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Venture capital is a type of private equity typically invested into emerging startup companies that investors believe have high growth potential and will deliver outsized returns.

In exchange for equity stakes in the companies, venture capital firms and other investors provide capital to private companies that they believe have the potential for successful exits when they eventually go public or are acquired at a premium.

A VC funding deal typically has one or two lead investors, with other investment firms participating in the round by providing smaller stakes.

SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ VC funding data comes from a variety of sources, including ​​an active community of contributors, more than 4,000 global investment firms that submit deal data to , startup and venture capital news sources, and an in-house data team.Ìý

If you believe a U.S.-based startup funding deal of $100 million or more is missing from this page, please contact support@crunchbase.com.

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Venture-funded startups are private companies that have received funding from venture capitalists.

These companies can range from very small, early-stage startups looking for seed-round funding, to large unicorn companies (private companies with a valuation of $1 billion-plus) that are on the verge of going public or being acquired.

Most venture-funded startups are in the technology industry, due to the sector’s potential for fast growth and outsized returns for investors. But companies in other industries such as retail and consumer goods also receive VC funding.

There are several stages of venture funding, starting with angel or pre-seed funding to the very youngest startups and ending with later-stage funding to established, pre-IPO startups.

• Angel: An angel round is typically a small round designed to get a new company off the ground. Investors in an angel round include individual angel investors, angel investor groups, friends and family.
• Pre-seed: A pre-seed round is a pre-institutional seed round that either has no institutional investors or is a very low amount, often below $1 million.
• Seed: Seed rounds are among the first rounds of funding a company will receive, generally while it is young and working to gain traction. Round sizes typically range between $1 million and $3 million, though larger seed rounds have become more common in recent years. A seed round typically comes after an angel round (if applicable) and before a company’s Series A round.
• Series A and Series B: These are funding rounds for earlier-stage companies and range on average between $5 million and $30 million.
• Series C and onward: For later-stage and more-established companies, these rounds are usually at least $20 million, but are often much larger.

Other sources of private-company funding include private equity or growth funding, debt financing and crowdfunding.Ìý

Read more about the different types of funding rounds and how they are classified in SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½.

The largest venture funding deal to a U.S.-based startup in 2024 was also one of the largest startup funding deals ever. That was Databricks‘ $10 billion raise led by at a $62 billion valuation.Ìý

The other largest U.S. startup funding deals of 2024 were also to AI-related companies:

raised the second-biggest round of the year — aÌý$6.6 billion deal at a post-money valuation of $157 billion, also led by . The round made theÌýÌýcreator one of the most valuable private companies in the world and also included investment from the likes ofÌý,Ìý,Ìý,Ìý,Ìý,Ìý and Abu Dhabi-based MGX.

raised aÌý$6 billion round in May that included investment from the likes of ,Ìý,ÌýÌýandÌý, among others. The funding valued the company at $24 billion post money.ÌýIn November, the -founded rival to OpenAI raised another $6 billion in a funding round valuing it at $50 billion. The newer round included investment from the ,Ìý,ÌýÌýandÌý.

Autonomous vehicle company , which was spun out ofÌý’s labs, took in a big round from its former parent, as invested $5.6 billion into the firm in a deal announced in October 2024. The new round valued the company at more than $45 billion and was the startup’s first raise since a $2.5 billion round in 2021.

Also in November, agreed to invest another $4 billion in AI startup , yet another ChatGPT rival with an AI assistant called Claude. The latest investment meant Amazon had invested $8 billion into Antropic, retaining its minority stake in the startup.

See our full list of the largest U.S. AI startup funding deals of 2024 here.

Artificial intelligence dominated venture capital investment in 2024. But we’ve already run a list of the biggest rounds raised by AI-related startups, so what about some of the other industries that got big deals in 2024?

The biggest rounds raised by U.S.-based startups not necessarily focused on AI in 2024 were:

North Carolina-based raised $1.5 billion in February 2024 through a new partnership with Ìýto help give more exposure to the company’s characters and properties — including Marvel Comics characters. However, the round was a drastic drop in valuation, as it wasÌýÌýDisney invested at a $22.5 billion valuation. Founded in 1991, the Fortnite creator has raised nearly $8 billion to date, according toÌý.

San Francisco-based green infrastructure investor and operator raised a $1.5 billion round from a variety of investors, including theÌý. Generate invests in an array of infrastructure projects, from community solar systems to municipal wastewater treatment to electrifying fleets.

got a $1.3 billion investment from private equity firmÌý valuing the software testing startup at $4.5 billion. The Austin, Texas-based startup was founded in 2007 in Austria.Ìý took majority ownership in 2017.

Cloud security startup locked up the biggest cybersecurity round of the year as it raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation. The round was co-led byÌý,ÌýÌýandÌý. Originally founded in Israel in 2020, Wiz acquired New York-based cloud detection and response startup earlier in the year. Wiz has .

See our full list of the biggest 2024 funding deals to non-AI startups based in the U.S. here.

Global venture capital startup funding in 2024 was nearly $314 billion — compared to $304 billion in 2023 — up around 3%, according to SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data.

Read our 2024 global funding report for more.

Yes, 2021 was a record year for global VC investment. More than $681 billion was invested in startups around the world in 2021, SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data shows.

Read our 2021 global funding report for more.

Yes, venture capital funding has slowed since hitting records in 2021, but stabilized in 2024.

SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data shows startups around the world received $681 billion from investors in 2021, a record year for VC funding.Ìý

Global venture funding in 2024 was less than half of that at about $314 billion, with AI investment showing significant gains.

Venture capital has not dried up. While venture capitalists aren’t investing as much of their capital as they were during the investment boom of 2021, investors still have plenty of capital available to deploy.

With nearly $314 billion in global venture capital startup funding in 2024 — according to SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data — investors are still putting big money into the market at a rate that seems like a return to the pre-2021 boom days.

Such a pace could prove healthier and more sustainable for the market, as the market became very frothy during its height.

Read our 2024 global funding report for more.

, also known as a16z, ranked as the most-active global post-seed investor, participating in 100 reported rounds. , and filled out the next three spots.

In 2024, VCs seemed captivated by everything AI — and there’s little reason to believe that will change.

Nearly a third of all global venture funding went to companies in AI-related fields in 2024, making artificial intelligence the leading sector for funding. Funding to AI-related companies was more than $100 billion — up more than 80% year over year from $55.6 billion in 2023 — SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data shows.

Some of the biggest rounds in AI included ’ $10 billion round raised at a $62 billion valuation, marking the largest venture capital raise of 2024 and one of the largest on record, as well as ’s $6.6 billion raise at a post-money valuation of $157 billion led by .

In 2024, the AI craze led to some other sectors that apply the technology to become hot with investors, such as biotech and healthcare. Energy and cybersecurity startups also remained popular.

There are more than 1,500 private companies valued as unicorn startups with valuations of $1 billion or more as of early 2025. They include TikTok parent , generative AI giant fintech , rocket company , fashion and lifestyle e-retailer , Stripe and e-commerce payment solutions platform .Ìý

All of our VC startup funding news and coverage of venture capital trends in 2025 can be found here. Articles about large deals and VC funding trends are also added to the current page as soon as they are published.