All told, startups in Latin America raised a combined $1.3 billion across seed- and growth-stage deals in the three-month period ending Sept. 30. That was up 26% year over year but down 9% from the second quarter.

For perspective, we charted out total investment, color-coded by stage, for the past 12 quarters below.

Of the quarterly total, $757 million went into late-stage and growth deals, up 74% compared to the $435 million that flowed into such deals in the third quarter of 2025. However, that is down 21.3% from the $962 million in late-stage and growth rounds raised by LatAm startups in the second quarter. (Although it’s worth noting that Q2 2026 represented the most raised at that stage since the second quarter of 2022.)

Mexico startups have raised $1.52 billion in venture funding during the first three quarters of 2026, per ������Ƶ data. Notably, that’s about 40.7% more than the $1.08 billion Brazil’s startups raised in the same period. This is unusual as Brazil has historically been the largest recipient of venture funding in Latin America.

Still, Brazil continues to attract a broad range of investors.

“Over the past year, we have seen investments into Brazil from firms including , , , and ,” , managing partner of , told ������Ƶ News. “For several, this marked either their first investment in Latin America or their first in a long time.”

, Endeavor Catalyst’s vice president and head of Latin America, noted that Mexico drew more venture funding in the first half of 2026 than Brazil. But much of �ѱ�澱����’s funding went to a few startups, he pointed out, while Brazil recorded many deals.

“Investors are concentrating on a few Mexican winners, while Brazil retains the breadth,” Piquet said, adding that Brazil also leads in realized exits.

Table of contents

• Outsized rounds
• An uptick in seed funding
• ‘Another rediscovery moment’
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Outsized rounds

Several mega-raises took place in Latin America in the third quarter. And notably, the two largest funding deals were not for companies in Brazil or Mexico, which have historically raised the largest share of venture capital in the region. They also weren’t to fintech, which typically has the most funding recipients in the region, but rather to energy-related startups.

, the Chilean project company for ’s Black Giant lithium project, raised $225 million in a July round at a reported $900 million valuation. And Colombia’s , a clean energy company that builds and operates solar power systems for homes and businesses, landed a $129 million Series C in August at a reported $600 million valuation.

�ѱ�澱����’s , an AI-powered financial services company, raised a $125 million Series C in September at a $1.6 billion valuation. led the financing, which included a senior debt funding facility provided by .

And in August, Brazilian fintech brought in $106.9 million in an equity and debt seed round at a $626 million valuation.

Also in August, Brazil’s , an AI-native wealth advisory company, landed $85 million in  what ������Ƶ shows is the largest seed funding deal ever raised for a Latin American startup. Founded by , former CTO of , and , founder of , the startup is backed by ,,, and .

An uptick in seed funding

Latin America experienced a marked surge in very early-stage funding totals in the third quarter, largely thanks to the seed rounds mentioned above.

Of the $1.3 billion raised by Latin America’s startups in the third quarter, about 20.5% — or $266 million — was raised across the angel and seed stages.

That’s up 128% from the $117 million raised across those stages in the second quarter of 2026, and up 62% from the $165 million in the same quarter last year.

Just over 22%, or $288 million, was raised at early stages, down 18.9% from $355 million in the second quarter and 34% from $437 million in the same period last year.

We expect the Q3 deal counts to rise somewhat over time; however, as seed rounds in particular are commonly reported weeks or months after they close.

‘Another rediscovery moment’

Latin America is drawing renewed interest from international venture investors, according to Endeavor’s Taylor. He said international VCs were more active in the region, particularly Brazil, during the first three quarters of 2026 than in 2024 and 2025 combined, through both new investments and follow-on funding.

“I joke that investors from the U.S. ‘rediscover’ Latin America every five or six years, and I think we are approaching another rediscovery moment,” Taylor told ������Ƶ News.

Endeavor Catalyst recently closed its oversubscribed $320 million fifth fund. Latin America accounts for nearly 40% of its portfolio by both deals and dollars, and Fund V had made 14 investments in the region as of Sept. 22. Taylor also pointed to opportunities beyond Brazil and Mexico, including repeat founders building global businesses from Colombia and emerging companies in Venezuela and Central America.

Liquidity is improving, although acquisitions and secondary transactions are providing more opportunities than public listings, Piquet said. He pointed to approximately 60 private Latin American technology companies that have each raised at least $150 million as a potential pipeline for future IPOs.

“The exit door is open, although it is not primarily opening through IPOs yet,” Piquet said.

Taylor expects more exits could help bring global investors back consistently, with potential listings by companies such as , or contributing to another “rediscovery moment” in 2027.

International investors remain interested in Latin America but have become more selective about deploying capital, according to of . Firms with a longstanding presence in the region remain engaged, while many that entered during the 2020–2021 investment boom have shifted toward AI opportunities elsewhere and are concentrating on existing portfolios, she noted.

“Global investors are increasingly investing behind themes rather than geographies,” she said, putting Latin American startups in more direct competition with companies in the U.S. and other markets.

Investor interest is increasingly centered on AI-native businesses and financial infrastructure, particularly stablecoins and cross-border payments. Gadala-Maria said more founders are targeting global markets from the outset, marking a departure from the previous wave of startups that adapted established business models to underserved local markets.

“Increasingly, we’re seeing founders build globally competitive technology companies from Latin America, rather than necessarily for Latin America,” she said.

Gadala-Maria agrees that Brazil and Mexico remain the region’s largest markets, with Brazil offering a deeper, more mature startup ecosystem and Mexico providing substantial room for financial services innovation. She pointed to Argentina as an overlooked market, citing its strong technical talent and founders building companies for global customers.

Correction: Details regarding Kapital’s Series C were updated. The deal was a debt and equity raise.

Related ������Ƶ queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Oct. 5, 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.

������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Overall, investors put $38.5 billion into reported seed- through growth-stage financings for countries in the region in Q3, per ������Ƶ data. Of that, a majority went to AI-focused companies, echoing the trends we’ve seen globally.

Deal counts, meanwhile, were relatively flat. That indicates concentration of capital into favored startups remains pronounced but is not intensifying.

Table of contents

• An AI-driven quarter
• China leads by far in country-by-country breakdown
• Late stage
• Early stage
• Seed
• A big quarter for China
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

An AI-driven quarter

Around 55% of investment — an estimated $21 billion — went to AI-focused companies. Total funding is down substantially from the prior quarter, which was boosted by a $7.4 billion financing for China’s , but still the second-highest tally on record.

For Q3, a couple of extra-large rounds bolstered the AI investment tally. The largest went to Beijing-based foundational model company , which secured $3.5 billion in July at a reported $35 billion valuation.

, the AI spinout of China-based short video platform , was the second-biggest fundraiser. The generative video startup raised around $3 billion in a July financing that included and .

China leads by far in country-by-country breakdown

China was the leading Asian destination for venture investment by a very wide margin.

Per ������Ƶ data, roughly $27 billion — or 70% of all Asian startup funding in Q3 — went to China-based companies. India was a distant second, with $2.9 billion, followed by Singapore, with $2.5 billion.

For perspective, below we charted third-quarter startup funding tallies for the six countries with the largest totals.

Late stage

Most capital went to late- and growth-stage funding rounds.

Per ������Ƶ data, investment at this stage totaled around $20 billion in Q3. That’s down a bit from the prior quarter but nearly double year-ago levels and the second-strongest showing in four years.

Multiple jumbo rounds kept the total high. The largest was Moonshot AI’s aforementioned $3.5 billion Series F.

Several others raised financings in the multiple hundreds of millions. Shenzhen-based , a provider of robotics hardware and software, for instance, picked up $400 million in a September Series C. And Hong Kong-based , an e-commerce fintech platform, secured $300 million in Series C funding as it eyes an IPO.

Early stage

Early-stage investment drifted lower in Q3 but remained at historically high levels.

Per ������Ƶ data, financing for startups at the Series A and Series B stages totaled $13.6 billion for the just-ended quarter. That’s a decline of 28% from the prior quarter but up 65% from year-ago levels.

Seed

Reported seed funding hit its highest level in years, boosted by investor enthusiasm around AI.

In total, investors poured $4.9 billion into reported seed and angel deals across Asia, per ������Ƶ data. That’s up around 22% from the prior quarter and more than double year-ago levels.

A big quarter for China

Overall, Q3 was a robust period for venture funding to China-based companies, with far smaller sums going to other Asian startup hubs. Funding to startups based in India and Singapore was down significantly quarter over quarter, while Israel’s investment totals declined slightly.

We’ll keep an eye out in the coming months to see if this divergence of fortunes persists.

Related ������Ƶ query:

Related reading:

• ������Ƶ Data: Q3 2026 Posted A Record Count Of Billion-Dollar Rounds As The Global AI Race Heats Up

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Oct. 5, 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Per ������Ƶ data, a majority of the most active venture investors in Q3 participated in more deals compared to the prior quarter. This includes many of the usual busiest dealmakers, like , and .

The top lead venture investors also largely stepped up the pace this past quarter, even as the highest-spending among them appeared to put less capital to work. At seed stage, meanwhile, the typical top dealmakers largely held their ranks.

For a more detailed look, below we chart and analyze the most active investor ranks across multiple metrics, including venture dealmakers, high spenders, lead backers and seed funders.

Most active venture investors

We’ll start with the most active investors in post-seed rounds. By this measure, topped the ranks with 45 deals. The famed accelerator typically ranks high because it participates in follow-on rounds for startups it incubates.

Next on the list were Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital. Overall, as charted below, at least 22 investors participated in 10 or more known venture rounds this past quarter.

Busiest lead investors

Among lead investors in venture rounds, Insight, Andreessen and ranked highest with 18, 16 and 12 rounds, respectively.

Another three investors — , Sequoia and — had 10 lead deals each in Q3.

Spendiest lead investors

We also attempted to get a sense of which lead investors put the most capital work in Q3. To approximate this, our ranking looks at investors whose lead rounds had the highest aggregate value.1

By this metric, Valor and Atreides tied for the No. 1 slot, with $7.7 billion in led or co-led deals for the quarter. The two had some overlap, with at least listing both firms as lead investors. This included ’s $3.9 billion Series F and ’s $375 million Series C.

Next in the ranking were Andreessen Horowitz and , with $6.5 billion and $6.3 billion in led or co-led Q3 deals. Andreessen’s tally largely stemmed from a $2 billion round for and a $1.7 billion financing for .  Nvidia’s standout deal was a $5 billion round for .

Seed investors

Seed investors also kept busy in Q3. Among them, the busiest by far was Y Combinator, which participated in at least 221 known seed rounds this past quarter, per ������Ƶ data.

also ranked high, with 31 reported seed rounds, followed by and with 24 and 23 reported deals, respectively.

Overall, another busy, AI-driven quarter

Overall, our active investor rankings paint the picture of another busy quarter for startup funding, with AI driving the bulk of dealmaking.

Mostly, it’s familiar names topping our various rankings. However, we are seeing a few firms significantly scaling up their investments, with Atreides and Valor in particular stepping up their game of late.

Related ������Ƶ query:

Related reading:

• North America’s Startup Funding Falls In Q3 As AI Giants Eye The Public Markets
• ������Ƶ Data: Q3 2026 Posted A Record Count Of Billion-Dollar Rounds As The Global AI Race Heats Up

Illustration:

������Ƶ startup funding reached $25 billion last quarter, well above the $14 billion invested in Q3 2025 and up slightly from the $24 billion invested in Q2. Quarterly funding was up 77% year over year, per ������Ƶ data.

While the U.K. continued to lead startup funding totals last quarter, Germany and France both posted their strongest quarters since the boom years of 2021 and early 2022. Last quarter’s funding totals were boosted heavily by a $3.5 billion investment in Paris-based , the largest venture round ever for a Europe-based company.

Table of contents

• Billion-dollar fundings
• Venture expands beyond the UK
• Late-stage rise
• Early stage
• Seed
• Looking forward
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Billion-dollar fundings

Four ������Ƶ companies raised billion-dollar-plus fundings, representing close to 40% of the region’s startup capital raised last quarter.

They include Mistral, which also announced its new open-source model Large 4, an LLM it claims outperforms competing open source models on several vectors.

Data center provider raised a convertible note of $3.36 billion that it says it will convert once it goes public, which it has filed plans to do.

Two defense tech startups also raised billion-dollar-plus rounds last quarter: raised a Series E of $1.8 billion, and raised $1.2 billion.

AI drove 75% of ������Ƶ funding this past quarter — totaling $18.8 billion — the highest proportion on record.

Investments in physical tech in Europe in defense, data centers, energy, aerospace and robotics accounted for roughly half of ������Ƶ funding in Q3.

Venture expands beyond the UK

The U.K. led the region’s quarterly funding totals with $7.5 billion even as Germany and France gained market share for venture capital funding in Q3 with $5 billion and $4.8 billion invested, respectively.

The fourth-largest market, Sweden, saw $1.5 billion in venture capital invested while the Netherlands and Spain posted their strongest quarter since the COVID boom years with $1.4 billion and $1.2 billion invested in their startup markets, respectively.

Late-stage rise

A total of $17.3 billion — 70% of Europe’s Q3 venture capital — was invested in late-stage deals in 83 companies.

Outside of the billion-dollar rounds, large late-stage fundings between $400 million to $700 million were raised by Stockholm-based health scanning provider ; Lisbon-based autonomous drone developer ; Spain-based , which offers model compression technology for enterprise AI adoption; Amsterdam-based AI deployment startup ; Bayern-based space transportation company ; and Stockholm-based AI web application builder .

Early stage

Europe’s early-stage funding totaled $5.7 billion into just over 200 companies in Q3, down quarter over quarter and flat year over year.

The largest Series A funding deals, each $200 million or over, were raised by Eindhoven-based AI semiconductor startup and Zürich-based autonomous construction company .

Large Series B rounds were raised by Munich-based fusion energy company and London-based optical computing provider .

Seed

Europe’s seed funding fell quarter over quarter and was flat year over year. Around $2 billion was invested in more than 750 companies at seed stage in Q3.

London-based managed inference company raised the largest seed round at $100 million, followed by Munich-based AI for robotics startup , which raised $55 million.

Looking forward

Europe’s momentum in 2026 continued in Q3, which was the second quarter this year when venture totals topped $20 billion. Those are figures not seen in the region’s startup scene since Q3 2022. Along with growth in AI funding, late-stage funding noticeably increased last quarter with many of the leading rounds sourced across multiple ������Ƶ countries.

Europe represented 16% of global venture capital in Q3, although the true impact of its technology and startups is higher, with many of the region’s startups expanding or moving to the U.S. to capitalize on the rapid growth of AI there.

At the same time, Europe’s ambition to build leading deep-tech companies and meet demand for sovereign AI will be tested in the quarters ahead by its ability to mobilize the substantial capital these businesses need.

Related ������Ƶ queries:

Related reading:

• ������Ƶ Data: Q3 2026 Posted A Record Count Of Billion-Dollar Rounds As The Global AI Race Heats Up
• Reporter’s Notebook: Europe’s Sovereign AI Push Needs Customers As Well As Capital

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Oct. 5, 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

In total, investors poured $92 billion into seed- through growth-stage rounds for U.S. and Canadian startups in the third quarter, per ������Ƶ data. That’s a 35% decline from the prior quarter but up 50% from year-ago levels.

Deal volume held fairly steady, with late-stage and early-stage round counts remaining close to prior quarter levels.

Artificial intelligence remained the prevailing theme for startup investors. Per ������Ƶ data, roughly two-thirds of total funding this past quarter went to AI-focused companies. Of that, a big chunk went to large rounds for , and .

Overall, however, investment fell across most stages. Early-stage dealmaking posted a particularly sharp decline from a multiyear peak the prior quarter, while later-stage funding was also down.

As for exits, quarter-over-quarter IPO comps were always going to be challenging, given that Q2 featured ’s record-setting market entry. Even compared to a typical quarter, however, the IPO market was fairly sluggish in Q3, with a few biotech, energy and consumer-facing offerings, but no blockbuster tech debuts. M&A activity was more exciting, topped by ’s September acquisition of .

Below, we look over the quarterly numbers in more detail, breaking out investment by stage, charting AI funding, and analyzing exit activity.

Table of contents

• Late-stage and technology growth funding
• Early stage
• Seed
• AI
• Exits
• M&A
• IPOs
• Slower, but not a slowdown
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Late-stage and technology growth funding

We’ll start with late stage, since that’s where most startup funding went.

For Q3, investors poured $66.45 billion into late- and growth-stage deals, per ������Ƶ data. That’s up about a third from year-ago levels, but down sharply from Q1 and Q2 of this year, when OpenAI and Anthropic pulled in financings of $110 billion and $65 billion, respectively.

For the just-ended quarter, the largest late-stage and growth rounds went to Databricks ($5 billion), AI infrastructure unicorn Crusoe ($3.9 billion), ($3 billion), and AI coding startup ($2 billion). Overall, more than a dozen startups attracted late-stage or growth rounds of $1 billion or more, per ������Ƶ data.

Early stage

Early-stage investment also held up at historically high levels in Q3, albeit down from prior highs.

Overall, investors put $20.6 billion into early-stage rounds in the just-ended quarter, per ������Ƶ data. That was down sequentially from the prior quarter but still well above prior year levels.

A few exceptionally big rounds pushed up the latest quarterly tally. The largest funding recipients included open source AI company ’s $1.1 billion Series A, nuclear startup ’ $660 million Series B, and chip hardware and software developer ’s $500 million Series A.

Seed

Seed-stage dealmaking was also quite busy in Q3.

At least $5 billion went to seed, angel and pre-seed rounds in the just-ended quarter, per preliminary ������Ƶ data. That’s a bit below both the prior quarter and year-ago comps. However, we expect the Q3 tally to rise a bit over time as seed deals commonly get added to the dataset a few weeks or months after they close.

The AI space delivered some particularly large seed rounds. Of these, standouts were physical AI startups , which picked up $300 million, and . which secured $90 million.

AI

The percentage of funding going to AI-focused startups also held up at high levels in Q3, per ������Ƶ data.

A total of $61 billion went to AI-focused rounds, per ������Ƶ data. While that’s down sharply from the prior two quarters, it’s still one of the highest tallies on record.

Exits

As for exits, Q3 featured a number of large M&A deals, particularly in the AI space. The IPO market was a bit quieter, with much of the market’s attention looking forward to enormous offerings from foundational AI pioneers in coming months.

M&A

Acquisition activity was fairly robust in Q3, boosted by a handful of large AI-related purchases. Of these, the biggest was Nvidia’s acquisition of open model development platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion.

The next-biggest M&A deal was ’s purchase last week of , an AI model and research lab led by AI pioneer , in a stock deal valued around $8.2 billion. Not far behind, in third place, was ’s acquisition of , a startup that routes prompts through different AI models, in an August transaction reportedly valued around $7.5 billion.

In total, there were 11 North American startup acquisitions at reported prices of $1 billion or more in Q3, per ������Ƶ data. We list them below.

IPOs

Overall, it was a light quarter for IPO activity. Per ������Ƶ data, 17 venture-backed North American companies went public on major U.S. and Canadian exchanges in Q3, per ������Ƶ data, collectively raising just under $4 billion.

Three biotech companies raised the largest sums in their IPOs: , focused on mRNA; , a developer of cardiovascular therapies; and , which is working on antibody therapeutics.

Other venture-backed companies that carried out good-sized debuts included , a developer of advanced nuclear fuel, and , the scooter and e-bike rental platform.

Notably, however, it was the IPOs that didn’t happen this quarter that attracted the most attention. By this, we are referring of course to Anthropic, which is reportedly eyeing a  public list as early as November, and OpenAI, which filed confidentially for an IPO in June and is expected to make its debut in 2027.

Slower, but not a slowdown

Overall, Q3 seems to exemplify the notion that funding activity can decline from peak levels without a clear indication that the investment climate has turned bearish.

Yes, giant funding rounds contracted. However, the maturation of the two most valuable startups, OpenAI and Anthropic, into even more valuable pre-IPO companies, is the kind of thing venture investors want to see.

Moreover, big rounds are still closing at a brisk clip. The AI space is still regularly minting fresh unicorns. And acquirers are snapping up leading names at historically high valuations.

Could things go south from here? Sure. But for now, the AI-driven momentum continues.

Related ������Ƶ query:

Related reading:

• North American Startup Funding Shattered Records In First Half Of 2026, Driven By AI

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Oct. 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Funding to private companies has skyrocketed this year, totaling $679 billion in venture funding globally in Q1 through Q3 2026, per ������Ƶ data. That is the highest amount in the first three quarters of any given year.

While global venture funding in Q3 was down 25% quarter over quarter from the $212 billion raised in Q2, it was up 53% year over year from the $104 billion raised in Q3 2025.

 Table of Contents

• Billion-dollar fundings
• US and sectors
• Late-stage funding
• Early-stage funding
• Seed
• Exits: IPOs and M&A
• Robust market
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Billion-dollar fundings

A notable shift in 2026 has been the number of startups that have raised billion-dollar-plus rounds. An all-time record of 27 companies raised such sizable rounds in Q3 2026, an increase from the previous record, set in Q2, of 16 companies and Q1’s total of 14 companies.

Around a third of all global venture capital raised in Q3 went to those 27 companies. In the two prior quarters, billion-dollar raises pushed total funding to well above historical norms.

No single company raised funding in the tens of billions last quarter. However, eight companies raised funding rounds of $3 billion or more, with frontier labs and data centers leading by company counts for the biggest raises. Of these eight companies, five were founded within the past four years.

The largest funding deals went to and , which each raised $5 billion. Close behind, , , , , and each raised more than $3 billion.

US and sectors

U.S.-based companies continued to raise the dominant share of venture capital with $91 billion invested in American startups, or around 57% of the global total in Q3. The San Francisco Bay Area alone accounted for 24% of global venture investment in the quarter.

AI-driven startups across the stack raised $102 billion, or 64% of global venture capital, down from the two previous quarters, but still 14 percentage points above Q3 2025 global funding.

The realm of physical AI has attracted significant capital in 2026. That continued in Q3 with the aerospace, robotics, data centers, semiconductor and energy sectors each raising $10 billion or more in the quarter.

Late-stage funding

Late-stage venture funding totaled $105 billion in Q3, down 23% from Q2 but up 73% from Q3 2025, ������Ƶ data shows. Funding rounds of $100 million and above accounted for close to 90% of late-stage financings.

Early-stage funding

Early-stage funding totaled $40.6 billion in Q3, up by 25% from a year earlier. The number of companies raising jumbo sized rounds at $100 million and over, represented 50% of early-stage financings.

Seed

Global seed funding totaled $13 billion in Q3, ������Ƶ data shows. Of that, $2.6 billion went to seed rounds of $100 million and over, around 20% of seed financings.

Exits: IPOs and M&A

Q3 was a fairly strong quarter for exits. China dominated on the IPO front for the largest exits  with semiconductor and robotics listings surging on their first day of trading.

• China-based , developer of DRAM chips, was the largest IPO in Q3, raising  $8.6 billion at an $85.5 billion value. Its stock surged more than 500%  on its debut to become the most valuable listed company in the local market.
• The second-largest was Singapore-based fast fashion company listing at a $26.3 billion valuation, well below its 2022 valuation peak of $100 billion. Shein was the one exception that closed its first day around its opening price, after falling by about 10%;
• Shanghai-based AI chipmaker , a competitor to , went public in September, raising $912 million at a valuation of $25.5 billion.
• Milan-based , acquirer of and , raised $1.6 billion on its debut at a value of $18.4 billion.
• Hangzhou-based humanoid robotics company went public raising $905 million debuting at a valuation of $9 billion.

U.S.-based companies, meanwhile, dominated the largest M&A deals.

Semiconductor companies were the largest acquirers in Q3. bid to acquire New York-based open-source AI platform for $12.9 billion. Semiconductor giant announced its intent to acquire ’s , a San Francisco-based builder of models for physical intelligence, for $8.2 billion. The third-largest acquisition was payments provider ’s acquisition of New York-based AI model router for $7.5 billion.

Robust market

Over the past few quarters, larger checks across funding stages have pushed venture investment higher as young AI companies gained traction rapidly. Half of startup capital invested in Q3 went to companies founded since 2022.

Venture funding has also expanded beyond software into physical infrastructure and robotics, reindustrializing economies. And a dynamic seed funding climate for AI-native startups signals continued appetite for the next wave of companies.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Oct. 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Related reading:

• VCs Pour Billions Into Physical AI As The Next Wave Of AI Investing Takes Shape
• Jumbo-Sized Series A Rounds Are On The Rise

Illustration:

If that introductory sentence sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same storyline we reported for the first quarter, when drove investment to stratospheric heights with the largest venture round of all time.

Total investment for the second quarter of 2026 was comparatively lower, but still ranked as the second spendiest on record. Investors continued to pour huge sums into AI high-flyers, with a giant financing for accounting for about half of the quarterly tally.

Overall, investment in U.S. and Canadian startups totaled a staggering $392 billion for the first half of 2026, per ������Ƶ data, dwarfing anything we’ve seen before.

For Q2, meanwhile, investment totaled $137.2 billion. That’s also massively higher than any prior comp, with the lone exception of Q1.

Capital concentration was the name of the game. For both Q1 and Q2, historically high investment levels were the result of giant rounds, not increases in overall deal count. Deal count remained well below prior high marks for recent years, as charted below.

As usual, capital also concentrated at late stage. However, early-stage investment still rose in Q2, boosted once again by AI.

Of course, the past few months were a blowout period for giant exits as well. led in Q2 with the largest IPO of all time. It followed up with the acquisition of , which was a record-setting startup M&A deal. In addition, we saw a handful of comparatively smaller but still sizable public offerings and acquisitions.

For a more granular look at funding and exit dynamics for the second quarter, below we break down investments by stage and look at the role of AI in boosting totals. We also look at standout IPOs and M&A deals.

Table of contents

• Late stage
• Early stage
• Seed
• AI
• Exits
• IPOs
• M&A
• Uncharted territory
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Late stage

We’ll start with later stage and technology growth deals, since that’s where most of the money went.

For Q2, funding for this category totaled around $101 billion. It was the second-highest tally in five quarters, as charted below, and also the second-highest of all time.

was by far the quarter’s heftiest fundraiser, pulling in $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation. The financing included $50 billion in a May round led by , , and , as well as corporate-led rounds by ($5 billion) and ($10 billion). Anthropic followed up in June by filing confidentially for an IPO.

Defense tech unicorn also picked up a big round, securing $5 billion in a May Series H financing led by and .

Early stage

Early-stage investment hit the highest level in more than three years in Q2, offering fresh proof that megarounds aren’t only a thing for more established startups.

Overall, North American early-stage funding totaled just over $31 billion, nearly double year-ago levels and up about 15% from Q1. Deal count, however, hit the lowest point in five quarters, as charted below.

A single deal contributed more than 40% of the quarterly early-stage funding total. That was the $12 billion financing for , a startup focused on physical AI that counts as a co-founder.

The three next-largest deals were far smaller by comparison, but still quite big by early-stage standards. , an AI startup working on “personalized intelligence,” raised $700 million. Behind that came , a startup building an AI system based on the human brain that picked up $500 million, which was followed by , an AI robotics upstart that closed on $400 million.

Seed

While early-stage funding was up, seed investment in Q2 actually declined a bit from prior quarter and year-ago levels.

Per ������Ƶ data, around $4.9 billion went to seed and angel rounds in the second quarter, down 15% from the prior quarter and down 27% from a year ago. Round counts also dropped, though we expect that number to rise a bit over time as smaller seed deals commonly get added to the dataset weeks or months after they close.

Still, seed totals also got a boost from a handful of unusually large rounds. The biggest was a $200 million financing for , a foundational AI startup focused on R&D. Overall, at least five companies raised seed or angel rounds of $100 million or more in Q2, per ������Ƶ data.

AI

Once again, venture funding for the quarter was overwhelmingly dominated by AI.

About 80% of investment across stages went to AI-focused startups in Q2, per ������Ƶ data. Overall funding to AI categories was nearly triple year-ago levels, though still down from Q1, which had the record-setting $122 billion OpenAI financing.

A majority of AI-focused funding for Q2 was from three previously mentioned rounds for Anthropic, Prometheus and Anduril.

Exits

In addition to backing giant rounds, investors also scored some big returns on prior investment in the form of IPO and acquisitions.

IPOs

On the IPO front, Q2 brought us the historic public market debut of SpaceX. The rocket, satellite and AI giant raised $75 billion in the largest IPO of all time in June. With a recent market cap around $2.1 trillion, it’s currently the sixth-most valuable American public company.

While no one else will come close to topping that, the quarter did also bring us a handful of other sizable debuts by venture-backed companies. Of this, the most closely watched was AI infrastructure and chip designer , which raised $5.6 billion in its May IPO.

Quantum computing company delivered another big debut with its June IPO, followed by , a developer of modular nuclear reactors. For a broader view, below we list the largest IPOs of the quarter by venture-backed North American companies.

M&A

The second quarter also delivered the largest startup acquisition of all time: SpaceX’s $60 billion of AI coding tool Cursor and its parent company . SpaceX first announced an option to purchase the company in April and consummated the deal after its IPO.

In biotech, the largest purchase was from , which announced in April that it was acquiring , a developer of gene therapies, in a deal valued at up to $7 billion in cash.

Other standout deals include ‘s acquisition of AI chip startup for $4 billion and ’s 1 acquisition of , a provider of AI-enabled customer experience tools.

Below, we rank the largest transactions:

Uncharted territory

For those wondering where we go from here, it seems pertinent to note that startup history doesn’t give much material for case studies to compare with the first half and second quarter of 2026. Never before have we seen such massive funding rounds, such a highly valued venture-backed company debut, or a startup acquisition to rival the Cursor purchase.

Looking forward, it appears that high-flying startups and their backers expect the current unprecedented conditions to persist, with Anthropic and OpenAI both signaling their intentions to go public at valuations close to or exceeding $1 trillion. Meanwhile, massive startup funding rounds are still happening at a steady clip, with deals in excess of $1 billion no longer an anomaly.

Will these trends persist? Who knows. At this point, however, it’s assumed in startup circles that there will be some enormous winners in the age of AI. The question still is: Who will prevail?

Related ������Ƶ queries:

Related reading:

• ������Ƶ Data: Global Startup Investment Hit Record $510B In H1 2026 As AI Boom Accelerates Funding And Exits
• North America Q1 Funding Surges Across Stages To Record Level
• SpaceX Shares Close Up 19% After Largest IPO Of All Time
• Anthropic Nears $1T Valuation And Leapfrogs OpenAI On ������Ƶ With Massive Funding Round
• Lilly Acquiring Kelonia In Largest Funded Biotech Startup Purchase In Years 

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, and is based on reported data. Data is as of July 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

And as was the case in the Q4 as well, Q1 was well above the prior five quarters by funding amounts, signaling that ������Ƶ 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’s 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 ’s 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  $2.9 billion, respectively. Germany-based startups raised $1.9 billion, flat year over year.

France has emerged as the ������Ƶ leader for AI frontier labs. Last quarter, it saw Paris-based , founded by former AI chief , raise $1 billion in the continent’s largest seed funding round on record. The deal also marked only the second billion-dollar-plus funding deal for a ������Ƶ 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’s startups fell from a year earlier — by around 20% — ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ query:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Overall, investors put $27.4 billion to work across seed- through growth-stage financings for Asian companies in Q1, per ������Ƶ data. That’s up about 20% from the prior quarter and nearly double year-ago levels.

Total funding also hit its highest level in more than three years, as charted below.

Funding went to bigger rounds, not more of them. Per ������Ƶ data, deal counts were flat with the prior quarter and up incrementally from prior year levels. In general, deal counts haven’t fluctuated widely from quarter to quarter over the past few years, as seen in the chart below.

Table of contents

• Most gains go to China
• Funding rose across stages, with most going to later stage
• Early stage was strong too
• Seed also showed an upswing
• A record quarter for AI
• Looking up
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Most gains go to China

An estimated $16.5 billion — or 60% of all Asian startup funding — went to China-based startups in Q1. It was also the third consecutive quarter for increased Chinese venture funding, which hit a multiyear low in the first half of 2025.

AI funding drove the gains in China. The quarter’s largest rounds all went to AI-focused companies, including foundational model startup , agentic AI company , and AI-enabled robot developer .

After China, the next-largest venture funding recipient in Asia was India, with $3.8 billion in reported Q1 investment, the highest number in the past four quarters. A big chunk of the funding went to the quarter’s largest equity round, a $600 million financing for AI systems developer .

Below, we chart out venture funding by country to seven leading investment hubs in Asia, showing how regional funding has trended since 2023.

Funding rose across stages, with most going to later stage

Later-stage, early-stage and seed funding all rose sequentially in the first quarter.

Of these, later-stage and technology-growth deals captured the highest share of funding, estimated at $11.7 billion in Q1. The quarter’s largest late-stage round by a long shot was a $2 billion Series C for Singapore-based data center company .

Overall, it was the largest later-stage tally in five quarters, as charted below.

Early stage was strong too

Early-stage investment also rose in Q1, hitting its highest point in two years.

Per ������Ƶ data, an estimated $11.2 billion went to Asian companies around Series A and Series B stages. That’s nearly double year-ago levels and up about 17% from the prior quarter, as charted below.

Seed also showed an upswing

Investors also poured more money into seed-stage companies, with AI as a core driver.

Around $3.6 billion went to reported seed and angel rounds in Q1, up 85% year over year and 45% quarter over quarter. Reported deal counts dipped a bit, indicating concentration of capital among a smaller subset of hot startups. However, we expect this number to rise over time, as seed deals are often added to the dataset weeks after they close.

A record quarter for AI

It would be remiss to close out a quarterly report these days without some mention of how much investment went to artificial intelligence.

For Q1, Asian startups in AI-related categories pulled in about $11.2 billion, per ������Ƶ data, the highest sum we’ve tracked to date.

Looking up

Overall, the quarterly numbers show increasing momentum in China’s startup ecosystem, fueling much of the rising funding totals in Asia. Investment to startups in India, Singapore and South Korea also rose sequentially in Q1, while funding to Israel declined some.

In sum, it was a solid quarter, peppered with signs of optimism about the regional startup pipeline going forward.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from ������Ƶ, 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. ������Ƶ 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 ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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. ������Ƶ 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Global venture funding to financial technology startups totaled $12 billion across 751 deals in 2026 as of April 6, per ������Ƶ . That’s a 5% increase in dollars raised compared to the $11.4 billion raised across 1,097 — or 31.5% fewer — deals during the same time period in 2025.

This trend signals larger deal sizes. Indeed, late-stage or growth funding in the first quarter of 2026 totaled $6.9 billion, up 8% compared to $6.4 billion raised at those stages in the 2025 first quarter.

However, sequentially, the $12 billion raised is down 33% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, when fintech startups raised $17.8 billion globally. The $6.9 billion raised in late-stage or growth funding is also down markedly — by 43% — compared to the $12.1 billion raised by fintech startups in Q4 2025.

The trend in the first quarter also mirrors what we saw in 2025 as a whole, with global venture funding to fintech startups climbing to its highest level in several quarters, boosted by later-stage deals.

Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $53.8 billion in 2025, per ������Ƶ . That’s an approximately 29.3% increase from 2024’s total of $41.6 billion raised.

US booms

U.S.-based startups have historically raised more fintech funding than any other country in the world, and the first quarter of 2026 was no different.

Of the $12 billion raised by startups globally, just over half — or $6.3 billion — flowed to fintech companies based in the U.S. That was an impressive 47% increase compared to the $4.3 billion raised by U.S. fintech startups in the 2025 first quarter. However, it was down 50% from the $12.6 billion that U.S. financial technology startups raised in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The United Kingdom was the second-largest recipient of venture capital, with startups in the region raising a total of $1.2 billion. India came in third, raising $900 million.

Big deals for unicorns

Several fintech startups raised nine-figure rounds in the first quarter, with some doubling their valuations since their last venture financings.

Predictions marketplace was the largest recipient of capital in the first quarter. In March, the company doubled its valuation to $22 billion in just three months with a $1 billion raise led by . The New York-based startup had just raised $1 billion in Series E funding at an $11 billion valuation in December.

In February, , a digital savings platform, raised $385 million in a Series E funding round co-led by and . The New York-based startup said its new valuation was $2 billion, double it achieved when raising its $125 million Series D round in December 2023.

And in January, , which is building infrastructure for payments with stablecoins, raised $250 million in a Series C funding round led by . Its post-money valuation was $1.95 billion, up 17x from last March.

Investors remain bullish

, partner and head of U.S. at , said his firm has been investing at a slightly slower pace so far in 2026 than in years past. But he cited it as “more a quirk of deal flow” and where it gets conviction, rather than a decision to slow the firm’s investing pace.

“It’s certainly true that macroeconomics and geopolitics play a role,” he told ������Ƶ News, “but mostly we’re just focused on finding high-conviction companies to back.”

QED is extremely bullish on the application layer for AI in fintech and stablecoin opportunities, and has backed several startups that Gerety said “harness the power of LLMs with the security and reliability guarantees that finance needs.” (, which raised a $45 million Series B in January and is building an AI assistant for financial advisers, is one of those companies.)

“Just in the last few months, agents are now actually able to be effective in many processing tasks, but the stakes in finance are too high for LLMs to conquer financial workflows alone,” Gerety said. “Finance runs on trust, not probability.”

Looking ahead, he said QED remains bullish on fintech overall for the year. Part of the excitement is around the fact that larger companies are “transforming” their operations with agentic workflows, Gerety noted.

“More and more transformation is moving from the ‘co-pilot’ phase, and we’re moving into the ‘OpenClaw’ phase, when reasoning agents will start to actually do all the work that was too tedious and slow to be done manually,” he added.

The geopolitical situation will likely hinder some companies from taking the IPO plunge, in Gerety’s view, although a few companies in QED’s portfolios are “bubbling.”

, partner at , said his firm is on track to make eight to 10 core investments in Seed or Series A companies this year — about the same number as in previous years.

“We’re investing in AI-enabled applications while maintaining patience and focus in our deployment of capital,” he said. “We look for durable, enduring businesses that we believe will withstand the current hype cycle and investment frenzy.”

While TTV is investing in AI-enabled companies, Kapur said it also agrees with that “an AI reset is coming.”

“Many investors have already made their money by getting in on the ground floor, and others are trying to replicate their success,” he told ������Ƶ News. “We’re focused on investing in the application layer of AI, and we’re still in the early days with more widespread prosperity and a democratization of enterprise value creation yet to come.”

In particular, TTV sees the biggest opportunity in early-stage AI-native companies that are solving problems in mission-critical workflows “while building durable moats.”

“These platforms will earn the right to be distribution endpoints for financial products … and are even more valuable in the age of AI,” he said.

He believes we may see some fintech IPOs in 2026, but that they will largely depend on how the potential mega IPOs (from the likes of , and ) perform.

“If those IPOs underperform, others may opt to stay private longer,” Kapur said.

Looking ahead, he predicts we’ll continue to see accelerated adoption of AI in financial services, first through straightforward applications, then more operationally complex use cases.

“More broadly, we’re watching how the foundational LLMs further move up into the application layer, which is imperative to the long-term sustainability of their business models,” Kapur said. “We think financial services and fintech are unique enough categories where de novo startups and standalone businesses will beat platforms building experimental applications.”

Related ������Ƶ query:

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• Digital Savings Startup Vestwell Lands $385M, Doubles Valuation
• Stablecoin Startup Rain Raises $250M Series C at $1.95B Valuation – Its Third Round In Less Than A Year
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Illustration: