AI funding rounds commanded huge prices in 2024, but corporate investors also made large bets in healthcare, energy and robotics.
It was a curious year in corporate VC. There were a few investors at the top willing to bet big on the AI rush but on the other side, though the exits drought meant that far more slowed down their investments or quietly stopped.
Technology keeps on rolling regardless, and there were a range of areas that saw strong activity. Here’s a guide to what was hot and what was not in 2024.
Corporates spend big on AI despite the disappearance of the IPO
It was a third miserable year in a row for the IPO market, with flotations for tech companies far and few in between.
But while access to the public market access was closed off private capital was abundant, at least in the case of AI-related investments. OpenAI attracted Microsoft, SoftBank and Nvidia for a $6.6bn round that valued it at an immense $157bn, while Amazon completed a $4bn investment in OpenAI’s biggest rival in the generative AI sector, Anthropic, and promptly pledged another $4bn eight months later.
Google owner Alphabet led a $5.6bn round for autonomous taxi service Waymo at a $45bn valuation, but all of those were pipped by multicorporate-backed Databricks, which raised $10bn in the year’s largest round just days ago. Notably, all four of those deals closed in the last quarter of the year – is this a sign 2025 could be the next boom time for startups?
Companies are all setting up AI funds – and they’re getting bigger
If last year’s generative AI boom led to several corporates launching dedicated funds, 2024 was the year they became supercharged, with a series of big-money commitments and tailored investment vehicles.
Oil and gas producer Saudi Aramco announced at the start of the year that it had reserved 20% of its $500m Wa’ed Ventures fund for AI investments, and Salesforce Ventures announced in September it was putting $500m into a second AI fund – double the size of the debut fund at launch a year earlier. Another enterprise software producer, Zendesk, formed its first CVC unit this year, just to invest in the sector, while PayPal and Databricks formed separate funds through their own venture subsidiaries.
The largest initiative yet however was the $1bn fund unveiled by Cisco Investments in June, which was responsible for bets on unicorns Mistral AI, Cohere and Scale AI. But backing AI startups is an expensive business – 20% of its capital had been allocated by the end of September.
AI’s resource needs are lifting data centre technology
Generative AI is increasingly entering the mainstream, but its greater use means a need for data centres to handle the operating load, and SoftBank Vision Fund helped Singapore-based data centre operator GDS International hike its series B round to $1.2bn earlier this month.
On the technology side, Celestial AI attracted half a dozen corporations for a $175m series C round to fund optical interconnect technology for use in AI-focused data centres, while Altair, Nvidia and Cisco helped Xscape Photonics close a $44m series A for its own data centre chip technology.
But with those data centres’ electricity needs comes a requirement to make them more energy-efficient. Infinitum lifted a Chevron and Rockwell Automation-backed series E round to $220m on the back of its air-core motor systems, which are designed to cool data centres with less energy. Nvidia meanwhile backed a $600m round for Crusoe, which is building a range of data centres powered by gas that would otherwise have been flared off from gas fields. Earlier this year we also looked at 11 earlier-stage data centre energy startups investors should have have on the radar.
Energy looks to the distant future
As alternative energy sources such as wind and solar have become well-established, venture dollars are flowing into new forms of energy generation, with corporates unconcerned about the seemingly long period before commercialisation.
Nuclear energy featured again but this year the big money flowed into startups working on small and modular nuclear systems. Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund led a $500m round for small modular reactor developer X-Energy and declared plans to bring 5 GW of plants online in the next 15 years. Radiant meanwhile secured $100m in a Chevron-backed round as it looks to deliver a prototype of its microreactors for testing by 2026. Last Energy bagged $40m from backers such as Autodesk Foundation, with plans to build $390m of modular microreactor plants in the UK.
Hydrogen also had another notable year, and it was green hydrogen, the form of hydrogen generation that uses water electrolysis, that emerged as the key recipient of cash. Sunrise and Hysata raised over $430m between them while Koloma, a developer of geologic hydrogen generation it claims has a similarly low carbon footprint to electrolysis, received $295m from investors including Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Osaka Gas, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and United Airlines Ventures.
Carbon capture emerges as a key focus for energy companies
Carbon capture has been around for a while but 2024 was when it solidified itself as a significant destination for CVC investment.
Heirloom raised $150m from backers such as Japan Airlines, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Siemens, H&M and Mitsui OSK Lines for a system that combines limestone mineralisation technology with direct air capture (DAC), one of a number of DAC startups including CarbonCapture, Mission Zero and Ucaneo to score corporate funding. It wasn’t just air-based startups either: Captura and Carbon Ridge each bagged cash for maritime carbon capture solutions.
Money is also increasingly flowing into technologies that can store or reuse carbon emissions. Alaska Airlines and IAG were among the investors as CO²-to-fuel technology developer Twelve closed $645m in financing while Air Company, Again and Kenya’s Bio-Logical each completed corporate-backed rounds for systems that take CO² and use it as the basis for new products.
Semaglutide opened up a new area for pharmaceutical startups
The usage of drugs Ozempic and Wegovy exploded over the course of 2024 as they increasingly began to be used for treating type 2 diabetes and obesity. But Semaglutide, the receptor agonist used as the basis for those medications, has an array of side effects that make it tricky as a long-term option. That’s why this year saw a range of startups with new drug candidates focusing on obesity and metabolic diseases.
The two standouts were Metsera, which raised some $550m from the likes of GV and SoftBank Vision Fund over the course of the year, and BioAge Labs, which closed a $170 round featuring Eli Lilly and Amgen in February. Seven months later, it became one of the few startups to go public in 2024.
Antag Therapeutics and OrsoBio also closed substantial corporate-backed rounds at early stage. Ozempic and Wegovy were responsible for nearly $7bn in revenue for Novo in the last financial quarter alone – if any of the newer startups can launch an effective rival, they’ll be a goldmine for investors.
Your next surgery could be performed by a robot
AI is already having an impact on data analytics, call centres and the legal industry, but it is also speeding up the development of robots. One of the areas that is affecting us is the development of surgical robotics, with a string of startups in this area capturing corporate cash this year.
Nvidia helped Neocis, creator of a robotic dental surgery robot, secure $20m in January, while Qingdao Baheal Medical led a $78m round for radiosurgery system developer ZAP Surgery in November. In between those deals, the likes of Surgar, Symphera and SpinEM all nabbed corporate funding for their own surgical robotics products.
AI is also helping other aspects of surgery. Several corporates helped CareSyntax, a developer of AI-based surgery optimisation technology, push its series C round past $300m, while France’s Pixee Medical raised $15m from investors including insurer Relyens for an augmented reality system for use in orthopaedic surgery.
China accelerates in the space race
Space technology had another exciting year in 2024, but it was notable that, in contrast to 2023 when many of the largest corporate-backed rounds were for US startups like Axiom Space, Firefly Aerospace and Sierra Space, the big money largely headed towards East Asia this year.
China in particular made its presence known, amidst an announcement in October that the government wants to make it a “a world power in space science” by 2050. Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology raised $933m as it looked to build a low-orbit internet system to rival Starlink, while Beijing Tianbing Technology closed a $207m series C+ round and satellite technology provider Gesi nabbed $84.5m.
In terms of numbers meanwhile, Japan produced a range of early-stage spacetech companies, and often in more esoteric areas. They included reusable spacecraft developer ElevationSpace, space laser technology developer Orbital Lasers and Pale Blue, creator of a water-based electric propulsion system for spacecraft.
Taking big swings sometimes means taking big losses
No one said the road to the future was going to be smooth, and 2024 also made clear that investing at huge valuations sometimes means making a sizeable loss if things don’t work out.
The most notable casualty of the year was electric battery producer Northvolt, which filed for bankruptcy in November having raised nearly $7bn in debt and equity financing in the previous 18 months, Volkswagen among the investors. Building two gigafactories and having another four in construction or development is ambitious but when you’re fighting Chinese competitors who can outdo you on cost, that money is only going to last so long.
GV-backed vertical farm operator Bowery – a $2bn company in its last round – closed the same month. Hydrogen jet developer Universal Hydrogen crashed in July leaving 10 CVC backers adrift, while virtual power plant operator Swell Energy shut down in August, less than two years after a $120m round led by SoftBank. The common thread in all of these cases was simple — none could find a route to profitability.
