Venture dealmaking is coming back — at least, for artificial intelligence companies.
Last quarter, US venture capitalists spent $55.6 billion backing startups, up by about half from a year earlier quarter and the spendiest quarter in two years, according to PitchBook data.
But the money went to just 3,108 transactions, the fewest since the second quarter of 2020. The concentration signals that a handful of large AI transactions are skewing the results, including the $1.1 billion raised by AI cloud computing company CoreWeave and the $6 billion raised by Elon Musk’s xAI.
The spending picture partly reflects the subdued fundraising environment. US venture funds raised $37.4 billion across 255 funds in the first half of the year, an uptick from the $33.3 billion raised across 233 funds a year earlier. However, a significant amount of that cash went to a few large players — of the latest total, Andreessen Horowitz raised more than $7 billion, and Norwest Venture Partners and TCV each raised $3 billion.
“Billion dollar funds have been raised, but potentially at the expense of smaller, emerging managers,” PitchBook analysts wrote in an email.
Exits, meaning startups that either got acquired or went public, totaled $23.6 billion for the quarter. That sum, the most in two years, reflects an increase of almost $2 billion over the first quarter, and more than three times the year-earlier quarter.
Globally, deals also trended up, again driven by a handful of large transactions. Global activity totaled $94.3 billion in the quarter, up almost 11% over the year-ago quarter. VCs raised $80.5 billion across 632 funds.
Voya Financial adds private equity, credit and real estate options to its AMA program, building on support for looser federal investment rules in retirement accounts.
Shannon Reid, president of Osaic and the network’s number two executive, has plenty of challenges, industry executives said.
Auditors flagged the commingling. The COO allegedly knew. Investors kept getting the pitch
The advisors on the move include two brothers leading a family practice in Connecticut, and a husband-and-wife tandem working with business owners in the West Coast.
Business owners and their heirs may be making assumptions instead of having conversations, creating challenges for succession planning, according to new research.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
