Funding for global startups may have slowed in the third quarter, but the slowdown apparently didn’t affect the most energetic enterprise investors, most of whom actually increased their deal pace.
This is very true for the three most energetic post-seed investors – Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz AND Generic catalytic converter — which significantly increased the variety of transactions concluded in the third quarter. Overall, of the 14 most energetic investors at this stage, shown in the chart below, only two made fewer deals yr over yr, Crunchbase data shows.
Y Combinator’s placement at the top of the list of most energetic post-seed investors is noteworthy, as the famous accelerator is best known for its seed rounds. However, over the years, the organization has increased its efforts and fundraising to support its accelerator cohorts as they scale.
Many of the post-seed rounds that Y Combinator supported last quarter were for AI corporations, which is not surprising given the large variety of AI startups in recent accelerator cohorts. The AI-related corporations it backed last quarter after a seed phase include a data creation platform Encordlaw startup Thatand AI search engine Example.
Meanwhile, Andreessen Horowitz, the second most energetic enterprise investor, also invested large sums in startups in the last quarter, including Secure superintelligencean AI startup co-founded by an ex OpenAI chief scientist Ilya SustkeverAND HebbiaAI analytical platform.
Leading investors
Another approach to rank energetic enterprise investors is to look at who has led or co-led the most rounds. This metric is intended to shed light on which busy startup backers also tended to supply a large share of capital in select rounds.
To illustrate, below is a list of nine investors who led or co-led the largest variety of post-seed rounds.
The rating for the previous quarter does not differ much from the second quarter. The same 4 corporations each time – Andreessen, General Catalyst, Speed up AND Khosla ventures – were also in the top 4. However, this time Andreessen and General Catalyst took first place.
The most profligate lead investors
To get an idea of who put the most capital to work, we also ranked the energetic investors who led or co-led the rounds with the highest total value. This is not exact science, provided that lead investors in syndicates rarely reveal how much they contributed to a given round. However, it gives you a sense of who is investing large sums.
During the third quarter, we ranked 10 investors who led or co-led rounds totaling $500 million or more, as shown below.
Here, General Catalyst emerged victorious by leading and co-leading at least eight rounds valued at least $100 million in the third quarter, in keeping with Crunchbase data. The largest include financing for a German company dealing with artificial intelligence defense Helsinga ($492 million Series C), an Indian grocery delivery platform Zepto ($340 million in Series G) and an AI coding platform Codium ($150 million Series C).
Founders Fund got here in second place thanks largely to one transaction: a leading investment in defense technology company Unicorn Anduril IndustryAugust’s $1.5 billion Series F.
The most energetic seed investors
At the seed stage, the variety of quarterly deals for energetic investors can vary significantly from quarter to quarter. This is partly because it is common to announce all batches of seed investments somewhat than deal one at a time. Additionally, initial trades could also be added to the database weeks or months after they close.
Given this state of affairs, it does not necessarily mean trouble that the three most energetic seed investors concluded significantly fewer transactions in the third quarter than a yr ago.
Additionally, while the variety of reported trades has dropped, the rankings have not modified much. Technology stars, Y Combinator AND Shovel are typically the most energetic seed investors in a given quarter.
To provide a broader picture of who is energetic at the seed stage, below are the 12 investors who participated in the most reported financings.
The big picture: high representation among US investors
While the energetic investor rankings didn’t show a dramatic change from the previous quarter, it is value noting one trend that continues to persist. That’s the advantage U.S.-based investors have among those backing the most deals and leading the largest rounds.
For example, all of our most energetic lead enterprise investors are based in the US. On the list of most energetic post-seed investors by variety of rounds, all but one are based in the US
With US investors at the top of the most energetic stocks, enterprise capital investments in North America are also performing barely higher than the global average. This is largely resulting from giant rounds for AI corporations.
Looking ahead, it would be interesting to see whether regions that have seen weaker financing performance in recent quarters will see a rebound. If so, this can likely result in more investors based in these regions being included in our most energetic rankings.