The global venture capital market clawed back some momentum in the second quarter of 2025, though structural weaknesses, especially in fundraising, continued to cast a long shadow.
That’s according to a first look at the quarterly PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report released early Thursday. The second quarter of 2025 saw $67.6 billion in exit value generated, the largest quarterly figure since the slowdown in exits began and the second-highest figure since 2021, even though public listings remain on track for the fewest completed in any year over the past decade.
The deal count in the U.S. in the quarter held steady from the first quarter, but the deal value fell 25%, partly because of the absence of OpenAI’s $40 billion round in the previous quarter, but also reflecting a broader tightening of capital. The one standout in the quarter was a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI Inc. by Meta Platforms Inc. in June, which, according to PitchBook-NVCA, was the second-largest VC deal on record.
Big deals dominated the quarter, with the biggest U.S. VC deals representing 39% of capital raised. As in the previous quarter, artificial intelligence deals dominated, with the second quarter seeing big rounds for companies including Safe Superintelligence Inc., Grammarly Inc., Thinking Machine Lab Inc. and Anduril Industries Inc., which drove $24 billion in investment. AI alone has made up nearly two-thirds of total U.S. VC deal value so far in 2025 according to the report.
Despite some encouraging signs on the exit front, such as OpenAI’s acquisition of io Products Inc. and the $1 billion plus initial public offerings of six companies, venture-backed public listings remained sparse in the second quarter. More than $23 billion was raised through IPOs in the quarter, which the report notes is only 13% of the 2021 quarterly average. At the same time, merger and acquisition deals, though higher in volume, have mostly been small and haven’t boosted overall exit value.
According to the report, fundraising remains the market’s biggest concern. Only $26.6 billion was raised by new U.S. VC funds in the first half of the year, a figure that means that VC fundraises are on track for the lowest annual total in a decade. Some 238 funds closed the quarter and limited partners remain cautious amid poor liquidity and extended exit timelines.
Across the pond, European deal value also lagged in the second quarter, with pre-seed and seed rounds the hardest hit. AI represented a third of all European VC investment, but exit activity remains subdued, and fundraising is on pace for a record low, despite pockets of resilience from German funds and emerging managers.
The Asia Pacific and Latin American regions also continued to struggle in the quarter. The Asia Pacific region saw 67 VC-backed exits in the quarter, down from 244 in the first quarter, as public market softness and valuation mismatches stifled activity. Latin America fared worse, with only seven new funds closed in 2025 to date in contrast to more than 60 in 2021 and 2022.
The data reflects a venture market that could be argued to be cautiously optimistic but still constrained by liquidity concerns, fundraising challenges and a heavy dependence on AI to fuel deal activity.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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