Although global venture funding rose overall in 2024, it wasn’t a particularly strong year for emerging economies. Gains largely came from AI megadeals for companies in Silicon Valley and other big tech hubs.

Even so, there were a few countries with smaller startup scenes that saw sharp year-over-year gains in venture funding. Below, we look at four of the standouts.

Philippines

Startup investment in the Philippines was up in 2024. Reported funding totaled $245 million across stages, an increase of 67% from the prior year.

There was no single giant round that fueled the gains, but rather a number of good-sized investments.

One of the larger deals was a $30 million Series A extension round for Manila-based installment loan provider Salmon. Other noteworthy rounds included a $25 million growth equity investment for Dali Discount, a discount grocery retailer, and a $12.5 million Series B for Lhoopa, a platform for buying and selling homes.

The funding rise last year comes off a low base. Venture investment to the Philippines hit a multiyear low in 2023. Even at 2024’s elevated levels, we’re still far below the market peak in 2022.

Ireland

Irish startups had something to smile about last year. Venture funding totaled nearly $1.2 billion in 2024 — roughly double year-earlier levels.

Leading the pack was Dublin-headquartered TechMet, a startup focused on securing supplies of critical minerals for battery and energy tech, which landed a $180 million August financing.

Biotechs also did well. Mainstay Medical, which is working on neurostimulation therapy for low back pain, picked up $125 million in a February equity financing round. And SynOx Therapeutics, which is developing therapies to treat tumors in the soft tissue around joints, landed $92 million for its Series B.

Still, as with the Philippines, Ireland’s investment was rising off a comparatively low base, as the 2023 venture funding total was the lowest in years. In each of the three years prior to that, Ireland startups pulled in over $2 billion annually.

Argentina

Argentina was a standout in 2024, with $415 million in reported startup investment. That’s more than triple year-earlier levels.

Drilling down, however, it’s clear that the gain principally came from a single round. Uala, a Buenos Aires-based neobank, raised $300 million in a November Series E round led by Allianz X, the investment arm of German insurer Allianz.

If it weren’t for that financing, investment would have been relatively flat year over year.

While no other round came close to Uala’s, other Argentina-based startups did manage to secure sizable rounds. Two were payments infrastructure companies: Pomelo, which raised $40 million in a January Series B, and Tapi, which closed on $22 million in Series A funding.

Notably, last year’s funding rise came amid a time of dramatic governance changes affecting Argentina’s currency and economy. In December 2023, the newly elected government of President Javier Milei announced a 50% devaluation of the national currency. Last summer, it passed legislation laying out a series of incentives to draw foreign investment.

Czech Republic

With a low unemployment rate, growing economy and large tech talent base, the Czech Republic, or Czechia, has plenty of attributes that make for an attractive startup hub. Plus, of course, there’s its capital city, Prague, long ranked among the world’s most livable and architecturally impressive cities.

That desirability may be reflected in recent funding tallies. For 2024, Czech startups pulled in $337 million in reported funding across stages — a more than fourfold increase from the prior year.

Roughly half of last year’s total came from a single round: A $170 million growth financing for Rohlik Group, an online grocery delivery service.

Mews, a Prague-based hotel property management system purveyor, picked up the next-biggest round, pulling in $110 million in a March Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation.

Notably, all other reported rounds were below $10 million, and primarily seed-stage. That could lead one to think that the high 2024 tally may have been something of a fluke, with two domestic unicorns securing big rounds.

Looking further back, however, it appears 2023 was an exceptionally weak year for funding, and 2024 was still far below recent highs. In the two years from 2021 and 2022, for instance, Czech companies pulled in over $1.5 billion, per Crunchbase data.

Surprises in store for 2025?

Crunching the numbers for these country-specific datasets, their unpredictability is always striking. Who would have guessed that this particular subset of nations would have outperformed their peers?

This time around, another surprise was that of the major African startup hubs, none that we surveyed showed a large year-on-year funding rise. This stood out in particular considering that Africa is the continent with the world’s fastest-growing population.

Of course, all it takes is a few big unicorn rounds to change the narrative for countries with smaller startup scenes. We’ll be keeping an eye out for those in coming quarters.

Related Crunchbase Pro lists:

• Philippines Startup Funding, 2024
• Ireland Startup Funding, 2024
• Argentina Startup Funding, 2024
• Czech Republic Startup Funding, 2024

Related reading:

• Startup Funding Regained Its Footing In 2024 As AI Became The Star Of The Show

Illustration: Dom Guzman