themes stand out so far this year.

One is around the battery supply chain. Amid growing EV adoption and a hoped-for shift to cleaner energy sources, we鈥檒l need more batteries and a more robust, reliable supply chain to produce them. As a result, we鈥檙e seeing strong investment in alternative battery materials and battery recycling.

In the first category, Alameda, California-based , a next-generation battery materials company, raised led by and .

In the recycling camp, Westborough, Massachusetts-based was the standout, securing . Ascend makes battery materials using valuable elements reclaimed from spent lithium-ion batteries.

Electric vehicle charging has been another popular investment theme in recent months. Those that raised large rounds this year include charging spot operators , based in Paris, which landed a in January, and , based in Quebec City, which picked up in June.

There鈥檚 also strong venture interest around hydrogen energy, particularly startups developing electrolyzers, devices that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

An Australian electrolyzer startup, , picked up in a financing co-led by and in May. And in February, Denver-based , which focuses on identifying and commercializing geologic hydrogen resources, closed on led by .

The exit climate has not warmed

While big venture rounds are still happening, the pace of IPOs and M&A deals involving venture-backed cleantech companies remains rather slow. So far in 2024, we haven鈥檛 seen much in the way of big exits of any kind.

One exception to the slowing was Chinese EV maker . The company carried out a NYSE IPO in May and had a recent market cap around $5 billion. However, shares have been trending lower since its debut.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a colder exit environment than it was in 2021 and 2022,鈥� observed Anthony DeOrsey, a research manager at the , who attributes this to the overall decline in technology IPOs, particularly for U.S. companies. The collapse of the SPAC as a route to the public market has also impacted cleantech, as many had gone public this way around the market peak.

Hopefully, the exit climate will warm up a bit beginning next year. There鈥檚 certainly a large enough pipeline of well-funded private companies at this point to make for a compelling list of IPO candidates.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 Pro list:

Illustration:

Both early and late-stage funding was up 鈥� with a notable increase in late-stage funding.

For the first time in a decade, quarterly funding to European startups was higher than in Asia. According to a recent 小蓝视频色情网页版 report, Asia-based startups suffered their worst quarter since the final quarter of 2015, not helped by the tension between the U.S. and China.

Table of contents

• AI led in Europe
• Late-stage grew
• Early-stage up
• Seed tailed
• M&A in Paris
• Good signals
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Across Europe, the UK was the leading market with $6.7 billion and France the second largest with $2.9 billion in funding 鈥� both markets up year over year. The third largest market, Germany, was down this past quarter with $1.8 billion going to startups there.

AI led in Europe

AI was the leading industry in Europe with $3.3 billion invested in Q2. Large rounds went to London-based automated driving company , Paris-based foundation model , and Cologne-based language translation platform .

The second largest sector was financial services, totaling $3 billion. Three U.K.-based companies raised large rounds: lending platforms and as well as digital bank .

Sustainability was the third largest in Europe with $2.5 billion invested as renewable energy companies raised mega-rounds north of $100 million.

Late-stage grew

Late-stage funding reached $7.5 billion across more than 100 rounds. Funding was up the most quarter over quarter and year over year, but it was not the highest quarter in the last year.

Ever since funding began to slow down a couple years ago, quarterly totals have fluctuated as late-stage funding surged or fell. This is true for the past five quarters, charted below:

Early-stage up

Early-stage funding reached $6.5 billion across just over 300 funding rounds. Series B funding showed the largest increase year to year at this stage.

Seed tailed

Seed stage funding reached $1.8 billion, across 900 rounds, down from $2.3 billion in Q2 2023.

M&A in Paris

Paris-based startups generated some of the largest acquisitions this past quarter.

London-based PE firm acquired a majority stake in Paris-based employee hub for $650 million. Social network , also from Paris, was acquired by mobile gaming company for just over $500 million. And not the largest deal, but of interest in the AI sector, was Belgium-based AI legal drafting service , purchased by U.S.-based for $160 million.

Good signals

Three companies from Europe joined the unicorn board in Q2, down from five in Q1. They include Paris-based business forecasting service , Berlin-based auto parts retailer , and London-based no-code app developer . European unicorn companies number on The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board.

And in good news for European venture, fintech unicorn posted its 2023 earnings showing strong revenue growth 鈥� 95% year over year. The company reported $2.2 billion in revenue for 2023 and a profit of $545 million alongside 12 million new customers. Revolut was last valued at $33 billion in 2021.

Overall, European startups posted a pretty good quarter, showing an increase in late-stage funding to mature startups. We also saw the most prominent sector, AI, take the lead for funding in Europe, and a positive sign of substantial revenue growth from one of the region鈥檚 most highly valued private companies, Revolut.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 小蓝视频色情网页版, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of July 7, 2024.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

We have made a change to how we include corporate funding rounds in our reporting as of January 2023. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 小蓝视频色情网页版 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 小蓝视频色情网页版 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

After a quiet holiday week, investors were back in action dishing out big rounds to startups in robotics, biotech, healthcare and more. Half a dozen rounds hit nine figures 鈥� perhaps a good sign for startups for the rest of summer.

1. , $300M, robotics: The good year for robotics startups continued this week. Skild AI became the latest such startup to raise big, locking in a $300 million Series A led by ,, and , through his . The funding brings the company to a valuation of $1.5 billion. The Pittsburgh-based startup isn鈥檛 building robots, however, it鈥檚 building robot brains. The theory is that those brain models can then be used in a variety of robots and for different tasks 鈥� instead of just having one application. It seems a lot of big-name investors agree with that strategy.

2. , $277M, biotech: It鈥檚 hard to get through a week without a big biotech raise, and this one鈥檚 no different. raised more than $277 million in a Series D led by . The San Diego-based biotech startup is focused on developing DNA sequencing and multi-omics technology for research markets. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $678 million, per 小蓝视频色情网页版.

3. , $250M, film: Regal, the second-largest movie theater chain in the U.S., makes the list this week after it secured $250 million to upgrade its locations. The company is looking to add to its 425 theaters across the country 鈥� with enhancements that include luxury recliners and other amenities. Regal is owned by , which emerged from bankruptcy with a financial restructuring process last year. Investors were not disclosed.

4. (tied) , $200M, healthcare: HarmonyCares, a provider of in-home primary care, raised one of the biggest rounds of the week to expand its operations. The Troy, Michigan-based healthcare company closed a $200 million round led by , and a large unnamed national payor. The firm operates home-based primary care practices in 15 states 鈥搊ffering services such as home health, hospice, radiology and laboratory 鈥� and will look to grow its geographical reach across the U.S.

4. (tied) , $200M, financial services: Wealth tech startup Earned Wealth raised a $200 million investment led by and . The company offers medical professionals financial planning, tax planning and investment advice on one platform. The new cash is expected to go toward acquisitions. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $212 million, per 小蓝视频色情网页版.

6. , $130M, artificial intelligence:听 , an AI startup that helps businesses analyze all types of data to answer more complex, multi-step questions, raised a $130 million Series B from a handful of big-name investors. The new round was led by and values the company at approximately $700 million, . The New York-based startup allows companies to sift through structured and unstructured data 鈥� including regulatory filings and PDFs 鈥� to answer more detailed and complicated business questions. In the last 18 months, the startup has grown revenue 15x and quintupled headcount. Founded in 2020, the company has raised a total of $161 million, .

7. , $90M, govtech: Next time you think about double parking, remember a San Francisco-based startup just raised a big Series C to help make sure you don鈥檛. Hayden AI, a vision AI platform, locked in a $90 million growth equity round led by 鈥� 鈥檚 impact investing platform. While the company鈥檚 platform uses cameras mounted on buses that can spot illegal parking or moving violations, it also can do more. The platform uses geospatial data collection sensor systems to give cities insights to improve traffic safety and accessibility. It can detect and predict traffic congestion, improve transportation networks and more. Founded in 2019, the company has now raised more than $193 million, per 小蓝视频色情网页版. The funding is the largest received by a startup in the govtech sector this year, but it is by no means the only one. In fact, govtech startups have already raised $271.4 million this year, . That already surpasses last year鈥檚 total of $249.7 million invested into the sector.

8. , $70M, aerospace: Albuquerque, New Mexico-based X-Bow Systems, a developer of solid rocket motors and hypersonics technologies, raised more than $70 million led by . Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $160 million, per 小蓝视频色情网页版.

9. , $60M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Captions, a generative video creation and editing platform, raised a $60 million Series C led by at a valuation of $500 million. Founded in 2021, Captions has raised $100 million, per 小蓝视频色情网页版.

10. , $58.4M, sustainability: Woburn, Massachusetts-based ZwitterCo, a water treatment startup using membrane technologies, closed a $58.4 million Series B funding round led by . Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $99 million, per 小蓝视频色情网页版.

Big global deals

The biggest round of the week went to a defense tech firm.

• Germany-based , which develops artificial intelligence software for defense, raised approximately $489 million in funding led by , valuing the company at $5.4 billion.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 小蓝视频色情网页版 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of July 6 to July 12. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration: