Coming off the heels of a great 2024 for Bronze Valley, we’re eager to hit the ground running in 2025 and optimistic about new opportunities in the venture ecosystem.
According to the latest data from the Q4 2024 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, there’s promise for what’s ahead. In 2024, metrics for average deal value and number of deals surpassed both pre-pandemic and 2023 totals; plus, the deal count for pre-seed/seed and early-stage deals had 2024 highs. In looking at the trends that shaped the venture capital industry, paired with our specific interests, three key themes will serve as drivers for Bronze Valley in 2025.
AI will continue to dominate – and help accelerate startups
Not surprisingly, AI continues to pique the interest and intrigue of investors and founders alike. AI startups captured a record 46.4% of the total $209 billion raised last year, and AI companies will continue to receive the bulk of capital in 2025.
With the promise of *new* AI startups aside, perhaps just as exciting is watching the evolution of companies within our portfolio enhance outputs and scale quicker by integrating and building their own advanced AI capabilities.
Take City Detect, for example, a company using advanced AI and computer vision technology to transform urban development with near real-time insights into housing conditions. Gavin Baum-Blake, Co-Founder and CEO, shares:
“It’s been incredibly exciting for us to ride the recent wave of advancement in the world of computer vision and artificial intelligence. Our continued improvement of our PASS AI system empowers us to generate truly actionable insights with a fraction of the effort required by human analysis of the built environment. As City Detect grows, our focus on advancing AI allows us to deliver deeper, data-driven solutions that transform complex problems into clear and impactful actions. By automating analysis and scaling decision-making with state-of-the-art model architectures, we enable city leaders to achieve more with less—creating smarter, more efficient cities while conserving valuable resources.”
The time is now for Renewable Energy & Sustainability
What we know to be true from organizations like the EPA is that low-income communities and communities of color are most impacted by climate change. By overlooking the effects of climate change, we are overlooking these communities.
Despite some rising anti-ESG viewpoints and the uncertainty that comes with any new administration, world leaders are calling for action and people like Bill Gates continue to double down, showing great promise for innovation in the space.
We have a keen interest in companies building solutions for clean energy generation and storage, zero-emissions transportation, and those focused on the ‘built environment,’ such as reducing the CO2 emissions of buildings.
Through programming, partnerships, and capital, we hope to increase access for founders in this sector to create a cleaner, more sustainable planet not only for the most vulnerable population, but for all.
Fundraising challenges for under-resourced founders will persist, unless…
….we continue to focus our collective efforts to address this critical issue.
Despite the “highs” of funding for Black-founded startups – which still only peaked at 1.4% in 2021 – the first half of 2024 returned to a “stagnant” rate of 0.3%. Hispanic founders raised 3.1% of all pre-seed funding in 2024, and women-only founding teams accounted for 4.1% according to Carta’s 2024 Annual Equity Report.
Investing in under-resourced founders has been our north star since Bronze Valley’s inception in 2018, and the focus has only sharpened since then. We remain committed to the innovation and impact brewing from these talented and uniquely positioned founders.
