HumanX & Crunchbase AI Funding Report: 2024 Was The Breakout Year For Artificial Intelligence Investment
Plus, Crunchbase’s AI Prediction Engine Unveils Startups At HumanX Poised For Funding And Acquisitions In The Months Ahead
HumanX & Crunchbase: The Defining Moment for AI Investment
Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer the future — it’s the driving force of the present. In 2024, AI investment shattered expectations, pulling in an unprecedented $100 billion — one-third of all startup funding worldwide. This isn’t just a wave; it’s a seismic shift, and it’s only gaining momentum.
At HumanX, we don’t just talk about AI’s transformation — we bring together the leaders who are making it happen. Our stage is set for the visionaries, the disruptors, and the game-changing startups that are shaping the next decade of technology. And the numbers prove it: the 170 companies presenting at HumanX have raised a staggering $95 billion collectively, fueling breakthroughs across industries.
But while impressive, it is still backward-looking. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could use AI to predict the future? That’s exactly what we’ve done.
In partnership with Crunchbase, the world’s premier intelligence platform for private company data, this report doesn’t just analyze where the money has been — it reveals where it may be going next. Crunchbase’s AI-powered Prediction Engine has identified that nearly 30% of private AI companies presenting at HumanX are projected to be acquisition targets within the next year, signaling a wave of consolidation. Stefan Weitz, CEO of HumanX says, “AI is no longer a bet on the future — it’s where the smartest capital is flowing right now. This report with Crunchbase confirms what we’re seeing firsthand at HumanX: investors are doubling down on AI, not just in foundation models, but across the entire ecosystem — AI infrastructure, applied AI, and emerging sectors like robotics, cybersecurity, and autonomous systems."
"What’s most exciting is that the hundreds of startups featured on our stage are not just raising capital — they’re shaping the next era of technology. Crunchbase’s AI-powered predictions give us a glimpse into the future, and it’s clear: the companies at HumanX are the ones to watch."
From billion-dollar AI models to the infrastructure powering them, from autonomous systems to the next revolution in cybersecurity, the findings in this report illuminate the future of AI like never before.
As AI’s dominance continues to rise, HumanX remains the ultimate launchpad — where capital finds its next great investment, where startups ignite their growth, and where the future of AI takes center stage.
Welcome to the moment where everything changes.
AI led global funding
Artificial intelligence was the leading sector for global venture funding in 2024, Crunchbase data shows. A third of all startup funding last year went to AI-related companies, with more than $100 billion invested in the sector.
That also marked a significant jump year over year, with AI investment up more than 80% from the $56 billion raised in 2023.
While concerns have been raised about the profitability of foundation model companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic — which alone have raised tens of billions of dollars from investors — the majority of AI-related funding last year actually went to sectors impacted by AI innovation, Crunchbase data shows. That includes AI infrastructure and applied AI companies in various sectors such as autonomous driving, healthcare and robotics.
The launch of China-based DeepSeek’s open source model R1 rattled the public markets in late January. DeepSeek has been rapidly adopted by major U.S. companies, including Microsoft’s Azure, Amazon Web Services, Perplexity and Cerebras Systems, among others. While the U.S. has huge structural advantages, DeepSeek demonstrates that innovation in this sector can come from unexpected places. And as model costs come down, innovation speeds up.
Funding to AI in 2024 was higher than every year in the past decade, including the peak global funding year of 2021.
U.S. gains, San Francisco Bay Area leaps
Capital to the AI sector was highly concentrated in the U.S., Crunchbase data shows, with over 75% of AI funding in 2024 going to U.S.-based companies.
The San Francisco Bay Area in particular has experienced a startup renaissance of sorts in the past two years with companies heading back to the region. The Bay Area alone raised around 60% of all AI funding globally last year, per Crunchbase data.
In the U.S., $80 billion — or 45% of overall startup funding in the country — went to AI companies last year. Of that the majority — $62 billion — was invested in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The proportion of funding to AI was above 65% of the San Francisco Bay Area’s startup investment in 2024 — up from around 50% in 2023 — as multiple leading companies headquartered mere miles from one another raised at large valuations. They included OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Scale AI, and Perplexity.
While the Bay Area led by amounts invested in AI in 2024, deal counts were 20% of totals — underscoring the dominance of large deals in the sector.
Sectors in AI
While a small handful of foundation model companies raised billion-dollar rounds, the majority of total funding was invested in sectors impacted by the AI innovation.
Of those AI dollars, almost a third — around $31 billion — went to foundation model companies. That was up from 2023, when foundation model companies raised $23 billion, or just over 40% of AI funding that year.
A significant amount of funding went to the infrastructure that underlies these models — including companies in the semiconductor and data warehousing spaces, as well as the pick-and-shovel businesses that manage data and operationalize AI for companies.
Applied AI companies were across numerous sectors. Leading sectors by amounts invested were autonomous driving, healthcare, robotics, professional services, marketing and sales, cybersecurity, and military, Crunchbase data shows.
AI funding to female co-founded companies
Female co-founded AI-related companies based in North America and Europe have seen funding totals increase in recent years, in large part due to the billions raised by OpenAI and Anthropic. In 2023, companies with a female founder in those regions raised $22 billion, around 47% of funding that year, based on an analysis of Crunchbase data. In 2024 that dropped to $18 billion, or around 20% of funding to AI companies that year.
Deal count proportions to companies in Europe and North America with at least one female founder have been consistent since 2018. Our data shows that between 19% and 21% of deal counts over this period went to companies with at least one female founder.
Announcing HumanX
Collectively, 170 companies on the stage at HumanX have raised over $95 billion in the last decade, according to Crunchbase data.
Close to a third of that went to AI foundation model companies OpenAI and Anthropic, which have raised $31 billion in funding between them, largely since 2023.
Also on stage is Paris-based large language model company Mistral AI; Bay Area-based chatbot developer Inflection AI; Israel-based model developer AI21 Labs; New York-based voice synthesis company ElevenLabs; San Francisco-based AI code developer Poolside; Heidelberg-based Aleph Alpha, a platform to help companies orchestrate AI; and Contextual AI, which provides RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation, for enterprises.
Image generation AI companies include Brooklyn-based art model Hugging Face, and video generator Synthesia, and visual art startup Stability AI, both based in London.
Following is a list of select private companies in the AI sector that have raised more than $500 million in funding over time who are presenting at HumanX:
Crunchbase’s Prediction Engine: What’s next for AI startups?
This report has analyzed historical funding patterns to provide insight into the AI investment landscape. Now, we turn to Crunchbase’s new AI-Powered Predictions Engine to identify predictions for companies presenting on stage at HumanX.
About Crunchbase Predictions
Crunchbase’s AI-powered solution predicts trends and major milestones across millions of private companies. This unmatched scale comes from integrating vast amounts of data from the internet, government filings, direct input from knowledgeable investors and employees, thousands of data partners, an internal team of hundreds of experts, and aggregated usage data from Crunchbase’s 80 million active users.
Crunchbase’s AI analyzes those billions of market signals to uncover actionable patterns with incredible accuracy — whether identifying emerging startups and unicorns or predicting acquisitions and investments.
Acquisition predictions top funding
Crunchbase’s AI predictions indicate that several high-profile AI companies that will be on-stage at HumanX may be poised for major financial events in the near future.
Crunchbase foresees that a significant proportion of the companies presenting are likely acquisition targets. Of the 153 private companies, 45 companies (29%) are very likely to be acquired, per Crunchbase.
M&A forecasts are more prevalent than anticipated funding for this cohort of companies. Per Crunchbase’s predictions, around 22 companies are likely to raise funding. In part this is driven by the fact that 75 of these private companies (50%) have already raised equity funding since the start of 2024.
Of the 153 private companies presenting, 13% are at seed stage, 37% are early stage and 50% are in the growth equity stage.
While exits have slowed since 2023, for this AI cohort, M&A is looking up.
About HumanX
HumanX is an innovative AI conference dedicated to delivering actionable insights and connecting high-level executives with the latest advancements in AI technology. Founded by Jon Weiner and Stefan Weitz, industry veterans committed to reinventing the AI conference experience, HumanX focuses on practical applications and strategic networking opportunities, distinguishing itself from traditional, broad-spectrum conferences.
Learn more at www.humanx.co
About Crunchbase
Crunchbase is a predictive intelligence solution that forecasts private market movements using the unique combination of live private company data, AI, and market activity from 80M+ users. It helps investors, dealmakers, and analysts be the first to find and act on opportunities.
To learn more visit crunchbase.ai and follow Crunchbase on LinkedIn and X.
Methodology
The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Feb. 10, 2025.
Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.
Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.
Companies in AI include the following industries: artificial intelligence, generative AI, intelligent systems, machine learning, natural language processing, predictive analytics and robotic process automation.
Glossary of funding terms
Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.
Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. Crunchbase includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.
Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.
Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)
Disclaimer
This report has been prepared by HumanX and Crunchbase (collectively, the "Authors") for general informational purposes only. The statements made within are statements of opinion and are not intended to be, and should not be construed as, financial, legal, investment or other advice. In preparing this report, the Authors have assumed the accuracy and completeness of publicly available information and of other information (including information made available to the Authors by third parties). The Authors have not conducted any independent investigation or verification of such information (including, without limitation, data from third parties). The Authors assume no responsibility for updating or revising these materials.
Predictions may contain mistakes and are not legal, financial or investment advice. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained within this report and nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied upon as, a representation, whether as to the past. the present or the future. The Authors shall have no duties or obligations to you in respect of these materials.
The information provided herein is not a recommendation to purchase, hold or sell any particular security. The Authors are not making any recommendation or providing any investment advice regarding any specific company referenced herein.
All third-party names, product and service names and slogans (collectively, 'Third-Party Trademark[s]") contained in this report are the property of their respective owners and are used by the Authors to refer to the owners of the Third-Party Trademark(s) in question. Use is not intended to (and does not) constitute or imply any kind of relationship between the Authors and the owners of the Third-Party Trademark[s) in question, including any affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement or approval of products and/or services.
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