5 Shocking Funding Stats from 2024

what I learned from the state of venture in 2024

Author

Kevin Fulmer
February 18, 2025

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CB Insights dropped their 2024 State of Venture Funding - I combed through it and extracted 5 of the most interesting takeaways from the report.

1. 37% OF ALL FUNDING WENT TO A.I.

I know. I made it a whole 6 words into the newsletter before mentioning A.I.

We knew A.I. had a lot of hype around it, but now we have the data to back it up.

It’s actually astounding that 37% of all venture dollars went into this space during 2024…for context, I went back to past reports to see what the top category netted.

In 2021, FinTech was all the rage…but only brought in 21% of all funding.

A.I. is white hot, and no investor wants to miss the boat. It’s also a sector that requires a lot of capital - NVIDIA processors can go for $10k a pop, and large models need 10,000+ of these to get up and running ($10k x 10,000 = $100M).

2. USA DOMINATES IN A BIG WAY

Ambitious risk-taking is in Americans’ blood - I mean who else would sail across the ocean on a wooden ship to explore a new world??

The ethos of early American settlers resonates in startup funding - despite containing less than 5% of the global population, US startups netted 71% of all venture funding in Q4 2024.

This was skewed by comparatively larger deal size, but still 37% of all funded startups were US-based. American startups largely won the internet age, and are looking extremely competitive when it comes to A.I. & other leading sectors.

I remember talking to one of the guys over at Wefunder about their expansion into Europe. He confided that they found their European members to invest in startups at half the rate of their American counterparts.

There’s a competitive, risk-taking cultural difference that the US uniquely embodies.

3. 38 BETS PLACED ON HUMANOID ROBOTS

While AI took in all the attention in 2024, it’ll eventually pave the way for something that will be equally as transformative.

Humanoid robots are on the horizon, and have endless possibilities for their potential. They could revolutionize factories, take care of household chores, or provide companionship.

Investment in humanoid robots was one of the top 6 highest growth investment categories, as deal growth spiked 52% annually. There were 38 startups that received funding - that’s 12 more than autonomous driving startups for reference.

Some of the key companies in this space are Figure, Apptronik, and Boston Dynamics.

There have even been a couple of crowdfunded startups contributing to this space, mainly Psyonic and AtomLimbs.

Keep an eye on this space - I have a feeling that progress will be made sooner than you think.

4. WAITING FOR AN IPO GOT LONGER

Startup investing requires immense patience - you have no liquidity for years and have to hold out hope for an eventual IPO or acquisition.

Well, that period of time got longer in 2024. The median time from 1st funding → IPO climbed to 7.5 years.

This is 2 years longer than what investors saw in 2022. Some of this is attributed to unfavorable market conditions, but there’s also less pressure to go public for companies.

Secondary markets allow early employees & investors to sell their equity without the whole company having to go through an IPO.

Better strap in for the long haul if you’re investing in startups.

SLOW YEAR, HOT Q4

2024 as a whole was a pretty slow year for venture funding. Global deal volume hit an 8-year low:

However, we see a very different story at the tail-end of 2024.

While deal count continued to sag, the amount invested spiked 53% QoQ to a level we have not seen in 10 quarters.

There are some big AI investments contributing to this, but it’s encouraging to see a capital spike after a couple years of ho-hum stagnation.

That’s it for this week, thanks for reading!

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