Despite these declines, $100M+ mega-rounds comprised 51% of total CVC-backed funding in Q3’24, a notable increase from a quarterly average of 37% in 2023. Meanwhile, two-thirds of CVC deals this year have gone to early-stage companies, highlighting a strategic shift toward more emerging opportunities, especially in AI.

Based on our deep dive in the full report, here is the TL;DR on the state of CVC:

• ​​Global CVC-backed funding drops 5% to $15.7B in Q3’24. Nevertheless, that figure is still the second-highest quarterly level since the beginning of 2023. Meanwhile, a 10% QoQ decline to 773 deals — the lowest total since 2018 — suggests that CVCs are increasingly selective, similar to the wider venture market.

• The average CVC-backed deal size has increased 31% so far this year to $27.1M, highlighting investors’ willingness to take risks when they find the right opportunity. However, the median deal size remains the same as last year at $8M, signaling that investors are only more aggressive regarding the largest deals.

• Funding to CVC-backed mega-rounds (deals worth $100M+) represents 51% of total funding in Q3’24. This percentage — roughly in line with the first 2 quarters of 2024 — is up significantly from an average of 37% in 2023, further suggesting that investors are currently willing to make large bets when they decide to invest.
• Early-stage rounds represent 66% of total CVC deal share this year, the highest level in over a decade. CVCs are increasingly focused on early-stage startups, likely driven by the record levels of AI funding and the fact that, across investor types, 72% of deals to AI companies this year are early-stage.

• CVC-backed funding in the US ticks up to $10.5B. Among major global regions, the US continued to lead in CVC-backed funding in Q3’24, followed by Europe at $2.6B and Asia at $1.3B. Within the US, defense tech provider Anduril raised the largest CVC-backed deal with its $1.5B Series F round (CVC investors include Franklin Venture Partners), followed by AI chip developer Groq with its $640M Series D round (backed by Samsung Catalyst).

MORE VENTURE RESEARCH FROM CB INSIGHTS

• State of CVC Q2’24 Report
• State of Venture Q3’24 Report
• State of Fintech Q3’24 Report
• State of Digital Health Q3’24 Report

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Nevertheless, AI activity from Mayo Clinic — which has a reputation for tech innovation, a frontline understanding of healthcare’s complexities, and deep pockets — can serve as a bellwether for AI traction, indicating which tools are more likely to play key roles in the hospital of the future. 

Mayo Clinic (which was ranked No. 1 in our Hospital AI Readiness Index) is also forging partnerships to provide other health systems with guidance on AI strategy and implementation — indicating that where Mayo goes, others will follow.

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While AI deals in Q3’24 included massive $1B+ rounds to defense tech provider Anduril and AI lab Safe Superintelligence, global AI funding actually dropped by 29% QoQ. This was driven by a 77% decline in funding from $1B+ AI rounds QoQ.

Based on our deep dive in the full report, here is the TL;DR on the state of AI:

• Global AI deal count climbs 24% QoQ to reach 1,245 — its highest quarterly level since peaking in Q1’22. This bucked the trend in overall venture deals (-10% QoQ), signaling that investor interest in AI remains strong despite the broader cooling in venture markets. AI funding, on the other hand, fell by 29% QoQ to $16.8B, driven by a 77% decline in funding from $1B+ AI rounds QoQ. 

• The average AI deal size is $23.5M in 2024 so far — up 28% vs. $18.4M in full-year 2023. This upward trend has been influenced by a rise in massive $1B+ deals, with AI startups drawing 9 of these deals in 2024 so far vs. 4 in full-year 2023. Top $1B+ rounds in 2024 YTD include: 
  • xAI — $6B Series B at a $24B valuation
  • Anthropic — $2.8B Series D at an $18.4B valuation
  • Anduril — $1.5B Series F at a $14B valuation
  • G42 — $1.5B investment from Microsoft
  • CoreWeave — $1.1B Series C at a $19B valuation

These deals aren’t solely responsible for pushing up the average — the median AI deal size is up 9% in 2024 so far.

• AI unicorn births more than double QoQ to reach 13 — 54% of the broader venture total in Q3’24. Generative AI continues to be a key theme for new unicorns (private companies reaching $1B+ valuations). More than half of the AI unicorns born in Q3’24 are genAI startups, and they are working across a variety of areas — including AI for 3D environments (World Labs), code generation (Codeium), and legal workflow automation (Harvey).

Among new genAI unicorns in Q3’24, Safe Superintelligence — co-founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever — landed the most sizable valuation. The AI lab was valued at $5B after raising a $1B Series A round in September 2024.

• AI M&A exits fall by 48% QoQ to hit 62 in Q3’24. The deals that did occur showcase how enterprises are strategically scooping up AI startups to improve their offerings and maintain a competitive edge. For example, the largest AI M&A deal in Q3’24 was AMD’s acquisition of AI lab Silo AI, which could help the semiconductor company enhance the development and deployment of AI models on its hardware. Meanwhile, Salesforce picked up unstructured data management startup Zoomin to support its AI agent offerings.

• Among major global regions, the US continues to lead in AI funding and deals. AI startups based in the US drew $11.4B across 566 deals in Q3’24, accounting for over two-thirds of global AI funding and 45% of global AI deals. Within the US, Silicon Valley still dominates AI funding and deals, but other metros are gaining ground. In Q3’24, Los Angeles and New York saw their AI deal counts rise QoQ while Silicon Valley watched its count drop for the second quarter straight.

ADDITIONAL AI RESEARCH FROM CB INSIGHTS:

• State of AI Q2’24 Report
• State of Venture Q3’24 Report
• Game Changers 2025: 9 technologies that will change the world
• The Multi-Agent AI Outlook: Here’s what you need to know about the next major development in genAI
• Analyzing a16z’s AI investment strategy: Where the firm sees opportunity amid the genAI rush
• The AI computing hardware market map

The post State of AI Q3’24 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know:

• Skin health is seeing rising attention, with early and mid-stage startups using telehealth business models, AI analytics, and biotech to create new solutions.
• Emerging focus areas span virtual dermatologist consultations, AI-enabled remote skin health monitoring, at-home skin analysis for care routines, new healthy aging therapies, and microbiome-balancing solutions.
• Looking ahead, watch for solutions using smartphones for at-home diagnostics and AI-enabled analytics to gain traction, driven by demand for access to professional, science-based, and personally targeted skin care.

The skin is our largest organ. Maintaining healthy skin is crucial to our overall health and wellness, particularly given that 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. 

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Meanwhile, M&A activity is on the rise, climbing for the second straight quarter in Q3’24.

Based on our deep dive in the full report, here is the TL;DR on the state of digital health:

• Global digital health funding drops 23% QoQ to hit $3.3B in Q3’24, marking the second-lowest quarterly funding level since 2017. This decline comes despite a slight uptick in deal count QoQ. However, the average deal size in 2024 YTD is $17.8M — a 51% increase from the full-year 2023 average of $11.8M. This jump in average deal size, amid a downturn in deals over the same period, reflects that investors are concentrating larger sums on fewer, later-stage ventures.

• Digital health mega-round deals ($100M+ deals) drop slightly in Q3’24, falling from 9 to 7 QoQ. Meanwhile, mega-round funding and share of total funding also declined QoQ, underscoring a more cautious investor approach. Mega-rounds accounted for 30% of total digital health funding in Q3 — down from 44% in Q2. Top Q3’24 mega-rounds (by round amount) included:
  • Women’s health app Flo Health‘s $200M Series C
  • Digital-first health insurance provider Alan‘s $193M Series F

• The US accounts for 52% of digital health deals in Q3’24, down from 61% in Q2. Meanwhile, Europe and Asia both saw their deal shares rise to 21% in Q3. Asia experienced a greater jump in deal share, gaining 7 percentage points QoQ while Europe gained 3. This shift suggests growing investor interest in markets outside of traditional US hubs.

• Q3’24 sees the emergence of 2 new digital health unicorns — both based in Europe. The newest members of the digital health unicorn club are UK-based Flo Health, a women’s health app, and Huma, a remote patient monitoring platform. Against the backdrop of a broader downturn in new digital health unicorns, these births highlight Europe’s growing importance in the digital health landscape.

• Digital health M&A exits continue to climb in Q3’24, rising 23% QoQ to 37. This rising M&A appetite may be partly fueled by established companies seizing opportunities to scoop up innovative technologies amid a challenging funding environment for startups. The largest M&A deal in Q3’24 was LetsGetChecked’s $525M acquisition of digital pharmacy Truepill.

MORE DIGITAL HEALTH RESEARCH FROM CB INSIGHTS

• State of Digital Health Q2’24 Report
• Digital Health M&A: Every second acquisition in 2024 has been an AI company
• The $4.6B opportunity in healthcare: Ambient AI to target clinician burnout
• Analyzing Eli Lilly’s growth strategy: How the pharma giant is leveraging AI and pioneering a direct-to-patient approach
• Prioritizing clinical trials tech: How 16 tech-driven markets stack up across maturity and momentum

The post State of Digital Health Q3’24 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Insurance leaders are looking to emerging AI capabilities to reshape how they work. For instance, on AIG’s August 2024 earnings call, chairman and CEO Peter Zaffino highlighted an objective to use AI to “redesign and refine the end-to-end underwriting workflow.”

The industry’s opportunity in generative AI centers on increasing decision-making capabilities and operational speed, from improving quote-to-bind ratio to offering real-time guidance for employees. Two forces drive the opportunity: tech advances across the broader genAI ecosystem; and a wealth of unstructured data within the insurance industry.

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What you need to know:

• Eli Lilly is using technology to reengineer how it develops treatments, leveraging AI to speed up drug discovery.
• The company is investing in novel drug delivery methods, such as targeted delivery systems, to improve treatment efficacy and the patient experience.
• Lilly is rapidly expanding its direct-to-consumer approach through LillyDirect, partnering with telehealth providers and integrating with digital pharmacies to streamline drug distribution and improve patient access.

Eli Lilly is using technology to reengineer how it develops and delivers treatments.

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In some ways venture has become less dramatic. The period of steep decline in funding that followed the dizzying heights of 2021 has given way to relatively moderate quarterly variations.

But even in a more sober fundraising environment, excitement over AI has become a major driving force for investors. One in every 3 VC dollars now goes to the tech. Silicon Valley, a major AI hub, is tightening its hold on investor cash. AI startups are exiting years faster than those working on other technologies.

As interest rates fall and the appetite for riskier assets increases, expect AI startups to be top of mind for an increasing number of investors in the months ahead.

Download the full report to access comprehensive data and charts on the evolving state of VC across sectors, geographies, and more.

Below, we cover key shifts in the landscape, including:

1. Quarterly declines in global VC funding and deals
2. AI startups grab 1 in 3 VC dollars
3. Performance from recent tech IPOs
4. Silicon Valley is only getting stronger
5. New unicorns remain rare
6. The US claims the bulk of AI innovation
7. How global VC stacks up against economic output
8. 76% of top deals go to B2B startups
9. AI startups exit 6 years sooner than the rest of tech

Let’s dive in.

Topline figures paint a sobering picture for venture, as both global funding and deals ticked down quarter-over-quarter (QoQ). The quarterly levels place Q3’24 on par with where VC was in 2016/2017.

However, while deal volume has progressively declined, the size of deals that do happen has grown. In 2024 so far, the average deal clocks in at $13.9M (up from $12M in full-year 2023), while the median is worth $3M (up from 2023’s $2.5M). 

The more cautious investment environment is likely driving a flight to quality as selective investors isolate the most promising ventures.

AI startups are capturing nearly a third (31%) of all venture funding right now — the second-highest share on record, following Q2’s 35%.

Within AI, a company’s age and stage don’t always correlate to the size of financing rounds. One of the largest rounds in Q3’24, for instance, was a mammoth $1B deal to Safe Superintelligence (SSI) — an early-stage startup founded in June by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. The company has just 10 employees.

SSI’s deal is the 9th $1B+ AI equity round this year. Given their willingness to participate in such large rounds to so many companies, investors appear confident that a new tech giant will emerge from the space — and apparently have FOMO.

Yet despite investors’ bullishness, many of today’s fledgling AI startups will struggle to live up to lofty expectations, and some will ultimately fail. Even AI giants like OpenAI face the daunting task of keeping costs in control: the AI leader’s losses are expected to amount to $5B this year. 

The AI boom is also giving recent public debuts a boost. 

We analyzed 15 of the companies with the largest tech IPOs since 2022 to see whether they’ve gained or lost value since they filed to go public IPOs. The majority (10 out of 15) have either held steady or gained value as public players — a positive indicator for tech IPOs more broadly, which until recently were getting beaten down badly in the public markets. The fact that startups are able to maintain and even gain value as public companies will likely draw out other IPO-ready companies.

And AI is an important factor driving gains for several of these companies. For instance:

• Arm’s value has nearly tripled since it debuted late last year. The chip designer is a leader in CPUs for AI computing hardware, including providing the architecture for AI chip firms like Nvidia.
• Tempus is deploying AI across its precision medicine offerings, which has helped buoy its value by 31% since its IPO filing. (It legally changed its name from Tempus Labs to Tempus AI in early 2023.)
• Like Arm, Astera Labs, which offers AI infrastructure & connectivity hardware, has benefited from the swell in widespread adoption of AI. Its value has grown 45% since filing in March 2024. 

It’s not universal — enterprise AI firm 4Paradigm, for instance, has seen its value slashed by over half since debuting. But this could be due more to geopolitical forces, as China-based 4Paradigm has faced an uphill battle in sustaining investor interest because of US restrictions. (4Paradigm was placed on a US export control list in early 2023.) 

Customers: explore data behind these 15 IPOs

Another result of the AI explosion: Cash is concentrating in Silicon Valley, home to over a third of the US-based AI startups. In fact, the metro’s share of US venture funding — across sectors — has climbed to a recent high of 41% this year.

In Q3’24, Silicon Valley-based startups raised $10.5B — more than 2.5x that of New York ($3.9B), the second-ranked metro. LA and Boston follow, with $2.9B and $2.8B, respectively. 

Notably, deal activity in Silicon Valley remains overwhelmingly early-stage — meaning it’s not just a handful of more established startups raising massive rounds. More than two-thirds of Silicon Valley’s deals this year are at the seed or Series A stages.

See every AI company in Silicon Valley

Newly minted billion-dollar startups remain few and far between. Q3’24 saw 24 startups reach that mark — a noticeable bump from the previous quarter’s 16, though a fraction of what we saw during the tech boom of 2021 and early 2022. 

Valuations remain pressured at the later stages of investment, with many of the unicorns minted in years gone by likely worth less than $1B in reality. On the other hand, valuations are showing strength at the earlier stages. Among seed-stage startups, the median valuation for deals this year is $13.5M — the highest annual level on record.

There are a few common themes among the latest batch of new unicorns:

• AI is minting more unicorns than any other sector. More than half of the new unicorns in Q3’24 are AI companies. Among these, several are working to bring greater spatial awareness to AI systems, from Skild AI’s intelligent humanoid robotics to World Labs’ 3D world-building tools. Others are developing enterprise AI agents & copilots, like Harvey in the legal domain and Codeium in software engineering.
• India’s startups are climbing the ranks. The country contributed 3 of Q3’24’s new unicorns: Ather Energy, MoneyView, and Rapido. India ranks third globally for total unicorns after the US and China, and it had a strong funding quarter in Q3’24, with startups raising $4B — up 29% QoQ and 111% YoY.
• a16z and Sequoia are the most active investors in backing new unicorns. The investors each backed 4 of Q3’24’s freshly minted $1B+ companies. Andreessen Horowitz invested in Saronic Technologies, World Labs, Story Protocol, and Safe Superintelligence; while Sequoia Capital backed Skild AI, Harvey, Chainguard, and Safe Superintelligence.

See the 24 new unicorns with this search

CB Insights tracks over 15,000 AI startups globally. And while 99 countries and regions around the world have at least 1 AI startup, the US is the undisputed leader in AI startup activity — and by a substantial margin. 

43% of all AI startups are based in the country. The distant No. 2 and No. 3 countries are China (9% of AI startups) and the UK (7%). 

View 15,000+ AI startups in the Expert Collection

While the US has long dominated the global venture scene when it comes to absolute funding and deal activity, several countries rank above the US in terms of the ratio of venture funding to GDP: the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Singapore. 

These 3 countries pace ahead of the US in terms of VC as a proportion of overall economic activity, suggesting they are punching above their weight in terms of fostering startup activity. 

For instance, UAE-based startups have raised over $3B in funding over the last year (since 10/1/2023), and the country’s 2023 GDP came in at $504B. That represents $1 in VC to $158 in GDP (1/158) — a stronger ratio than any other country with at least $1B in annual venture funding.

Activity in the region has recently been fueled by AI firm G42, which raised a $1.5B round from Microsoft in April. (As part of the deal, G42 will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud offering, and Microsoft will also gain access to G42’s data centers.)

Israel and Singapore hold the No. 2 and 3 spots, with venture funding to GDP ratios of 1/166 and 1/198, respectively. 

Explore top Q3 venture deals for the UAE, Israel, & Singapore

Right now, the venture capital industry is all in on B2B startups. Among the 100 largest deals in Q3’24, three-fourths went to startups that use a B2B business model (either exclusively or in combination with other models like B2C or B2G). 

The B2B distribution model — particularly at the enterprise level — has gained appeal in recent years as a potentially more stable, recurring source of revenue for startups, especially during periods of volatile consumer spending.

See the top B2B venture deals in Q3’24

The buzz around AI is translating to faster exit velocity for startups in the space. Breaking down all the exits that have taken place this year, it’s clear AI startups exit at a much faster rate — 6 years faster, to be exact. It takes the median AI company just 7 years to exit from the year it was founded, compared to 13 years for non-AI companies.

While this trend holds true for recent AI IPOs, it’s most commonly seen among M&A deals, which represent the vast majority of AI exits this year.

Corporations are among the top acquirers of AI startups, with many looking to gain an edge by rapidly adding novel AI tools to their product suites.

• Nvidia has acquired 3 AI startups this year: Deci and Run:ai, both in April; and OctoAI, just last week. All 3 operate at the infrastructure layer of AI development and signal Nvidia’s ambitions to expand across the AI software stack.
• Zendesk has acquired 2 customer service-focused players — Ultimate and Klaus — as it builds out its own AI agent offering to automate customer interactions.
• Salesforce has similarly pledged to go all in on AI agents. To this end, it acquired 2 AI startups last month: Tenyx and Zoomin.

Another driving factor is “acqui-hires,” where an acquirer purchases a startup primarily for its talent. We’ve seen this among some of the youngest AI startups to be acquired. For instance, SydeLabs and Laiyer, both founded in 2023, were acquired by Protect AI this year. In both cases, Protect AI absorbed the startups’ teams.

See the AI startups most likely to get acquired next

The post State of Venture Q3’24 Report appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Prefer to listen in? Check out our discussion of the report here: 

New breakthroughs are altering the future direction of tech and its influence on the world at large.

While AI has captured headlines, it’s just one part of a broader technological surge. Startups and tech giants alike are making strides in fields as diverse as clean energy, space exploration, and human longevity.

Our Game Changers 2025 report highlights 9 emerging technologies that could transform how we live, work, and interact with our environment over the next 5-10 years and beyond. 

These include:

• Ultra-deep drilling: Advanced drilling techniques that can go far deeper to unlock superhot rock energy
• AI agent marketplaces: Enabling dynamic integration and collaboration of specialized agents across software platforms 
• Quantum-optimized portfolios: Using quantum computing to build higher-performing portfolios, faster
• Cellular & epigenetic reprogramming: Altering the gene expression of cells to extend the healthy human lifespan
• GPS-less navigation systems: Approaches that boost the resiliency and accuracy of positioning services critical to global infrastructure

Download the full report to explore all 9 technologies and the data behind them — including drivers, startups, and implications — in detail.

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What you need to know: 

• Ambient AI is reducing clinician burnout by autonomously documenting clinical interactions. Physicians are already reporting benefits such as being able to see more patients each month.
• Strategic partnerships, like that between Abridge and Kaiser Permanente, are driving large-scale adoption.
• Tech giants like Microsoft and Oracle are entering the space, making ambient AI a key part of their health IT offerings.

Ambient AI — tech that autonomously monitors and reacts to changes in an environment — could be key to addressing the widespread issue of clinician burnout, which costs the US healthcare system an estimated $4.6B annually.  

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To do this, new tech-enabled solutions are targeting key bottlenecks throughout the clinical trial lifecycle for all participating stakeholders, from researchers to life science companies to patients.  

To help strategy teams prioritize clinical trials markets in their planning decisions, we plotted markets using CB Insights’ TECH framework, which scores markets across 2 dimensions:

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The post Prioritizing clinical trials tech: How 16 tech-driven markets stack up across maturity and momentum appeared first on CB Insights Research.

In August 2024, we surveyed 50 corporate strategy leaders (at the Director-level or above) working at companies across major industries to identify key challenges they face in driving influence across their organizations and the approaches they use to address them.

Only 40% have clearly defined KPIs to measure their success and alignment issues appeared as the top pain point for strategic planning.

Download the full report to delve into the most common pain points faced by strategy teams, the tactics used by the most influential teams to improve strategic planning, and what challenges still remain unaddressed.

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What you need to know: 

• Animal health is seeing rising demand and early-stage startups are building novel products targeting the space, including AI-based solutions.
• Focus areas for emerging trends include: Diagnostic platforms for vets, advanced therapies, methane-reducing solutions, AI-driven diagnostics & monitoring, and disease prevention & treatment.

Animal health — which includes companion and livestock animals — is steadily growing as a topic of interest among executives.

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The question is certainly top of mind for corporations getting to grips with emerging technology like generative AI — the answer could help identify future competitors, partners, new markets, or acquisition targets.  

Using CB Insights’ proprietary data and metrics — including Exit Probability, Commercial Maturity, Mosaic, headcount, patents, and funding — we identified the 52 emerging players our data says are most likely to have an outsized influence in the next 5–10 years and have a strong exit. 

Download the report to see:

• The full list of Future Tech Hotshots
• Key themes and industry analysis
• Methodology

MORE TOP COMPANY LISTS FROM CB INSIGHTS:

• Insurtech 50: The most promising insurtech startups of 2024
• AI 100: The most promising artificial intelligence startups of 2024
• The Digital Health 50: The most promising digital health companies of 2023
• Fintech 100: The most promising fintech startups of 2023

The post Future Tech Hotshots: 52 emerging tech startups that will have big, successful exits appeared first on CB Insights Research.

What you need to know:

• Companies like Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, Lilium, and Volocopter are nearing eVTOL commercialization, with plans to launch air taxi services as soon as 2025, pending regulatory approvals.

• Regulatory hurdles, infrastructure requirements, and battery efficiency are key challenges that need to be addressed before eVTOLs can become a widespread mode of transportation.

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The post Small electric aircraft are edging closer to swarming the skies — here’s what to expect as the ‘flying car’ tech matures appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Essential resources to understand the future of healthcare:

• • The generative AI in healthcare market map — These tech companies are bringing generative AI into medical research and clinical settings.
  • Pharma AI Readiness Index: Who’s best-positioned for the AI boom? — Assess how prepared top pharmaceutical companies are to adopt and respond to rapidly evolving AI technologies.
  • 6 digital health markets gaining momentum in 2024 — We analyzed early-stage investment trends to uncover which digital health markets — from telepsychiatry to virtual & hybrid women’s healthcare — are quickly evolving and how.
• 
  • The Digital Health 50 — Here are the world’s most promising digital health startups.
  • Big Tech in Healthcare — How Amazon, Google, Microsoft, & Nvidia are looking to transform drug R&D, primary care, and more.
  • State of Digital Health Q2’24 Report — Funding in digital health drops, but larger check sizes and an uptick in exits highlight bright spots for the industry in Q2’24.
• 
  • Longevity tech market map — 64 promising startups across 12 categories aiming to expand lifespans, from human cryopreservation to cellular reprogramming.
  • Digital Health AI M&A — Every second acquisition in 2024 has been an AI company; here’s where we’re seeing the most activity.
  • 20 tech trends to watch closely in 2024 — The technology trends that will transform industries as generative AI takes center stage, including several directly impacting healthcare.

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If you’re already a customer, log in here.

The post Our top digital health research and trends to watch appeared first on CB Insights Research.

Highlights from the 2024 cohort include:

• The 50 winners include 23 tech vendors and 27 insurers and intermediaries.
• $5.6B in equity funding raised over time, including $1B in 2024 so far (as of 8/19/24).
• Forty percent of winners are early-stage insurtechs addressing everything from wildfire risk to genAI-powered workflow automation.
• More than a dozen countries represented, spanning Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.
• 500+ business relationships since 2020, including with industry leaders like Swiss Re and Tokio Marine.

Our research team picked winning companies based on CB Insights datasets, including deal activity, industry partnerships, team strength, investor strength, patent activity, employee headcount, and proprietary Commercial Maturity and Mosaic scores. We also dug into Analyst Briefings submitted directly to us by startups.

Please click to enlarge.

CB Insights customers can interact with the entire Insurtech 50 list here and view a detailed category breakdown using the Expert Collection.

2024 INSURTECH 50 COHORT HIGHLIGHTS

Funding and valuations

The cohort has raised $5.6B across 210+ disclosed equity deals to date (as of 8/19/24). Next Insurance and Coalition lead in disclosed equity funding among the cohort ($1.1B and $770M, respectively).

In 2024 so far, this year’s winners have raised $1B across 38 disclosed equity deals. Just 5 deals account for more than half of this funding total:

• Altana AI — $200M Series C
• ICEYE — $93M Series D
• Vitesse — $93M Series C
• Cover Genius — $80M Series E
• Hyperexponential — $73M Series B

Altana AI reached a $1B valuation following its Series C round in July 2024. This earned it a spot in the unicorn club alongside the other unicorns in this year’s Insurtech 50 cohort: Accelerant, Coalition, and Next Insurance.

Stage breakdown

Forty percent of this year’s Insurtech 50 winners are early-stage companies (i.e., primarily seed or Series A). These companies are the fastest-growing among those analyzed, with a median 12-month headcount growth rate of 45% — 23 points higher than the median for the rest of the cohort.

Comparatively, 46% of winners are mid-stage (i.e., Series B or C), and 14% are late-stage (i.e., primarily Series D+).

Top investors

MS&AD Ventures has invested in 5 of this year’s winners, leading among venture capital (VC) firms, including corporate venture capital firms. The investor has backed 4 insurance providers — Accelerant, Anzen, Next Insurance, and Wagmo — and 1 tech vendor, Artificial Labs. 

Following MS&AD Ventures are Felicis, General Catalyst, Nationwide Ventures, and Portage — each of these investors has backed 4 winners.

When it comes to investment activity in 2024, Portage leads in the number of winners backed. So far this year, it has backed 3 insurance providers: CoverTree, Faye, and Hellas Direct.

Geographic distribution

This year’s Insurtech 50 winners are collectively headquartered across more than a dozen different countries. 

The majority of these companies (30) are based in the United States. Among US metro areas, New York and Silicon Valley lead the pack, as they are both home to 10 of the winners. These metro areas are followed by Boston (4 winners) and Atlanta (2 winners).

The UK follows the US with 8 winners — 6 based in London and 2 near Birmingham.

Headcount growth

Over 7,700 people are employed by the 2024 Insurtech 50 winners, with 4 companies employing about a third of the cohort’s workers: Next Insurance, Coalition, ICEYE, and Cover Genius.

From July 2023 to July 2024, this year’s winners created more than 1,400 jobs. One winner more than tripled its headcount over the period: Sixfold (+267% YoY).

The median 2024 Insurtech 50 winner has raised $0.6M in equity funding per employee. Altana AI and Next Insurance lead among the winners, each having raised $1.6M in equity funding per employee.

Company health

Forty-one of the 50 winners have a CB Insights Mosaic score — a proprietary measure of private company health and growth potential — of at least 700 out of 1,000 (as of 8/26/24). Compared to all private companies — insurtechs or otherwise — with Mosaic scores, these 41 winners rank in the top 3% by Mosaic score.

Next Insurance and Coalition — with Mosaic scores of 898 and 881, respectively — hold the highest scores among this year’s winners.

AI threads the tech vendor landscape

Most of the winning tech vendors offer AI products, which aligns with the broader momentum toward AI (and generative AI) adoption across the insurance industry. Applications often center on prioritization use cases, like risk ranking for underwriters and claims triage for adjusters.

The winners’ business relationships often incorporate the use of AI. Recent examples with industry figures include:

• Reask and AXA Climate — March 2024
• Akur8 and Tokio Marine HCC — April 2024
• Indico Data and Convex — June 2024

Insurtech managing general agents (MGAs) gain ground

MGAs — intermediaries with delegated underwriting authority from one or more insurance carriers as well as related entities like managing general underwriters — represent a sizable portion of the 2024 Insurtech 50 list. Their presence reflects broader industry momentum toward the business model.

Notably, most insurtechs within the commercial category are MGAs that offer property & casualty insurance to businesses. Established insurers have made strategic investments in several of these companies, including:

• American Family Insurance, which led Ledgebrook’s $24M Series A round in April 2024 via its CVC (American Family Ventures)
• Arch Capital Group, which participated in Rainbow’s $12M seed round in January 2024
• Hiscox, which led Coterie Insurance’s Series B round in March 2024

The post Insurtech 50: The most promising insurtech startups of 2024 appeared first on CB Insights Research.

In 2024 so far, a16z has backed more than 20 AI startups working within disruptive categories. For example, this year, it has invested in several AI-driven copilots and agents designed to automate key workflows in big industries like healthcare and finance. It has also turned its attention to multimedia generation startups expediting the creation of a wide variety of content, from images to videos to audio.

While championing AI’s advancement, the firm also acknowledges associated risks — its founders are proponents of open-source models, arguing that their transparency and accessibility will help ensure that AI is developed in a secure and ethical way. So far this year, the two largest a16z-backed AI deals have gone to open-source large language model (LLM) developers xAI and Mistral AI.

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As a result, a range of technologies have emerged to address issues across the entire trial lifecycle. These use AI, data analytics, and digital platforms to streamline processes, improve data quality, and boost patient engagement — all with the aim of driving down trial times and costs while increasing success rates.

This market map identifies 96 vendors in 14 categories reshaping clinical trials. This tech ecosystem offers sponsors and research organizations opportunities to conduct more efficient, patient-centric trials that also meet regulatory requirements.

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Longevity is a rather nascent but growing area of research for the biopharma industry — especially as tech advances in areas like AI and omics make it easier than ever to identify ways to manipulate the aging process. Existing consumer applications primarily focus on individuals wanting to stay healthy for longer, but the tide is shifting to products and services that slow or even reverse aging.

The rise of longevity tech will not just affect healthcare. Humans living longer, healthier lives would upend all sorts of societal and economic assumptions — impacting everything from retirement planning to insurance premiums to the size of the workforce to housing availability to trends in consumer demand. Few industries would be able to ignore the disruption from a longevity boom.

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The post The longevity tech market map: 64 startups racing to defy death appeared first on CB Insights Research.