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Big-name investors. Big checks. Big deal flow.

That, in the most basic prose, was the general atmosphere for U.S. startup funding in January. Well-known firms topped the ranks of active investors, including a few that were best known as prolific dealmakers during the last market boom.

, and ranked among the busiest venture and lead investors, while kept up the lead for seed deals. The list of lead investors in the largest rounds, meanwhile, had and in the top ranks.

Below, we take a more detailed look at top investors in several categories, including venture rounds, seed deals and lead investments.

Busiest venture investors

First, let’s look at the busiest investors in venture-scale rounds, defined here as financings of $5 million or more.

Two seed investors — Y Combinator and — topped the ranks due to larger seed rounds and participation in follow-on financings for portfolio companies. January’s standouts among venture investors, meanwhile, were Lightspeed, a16z and Sequoia.

Below, we charted the 12 most-active investors by deal count for this category.

Most-active lead investors

Next, let’s turn to most-active lead investors in rounds of $5 million and up.

By this measure, Lightspeed and Sequoia topped the ranks, each with five lead deals. Lightspeed’s largest was a $300 million Series A for AI chip design startup , while the biggest deal Sequoia led was a for AI lab .

They were followed by six other firms with three deals each. Below are the top eight:

Highest-spending lead investors

We also attempted to gauge which lead investors put the most capital to work.

This isn’t an exact science, as rounds with multiple investors seldom break out each backer’s share. However, we can get a general sense of the highest-spending investors by looking at the combined value of rounds they led or co-led.

Using this approach, SoftBank ranked first among lead investors, due to its role as lead investor in AI robotics startup ’s $1.4 billion Series C.

Lightspeed came next, followed by Tiger Global, which led a $600 million financing for drone delivery unicorn last month. (Tiger also got off to an active start this month, co-leading a $1 billion financing for AI processor company .)

Below, we charted the top 16 in this category:

Seed investors

Among seed investors, Y Combinator retained its customary position in the top slot, with 20 reported seed deals in January. It tied with with 20, followed by Alumni Ventures with seven.

Below are the top 11:

Overall, not a scene for slackers

Broadly, active investor data shows this year is getting off to a brisk start where startup funding is concerned. While deal counts have certainly been higher in past cycles, the amount of capital pouring into the most competitive names shows investors are still enthused about the most high-profile startups and still huge optimists regarding the future of AI.

Related reading:

• Global VC Investment Surged In January, With U.S. Dominating Funding, But A Pair Of AI Model IPOs In China
• Robotics Startup Skild AI Lands $1.4B, Tripling Valuation To $14B In Just 7 Months
• AI Lab Ricursive Intelligence Lands $300M Series A At $4B Valuation Less than Two Months After Launch

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