VCs got lazy in the final month of the summer, committing nearly $4.5 billion in capital in 558 August venture deals. In comparison to the $7 billion invested in July and $8.4 billion in June, it seems investors have finally taken a break to enjoy the dog days of summer.

Investments spiked in the final week of the month, however, with Wednesday fundings alone totaling nearly $600 million. Massive rounds announced on Wednesday include storage infrastructure provider Nutanix’s $140 million Series E round, online tech training service Pluralsight’s new $135 million round, and Taiwanese music streaming service KKBOX’s $104 million Series B round.

Kimora Lee Simmons’ fashion site JustFab joined the $1 billion club this week, while both Pluralsight and Jessica Alba’s eco-friendly products startup The Honest Company just missed with valuations approaching $1 billion. Time to update the list again.

Participation in the Pluralsight funding was enough to boost Insight Venture Partners and ICONIQ Capital onto the monthly Investor Leaderboard, capturing the 7th and 8th spots in terms of total amount invested in August.

After leading the way in previous weeks, Sequoia came out on top this month as expected, raising a total of $365 million in 13 investments. Sequoia’s largest investments include participation in the $100 million round for local services marketplace Thumbtack and the $50 million Series C round single-handedly poured into customer experience management startup Medallia.

Accel, Bezos Expeditions, and Wellington Management captured spots two, three, and four, all in part to participation in mobile security company Lookout’s whopping $150 million Series F round raised earlier this month. Andreessen Horowitz and Index also participated in the round led by T. Rowe Price that Lookout will use to increase its user base to 100 million and bring its mobile device protection to the enterprise market.

Sequoia came in first once again on August’s most active investor list, securing double honors for investing not only the most cash but partaking in the highest number of deals as well.

New Enterprise Associates followed close behind with 10 investments totaling $265 million in capital committed. More than a third of that total went into Ed Tech, with an $85 million investment in Desire2Learn’s integrated learning platform and another $30 million in Edmodo’s social learning network for students and teachers.

Accel – ranked third for most active investor with 7 investments – contributed to the classroom as well, backing FreshGrade in a seed round that will boost development of its assessment and communications platform for teachers.

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  • Originally published August 29, 2014, updated April 26, 2023