Global Venture Funding Slowed In May While Startup M&A Picked Up, Led By Large OpenAI Acquisitions

Global venture funding reached $21.8 billion in May 2025, down 13% quarter over quarter and down a third year over year, Crunchbase data shows. The U.S. continued to dominate in May, with 56% of global venture funding invested in U.S.-based companies.

While funding slowed and the IPO market remained tepid, M&A activity increased. Startup acquisitions with disclosed prices totaled $24.7 billion in May, marking the second-highest monthly total since the start of 2024, Crunchbase data shows.

AI accounted for just over a quarter of funding in May, totaling $5.9 billion. AI remained the leading industry for funding, followed by healthcare and biotech at $5.4 billion. Funding to financial services, the third-largest sector, totaled $2.9 billion, Crunchbase data shows.

M&A picked up

Startup M&A activity increased in May, with $24.7 billion in exit value across 168 companies, according to Crunchbase data. That marks the second-largest month by exit amount since the beginning of 2024. The top month for M&A this year was March, when exits totaled $58.4 billion, including the $32 billion acquisition of Wiz by Google.

Notable M&A deals in May included:

• OpenAI went on an acquisition spree with deals to acquire Io for $6.5 billion and coding startup Windsurf for $3 billion.
• Belvilla, owned by Oyo, acquired rental platform MadeComfy.
• Coinbase acquired cryptocurrency exchange Deribit.
• DoorDash acquired hospitality industry CRM SevenRooms on the heels of announcing its Deliveroo acquisition.
• DataBricks acquired open-source SQL database Neon.

Notable IPOs

The IPO market remained slow last month. Only five companies went public above $1 billion in value: Israel-based social trading platform eToro, San Francisco-based digital clinic Hinge Health, Shanghai-based tea company Shanghai Auntie, India-based electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy, and Austin, Texas-based advertising platform MNTN.

Large funding deals

The largest startup funding round in May was a $1.25 billion deal for Turkish-based mobile game developer Dream Games by Luxembourg-based CVC Capital Partners that included buying out earlier investors.

The next-largest funding was $900 million for AI coding startup Anysphere, owner of Cursor, at a $9 billion value.

Large rounds of $500 million or more were also raised by Germany-based food delivery company Wonder, owner of Blue Apron and Grubhub; brain computer interface startup Neuralink; and AI search company Perplexity.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data reported as of June 3, 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.

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.

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.)