Startup Funding Heats Up In October, With Billion-Dollar Rounds To Reflection, Polymarket, Crusoe And Base Power

Nine startups each raised $500 million or more last month, making October the second-busiest month in the past two years for such enormous funding deals. The busiest? That title goes to September, highlighting the extent to which startup investment deals of a half-trillion or more have become normalized in just the past few months.

All told, venture investors poured $39 billion globally into early- and late-stage startups in October, data shows. Funding was up from $34 billion a year ago, though down from $51 billion month over month.

In a rare occurrence, startups outside of Silicon Valley led the largest funding deals last month, 附近上门 data shows.

Funding to New York-based startups surged by more than 200% from a year ago. The largest two venture rounds last month of $2 billion each went to New York-based companies: coding agent , in an -backed round, and trading prediction market , in a deal led by parent .

Other large rounds were also raised by companies outside of Silicon Valley. Denver-based AI data center raised the third-largest round, a $1.4 billion deal led by and . Austin-based battery energy provider raised $1 billion led by private equity firm , and Finland-based health and wellness ring tracker raised a $900 million round led by .

In September by contrast, the largest rounds were raised by foundation model companies ($13 billion), ($2 billion) and AI chip company ($1.1 billion).

China and India were up

The U.S. continued to dominate and led with 60% of global funding.

China, the second-largest funding market, gained more than 200% year over year in October with $3.9 billion invested into its startups. The U.K., the third-largest market, was flat year over year at $1.7 billion. India rounded out the top four markets with $1.5 billion raised 鈥� up 80% from a year earlier.

In the U.S., California-based companies raised $8.5 billion in October, while startups in New York state raised $5.9 billion, and Massachusetts-based companies landed $1.9 billion last month.

Crypto, energy increased

AI again dominated startup funding last month, with 38% of investment going to the sector, up 9% year over year but down from September totals.

Healthcare and biotech was the second-largest sector with $8.6 billion. The third-largest sector, financial services companies, raised $7.6 billion.

Industries that trended up significantly year over year were blockchain and crypto, energy, and funding to developer tools.

Valuations heat up

The 附近上门附近上门 added hundreds of billions in value in October as sold employee shares in a secondary sale valuing the company at $500 billion. An uptick in newly valued decacorn companies seen in September, continued into October, albeit at a slower pace.

The IPO markets have opened up since Q2. However, the largest tech IPO in October, travel expense management company , closed at $20, down 20%, on its first day of trading in contrast to many of the larger tech IPOs this year that closed well above the list price on going public.

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 Nov. 3, 2025.

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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