Where are emerging managers placing their biggest bets?
The venture capital landscape is undergoing a significant transformation as specialized funds emerge to tackle the unique challenges and opportunities within specific technology sectors. Between 2020 and 2025, four sectors have commanded particular attention: Artificial Intelligence (AI), DeepTech, FinTech, and Healthcare. Together, these sectors have represented nearly 40% of new and emerging VC funds over the past years, marking a decisive shift away from generalist investment approaches.
This evolution reveals distinct trends across each sector: AI funds have surged from 5.4% to 24.5% of new fund launches over the past four years; Healthcare leads in gender diversity, with 25.5% of teams led by women; FinTech boasts one of the highest first-close success rates at 48%; and DeepTech shows steady momentum, with market share projected to exceed 12% in 2025.
As these specialized sectors continue to reshape the venture capital ecosystem, understanding their unique characteristics and trajectories becomes increasingly crucial for investors, entrepreneurs, and market analysts alike. Based on quantitative data from 700+ funds that successfully completed VC Lab between 2020 and 2025, the following analysis delves deep into these four transformative sectors, examining the key drivers behind their growth, the evolving dynamics of fund leadership, and the implications for the future of technology investment through 2025 and beyond.
Sector Growth Trends and Market Share
The venture capital landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation, with AI emerging as the clear frontrunner in sector-focused fund allocation. Between 2020 and 2025, four key sectors—AI (11.3%), FinTech (10.9%), DeepTech (12.2%), and Healthcare (8.5%)—collectively accounted for nearly 40% of all new funds, signaling a significant shift in investor priorities.
The AI Surge
The most striking trend is AI's meteoric rise in fund allocation. Starting at a modest 5.4% in 2022, AI-focused funds have experienced exponential growth:
2022: 5.4%
2023: 10.6% (96% year-over-year growth)
2024: 17.5% (65% year-over-year growth)
2025: 24.5% (40% year-over-year growth)
This rapid acceleration reflects the maturation of AI technologies and growing investor confidence in their return potential—momentum that new and emerging managers are actively tapping into.
Sector Evolution and Market Dynamics
DeepTech has demonstrated robust growth, driven by breakthroughs in quantum computing, advanced materials, and robotics. The sector's increase from 8.5% in 2022 to 12.2% in 2025 reflects growing investor confidence in commercializing frontier technologies. Key subsectors including semiconductor development and space technology have attracted significant capital, particularly from specialized funds with technical expertise.
Healthcare has demonstrated consistent expansion from 6.2% in 2022 to 14.3% in 2025, driven by advances in biotechnology and medical innovation. The sector's growth reflects increasing investor confidence in breakthrough treatments and digital health solutions. Key subsectors including genomic medicine and AI-driven diagnostics have attracted substantial investment, particularly from funds with deep healthcare expertise.
FinTech presents a unique case study in sector volatility:
2022: 16.3%
2023: 12.9% (21% year-over-year decline)
2024: 5.6% (57% year-over-year decline)
2025: 10.2% (82% year-over-year growth)
This pattern likely reflects market saturation in traditional FinTech verticals, followed by renewed interest in emerging financial technologies like blockchain and decentralized finance.
Market Share Analysis
The collective market share of 61% across AI, DeepTech, FinTech and Healthcare in 2025 highlights these sectors as the dominant trends for the year. Meanwhile, 39% of funds focus on other sectors, demonstrating healthy diversification across other key sectors, such as ClimateTech, B2B/SaaS, Impact and Diversity.
The evolution of these sectors suggests a maturing venture capital market where specialized expertise is increasingly valued. This trend toward specialization is likely to continue, with AI leading the charge, while DeepTech and Healthcare maintain steady growth, and FinTech undergoes market-driven recalibration.
Fund Structure and Leadership Patterns
The organizational architecture and leadership composition of venture capital funds reveal distinct patterns across AI, DeepTech, FinTech, and Healthcare sectors. These patterns offer fascinating insights into how different sectors approach fund management and highlight ongoing challenges in diversity and representation.
Solo GP Dominance
Across all four sectors, solo General Partners (GPs) represent the majority of fund leadership, though with notable variations. Healthcare funds show the highest proportion of solo GPs at 66.0%, followed by FinTech at 63.3%. This trend might reflect the specialized expertise required in these sectors, where individual domain knowledge can be particularly valuable.
In AI and DeepTech, solo GPs comprise 58.7% and 56.2% of funds respectively. These lower percentages suggest that the complex, multidisciplinary nature of AI and DeepTech investments often benefits from collaborative leadership models where multiple partners can contribute diverse technical expertise and perspectives to evaluate cutting-edge technologies and their market potential.
Gender Gap
Perhaps the most striking observation in fund leadership demographics is the significantly higher representation of women-led funds in Healthcare compared to other sectors. Healthcare's leadership composition stands out with 25.5% of funds led by all-women - more than double the representation in other sectors. This could be attributed to several factors:
Historically higher representation of women in healthcare professions
Strong networks of women healthcare professionals transitioning to venture capital
Targeted initiatives to promote women leadership in healthcare investment
Conversely, AI shows the lowest gender diversity, with 79% of funds led by all-men, while DeepTech and FinTech funds follow similar patterns with 76% and 74% male-led teams respectively. This mirrors broader challenges in gender representation within the technology and financial sectors, and underscores a critical need for increased diversity across venture capital overall, particularly in emerging fields where diverse perspectives could drive innovation and more inclusive development of transformative technologies.
Launch and First-Close Success Rates
The journey from fund launch to first close reveals striking differences across specialized sectors, with FinTech and DeepTech funds demonstrating notably higher success rates compared to their AI and Healthcare counterparts. The success rates and average close amounts provide key insights into sector-specific funding dynamics and investor confidence patterns.
Success Rates and First-Close Amounts
DeepTech leads in early fundraising performance, with a first-close success rate approximately 1.4x higher than both AI and Healthcare, and the second-highest average first-close amount at $2.7MM. FinTech follows closely, matching DeepTech’s success rate and recording the highest average close at $2.9MM. In contrast, AI and Healthcare trail with more modest first-close averages of $1.7MM and $1.6MM, respectively.
Sector-Specific Patterns
Among funds that reached a first close, a closer look at first-close distributions across sectors uncovers distinct fundraising patterns and strategic positioning:
Smaller First Closes (> $0MM – < $5MM):
Healthcare leads with 76% of funds achieving a first close in this range, reflecting a more measured fundraising approach that may appeal to niche or mission-aligned investors.
AI follows at 67%, then DeepTech (57%) and FinTech (55%), suggesting relatively higher early-stage capital commitments in the latter sectors.
Mid-Range First Closes (> $5MM – < $10MM):
FinTech (24%) and DeepTech (22%) stand out in this bracket, indicating strong momentum among investors willing to commit at a moderate level.
AI sees 14% in this range, while Healthcare at 12% remains consistent with its early-stage, focused capital strategy.
Larger First Closes (≥ $10MM):
DeepTech (22%) and FinTech (21%) continue to lead in substantial early closes, followed closely by AI (19%), reflecting strong confidence in these sectors’ scalability and potential.
Healthcare, at 12%, may indicate a more gradual fundraising curve, potentially due to longer diligence cycles or alignment with impact-driven capital sources.
Key Takeaways
The comparative analysis of emerging VC funds across AI, DeepTech, FinTech, and Healthcare sectors over the past 4-5 years reveals distinct patterns that will shape the venture capital landscape in the near future:
AI: Fund launch momentum by new and emerging managers has grown over 4.5x since 2022. While average first-close amounts remain modest, long-term potential is clear—especially in booming areas like generative AI, enterprise automation, and AI infrastructure.
DeepTech: Strong first-close success rates and high average first-close amounts reflect solid investor confidence. Consistent fund formation is driven by breakthroughs in areas like semiconductors, quantum computing, and robotics.
FinTech: After a sharp dip in interest in 2024, fund launches are rebounding with the highest average first-close size. Renewed interest in embedded finance, DeFi, and B2B financial infrastructure seems to be fueling the recovery.
Healthcare: Fund launches have more than doubled since 2022, showing the highest representation of women-led funds compared to other sectors. While average first-close amounts remain modest, momentum is building across subsectors like digital health, AI-driven diagnostics, and genomic medicine.
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