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In the second quarter of 2024, global venture capital funding climbed 5% quarter over quarter, reaching $94 billion across 4,500 deals (see Figure 1). This marked the second consecutive quarter of growth following a year of decline. Investments in AI, healthcare, and financial services fueled much of the activity. Europe saw a notable surge, mainly from the UK tech market and sectors like financial services, cleantech, and AI. Meanwhile, funding in the US remained resilient, bolstered by megadeals in AI and cleantech.
Seed- and early-stage investments recorded strong quarter-over-quarter growth, with average deal sizes increasing by 35% and 14%, respectively (see Figure 2). However, the $6 billion xAI funding round skewed the average early-stage deal size. Without this outlier, the average would have decreased by 7%. And late-stage deals dipped slightly, about 6% quarter over quarter.
Corporate venture capital (CVC) deal count edged up slightly, due to heightened participation in the AI space (see Figure 3). The total number of CVC investors held steady, with new players emerging in financial services and technology.
Generative AI continues to garner considerable investment across categories. Foundation and large language models attracted the highest share of funding due to their capital-intensive nature, while development tools saw the sharpest spike in growth from the previous quarter (see Figure 4).
Bain's Quarterly Global Venture Capital Outlook
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