Useful Stats: The state of US venture capital in 2024
Fewer of the youngest and later stage innovation-driven companies are receiving private venture capital at a time when the country needs more of both to retain our global economic leadership, according to data released in the latest report from PitchBook and NVCA. Across 2024, United States VC has seen an increase in overall deal value (+$47 billion) despite a decrease in deal count (-936) since the prior year, reveals the Q4 2024 Venture Monitor report. Values for each metric still sit below the pandemic-induced highs in 2021 and 2022. By stage, 2024 has, to date, a larger proportion of early-stage and venture growth deals, balanced by a lower proportion of pre-seed/seed and late-stage deals.
This edition of Useful Stats will explore 10-year trends, from 2015 through 2024, in venture activity by stage and state using the Q4 2024 Venture Monitor report’s data.
Brief data notes
It is important to note that PitchBook continuously identifies new deals and updates their datasets, often leading to increased deals and values over time from figures first announced for any particular year. Thus, older datasets are often more complete, which may cause direct comparisons between more recent and older years to not provide an accurate picture of the VC landscape.
All PitchBook data are current through December 31, 2024, and available for download on the publisher’s website here.
National overview of US VC by stage
VC activity peaked in 2021, with deal counts and values reaching their highest levels, followed by a decline in 2022 and 2023. By the end of 2024, however, deal counts stood approximately 6% lower than the prior year, but the total deal value rests 29% higher. This level puts the 2024 cumulative deal value at the third highest in the past decade, $34 billion above the 2020 value yet still $29 billion below 2022 and $146 billion below 2021’s peak.
Figure 1: US VC deal count by stage and year
The stage with the highest deal count in 2024 is early-stage, followed by pre-seed/seed, a shift from the prior several year’s trend of pre-seed/seed deals making up the lion’s share. Venture growth deals made up an additional percentage point of the total count in 2024, at 5.9%, the stage’s highest proportion of VC deal types in over a decade.
Figure 2: US VC deal count breakdown by stage and year
Breaking down the pre-seed/seed deals further into its two parts, pre-seed and seed, reveals that seed deals make up the vast majority of the two in terms of deal value and count. In 2024, of the approximately 4,400 deals valued at a summative $14.7 billion, seed deals accounted for 92% (3,600) of deals and 95% of the value ($14 billion). Relative to prior years, 2024 reflects a slightly lower proportion of seed deals while maintaining a consistent share of deal value.
State overview of US VC by count and value
Looking at U.S. VC deal count at the state level shows California’s unthreatened dominance with nearly 4,400 deals in 2024—13 more than in 2023—accounting for 32% of 2024 deals. New York’s 1,863 deals, the next largest, still stand well above Massachusetts’ 852 deals, Texas’ 759 deals, and Florida’s 570 deals.
Of these five states with the highest deal count in 2024, only the deal count in California increased relative to the prior year, while all sit below the peaks of 2021 and 2022.
Deal value, however, tells a slightly different story. While California, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas all remain in the top spots, Colorado and North Carolina surpass Florida. Relative to the prior year, top states like California (+$38.5 billion), New York (+$4.7 billion), Massachusetts (+$104 million), and Colorado (+$1.2 billion) increased, yet some others, such as Texas (-$142 million), decreased.
However, when looking at these comparisons, it is important to remember that older datasets are often more complete, and 2024 values may continue to increase faster than 2023 values as new data become available.
Figure 3 below contains two maps, togglable via the arrows in the top right corner, that show U.S. VC deal count and value for each year from 2015 to 2024.
Figure 3: U.S. VC deal count and value by state, 2015 to 2024
While the above state-level data is important to consider, it is not uncommon for large states like California and New York to dominate trends. Looking at relative trends over time within each state gives a better picture of the changing nature of the innovation culture in a state. Is the state’s innovation community working in the technologies the financial market believes are most likely to make an impact in the market? Each state’s share of the national total and how it changes over an extended period, provides a hint to help begin answering that question.
The below data, visualized in Figure 4, reveals that many states historically among the leaders in innovation investment (e.g., Massachusetts and Pennsylvania) have been losing share to the rest of the nation over the past decade. Other states, like Florida and Delaware, are growing in their share of VC deal count. State policy decisions and increased investments in TBED programs may help influence these trends.
Note that each state’s grouped column charts operate on their own scales, so data should be viewed as relative trends within each jurisdiction rather than for comparison.
Figure 4: State share of national U.S. VC deal count, 2015-2024
Shifting our attention back to deal value, we see additional trends emerging. Figure 5 visualizes deal value by state. Note that many states are either missing columns or have one or more outlier years. This omission is likely due to a relative lack of higher-value deals or one or more relatively large deals.
Figure 5: State share of national U.S. VC deal value, 2015-2024
All data used in this article are current through December 31, 2024, and available for download on the publisher’s website here.
This article was prepared by SSTI using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070129 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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