The State of Venture Capital in Q1
The CB Insights Q1 2024 State of Venture Report is an analysis of global venture capital trends, focusing on dealmaking, funding, and exits by private venture backed companies. The report covers various sectors, geographic regions, and investment stages. In this summary, we focus on the US only.
In Q1 2024, the U.S. venture capital activity increased compared to Q4 2023. The quarter saw $34.2bln in funding across 2,430 deals, marking a recovery from the previous quarter. However, we are still far below the peak levels seen during the pandemic and also below Q1 2023 ($46.1bln and 3,488 deals).
Early-stage investments accounted for 61% of all deals. Mega-rounds, deals worth $100 million or more, represented $17.9bln across 65 deals in the U.S. This segment alone represented 45% of the total funding for the quarter, underscoring a continued appetite for large investments even as the market adjusts. Anthropic was the largest deal, which secured $2.8 billion in its Series D round. Epic Games and Generate Capital followed closely, each raising $1.5 billion.
Exits remained light, with 725 M&A events. This is roughly in line with Q3 2023 (726 exits) but represents the second lowest exit volume in any quarter shown (the lowest was Q2 2020).
Among the most active investors in Q1 2024, Andreessen Horowitz led the charge with 33 deals, closely followed by General Catalyst with 32 and Sequoia Capital with 23. Silicon Valley maintained its position as the leading hub for venture capital, securing $14.4 billion across 570 deals. The region’s focus remained on early-stage investments, which comprised 71% of the deals.
Overall, venture in the US remains muted relative to prior quarters, as measured by deal volumes and exits. That said, 2020 and 2021 were an anomaly and should not be used as a comparison, in our view (we wish the data went back to 2019, as we believe that was the last “normal” year for venture).
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