In the last column, we looked at the huge amount of money that has flowed into AI startups.
But who is paying this money into the sector? No wonder these are the usual suspects.
Andreessen Horowitz – which also topped our list of most active global post-seed investors last 12 months – has also participated in the most post-seed rounds for AI startups. According to Crunchbase data, the company has accomplished 42 transactions. That’s more AI rounds than the company accomplished in 2022 and 2023 combined.
These rounds included a share of a whopping $10 billion Data cubes a $62 billion raise – the largest enterprise capital raise in 2024 – and xAIin May value $6 billion.
The Silicon Valley giant also took first place in the category of firms that led or co-led the most post-seed AI rounds (20).
Who’s next?
Partners of the Lightspeed enterprise ranks second on our list of investors with the most post-seed rounds for AI startups, with 37 deals announced in 2024 in comparison with 26 AI-related rounds in the previous two years.
Lightspeed’s biggest bets in AI last 12 months included a $6 billion xAI funding round in November that valued it at $50 billion and Anduril IndustryA $1.5 billion Series F that valued the company at $14 billion.
Y Combinator last 12 months, it ranked third in most post-seed rounds invested in when it involves artificial intelligence firms. The accelerator giant has participated in 36 such rounds, including a $1 billion round AI scales which valued the data labeling and evaluation startup at a staggering $13.8 billion.
Next on the list are Alumni’s projects (32 offers), Capital of Sequoia (30) i Generic catalytic converter (27).
It won’t come as a surprise, but all of those firms increased the variety of AI-related deals they concluded in 2024 in comparison with 2023.
In terms of which company led or co-led the most rounds financially, yes Develop capital. The company led or co-led eight AI-related rounds totaling $17.3 billion — including a massive raise for Databricks and a $6.6 billion investment for OpenAI.
Next on this list is – yes, you guessed it, the same company that began this column – Andreessen Horowitz.
Overall, this list is just like the list of the world’s most active post-seed investors. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, on condition that it’s logical that the most active enterprise investors have actually been caught up in the AI craze that is come to dominate the market.
However, what is impressive is not only the variety of deals accomplished by many of those VC titans, but also the amount of money involved. As history shows, only a small percentage of those bets are likely to achieve success for VCs, and these firms might want to make massive exits to get the returns that everybody in this game wants.