Venture capital deal activity in media fell 54% year over year in March amid continued disruption and uncertainty created by artificial intelligence.
According to new data from PitchBook, there was $49.7 million worth of VC dealmaking activity in the media sector alone, down from $107.1 million in March 2025. The month had 20 total deals, compared to a total of 28 during the same month a year ago.
It also marks a 49% decrease from February, which had a total of 22 deals valued at an aggregate of $94.1 million.
When taking a broader look across entertainment software, publishing, media and information during the month, there was a total of $299.7 million in VC deal activity across a total of 34 deals, down from $331.5 million across 56 total deals during the same period a year ago.
It also marks a 42.9% decrease from February, when there was $525 million in activity from total of 20 deals.
The decline reflects what has been the dominant theme over the last year: the unpredictability of artificial intelligence in our lives and various industries. While a ton of money has poured into AI ventures, there remains a lot of question on their return and whether the market is overheated.
“Entertainment and media continue through a period of disruption and uncertainty due to AI,” PitchBook’s director of VC research Kyle Stanford told TheWrap. “Because of this, you see many deals early in the venture lifecycle and relatively fewer later stage and large deals as the market figures out its path.”
As for M&A deals, T-Mobile’s acquisition of Ryan Reynold’s Maximum Effort and Media Do International’s acquisition of Seven Seas Entertainment were the largest by size. Read on for the full breakdown.
VC Investments: Xona Space System, Keynes and Halcyon lead in March
Xona Space Systems completed a $170 million Series C funding round led by Mohari Ventures Natural Capital to accelerate the deployment of its Pulsar constellation and scale satellite production at a new factory in Burlingame, Calif. Other investors who contributed include Craft Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, Woven Capital, NGP Capital, Samsung Next and Hexagon.
“The systems shaping the next generation of our physical world: autonomous machines, robotics, precision agriculture, resilient infrastructure, next-generation defense, demand a level of precision and reliability that legacy navigation systems were never built to deliver,” Xona co-founder and CEO Brian Manning said. “This marks the moment when next-generation navigation infrastructure moves from concept and theory to global deployment.”
Connected TV (CTV) advertising platform Keynes secured a $40 million minority investment from Volition Capital. The fresh capital will be used to improve its technology infrastructure, expand data integrations, strengthen its measurement capabilities and scale its team to support advertisers as streaming continues to command a growing share of media consumption and advertising budgets.
“We’ve always believed that sustainable growth comes from doing right by clients and building a strong internal culture,” Keynes founder and CEO Dan Larkman said. “This partnership gives us the resources to move faster without compromising the principles that define Keynes, and we’re just getting started.”
In AI, energy platform Halycon raised $21 million in a Series A round led by Energize Capital, with participation from Zero Infinity Partners, Congruent Ventures, Obvious Ventures, Sabanci Climate Ventures and others. The funds will be used to expand its software and data capabilities and scale to meet demand from the world’s largest energy investors, developers, and operators.
“We’ve been humbled by the breadth of customer interest and use cases we’ve uncovered over the past two years, and we’re just getting started. The energy and AI buildout is one of the defining economic stories of our time, and the opportunity to apply modern compute, machine learning, and AI to it is bigger than we imagined,” Halcyon co-founder and CEO Bruce Falck said. “This fundraise means more resources to put to work for our customers, and we’re grateful to Energize Capital and everyone who’s supported us, challenged us, and pushed us to do better.”
Other highlights from the top 10 deals during the month:
- BlueFlag Security, an identity-based security company for software developers, raised $16.5 million from Ambar Bhattacharyya’s Maverick Ventures, Pier 88 Investment Partners and Ten Eleven Ventures
- GlobalComix, a platform that provides publishing and translation services for comics publishers, professionals and indie creators, raised $13 million from a group of investors including Ishan Sinha’s Point72 Ventures and Blake Shaevitz.
- Nitrility, a music licensing marketplace, raised $5.5 million from a group of investors including Bernard Anault’s Aglaé Ventures and DJ and music producer Diplo
- Midsummer Studios, an independent game studio which raised $3.6 million.
Largest M&A Deal By Size: T-Mobile’s Maximum Effort
The largest U.S. media deal by far for the month was T-Mobile’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort. This isn’t the first time T-Mobile has cozied up with Reynolds, having paid $1.35 billion in cash and stock for his Mint Mobile prepaid wireless service in 2024.
The T-Mobile C-suite must be big fans of Deadpool.
In addition, there was Media Do International’s $80 million acquisition of Seven Seas Entertainment, E.W Scripps’ $15.8 million acquisition of WTVQ and Heartland Signal’s $250,000 acquisition of AM950.
Media Do International-Seven Seas Entertainment also topped the largest entertainment software, publishing media and information M&A deal by size for the month.
Other large deals across entertainment software, publishing media and information included Sagacity Media’s $1.6 million acquisition of Hour Detroit Magazine, Super League’s 1.5 million acquisition of Misfits Game Group’s ads division and Alaska First Media’s $1.28 million acquisition of Local First Media Group.
This report is a partnership between WrapPRO and PitchBook, the go-to financial data and software platform that provides detailed information on private and public capital markets.
