2025年一季度新兴技术指标（英）

EMERGING TECH RESEARCH Emerging TechIndicator Top VC firms are funding applied AI, health & wellness tech, and cybersecurity Contents Key takeaways3 Institutional Research Group Introduction4 Analysis Deal activity5 Ben RiccioAssociate Research Analystben.riccio@pitchbook.com Areas of investment7 ETI deal segment spotlights12 Data AI Matthew NacionalesSenior Data Analyst pbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.com Biotech Publishing Cybersecurity Report designed byJenna O’MalleyandAdriana Hansen Web3 & DeFi Published on June 25, 2025 Other notable activity Venture activity summary ETI investor ranking35 Note: Data from prior quarters has been revised from the previous emergingtech indicator (ETI) report to reflect the latest funding data available. Key takeaways •Top VC firms fund fewest seed and early-stage startups since 2020:ETI funding (seed andearly-stage deals involving the top 15 VC firms) reached almost $5 billion across 161 deals. Whiledeal value remains elevated relative to the past two years, deal count has fallen 50% YoY. Thesedivergent trends highlight the concentration of capital in fewer deals due to early-stage startupsattracting larger checks from top investors. As a result, ETI funding represents an increasingshare of total VC funding—accounting for 17.1% of total seed and early-stage VC funding in Q1,well above the 2019-2023 average of 11%. •Deal sizes and valuations grow:ETI deals continue to exceed those of the broader VC industryboth in size and valuation. Angel and seed rounds are 3x larger, while early-stage ETI deals havegrown to 7.4x the industry median. Median pre-money valuations for early-stage ETI deals havegrown to a high of $111.5 million compared with a median pre-money valuation of $25 million forall VC deals. •Other funding trends:Aside from AI, top investors funded climate tech solutions in PacificFusion’s $900 million Series A and Harbinger Motors’ $100 million Series B. Health & wellnesstech and Web3 & DeFi also remained active areas of investment, attracting 15 and 13 deals,respectively. While still a small area of overall ETI funding, top firms increased dealmaking inindustrial tech and defense tech—the result of a new focus on domestic manufacturing andemerging opportunities from a proposed US Department of Defense budget expansion. •AI remains on top:AI remained the leading ETI vertical, with $1.1 billion invested across 35deals. Investment concentrated in agentic AI and deployment tools, signaling the next phaseof AI investing as enterprise applications begin to materialize. Additionally, another 37 dealswent to startups in other verticals implementing some form of AI technology in their productofferings. Top deals included Together AI’s $305 million Series B, Lila Sciences’ $200 millionseed round, and Hippocratic AI’s $141 million Series B. Introduction The Emerging Tech Indicator (ETI) provides a quarterly review of angel, seed, and early-stageinvestment activity involving a limited subset of the world’s most successful VC firms that accountfor roughly 10% of total VC investment. The analysis provides a unique perspective into the types oftechnologies that top investors view as the most promising while also tracking how aggressively theseinvestors are making capital allocation decisions. In the first quarter of 2025 we tracked 161 angel, seed, and early-stage VC deals that involved thetop 15 VC firms (relative to 5,723 total angel, seed, and early-stage VC deals). These firms aredetermined each quarter based on the success of their investments over time in terms of bothexits and valuations.1As shown in the charts on the right, ETI startups identified via our top-15investor methodology have outperformed the broader VC industry, exhibiting higher exit rates andvaluations. This report reviews the products and technologies being developed by ETI startups. Disclaimer: Data from the ETI report represents a snapshot of venture activity at a certain pointin time. Historical datasets are continuously being adjusted to incorporate new informationas we collect it, complicating efforts to compare the current ETI dataset with previouslypublished reports. Deal activity In Q1, ETI deal activity totaled nearly $5 billion, marking increases of 9.5% QoQ and 26.6% YoY.Deal counts, however, continued to plummet, with the total of 161 deals in Q1 marking a significant50% YoY decrease and the lowest count since Q2 2020’s 154. As deal volume contracts sharply,funding is consolidating in fewer, larger deals. Deals over $50 million accounted for two-thirdsof Q1’s funding despite only representing 15% of deal count. This trend signifies both increasedinvestor selectivity as well as a willingness to place larger early-stage bets in capital-intensiveverticals. AI startups and supporting infrastructure, such as datacenters and alternative energyproduction, are raising larger rounds at earlier stages. This quarter, for example, included PacificFusion’s $900 milli