Value of private equity-backed rounds down month over month in September

The value of global rounds of funding backed by private equity and venture capital decreased month over month in September.

The total transaction value of funding rounds announced during the month totaled $31.19 billion, a 7.8% decrease from August's total of $33.82 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

On a year-over-year basis, the transaction value was up 36.1% from $22.91 billion in September 2024.

The total number of funding rounds reached 1,352, marking the highest monthly tally since March. This volume was up 27.7% from 1,059 in August, but was down 7.0% from 1,453 in September 2024.

During the quarter ended Sept. 30, the value of funding rounds rose 17.3% year over year to $91.08 billion, while the volume went down 10.5% to 3,688.

Aggregate transaction values and volume may not match figures reported for preceding periods due to subsequently acquired disclosures and updates.

– Download a spreadsheet with data featured in this story. – Read about trends in value and volume of global private equity deals in September. – Explore more private equity coverage.

The technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector emerged as the leading recipient of funding rounds announced in September, securing $15.73 billion, or more than 50% of total investments. The healthcare and industrials sectors came in second and third place, respectively.

The TMT sector also saw a total of 451 funding rounds in September, down from 720 a year ago. Application software accounted for 232 transactions, or over 51% of the deal count.

Top rounds of funding

Four rounds of funding with a transaction value of over $1 billion each were announced in September.

The largest transaction was France-based Mistral AI SAS' $1.99 billion series C round, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz LLC, Bpifrance Investissement SAS, DST Global, General Catalyst Group Management LLC, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures LLC, NVIDIA Corp. and ASML Holding NV.

The second-largest transaction was US-based Cerebras Systems Inc.'s series G round, where the company raised $1.10 billion from investors including Alpha Wave Ventures, 1789 Capital Management LLC, Benchmark and Valor Management LLC.