It seems like everyone is talking about hot AI startups these days. But when it comes to funding them, a handful of well-established venture investors are still doing the largest share of check-writing.
Per Crunchbase data, and stood out among the most active U.S. venture and lead venture investors in the second quarter. The highest-spending investors, meanwhile, appear to be those who co-led 鈥檚 massive financing.
To get a more expanded sense of how busy startup backers spent their quarter, we put together several rankings for active investors. These include active venture backers, lead investors, highest spenders and prolific seed dealmakers.
Active venture investors
We鈥檒l start with the most active post-seed investors. By this metric 1, the standouts for Q2 were General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz, with 39, 34 and 28 deals, respectively. Of those, more than two-thirds were for AI-focused startups, per Crunchbase data.
All are names that repeatedly show up high in active investor rankings. Y Combinator in particular regularly comes up near the top as it habitually makes nonlead follow-on investments in startups that participated in its accelerator program.
Below, we ranked the 19 most active investors for Q2:
Most active lead investors
When we narrow the ranks to only lead investors in venture rounds, the lineup changes some, but not dramatically.
By this metric, Andreessen Horowitz comes in first with 17 deals. and General Catalyst are tied for second, with 13 led or co-led rounds each.
Overall, at least 12 investors led or co-led six or more venture rounds in Q2. We rank them below.
Highest-spending post-seed investors
Of course, the investors with the largest number of lead deals aren鈥檛 necessarily the ones who put the most capital to work.
To get a sense of the highest-spending startup investors for Q2, we look at who led or co-led rounds with the largest aggregate value. It鈥檚 not an exact tally, as investors rarely disclose their share of a particular round syndicate. However, it does give a sense of who has been writing seriously large checks.
For Q2, the top slots in this spendy investor ranking were dominated by backers. This included 10 co-lead investors in 鈥檚 $50 billion May , as well as , which led a $10 billion separate tranche, and , which led a $5 billion tranche.
Overall, there were 23 investors who led or co-led U.S. venture rounds valued at $2 billion or more in Q2. We rank them below.
Active seed investors
Among seed investors, the usual front-runner, Y Combinator, retained the top slot in Q2. The famed accelerator backed at least 225 seed, pre-seed or convertible note rounds for newly formed startups during the quarter.
was a distant second in the ranks, followed by . Below, we rank the 20 most active seed-stage investors in Q2:
No slowdown
Overall, the active investor ranks paint an image of a startup funding scene still in high gear. All the elements are there: big deals, high round counts and vibrant activity across stages.
We鈥檒l see if it keeps up in Q3.
Illustration:
Includes rounds of $3 million or more.↩
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