And as was the case in the Q4 as well, Q1 was well above the prior five quarters by funding amounts, signaling that European venture funding may be gaining momentum.

Table of contents

• AI above 50%
• UK and France grew YoY
• Europe by stage
• In summary
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Still, Europe saw more capital going into fewer companies in Q1, with deal volume plummeting 40% year over year. Much of the decline was at seed stage (down 44%) and early stage (down 30%), while late-stage deal volume was in-line with the previous four quarters.

AI above 50%

Funding to Europe-based AI startups increased significantly last quarter, reaching $9.2 billion, or more than half of total venture funding to the region. That marks the sector鈥檚 highest proportion in a quarter on record.

The largest four rounds to startups based in Europe in Q1 were for AI-related companies. Data center builder , autonomous driving developer , and frontier lab for physical AI raised more than a billion each, and AI legaltech 鈥檚 funding totaled more than $500 million.

UK and France grew YoY

Startups from the U.K. and France raised more funding in Q1, totaling $7.4 billion and聽 $2.9 billion, respectively. Germany-based startups raised $1.9 billion, flat year over year.

France has emerged as the European leader for AI frontier labs. Last quarter, it saw Paris-based , founded by former AI chief , raise $1 billion in the continent鈥檚 largest seed funding round on record. The deal also marked only the second billion-dollar-plus funding deal for a European frontier lab, following s $2 billion round last year.

Europe by stage

In Q1, late-stage funding to Europe-based startups nearly doubled from a year ago. The largest rounds were across a variety of sectors, including AI hardware, fintech, agentic AI, productivity software, sensors, defense, e-commerce and energy.

A total of $9.2 billion was invested at late-stage across 83 deals, up 91% by amounts year over year.

Early-stage funding to the region鈥檚 startups fell from a year earlier 鈥� by around 20% 鈥� 附近上门 data shows. Early-stage investment totaled $5.3 billion in Q1 across more than 240 funding rounds. Within early-stage funding, larger Series A rounds predominated in semiconductors, energy and healthcare.

Seed funding reached $3.1 billion in Q1 across more than 790 deals. The funding total was up 50% year over year, but largely due to the $1 billion round for Advanced Machine Intelligence.

In summary

Larger rounds into critical sectors in AI drove European startup funding up in Q1. A mix of Europe- and U.S.-based investors led the largest fundings last quarter into AI infrastructure, frontier labs, autonomous systems and applications.

Overall, Europe is in-line with global trends as capital concentrates into the largest deals in sectors that are surging due to AI.

Related 附近上门 query:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 附近上门, and is based on reported data. Data is as of April 2, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 附近上门 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 附近上门 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

The first quarter of 2026 was unlike any other for venture investment, driven by unprecedented spending on AI compute and frontier labs. 附近上门 data shows investors poured $300 billion into 6,000 startups globally in the quarter, up over 150% quarter over quarter and year over year.

That marks an all-time high for global venture investment not approached by any other quarter on record. In fact, startup investment in the first quarter of 2026 alone totaled close to 70% of all venture capital spending in 2025. The quarterly sum also tops all full-year investment totals prior to 2018.

Q1’s startup investment largely went to AI startups and disproportionately to a handful of U.S.-based companies in record-setting deals. Four of the five largest venture rounds ever recorded were closed in Q1 2026, with frontier labs ($122 billion), ($30 billion), ($20 billion) and self-driving company ($16 billion) collectively raising $188 billion, or 65% of global venture investment in the quarter.

Overall, AI shattered records last quarter, with $242 billion 鈥� 80% of total global venture funding in Q1鈥� going to companies in the sector. The previous record was set in Q1 2025, when AI accounted for 55% of global venture funding.

Table of Contents

• Valuation surge, capital concentration
• US above 80%
• Late-stage hike
• Early stage up over 40%
• Seed funding up over 30%
• IPO slowdown, M&A pick up
• Public pressure
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Valuation surge, capital concentration

Along with the three major frontier labs and Waymo, another 10 companies raised funding rounds of $1 billion or more in Q1, in sectors spanning generative and physical AI, autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, data centers, robotics, defense and prediction markets.

Those outsized rounds pushed overall startup valuations higher in Q1. The 附近上门 附近上门 added $900 billion in value during the quarter, marking the largest valuation bump in a single quarter.

US above 80%

U.S.-based companies raised $250 billion, or 83% of global venture capital in Q1, 附近上门 data shows. That鈥檚 up significantly from 71% in Q1 2025, which was already well above historical averages in the decade before 2024.

The second-largest market globally for venture funding in Q1 was China, with $16.1 billion invested. The U.K. followed, with $7.4 billion invested. Both countries were up quarter over quarter and even more significantly year over year.

Late-stage hike

The Q1 funding surge was concentrated in late-stage funding, which reached $246.6 billion 鈥� up 205% year over year 鈥� across 584 deals. A total of $235 billion was invested in 158 late-stage companies that raised rounds of $100 million and more.

Early stage up over 40%

Early-stage funding totaled $41.3 billion across 1,800 deals, 附近上门 data shows.

Funding was up marginally quarter over quarter but up 41% year over year from $29.4 billion. Much of that increase went to Series A rounds, 附近上门 data shows. Series B deals were down quarter over quarter but still up year over year.

Seed funding up over 30%

Seed funding totaled $12 billion, up 31% year over year, though the increase was entirely due to larger rounds, with deal counts falling 30% year over year to 3,800.

IPO slowdown, M&A pick up

Record venture investment in U.S. companies did not translate into a stronger IPO market in Q1.

In fact, the U.S. market for new listings slowed in Q1 amid a broader stock market selloff in software, although China鈥檚 IPO market picked up.

A total of 21 venture-backed companies exited globally above $1 billion in Q1. Thirteen of those were from China, four more from elsewhere in Asia, and four from the U.S.

The largest IPO in Q1 was Japan-based , a fintech for mobile payments valued at $10 billion upon listing.聽 Two foundation lab companies from China 鈥� and 鈥� debuted on the , each valued at more than $6 billion.

While the IPO market was somewhat lackluster, startup M&A was strong in Q1 with exits cumulatively valued north of $56.6 billion, 附近上门 data shows. That marked the third-highest startup M&A quarter since the downturn of 2022.

The largest M&A deals in Q1 were 鈥檚 $6 billion planned acquisition of 鈥檚 gaming platform , and 鈥檚 planned $5.15 billion acquisition of fintech startup .

Public pressure

While frontier lab megarounds defined Q1 2026, a closer look at the data shows every startup funding stage grew last quarter, as did round sizes across the board.

And unlike the cloud and mobile era, this cycle is also being built in the physical world, with massive capital flowing not just into software, but infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, robotics and manufacturing.

Now, with startup valuations surging and a backlog of companies with unprecedented sums of private capital behind them, pressure is intensifying on the IPO markets to reopen in 2026.

Related 附近上门 queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 附近上门, and is based on reported data. Data is as of March 31, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 附近上门 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 附近上门 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Smaller funds and more modest seed rounds are seemingly out of favor.

Seed trends bifurcate

附近上门鈥檚 U.S. seed funding numbers confirm that perception.

Deal counts and amounts are down roughly 20% year over year for the pre-seed and regular seed funding range bands that include deals of $200,000 to under $5 million. (As always, that proportion will improve a bit over time as smaller seed rounds are added to 附近上门.)

The mid-tier band, from $5 million to under $10 million, was on par year over year.

Among U.S. seed funding deals, it鈥檚 only the upper bands of larger and outlier seed rounds 鈥� those $10 million and above 鈥� that grew in 2025, 附近上门 data shows.

It’s a bifurcated market, according to , founder of seed fund . 鈥淵ou鈥檙e either an AI elite team that is growing really fast and you鈥檙e going to raise a ton of capital at Series A from one of the big firms 鈥� or you鈥檙e everybody else,鈥� she said.

In reaction to the market changing, her fund has shifted its strategy, saving a greater proportion 鈥� 60% to 70% for primary capital 鈥� compared to 50% in prior funds. 鈥淲e would rather have more shots on goal,鈥� she said.

The second shift has been to find founders even earlier, often not even waiting for product-market fit.

Seed deal counts

The majority of seed-stage deal counts still occur for rounds $5 million and under. But that percentage has trended down over time, from 93%聽 in 2018 to 75% of deals in 2025.

Meanwhile, larger and outlier seed rounds of $10 million and above have climbed from 2% to 9% over that time. That means roughly 1 in 10 seed deals over $200,000 in 2025 were in deals $10 million and over, numbering around 360.

Seed amounts

U.S. seed funding totaled $19.4 billion in 2025, per 附近上门 data.

Large deals drove that increase 鈥� 51% in seed deals $10 million and over, compared to a third in 2024. The largest seed round in 2025 was $2 billion for 鈥檚 .

Between 2018 and 2025, seed rounds of $200,000 to $5 million fell, from 70% of all seed funding amounts to 26%.

At the same time, seed rounds of $5 million and above have gained ground since 2021, and remained elevated in contrast to 2020 and earlier.

In 2025, the biggest jump in amounts were the outlier seed rounds 鈥� those deals $50 million and above 鈥� which increased more than 300%. Even those larger seed rounds of $10 million to $50 million gained 20%.

Seed reshaped

附近上门 data shows seed funding has by no means stalled.

Instead, AI is reshaping seed investment, with multistage venture and mid-tier funds backing hot companies earlier and at higher values due to founder pedigree or company traction.

As a result, larger seed rounds increased in 2025 with more than 20 outlier deals of $50 million-plus and over 300 in the $10 million to $50 million range.

Seed fund managers are shifting strategies based on a changing funding market.

鈥淚t has never been so easy to build a product, and it鈥檚 never been so hard to build a business,鈥� said Stanton.

A small seed round can lead to the next breakthrough company.聽 鈥淭here鈥檚 still a need for the smaller companies to emerge, and the smaller VCs to emerge to serve those different constituencies,鈥� she said.

Related 附近上门 queries:

Related reading:

• Turing Winner LeCun鈥檚 New 鈥榃orld Model鈥� AI Lab Raises $1B In Europe鈥檚 Largest Seed Round Ever
• Thinking Machines Lab鈥檚 $2B Seed Round Is Biggest By A Long Shot

Illustration:

For venture firms, landing early investments in these companies is one of the clearest signals of long-term performance. An analysis of 附近上门 data shows and once again dominated the latest unicorn cohort, backing the most deals in companies that reached billion-dollar valuations in 2025.

But 附近上门 data also highlights a set of rising investors 鈥� including , 1, , 2听补苍诲 鈥� that appear to be gaining ground in the race to fund the next wave of category leaders.

Unicorns advance

Last year was a strong one for new unicorns 鈥� well above the post-pandemic lull and slightly ahead of pre-pandemic norms. The pace of new unicorn creation also picked up each quarter in 2025 and has shown no signs of slowing in 2026, per 附近上门 data.

Trending investors

AI-native companies accounted for 47 of last year鈥檚 new unicorns, or 25% of the total, and that percentage seems likely to grow in 2026 as companies in that sector continue to draw significant investment.

Notably, nearly half of the new unicorns are also very young: 94 of them are less than 5 years old.

The most-active investors in terms of deal count in last year鈥檚 new unicorn class were two VC heavyweights: Sequoia and a16z, which made 51 investments across 21 and 20 companies, respectively.

Notable investments for Sequoia 鈥� where the firm led early at seed or Series A rounds and continued to back later rounds 鈥� include , a clinician-focused medical AI platform, prediction markets platform , and frontier intelligence lab .

For Andreessen, three of its most-notable investments were for automated coding platform , health customer support service , and , which provides AI for customer support.

Following those two firms, was a close third with 49 investments across 23 companies, which was the highest count of companies for an investor in the unicorn class. Its聽 investments include trucking insurance startup , , an expert training data platform for AI, and , a frontier lab for visual content.

, and rounded out the leading six unicorn investors of 2025, with 37, 36 and 34 deals, respectively. Portfolio companies where these firms led early and kept investing include:

• Accel: (VPN network provider), (AI-powered presentations) and (visual website design platform).
• Y Combinator: (app development platform), (legal AI research service) and聽 (industrial inspections).
• Lightspeed: (commercial trucking insurance), (AI for large enterprises) and for (agentic AI).

Rounding out the top 10 were with 28 investments, seed investor 3听补苍诲 growth investor , each with 23 and 22 deals, respectively.

Ribbit Capital and Felicis shared the top 10 spot, each with 20 deals.

Newer entrants

What’s compelling is not just the investors with a track record of backing formidable companies, but those that have climbed the ranks by identifying the next wave early.

The investors in the 2025 class of billion-dollar startups include quite a few firms who were not in the overall top 20 investors for current private unicorn companies.

附近上门 data shows Redpoint, and moved up from the top 30 while Ribbit Capital, Felicis and 8VC made their move from the top 50.

, the single corporate investor on this list, and both moved up from the top 60.

vaulted up to the top 20 from the 175th-ranked investor slot in current unicorns. Its thesis is to invest in technical founders in applications, models, tools and infrastructure, and includes video and image generator , customer data platform , and workflow documentation platform .

Higher values, faster cycles

In 2025, The 附近上门 附近上门 expanded in both company count and total value as cloud and AI continued to unlock new opportunities. The leading companies have decisively separated from the pack, with billions in revenue and a strong runway.

The race to back the next generation of companies defining new opportunities has accelerated, but markets are moving faster than ever. Cutting-edge companies in today’s market risk being taken over by AI developments which erode their advantage and wipe away their lead.

Investors who want to back the next market winners need to keep investing.

Related 附近上门 unicorn lists:

• (1,712)
• (604)
• (68)
• (187)
• (117)
• (102)
• (884)
• (501)
• (230)
• (38)
• (470)

Related reading:

• 附近上门 Data: The AI Boom Has Drastically Changed Who鈥檚 Funding The Hottest Companies In 2025 Vs. 2021
• Hottest Deals In Tech Push 附近上门 附近上门 Toward $7T In Value
• What We Learned From 6 Active AI Investors Backing Startups Across The Stack
• Global Venture Funding In 2025 Surged As Startup Deals And Valuations Set All-Time Records

Methodology

The 附近上门 附近上门 is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 附近上门 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Deal counts reported here reflect deals disclosed in 附近上门. 附近上门, like all databases of private-market transactions, has a documented pattern of reporting delays. It can sometimes take between weeks and months for some rounds to be announced publicly and subsequently get added to 附近上门. As data is added to 附近上门 over time, some of the numbers in this report may shift.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

A total of 27 companies joined the 附近上门 last month, including six robotics companies and four semiconductor-related startups. Healthcare minted three new unicorns, while foundation AI, cloud services, aerospace and financial services each accounted for two companies that joined.

The U.S. once again dominated, with 19 companies joining the board. China tallied four new unicorns, the U.K. contributed two, and India and Germany each added one new unicorn.

Soaring valuations

Overall unicorn values soared in February as raised $110 billion at a value of $840 billion, making it the most highly valued private company of all time. Its closest rival, , raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion, making it the fourth-largest valued company on the list. , the autonomous driving technology company, was valued at $126 billion, positioning it among the top 10 most highly valued private companies.

February鈥檚 new unicorns

Here are February鈥檚 newly minted unicorns.

Robotics

• , a solution for automating building equipment for autonomous construction, raised a $270 million Series B led by and . The 1-year-old company, based in San Francisco, was valued at $1.8 billion.
• Beijing-based , a physical intelligence foundation model and humanoid robotics company, raised a $290 million Series A led by and . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a builder of intelligent robots for industrial and service industries, raised a $145 million Series B round. The 2-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• Humanoid robotics company raised a $145 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old China-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a testing and control software layer for aerospace, defense, robotics and industry, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old Los Angeles-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a company that transforms 5G and Wi-Fi into spatial awareness for connective devices, an underlying layer necessary for physical AI, raised a $100 million Series B from well-known investors , , , and . The 9-year-old Belmont, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• China-based , developer of a chip for advanced autonomous driving, raised a $330 million Series A led by and . The company, which is less than a year old and spun out of automaker , was valued at $1.5 billion.
• London-based , a photonic chip company for more efficient AI inference, raised a $220 million Series A led by . The 2-year-old company, valued at $1 billion, has plans to ship its first product in 2027.
• Reno, Nevada-based , builder of memory chips for AI, raised a $230 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a chip developer for AI training, raised a $500 million Series B led by and . The 3-year-old company, based in Mountain View, California, was valued at $1 billion. It plans to ship its first product in 2027.

Healthcare

• New York-based , a platform that helps employers and employees source the best doctors with improved costs, raised a $118 million Series D led by . The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• Palo Alto, California-based , a women’s telehealth provider, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a Redwood City, California-based digital platform that helps medicare customers connect with advocates to navigate healthcare, raised a $130 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Cloud services

• , a cloud platform for application development teams, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 8-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Mumbai-based , a cloud service GPU provider, raised a $600 million round led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.

Foundational AI

• , builder of an AI model to analyze large databases, raised a $225 million Series A led by . The company also says it has signed a partnership agreement with ‘s to offer the model to its customers. The 2-year-old, San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a model developer to debug and understand AI, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Aerospace

• , a space-based communications infrastructure player to support commercial satellite and government missions, raised a $100 million Series B led by and. The 4-year-old Livermore, California-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• , an aviation hardware and software company for automated flights, raised a $300 million Series C led by and . The 10-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Financial services

• London-based , a U.K.-based digital bank for small and medium-sized businesses, raised a $155 million Series D led by , and . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• , an agentic platform for accountants, raised a $100 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company, based in New York, was valued at $1.2 billion.

E-commerce

• Brooklyn-based , a marketplace for creators to sell digital products, raised a $200 million round led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $1.6 billion.

Coding

• , a Boston-based code translation service for legacy code, raised a $125 million Series B led by 1. The round valued the 2-year-old company at $1.3 billion.

Defense

• Berlin-based , a developer of strike drones and autonomous defense systems, raised an undisclosed sum in a round led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1.2 billion.

Forecasting

• Boston-based , an AI-native weather satellite constellation, raised a $175 million Series F led by and . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Sales & marketing

• New York-based , a brand marketing platform geared for AI search, raised a $96 million Series C led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1 billion.

Web3

• , a blockchain intelligence platform to detect crime networks, raised a $70 million Series C led by . The raise valued the 8-year-old company, based in San Francisco, at $1 billion.

Related 附近上门 unicorn lists:

• (1,703)
• (604)
• (65)
• (187)
• (115)
• (102)
• (878)
• (500)
• (228)
• (38)
• (471)

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• 附近上门 Data: The AI Boom Has Drastically Changed Who鈥檚 Funding The Hottest Companies In 2025 Vs. 2021
• January Delivers Highest New Unicorn Count In More Than 3 Years

Methodology

The 附近上门 附近上门 is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 附近上门 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

The record month for venture funding took place against the backdrop of a as AI compute and tooling unsettled leading public software companies.

All told, venture investment was up close to 780% year over year from the $21.5 billion raised by startups in February 2025.

OpenAI was not the only company to raise tens of billions of dollars last month. Its closest rival, , raised $30 billion, marking the third-largest venture round on record.

, ‘s self-driving division, raised $16 billion. Together, those three rounds totaled $156 billion, representing 83% of the global venture capital raised in February.

A further four companies each raised $1 billion or more last month: Tokyo-based semiconductor manufacturer 聽London-based self-driving platform San Francisco-based AI for robotics 听补苍诲 Sunnyvale, California-based AI semiconductor company .

These massive rounds were led by strategic corporate investors, a host of private equity and alternative investors, as well as a few multistage venture investors and a government agency.

Capital concentration

Seed-stage funding was down around 11% year over year with $2.6 billion raised, per 附近上门 data. Early-stage funding held up with $13.1 billion invested, up 47% year over year.

The trend of capital concentration was not only visible in the larger late-stage financings. Seed, Series A and Series B rounds’ median and average amounts have increased each year since 2024, and continued to do so through February.

US dominated

U.S.-based startups raised $174 billion last month, 附近上门 data shows. That was the country鈥檚 largest percentage of global venture funding 鈥� 92%, and up from 59% a year earlier.

AI and hardware surge

AI-related startups raised $171 billion in February, accounting for 90% of global venture funding. Other sectors that stood out include hardware-related startups dominated by autonomous-vehicle technology, semiconductors, robotics and networking products.

Two months into the year, the public and private markets are off to a very different start. Despite optimism that the IPO momentum we saw in 2025 would continue into 2026, public market volatility and uncertainty have stalled new offerings again.聽 As a result, mobile marketing firm and fintech brokerage firm both withdrew their listings last month.

The private markets, by contrast, are on fire. Just a couple of months into the year, global venture funding has already topped 50% of the total invested in 2025.

Related 附近上门 query:

Related reading:

• OpenAI鈥檚 New $110B Raise At A $840B Valuation Marks The Largest Venture Deal Ever
• Anthropic Raises $30B At $380B Valuation In Second-Largest Venture Funding Deal Of All Time

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 附近上门, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of March 2, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 附近上门 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 附近上门 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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The investors backing the hottest companies in this highly competitive venture capital market have also changed drastically since 2021, 附近上门 data shows. While private equity investors dominated during the pandemic boom, Silicon Valley鈥檚 traditional VC firms have reclaimed ground in leading rounds of $50 million and over, our analysis indicates.

A review of 附近上门 data shows the extent to which peak-year investors such as and , both headquartered in New York, have ceded ground back to the big names of Silicon Valley.

The firms that dominated in those larger financings in 2021 鈥� when over $500 billion in capital went toward deals of $50 million or more 鈥� were private equity and alternative investors. At that time, the two firms topping the list were 4x more active by counts when compared to those at the top two slots in 2025.

In 2025, by contrast, venture capital firms dominated the list of most-active leads in those larger financings with eight of the 10 most active being VCs. Last year, roughly $300 billion went to $50 million-plus deals.

In 2021, the top 20 firms leading rounds north of $5 billion were predominantly private equity. But in 2025 a smaller cohort of investors, 10 in total, each led or co-led rounds totaling $5 billion. That included five private equity or alternative investors; three venture capital firms, , and 聽 and more active corporate strategic investors with and joining the top 10, each with a single outsized investment.

Private equity was also still active in leading by dollar volume in 2025, though less dominant.

PE leaned in

One year into COVID, as digital services took off, global venture funding doubled to $702 billion. And the most-active investors in the largest rounds invested at an unprecedented pace.

The top five most-active investors in $50 million-plus rounds were all private equity firms, including Insight Partners, which operates as both venture capital and private equity.

But the majority of these active investors have scaled back counts significantly at this size in 2025.

Leading the list, Tiger Global Management and the have cut back more than 95% by count. Insight Partners, , and , while still active in 2025, led or co-led fewer deals last year, by as much as 75%.

Of the seven venture capital firms that make this list, two firms 鈥� Andreessen Horowitz and 鈥� noticeably cut back deal counts by 35% and 60%, respectively, in 2025.

Venture capital more active in 2025

In 2025, by contrast, the most active in $50 million-plus deal counts were largely venture capital firms. However, counts by the leading firms were far lower than in 2021 with 30 at the top of the list compared to 182.

has the highest count at 30, followed by a16z at 24, and Lightspeed and Accel matching at 22. Each of these firms was slightly more active in leading deals in 2021 compared to 2025, while Lightspeed Venture Partners counts match 2021.

A host of venture capital firms have increased counts by more than 100% at this size including , , , , and . The firms also were all up by more than 100% in led or co-led counts when compared to 2021 for deals at this size, along with one private equity firm , which invests largely in biotech.

Dollar volume in 2021

Of the 21 most-active firms in 2021 by led or co-led deal amounts north of $4.8 billion, 18 were private equity firms and three were venture capital firms. However, the largest funding deal that year 鈥� a $3.6 billion funding to led by SoftBank Vision Fund, , and 鈥� was much smaller than the largest deal in 2025.

Not surprisingly, the firms that led or co-led the largest rounds in 2021 were SoftBank Vision Fund and Tiger Global Management. Coatue, and Temasek round out the top five, all down by more than 75% when compared to 2025.

Three venture firms make the list of investors leading the largest rounds. The most-active venture firm, , cut back on amounts led or co-led by more than 50%, while cut back by more than 75%. The other venture firm to make this list, Andreessen Horowitz, led or co-led more by dollar amounts in 2025 compared to 2021.

New guard in 2025

In 2025, the largest deals were much larger, in the tens of billions of dollars rather than the single-digit billions seen in 2021, with the five leading investors propelled to the top of the list due to a single deal at $10 billion and above.

topped the list in 2025, leading the $40 billion funding to . It was followed by Meta, which led the $14.3 billion funding to .

Lightspeed, and co-led the $13 billion funding to . The top five firms leading by amount in 2025 all led individual deals north of $10 billion.

Of the 27 firms most active by deal amounts led in 2025, four were strategic investors, nine were venture capital firms, and 14 were either聽 private equity or alternative investors.

Looking forward

An analysis of 附近上门 data makes it clear: Venture capital has reclaimed its lead in this AI wave, as private equity, overindexed in private companies, has scaled back significantly since 2021. In 2025, large rounds and valuations picked up once again, setting the stage for a very active funding environment in 2026.

Despite the shift from private equity to multistage venture actively leading the largest deals, the question remains: Will this new cohort of highly valued companies deliver outsized returns in the coming years?

Related reading:

• Global Venture Funding In 2025 Surged As Startup Deals And Valuations Set All-Time Records
• As Funding To AI Startups Increases And Concentrates, Which Investors Have Led?
• In The Era Of Unicorn Valuation Escalation, A Trillion Dollars Isn鈥檛 What It Used To Be
• What We Learned In 2025 From 6 Active AI Investors Backing Startups Across The Stack

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And underlining the pace at which some startups are now sprinting to billion-dollar-plus valuations, four of the new unicorns are less than a year old.

In exit news, 9-year-old fintech unicorn was acquired by for $5.2 billion. That鈥檚 well below its January 2022 valuation of $12.3 billion but still marks a win for earlier investors seeking liquidity.

Of the 31 companies that joined the board, 23 are U.S.-based and two hail from Canada. Germany, France, Belgium, Israel, Japan and India each added one new unicorn to the board last month.

Among sectors, AI and AI infrastructure contributed the most new unicorns, totaling nine from those two areas. The next-leading sectors, with three new unicorns each, were manufacturing and security propelled by AI. AI was also a major contributor to new unicorns in the semiconductor, defense and autonomous driving sectors.

The largest funding last month for a unicorn company was $20 billion to 鈥檚 at an . Within a month of that funding, xAI in early February announced a merger with another Musk-led company, rocketmaker .

11 exits

Brex鈥檚 acquisition by Capital One was the largest of the four M&A deals for unicorn-valued companies in January.

On the IPO side, seven companies went public, the most high-profile of which were and , both foundation AI model companies based in China.

Here are January鈥檚 newly minted unicorns.

AI

• , an AI research lab focused on human collaboration, raised a $480 million seed funding led by and 1. The less than 1-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
• , an AI scientific research lab, raised a $180 million seed round led by , and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• AI evaluation platform raised a $150 million Series A led by 2听补苍诲 . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
• Voice AI startup raised a $143 million Series C led by France-based . The 10-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion. As part of its announcement, Deepgram disclosed the acquisition of , a voice AI startup for restaurants and drive-thru ordering.
• , an infrastructure company for voice AI, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

• , an AI networking company, raised a $200 million Series A led by , and . The 1-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• GPU marketplace raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , for secure AI run locally on devices, raised a Series A extension funding of an undisclosed sum. The 6-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• , which manages a GPU marketplace, raised a Series C led by . The 6-year-old company was founded in Lithuania and is now headquartered in Miami. It was valued at $1 billion.

Manufacturing

• , a builder of factories for defense and the aerospace industry, raised a $131 million private equity funding led by . The 5-year-old Hawthorne, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• , a developer of no-code applications for manufacturing, raised a $120 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• 惭辞苍迟谤茅补濒-产补蝉别诲 , a manufacturing automation company utilizing modular robotics, raised a $90 million Series D led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

• , provider of security for cloud services in real time to protect from hackers, raised a $250 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Tel Aviv-based , an AI security platform that integrates with existing security platforms to provide context on incidents, raised a $140 million Series D led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Belgium-based , a developer-oriented security platform, raised a $60 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• , an AI chip developer to run transformer models, raised a reported $500 million funding led by . The 3-year-old Cupertino, California-based company was valued at $5 billion.
• , an AI chip design company, raised a $300 million Series A led by . The less than 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $4 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• Stablecoin payments platform raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Crypto payments network raised a $75 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Healthcare

• Maternity healthcare provider, raised a $92 million Series C led by Stripes. The 4-year-old New York-based company with plans to expand healthcare services to women and children was valued at $1.7 billion.
• , a co-ordination platform for medications across doctors, pharmacies and patients, raised a Series B led by . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• Paris-based , an autonomous drone maker, raised a $200 million Series B led by aircraft manufacturer . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a builder of secure software for the defense industry, raised a $136 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old Colorado-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Fintech

• Tokyo-based brokerage infrastructure provider raised a $150 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• India-based , a payment infrastructure provider, raised a $50 million Series D led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Fitness

• , an owner of physical fitness brands and the parent of , raised a $785 million private equity financing led by . As part of the transaction it announced a merger with . The San Luis Obispo, California-based company was valued at $7.5 billion.

Autonomous Driving

• Toronto-based , a self-driving technology company, raised a $750 million Series C led by and ,valuing it at $3.8 billion. The 5-year-old company announced a partnership with to support robotaxis.

Social media

• , an AI-powered video generation platform for social media, raised an $80 million Series A extension funding which brings its Series A funding total to $130 million. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Education

• Online tutoring platform raised a $150 million Series D led by at a $1.2 billion valuation. The 14-year-old Brookline, Massachusetts-based company was founded by Ukrainians and maintains a team in Ukraine.

Compliance

• ESG compliance software platform raised a $100 million Series C led by , a joint venture between and . The 7-year-old Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Energy

• , a developer of a residential energy storage device for electricity and electric vehicles, raised a $163 million funding. The 7-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Related 附近上门 unicorn lists:

• (1,684)
• (596)
• (37)
• (186)
• (115)
• (102)
• (868)
• (494)
• (226)
• (38)
• (470)

Related reading:

• High-Spending Investors Give 2026 An Active Start
• In The Era Of Unicorn Valuation Escalation, A Trillion Dollars Isn鈥檛 What It Used To Be
• Global VC Investment Surged In January, With U.S. Dominating Funding, But A Pair Of AI Model IPOs In China
• A Growing Share Of Seed And Series A Funding Is Going To Giant Rounds

Methodology

The 附近上门 附近上门 is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 附近上门 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

The U.S. again dominated global funding with $38.7 billion 鈥� or around 70% of capital 鈥� invested in American companies last month, and capital also continued to concentrate into AI-centric startups.

However, on the IPO front, China led with two foundation model companies, and , debuting on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Capital concentration

Capital concentration was pronounced in January as AI continued to lead. A total of $40.9 billion (74% of all funding) went to rounds of $100 million and more, and $31.7 billion (57% of funding) went to AI-related companies.

More than a third, or 36%, of global venture funding in January went to a single U.S.-based model company. That was -led with its $20 billion Series E, which was funded by a mix of private equity, sovereign funds and strategic investors. (Early in February, Musk鈥檚 space exploration company announced its merger with xAI.)

Overall, the largest funding deals in January were in sectors that showed increased investor appetite unleashed by AI.

Ranked in order of largest first, investments between $500 million to $2 billion last month went to:

• Singapore-based data center provider ;
• Pittsburgh-based robotics intelligence company ;
• Toronto-based autonomous driving ;
• Shanghai-based model company ;
• San Francisco-based drone delivery ; and
• Cupertino鈥檚 Bay Area-based AI chip startup .

After AI, the leading sectors in January were hardware, with an emphasis on deep tech, followed by healthcare and biotech.

China model exits

While the U.S. led funding totals, China led on the exit front. Two AI model companies went public: Z.ai (also known as Zhipu AI) and MiniMax. Each was valued above $6 billion and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. MiniMax on its debut.

On the M&A front, the largest deal was banking giant 鈥檚 acquisition of spend management company for $5.15 billion, half its 2021 valuation of $12.3 billion.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 附近上门, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Jan. 4, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 附近上门 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 附近上门 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Related reading:

• Capital One To Buy Fintech Startup Brex At Less Than Half Its Peak Valuation In $5.15B Deal

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In December alone, 23 companies joined The 附近上门 附近上门, more than doubling the count from a year ago.

The value of the unicorn board also picked up significantly in the final month of the year, with the highest-ever value accorded to a private company. That was , which vaulted to the top of the list when it was valued at $800 billion in a secondary market transaction, double its valuation from just three months earlier.

And , the seventh-most highly valued private company at $134 billion, was also valued up from its $100 billion valuation months earlier.

New unicorns in December

Of the new unicorns last month, 15 were U.S.-based, two hail from China, and six are based in Europe, including two from the U.K. and one each from Germany, France, Finland and Belgium.

Financial services, aerospace and AI led with the highest count of new companies to join.

It is worth noting that a third of these companies were more than 10 years old, with some seeing a reacceleration in their business driven by AI.

On the other end of the spectrum, the fastest to reach unicorn status in December was , which raised its seed round at a $4.5 billion value.

Here are December’s 23 newly minted unicorns.

Fintech

• Crypto-focused digital bank , co-founded by , raised a $350 million funding led by . The company was granted conditional approval by the 聽 in late 2025. The 1-year-old Columbus, Ohio-based company plans to support technology businesses in AI, crypto and defense, and was valued at $4.35 billion.
• , developer of AI-driven insurance for the trucking industry, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a loan provider for outdoor equipment, RVs and power sports raised a $100 million Series F led by . The funding was part equity and part secondary financing. The 11-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.3 billion and has generated over $7.5 billion in loans.
• , a provider of co-branded credit cards and payment plans for brands to build loyalty, raised a $150 million Series D led by . The 5-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Aerospace

• , a builder of powerful satellites, raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old Torrance, California-based company was valued at $3 billion.
• Finland-based , which operates satellites for military and commercial intelligence, raised a $175 million Series E led by . The 12-year-old company was valued at $2.8 billion.
• , a provider of satellites detecting radio frequency emissions for the U.S. government and its partners, raised a $150 million Series E led by and at a value of $1 billion. As part of the deal, the 10-year-old Herndon, Virginia-based company acquired .

AI

• , a new startup from founder that was acquired by Databricks, plans to build an energy-efficient computer for AI. The company raised a $475 million seed round led by and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
• , a generative AI company for video and images, raised a $300 million Series B led by and 1. The 1-year-old Germany-based company was valued at $3.3 billion.
• , builder of AI models for molecule programming, raised a $130 million Series B led by General Catalyst and . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Energy

• Energy software provider , raised a $1 billion funding led by , with plans to separate from its parent, . The 6-year-old London-based company was valued at $8.7 billion.
• , a builder of nuclear microreactors, raised a $300 million Series D led by and . The 6-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $1.8 billion.

E-commerce

• B2B chemical and industrial materials supply chain company raised a $10 million Series B led by and . The 11-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $2.3 billion.
• , a luxury automotive e-commerce platform, raised funding from collector from his family office . The 40-year-old Miami-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Marketing

• Customer relationship marketing service , which manages a CRM and communication across emails through to messaging and aided by AI, raised a $583 million private equity round led by and . The 18-year-old Paris-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Synthetic AI marketing research company 聽 raised a Series A led by reported to be above $50 million . The funding was raised at different valuations, giving investors access at a lower value for part of the funding. The 1-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

DevOps

• , an IT ticketing management platform reimagined with AI, raised a $75 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• Site reliability platform raised a Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.聽 The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion in a two-tiered round with investors getting access at a lower valuation for part of the funding.

Social media

• The social media giant TikTok spun out its , valued at $14 billion. The Bellevue, Washington-based company鈥檚 new owners Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX each own 15% of the new entity, while retains an ownership stake of 20%.

Security

• Identity security company , which manages security for individuals through to AI agents, raised a $700 million Series B led by . The 16-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $3 billion.

Defense

• Counter drone defense technology deployer raised a $210 million Series B. Investors were not disclosed.聽 The 4-year-old London-based company was valued at $1.8 billion.

IoT

• , an IoT sensor technology for maintaining industrial machines, raised a $23 million funding from existing investors. The 22-year-old Belgium-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Healthcare

• , a medical device company targeting heart disease, raised a Series D led by and . The 6-year-old Shanghai-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Related 附近上门 unicorn lists:

• (1,669)
• (186)
• (115)
• (102)
• (856)
• (493)
• (225)
• (38)
• (471)

Related reading:

• Exclusive: AI Insurance Startup Nirvana Nearly Doubles Valuation To $1.5B with $100M Series D
• Exclusive: Octane Lands $100M Series F At $1.3B Valuation To Help People Finance Large Lifestyle And Recreational Purchases

Methodology

The 附近上门 附近上门 is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 附近上门 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration: