Seed and early-stage funding rounds are at the root of the deal-making slowdown, with only 423 seed/angel rounds announced through the first week of June, likely leading to just over 600 funding rounds, a steep decline from the 779 deals announced last quarter. The number of early-stage deals also slowed, but the dollar amount is up, with already $9.8 billion raised in early-stage deals, compared to the $6.4 billion last quarter or the $4.7 billion raised in Q2 last year.
Key takeaways:
- AI-related startups have raised nearly $30 billion this year, but there are signs of AI fatigue among early-stage investors as deal-making volume slows down in the second quarter.
- The number of funding deals is expected to reach only about 900 this quarter, a drop from the 1,052 last quarter and a decline of nearly 30% from the same quarter last year.
- Despite the slowdown in deal-making, the dollar amount raised is up, with the second quarter already pacing to be one of the highest-dollar quarters since early 2022 with more than $16 billion already raised.
- Seed and early-stage funding rounds are at the root of the deal-making slowdown, but the dollar amount for early-stage funding is up, with $9.8 billion already raised in early-stage deals.