For the first time since at least 2015, venture capitalists wrote more checks to enterprise technology companies than their peers in the consumer market.

That’s the main takeaway from year-end funding numbers PitchBook Data Inc. provided to Bloomberg for a report published this week. According to the market intelligence provider, enterprise startups raised a combined $30.42 billion, while the consumer technology segment attracted $23.26 billion.

It’s a vast difference made all the more pronounced by the trend that emerges from the data. The reason enterprise technology companies came out on top for the first time in five years is because venture capital investment in this area nearly doubled compared with 2018.

In contrast, consumer funding rounds took the opposite direction: The $23.26 billion total deal value PitchBook recorded for 2019 is a quarter less than what consumer startups raised in 2018.

The report noted that one possible explanation for investors’ shifting preferences lies in the stock market. Venture capitalists typically realize a return on a portfolio company either when it’s acquired or when it goes public. In 2019, many of the industry’s most successful stock exchange listings were held by enterprise tech companies such as CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., whose shares jumped 71% on their first day of trading and have continued to perform well since. 

Meanwhile, highly anticipated consumer tech IPOs such as Uber Technologies Inc.’s listing failed to meet expectations. Uber and rival Lyft Inc., which also went public last year, are currently both trading below their respective IPO prices.

As enterprise rounds surpassed consumer tech investments in 2019, another trend unfolded: A bigger portion of the venture capital community’s investments went toward late-stage startups. They had accounted for a full 32% of all money invested when PitchBook released its midyear Venture Monitor report in July.

Interestingly, the funding surge for the enterprise technology companies was contrasted by a drop in merger and acquisition spending. A TechCrunch tally found that the top 10 enterprise deals announced in 2019 totaled $40.6 billion, less than half the $87 billion spent last year. The list was topped by Salesforce.com Inc.’s purchase of Tableau Software Inc. for $15.7 billion in June. 

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