Venture capital funding topped $23 billion in July 2024, down barely from the previous month and up greater than 20% from a yr earlier, according to an evaluation of Crunchbase data.
The largest funding in July went to a 16-year-old Vancouver legal technology company Clio. NEA he led 900 million dollars funding from multiple growth-stage investors. The company achieved $200 million in annual recurring revenue, managing the whole lot from payments, client management, and documentation for 1000’s of mid-sized law firms. This was a massive round for the SaaS vertical and the largest ever for a legal cloud technology company.
Healthcare and AI are leading the way
Healthcare and biotech firms led the investment sector, raising $6 billion. AI firms followed closely behind, raising about $5.8 billion. Each of those leading sectors accounted for about 25% of all funding in July 2024.
Funding for AI firms doubled in Q2, the highest quarter of funding for the sector since the launch of the ChatGPTArtificial intelligence firms continued to raise a significant amount of funding in July.
Big AI funding round raised by Beijing-based model makers Baichuan Interview with capital of $687 million and headquarters in Toronto Cohere $500 Million and a Berlin-based AI Defense Firm Helsing $489 million raised.
The next largest funding sectors in July were hardware firms, which raised $3.3 billion, and financial services, with $2.6 billion. Financial services, the second-largest sector after healthcare and biotech in 2021 and 2022, fell in the rankings but stays in the top five sectors from 2023.
Billion-dollar exits
The largest IPO of 2024 so far took place last month in Michigan Line logisticscold storage and distribution company that raised private capital primarily from private equity and real estate investors, going public. The company raised $4.4 billion at a valuation of $18 billion.
The fifth cloud software company acquired this yr for greater than $1 billion was a cloud storage company Nasuni with majority investment share Vista Capital Partners and share KKR AND TCV valuing the company at $1.2 billion.
Biotech and health care firms have dominated billion-dollar exits this yr, with two more announced last month; based in California Nerio Therapy was taken over by a German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and based in Boston Jnan Therapy taken over by Japanese headquarters Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.
Meanwhile, we do not see billion-dollar exits for AI firmsas big tech firms license technologies and hire teams to bypass regulatory scrutiny.
Methodology
The data in this report comes directly from Crunchbase and is based on reported data. Reported data is as of August 5, 2024.
It is vital to keep in mind that data lags are most noticeable in the earliest stages of a enterprise’s life, and seed funding amounts increase significantly after the end of the quarter/yr.
Please note that each one funding values are reported in US dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign exchange to US dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date that funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs, and other financing events are reported. Even if these events are added to Crunchbase well after the event is announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historical spot price.
Glossary of financing terms
As of January 2023, we have modified the way we include corporate funding rounds in our reporting. Corporate rounds are only included if the company has raised seed-stage equity funding through a series enterprise funding round.
Seed and angel consist of seed, pre-seed, and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes undisclosed enterprise rounds, equity crowdfunding, and convertible bonds of $3 million (USD or USD equivalent after conversion) or less.
Early stage includes Series A and Series B rounds, in addition to other forms of rounds. Crunchbase includes unspecified enterprise, corporate enterprise, and other rounds above $3 million and those lower than or equal to $15 million.
Late stage includes Series C, Series D, Series E and later enterprise rounds after “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are enterprise rounds of unknown series, corporate ventures, and other rounds above $15 million.
Technology Development is a round of personal capital raised by a company that has previously raised funds in a enterprise round. (Basically any round from the previously defined stages.)