Venture Capitalists See Significant Funding Surge For Startups In 2024

Venture Capitalists See a Measurable Pickup in Funding for Startups in 2024

A handful of mostly cross-stage firms led the largest number of rounds and the most valuable ones, Crunchbase data shows. These are mostly familiar names to those who follow startup funding.

Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, topped or nearly topped the list by multiple metrics. The Silicon Valley firm has long been known for backing high numbers of deals and spending large sums. It appears 2024 was no exception. Andreessen ranked as the most-active global post-seed investor, participating in 100 reported rounds.

Topping out the list were Y Combinator 1, General Catalyst, and Lightspeed Venture Partners with 97, 84, and 79 rounds, respectively. Notably, all but two of the most-active investors took part in more deals in 2024 than in 2023. Several picked up the pace considerably, including Sequoia Capital, Accel, and Index Ventures.

General Catalyst served as lead or co-lead investor in 41 post-seed financings last year, well above 2023 levels. A16z and Alumni Ventures filled out the No. 2 and No. 3 slots, respectively. By this metric, General Catalyst was more active than usual. Y Combinator took a backseat to Andreessen in terms of deal count.

The most-active lead investors were:

• General Catalyst (41 post-seed financings)
• A16z (31 post-seed financings)
• Alumni Ventures (28 post-seed financings)

While General Catalyst led the pack in terms of deal count, A16z and Alumni Ventures followed closely behind. The aggregate size of rounds that a particular investor led or co-led was an important factor. Thrive Capital topped this list due to its role as lead backer in two massive Q4 financings: a $10 billion late-stage round for Databricks and a $6.6 billion investment in OpenAI.

A16z came in second, boosted by its role as co-lead backer for the Databricks round as well as a $1 billion financing for cybersecurity provider Wiz (which Thrive also co-led). Insight Partners ranked third, largely due to its role as co-lead investor in the Databricks round.

Other seed super-investors made significant contributions despite a slight decline in global seed investment. Heavy fluctuation in reported deal counts is common for seed investors, who often report investments in batches. As more seed deals are added late to the dataset, we can expect the numbers to rise.

The recent momentum in funding is driven by investor optimism that exits and IPOs will see a revival this year. However, if that does not come to pass, expect investors to rein in some of their current enthusiasm.