That, in the most basic prose, was the general atmosphere for U.S. startup funding in January. Well-known firms topped the ranks of active investors, including a few that were best known as prolific dealmakers during the last market boom. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz ranked among the busiest venture and lead investors, while Y Combinator kept up the lead for seed deals. The list of lead investors in the largest rounds, meanwhile, had SoftBank and Tiger Global Management in the top ranks. Two seed investors ' Y Combinator and Alumni Ventures ' topped the ranks due to larger seed rounds and participation in follow-on financings for portfolio companies. January's standouts among venture investors, meanwhile, were Lightspeed, a16z and Sequoia. By this measure, Lightspeed and Sequoia topped the ranks, each with five lead deals. Lightspeed's largest was a $300 million Series A for AI chip design startup Ricursive Intelligence, while the biggest deal...
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