Today on Equity () , Julie Bort sits down with Crunchbase News’ Senior Data Editor, Gené Teare, to dive deeper into the year’s slight growth in investment () , which reached $314 billion, up from $304 billion in 2023. The pair explores how AI became a dominant force in the landscape. As Teare puts it, “Tech rides on bubbles. What bubbles tell you is that if everyone’s putting dollars into a certain sector, it means there are very big outcomes coming.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• The surge of AI investment and what it signals for the future

• The challenges startups face in raising capital, particularly in Series A

• Regional concentration of venture funding, especially in the U.S.

• What’s next for the IPO market as we look toward 2025

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. 

Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts () , Overcast () , Spotify () and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X () and Threads () , at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here () .

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. We’d also like to thank TechCrunch’s audience development team. Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll talk to you next time.

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