announced the launch of its $100 million AI fund — named the Anthology Fund — in partnership with generative AI startup and competitor, .

The new fund will look to back founders building AI-first applications and infrastructure solutions that leverage Anthropic’s technology and AI models.

Investments will concentrate on — but won’t be limited to — five areas of AI: infrastructure, frontier/novel application, consumer experiences, trust and safety and solutions that maximize societal benefits. The fund will invest from seed to expansion stages, with investments starting at $100,000.

“From our earliest meetings with Anthropic when we first invested in early 2023, we were impressed by their team’s caliber and commitment to world-changing, safe AI innovation,” wrote Menlo’s and in a .

“With the Anthology Fund, we’ve teamed up to further our commitment to the most imaginative AI pioneers,” they continued.

Menlo took part in Anthropic’s Series C in 2023 and earlier this year led a $750 million round in Anthropic.

Another AI fund

While Anthropic will not take a stake in the companies the fund invests in, an AI or big tech company helping to create an AI-specific fund has become the norm.

The OpenAI Startup Fund was launched in 2022, investing $175 million raised from OpenAI partners. OpenAI itself is not an investor.

Last year, — ’s venture arm — announced a Generative AI Fund to $500 million. The firm is an investor in .

In May, a new Databricks AI Fund as part of .

Related reading:

• Eye On AI: Q2 Funding Shows Investors Are Willing To Open Their Checkbooks — For the Right Company

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San Jose, California-based became the second chip startup this week to raise big — locking up a $75 million equity round co-led by the and .

On Monday, Santa Clara, California-based , a developer of a laser manufacturing technology platform for the semiconductor industry, raised an $80 million Series B led by .

DreamBig, founded in 2019, develops chiplet platforms and its specialties include applications in large language models, generative AI and more. The company has raised nearly $93 million, per Crunchbase data.

AI boon

The semiconductor industry seems to be riding the current AI craze, as the market looks for specialized generative AI chips that are more cost-effective and energy-efficient, but also faster.

The DreamBig raise is just the latest big round in the industry. Besides the Halo round, San Francisco-based locked up a $120 million round led by and late last month.

Other big deals in 2024 include:

• This month raised nearly $275 million — mainly from the German government.
• In March, optical interconnectivity startup raised a massive $175 million Series C led by ’s . Celestial’s photonic fabric platform helps separate compute and memory, making processing extensive AI faster and more energy-efficient.
• In February, San Jose, California-based , which is developing its AI inference chip for both the generative AI and automotive industries, raised a $102 million Series C co-led by and .

Overall, venture funding to semiconductor chip startups continues to be strong. Thus far in 2024, VC-backed chip startups have raised nearly $5.7 billion in just 210 deals, per Crunchbase .

Last year, startups saw less than $10.4 billion in 498 deals.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

Related reading:

• AI Chip Startup Etched Captures $120M In Hot Market
• Generative AI Chip Designer Recogni Locks Up $102M
• Chip Startup Celestial AI Lands Massive $175M Series C
• Semiconductor Startup Funding Looks To Bounce Back After Lackluster 2023

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Both early and late-stage funding was up — 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 Crunchbase 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 — 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 Crunchbase ������Ƶ.

And in good news for European venture, fintech unicorn posted its 2023 earnings showing strong revenue growth — 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’s most highly valued private companies, Revolut.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, 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. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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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 — 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’t building robots, however, it’s building robot brains. The theory is that those brain models can then be used in a variety of robots and for different tasks — instead of just having one application. It seems a lot of big-name investors agree with that strategy.

2. , $277M, biotech: It’s hard to get through a week without a big biotech raise, and this one’s 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 Crunchbase.

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 — 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 –offering services such as home health, hospice, radiology and laboratory – 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 Crunchbase.

6. , $130M, artificial intelligence:�� , 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 — including regulatory filings and PDFs — 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’t. Hayden AI, a vision AI platform, locked in a $90 million growth equity round led by — ’s impact investing platform. While the company’s 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 Crunchbase. 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’s 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 Crunchbase.

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 Crunchbase.

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 Crunchbase.

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 Crunchbase 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.

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First, nearly all of the most active venture investors were busier in Q2 of this year. Second, several names at or near the top of the list of busiest and highest-spending investors — including , , and — were much lower down a year ago.

To illustrate how active investors compare, we used Crunchbase data to rank them across multiple categories, including venture deal count, lead investment spending and lead round counts.

Most active post-seed investors

We’ll start with most post-seed investors, tallying who participated in the largest number of venture and growth rounds. Below, we list the top seven, comparing Q2 to year-ago levels:

For Khosla Ventures, Q2 marks its first time at the top of the ranking since we began publishing it a few years ago. The Silicon Valley-based firm, active in software, biotech and cleantech, participated in 26 deals last quarter.

Second- and third-place rankings went to and , both longstanding venture investment powerhouses that upped their activity levels significantly from a year ago.

Meanwhile , which was the most active in this category in Q1, actually slowed a bit, coming in at fourth place.

Spendiest investors

Next we’ll look at which investors appear to have put the most money to work in lead rounds in Q2.

This isn’t an exact science, as rounds with multiple backers almost never break down how much each investor contributed. However, we can venture an educated guess by looking at total dollars that went into lead rounds backed by particular investors, since lead backers tend to contribute a good-sized portion.

Using this approach, here are the top ten “spendiest” lead investors for Q2 2024:

In this ranking, Andreessen re-emerges in the top slot, thanks to its role as lead investor in large Q2 rounds for companies like , , and .

Next is Coatue, mostly due to its role as lead investor in ’s $1.1 billion . In third place is Accel, which led ’s $1 billion .

Most active lead investors

We also looked at which investors led or co-led the largest number of venture rounds.

By this metric, Khosla Ventures was in the lead, followed by Accel and Andreessen. Below, we list the top eight using this measure:

Notably, all of our active lead investors completed significantly more deals this past quarter than they did a year ago.

AI in the driver’s seat

Why have active investors gotten busier in recent months? Well, clearly artificial intelligence is a factor, as AI gobbled up a record share of global funding in Q2. Most of the top active VCs did multiple deals in the space during the quarter, including all of the top-ranked lead investors by round count.

Overall investment has also risen, with early stage dealmaking in particular up sharply from year-ago levels. While that hasn’t translated into more reported rounds overall, it does appear that the most active investors are stepping up the pace of dealmaking.

Illustration:

, which develops artificial intelligence software for defense, raised approximately $489 million in funding led by that values the company at $5.4 billion.

The Germany-based startup designs software that helps boost weapons capabilities in drones and jet fighters and improves battlefield decision making.

The company has been active in Ukraine and the Baltic states as eastern European nations fear further aggression from Russia.

The announcement comes just as the NATO summit in Washington D.C. is being held.

Helsing is no stranger to large rounds. In September 2023, the company raised a round worth approximately $227 million, also led by General Catalyst. Founded in 2021, the company has raised approximately $827 million, per Crunchbase.

Money battle?

The new round for Helsing is the second largest ever in defense tech, per Crunchbase data.

Software and hardware defense tech startup closed a massive $1.5 billion Series E in late 2022, which remains the largest. Earlier this year, it was the startup was raising another $1.5 billion round, this time at a $12.5 billion valuation.

However, even with the round, global venture dollars have not poured into defense tech this year the same as last — despite many conflicts showing few signs of being diffused.

So far this year, defense tech startups have raised only $827 million, per Crunchbase . Last year, such startups collected nearly $2 billion.

However, this round shows it only takes one big fundraise in this sector to get right back on track — or even ahead — of last year’s pace.

Pro query:

Related reading:

​​Defense Tech Funding Slows At Start Of Year

Illustration:

The region suffered its worst quarter for venture funding since the final quarter of 2015, with Asia-based startups raising only $14.6 billion — a 24% decline from Q1 and a 32% dropoff year to year.

In addition, deal volume in the region continues to decline, with only 1,511 funding deals announced in Q2. That number represents a 15% drop from Q1 and a more pronounced 27% fall from Q2 last year.

Late-stage rounds continue to slide

Of course, what really moves the needle are the late-stage growth rounds. However, growth rounds in Asia totaled only $14.6 billion — the lowest in a quarter since 2019.

That number represents a steep decline of 24% from Q1 and an even bigger 32% dip from Q2 2023.

Unlike other regions that saw billion-dollar rounds, Asia was left out of the big-money craze, although there were a handful of deals in the quarter worth more than a half-billion dollars:

• China-based , an electric-vehicle startup, locked up a $690 million venture funding round.
• Indian grocery delivery startup raised a $665 million round, doubling its valuation to $3.6 billion.
• China-based , a semiconductor company focused on chipsets in mobile communications and IoT, raised a round worth approximately $552 million.

Dealmaking volume also fell, with only 134 late-stage growth rounds in Q2. That’s a 21% drop from Q1 and a 14% decline year to year.

Early-stage funding suffers

While any type of significant decline in venture is almost always directly attributable to late-stage funding, there also was an eye-catching fall in early-stage dealmaking.

Early-stage dollar volume fell to only $4.9 billion — a staggering 53% decline from the first quarter and a 39% dive year to year.

Dealmaking volume diminished only slightly, with 539 rounds being announced in Q2. That number reflects declines of only 7% from Q1 and 16% from Q2 of last year.

Seed does not sprout

To be honest, with the above numbers looking like they do, seed and angel funding certainly weren’t going to save the region’s venture funding totals. While such rounds may produce interesting deals, they are not big money.

Angel and seed actually were up slightly both quarter to quarter and year to year, totaling $1.9 billion — slightly above Q1’s $1.7 billion.

However, deal flow shrank to only 834 deals — a 19% drop from Q1 and a 34% decline from Q2 2023. In fact, it’s the lowest amount of seed and angel deals in at least a few years.

Decline by country

This region is dominated by one player: the Red Dragon.

That dragon did not breath fire this past quarter, as venture funding in China plummeted. Venture funding in the country hit only $6.9 billion — down an eye-popping 46% from Q1 and 33% from Q2 2023.

India, by far the region’s second-largest venture market, saw $3.4 billion of funding. That represents a 27% uptick from Q1, but a 9% drop from Q2 last year.

What it means

The shrinking of the venture market through the last handful of quarters is shocking. While everyone knew 2021’s high could not be sustained, it seemed inevitable the drop in dollar volume would subside.

However, despite a brief respite in the middle of last year, the market has continued in reverse and seems to be entering back to where it was a decade ago.

Even AI — the latest craze among all venture capitalists today — could not save the Asian venture market. AI-related startups in the region raised only about $2.5 billion, . That’s a pittance when compared to North American AI-focused startups, which.

While some AI firms, such as China’s and South Korea’s , raised big rounds well over nine figures, there just simply were not enough of them.

The trade and investment tensions between China and the West, along with the region’s continuing rocky economy, are not helping.

China’s regulatory policies around venture and IPOs likely also have not helped, but recently there have been of officials willing to change that to jump-start the declining market. It was recently that mainland China IPOs raised only $4.6 billion in the first six months of the year — a drop of 85% from H1 2023.

Such actions likely will be needed if the region is to stop its downward tumble.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, 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. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Last quarter was a great quarter if you were a founder of an AI-related startup looking for funding — maybe.

Such startups saw more money in Q2 than they ever have before, raising a whopping $24.2 billion in 1,001 deals, per Crunchbase . This is more than twice as much raised by similar startups in the first quarter and also about twice what was raised in the same quarter last year.

Thanks to the huge windfall seen in Q2, the first half of this year saw $35.6 billion go to AI startups — a 24% increase from the $28.7 billion in H1 last year.

While the pure size of the dollar figure is eye-catching — and the largest ever amount raised by AI startups in a single quarter — what may be most interesting is the actual deal count.

The barely more than 1,000 deals announced last quarter was the lowest total for rounds going to AI-related startups in years.

However, what the quarter lacked in quantity, it more than made up for in megadeals.

Of course, some of the biggest include ’s generative AI startup, , officially announcing its long-awaited $6 billion fundraise, locking up $1.1 billion at a reported $19 billion valuation and London-based self-driving car startup ’s $1.05 billion raise in a -led round.

In fact, last quarter saw 34 nine-figure rounds raised by AI startups — over a third more compared to the only 22 in Q1 and even besting the 27 $100 million-or-more rounds seen in Q2 last year.

Big deal(s)

On top of that, there were five rounds of $1 billion or more in Q2, to and AI biotech company in addition to those above. The first quarter saw only one such round — Chinese AI startup — while Q2 last year similarly saw only raise $1 billion or more.

Those massive raises boosted the dollar figure to unseen heights, even while deal flow actually decreased 15% from the first quarter and a more significant 26% from just a year ago.

AI investing has been tough to get a read on. Coming into this year, many VCs predicted a slight pullback as valuations seemed frothy and many AI companies’ financial metrics didn’t jibe with what investors were now looking for — namely revenue and positive cash flow.

However, that could be the reason we are witnessing more money going to fewer AI-related startups. Investors may be betting big — really big in many cases — on the ones they believe in while letting those they are less sure about wither away at earlier stages of funding.

We actually talked about just that not long ago, as early-stage funding seemed on the decline. Now, with the quarter over, those numbers are coming more into focus as we can see how the mega-rounds boosted up a massive total.

It may still seem to be a good time to be looking for funding if you’re the head of an AI startup, but more and more investors look like they are placing fewer — but bigger — bets.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

Related reading:

• xAI Makes It Official — Raises $6B At $24B Valuation
• AI Cloud Infrastructure Startup CoreWeave Raises Huge New Round At Reported $19B Valuation
• British Self-Driving Car Maker Wayve Revs Up With Whopping $1B SoftBank-led Round
• Early AI Funding May Be Showing Some Cracks

Illustration:

, a vision AI platform, locked in a $90 million growth equity round led by — ’s impact investing platform — with participation from existing investors , and others.

While the company’s 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.

“With The Rise Fund, we can develop our platform into a true urban operating system – processing data and generating actionable insights that help cities become more livable for everyone,” said , founder and CEO.

The company said in New York City its automated camera enforcement has resulted in 5% faster buses and 20% fewer vehicle collisions.

Founded in 2019, the company has now raised more than $193 million, .

Govtech goes big

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’s total of $249.7 million invested into the sector.

In addition, govtech saw a huge exit back in February, when software provider agreed to to existing shareholder at a $1.8 billion valuation.

That deal caught a lot of investors’ attention — which likely hasn’t hurt fundraising in the sector.

Related Cunchbase Pro list:

Related reading:

• No One Gushes About Govtech, But It Can Produce Some Nice Returns

Illustration:

The new round was led by and included participation from , and . The round — which initially was late last month — values the company at approximately $700 million, .

The New York-based startup allows companies to sift through structured and unstructured data — including regulatory filings and PDFs — to answer more detailed and complicated business questions.

Not slowing down

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, .

“There have been seven major technological revolutions in human history: fire, agriculture, the wheel, repeatable manufacturing, electricity, the internet and AI,” wrote , Hebbia’s founder and chief executive officer, in a . “AI is undoubtedly the most important technology of our lives. But technology doesn’t drive revolutions — products do. Hebbia is building the human layer — the product layer — to AI.”

After a slow funding week for startups last week before the holiday, the market seems ready to start filling the coffers of AI startups similar to how last month ended. In the last week of June, several AI-related startups like and raised — or were reportedly raising — large, nine-figure rounds.

Related reading:

• AI Coding Software Magic Looking To Conjure Up $200M At $1.5B — Report
• Eye On AI: OpenAI Goes On A Buying Spree As AI Looks To Open Up M&A, IPO Markets

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