This is a monthly feature that runs down some of the most-active investors in U.S.-based companies, looks at some of their most interesting investments, and includes some odds and ends of who spent what. See April’s most-active startup investors here
Venture dealmakers kept busy in May, with a handful of especially active U.S. investors leading the way.
It was also a standout period for large rounds, with at least five deals at or surpassing $500 million. All told, there were more than two-dozen valued at $100 million or more.
Khosla Ventures and Accel were the most-active investors for the month, each backing a dozen venture funding rounds, per Crunchbase data.
Accel
Accel participated in a bevy of big rounds last month. The largest were a $900 million Series C for AI coding startup Anysphere, a $600 million financing for food delivery unicorn Wonder, and a $500 million investment for generative AI platform Perplexity.
Overall, the Silicon Valley-headquartered firm invested in a dozen reported venture financings in sectors including AI, healthcare and financial services. That was double its pace in April.
Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures also backed 12 rounds in May. Of those, the largest was a $350 million Series C for ClickHouse, an analytics and data warehousing provider. The firm also participated in a $130 million Series B for NewLimit, a longevity-focused biotech, and an $85 million Series A for Stylus Medicine, a developer of genetic medicines.
For Silicon Valley-based Khosla, this is the second month in a row it’s been in one of the top two most active slots. In April, the firm participated in 10 deals, second only to Andreessen Horowitz.
Spendiest lead investors
As for highest-spending lead venture investors, the top slots for May go to General Catalyst and Thrive Capital.
For General Catalyst, that’s mostly due to a single deal — a $1 billion financing for AI writing and productivity assistant Grammarly in which the firm was the sole backer. General Catalyst won’t get an equity stake in the company with this financing, but rather a cut of its revenue until a certain cap is met.
Thrive, meanwhile, led Anysphere’s $900 million round, with Andreessen and Accel participating. New York-based Thrive also took part in Neuralink’s $650 million financing, although the firm is not listed as a lead investor.
Also notable:
General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz were tied as the third-most-active venture investor in May, with 10 deals each.
Accel was the most active lead investor by deal count in May — with five investments — followed by Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and General Catalyst with four investments each.
Y Combinator was the top investing incubator and accelerator once again, investing in 20 startups in May.
Related reading:
Methodology
This is a list of investors which took part in the most rounds involving U.S.-based startups. It does not include incubators or accelerators due to the fluctuations their investment numbers can have.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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