With VC drying, seed funding grows more selective

Where seed funding is going. SAN FRANCISCO -- Seed investors are traditionally the first to make bets on promising start-ups and emerging technologies, giving an early indication of where the tech industry is headed. Such was the case in the early 2000s, when they poured money into social media, and the last few years, with autonomous vehicles. If new numbers from market researcher Crunchbase released this morning are any indication, the spaces to watch now are augmented and virtual reality, machine learning and -- yes -- cars again. But there appear to be fewer sure bets in what increasingly has been a downward arc in venture funding.