NEA, alongside investors like Goldman Sachs and Industry Ventures, creates a vehicle to offer liquidity to limited partners during a downturn, with stakes in companies such as Databricks and Plaid.
In the UK, AI startups have raised significant funding, with $2.1 billion secured in the first half of 2024, projected to reach a record $4.4 billion by year-end. Notable investments include Wayve’s $1.05 billion round and PolyAI’s $50 million round. The UK AI sector, valued at £72.3 billion, remains the largest in Europe.
Peter Kyle, the UK’s Technology Secretary, emphasized the government’s commitment to improving the tech investment environment, citing recent regulatory reforms to facilitate public listings in London.
In the US, NEA, a venture capital firm, has established a $540 million continuation vehicle with investors including Goldman Sachs Group’s alternatives unit, Industry Ventures, Pathway Capital Management, and Goanna Capital. This vehicle, created to provide liquidity to its limited partners amidst a downturn in exit activity, includes stakes in 11 portfolio companies, most notably Databricks (38%) and Plaid (10%).
On July 3, it was reported that venture funding reached $55.6 billion in the second quarter of 2024, a 47% increase over the first quarter, driven largely by investments in AI projects. Major contributors included Elon Musk’s xAI raising $6 billion and CoreWeave securing $1.1 billion. Despite this recovery in venture funding, the IPO market remains slow.
Other firms are also focusing heavily on AI. Index Ventures raised $2.3 billion on July 10, splitting it into two funds, while Geneva-based Forestay Capital closed its second fund at $220 million on July 8, targeting early-growth enterprise AI and SaaS companies.
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