As in April, large investors dominated investments in US-based startups last month.
Andreessen Horowitz, Generic catalytic converter, Capital of Sequoia, Khosla ventures, Founders Fund AND Alumni’s projects leader in terms of number of transactions, although only a16z reached double digits with 10 investments.
Just a few years ago, it was not unusual for corporations to want a dozen or more deals to get to the top of this list. However, as the enterprise capital market continues to expand, fewer deals seem like the preferred route for even the largest VC firms.
Andreessen Horowitz, 10 offers
In total, May saw the most transactions for a16z since January – when it participated in 15 financings.
Of course, the largest deal he was involved in was a $6 billion round xAI, Elon Muskgenerative artificial intelligence start-up. The round, in which Sequoia also participated, Valor Equity Partners AND Fidelity Management and Research Co.values the startup at $24 billion post-funding, making it the world’s second most precious VC-backed generative AI company, behind its only competitor OpenAI.
However, that wasn’t the only big deal A16z pulled off last month. The company also co-led a cloud security startup WizardA whopping $1 billion raise at a $12 billion valuation. A round that also counted Partners of the Lightspeed enterprise AND Develop capital as co-lead investors, this is the largest cybersecurity round so far this yr.
Additionally, the company has conducted smaller rounds of launching AI-powered cancer treatment programs Valar Laboratoriesgun tracking company ZeroMarkaAND Summaryhardware collaboration platform.
General Catalyst, 8 offers
General Catalyst was the leader in April, but fell by a few transactions in May.
Nevertheless, he took part in some pretty big rounds. A New York investment company participated in it Warrior$100 million Series C. The startup helps gain insight into the genomics of infectious diseases.
General Catalyst also co-hosted – with 7wire ventures — San Francisco-based personalized healthcare platform TransparentSeries D of $126 million, which valued the company at $2.2 billion.
Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund and Alumni Ventures, 7 transactions each
The quartet of high-profile corporations have stalled on seven deals. Sequoia, Khosla and Founders Fund made fewer investments in May than the previous month, while graduate deal volume increased from April but was still the second-lowest deal amount since at least early 2023.
Like a16z, Sequoia Capital also participated in xAI and Wiz’s massive rounds. He also led a $26.5 million Series B round for a quantum computing startup Quantum circuits.
Khosla also co-led Karius’ previously mentioned $100 million profession round Council AI$50 million in Series B funding. The San Francisco-based startup develops software that uses artificial intelligence to automate the writing of radiology reports.
The largest round in which Founders Fund participated was AI scalesHuge $1 billion round led by Speed up which values the data labeling and assessment startup at a staggering $13.8 billion. However, he also led the New York team’s $45 million Series B round Polimarketa prediction market platform where investors predict future performance based on real-time news.
Graduates typically invest in smaller rounds at earlier stages, and that is the model they followed in May when all the pieces was seeded ahead of Series A. The only exception was participation in Frore systems“a large $80 million Series C led by Fidelity Management & Research Co. The San Jose, California-based startup has developed a semiconductor active cooling chip – AirJet – that enables users to leverage AI even at the edge of the network or on edge devices without excessive heat and loss of performance.
Also noteworthy:
- Next on the list was Accel with six deals.
- Khosla Ventures and Accel led the most deals led or co-led in May, with 4.
- Accel also led the list in the number of rounds led or co-led with the highest dollar amounts, leading or co-leading 4 rounds totaling nearly $1.3 billion.
- Y Combinator was once again the best investment incubator and accelerator with 10 transactions in May.
Methodology
Here is a list of investors who participated in the largest number of rounds involving US startups. It does not include incubators or accelerators as a consequence of the fluctuations their investment numbers may show.