Active startup investors largely kept up or increased their dealmaking pace in Q3, even as overall venture funding fell without new record megarounds for AI leaders. Per Crunchbase data, most of the busiest venture investors did more deals than in the prior quarter, including Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital. Top lead investors also picked up the pace, while the top seed dealmakers mostly kept their positions.
Y Combinator topped the ranking of investors in post-seed rounds with 45 deals. It usually ranks high because it joins follow-on rounds for startups it incubates. Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital came next. At least 22 investors took part in 10 or more known venture rounds in the quarter.
Among lead investors in venture rounds, Insight, Andreessen and Khosla Ventures ranked highest with 18, 16 and 12 rounds, respectively. Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia and Atreides Management each had 10 lead deals in Q3.
Crunchbase estimated capital deployed by ranking investors on the aggregate value of the rounds they led or co-led. Valor and Atreides tied for first with $7.7 billion each, and both firms were listed as leads on at least six of the same rounds, including Crusoe's $3.9 billion Series F and Positron's $375 million Series C. Andreessen Horowitz followed with $6.5 billion, mostly from Cognition's $2 billion round and Atoms' $1.7 billion financing. Nvidia was next with $6.3 billion, led by a $5 billion round for Safe Superintelligence.
Y Combinator was by far the busiest seed round investor in Q3, joining at least 221 known seed rounds. Antler followed with 31 reported seed rounds. LvlUp Ventures and Rebel Fund came next with 24 and 23 deals, respectively.
The rankings show another busy quarter for startup funding, with AI driving most dealmaking. Familiar names mostly topped the lists, but a few firms are scaling up their investments sharply, especially Atreides and Valor. Crunchbase noted that multi-investor rounds rarely show each backer's share, but lead backers usually put in a significant portion.