The world venture market in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 6.4%
The volume of the world venture market in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 6.4% compared to the fourth quarter of the 2024th and amounted to $ 126.3 billion, follows from the KPMG data. This indicator has reached the maximum value in the last ten quarters. With an increase in volumes, the number of transactions is reduced – in the first three months of this year there were about 7.6 thousand, by 14.2% less than in the previous quarter (8.8 thousand).
According to KPMG analysts, the growth of start -up financing occurred against the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical conflicts, as well as fears around the global trade and new US tariff policy. The increase in the volume of investments was largely due to a series of megapsezzles in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). So, Openai attracted a record $ 40 billion in the first quarter. Among other major transactions – attracting Anthropic in American companies (OPENAI main competitors) and Infinite Reality (augmentation developer of augmented reality) $ 3.5 billion and $ 3 billion, respectively. Transactions with AI-Startapas were also in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
Almost three quarters of world financing came to the United States – $ 91.5 billion. Despite the growth of investments (plus 18.5% to the previous quarter), the number of transactions (3.3 thousand) in this country decreased the fourth quarter in a row – investors remain caution, analysts explain. In Europe, the amount of financing has not changed much – startups attracted $ 18 billion with almost 1.9 thousand transactions (six -year minimum in terms of quantitative indicator). The venture market in Asia continued a significant fall in both the number of transactions and the volume of funds raised. At 2.1 thousand transactions, the companies received $ 12.9 billion investments (minus 31.7%) – this is the lowest indicators over the past ten years.
The KPMG expects that in the second quarter of 2025, investors will be careful against the backdrop of fears regarding the expansion of trade wars and geopolitical uncertainty. Many investors take a waiting position until more clarity in the global economic situation. Nevertheless, according to the forecast of analysts, the sphere of AI, most likely, will still cause interest among venture investors. Also, their attention will be focused on advanced robotics and auxiliary technologies that increase the effectiveness of autonomous systems (solutions working without human participation). In addition, in the light of geopolitical tension, spheres such as defense technologies and cybersecurity can be of increasing interest, KPMG noted.
