Ten of those companies were AI labs, collectively valued at $65 billion. The most well-known was Beijing-based open source model developer 鈥� at $50 billion, the highest valued new unicorn to join the Unicorn Board this year.

The new unicorn frontier labs are focused on new architectures in AI model development in robotics, physics and self-learning, as well as on open source development, and in the case of one India-based startup, sovereign AI.

Other leading sectors with multiple companies were in robotics and AI infrastructure, with four companies in each.

Of the new unicorns, 16 are U.S-based, while eight are from China. Two new unicorns joined the board from India, Germany and the United Kingdom and one each from Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Big exits remove a trillion

Despite the influx of newcomers, the total value of The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board dropped by more than $1 trillion in June as , its most valuable company, went public.

Other notable exits from the board last month were , the maker of AI coding tool Cursor, which was acquired by SpaceX for $60 billion after last being valued at $29.3 billion. , an AI infrastructure company that operates as a layer on top of GPUs, was acquired by , and customer experience agent was purchased by 1, both for well above their last private valuations.

New unicorns in June

Here are June’s new unicorn companies:

AI labs

• Hangzhou-based raised a $7.4 billion Series A, its first external financing, in a deal led by CEO . The 2-year-old company was valued at $50 billion and is said to be planning to list in as early as Q2 2027.
• is building a new AI architecture based on neuroscience called Cortex AI that promises lower power use. It raised a $500 million Series A from , , and . The less than 1-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• London-based , an AI for physical product design in aerospace, defense, energy, automotive and semiconductors, raised a $300 million Series C led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $2.4 billion.
• , a model developer for robotics trained on gaming videos from its sister company , raised a $320 million Series A led by . The 1-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2.3 billion.
• , an embodied robotics intelligence company, raised a $400 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old San Mateo, California-based company with researchers from and was valued at $2 billion.
• Shanghai-based , a听 robotics intelligence company, raised a $220 million seed round led by and . The less than 1-year-old company founded by an researcher was valued at $2 billion.
• , a builder of world models to simulate the real world impacting robotics, science, healthcare and defense, raised a $310 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Menlo Park, California-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Bengaluru-based , an Indian sovereign AI developer, raised a $234 million Series B first close led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , an AI lab seeking to automate AI research for scientific use cases, raised a $200 million seed funding led by and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• Hangzhou-based , a 3D model developer used in gaming, entertainment and product design, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Robotics

• Germany-based , a physical AI company building intelligent machines to to work alongside humans, raised a $1.4 billion Series C led by stablecoin issuer among other strategic and growth investors. The 7-year-old company, with $1 billion in its order pipeline and strategic deployments, was said to be valued at $7 billion.
• Shenzhen-based , a builder of humanoid robots, raised a $148 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Guangdong-based , a humanoid robotics company, raised a $147 million Series B. The 5-year-old company, which projects 1,000 shipments in 2026, was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a builder of industrial arm robotics for manufacturing that said its technology learns through demonstration, raised a $200 million Series C led by and . The 9-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

• , which pivoted from crypto mining to data center build out for AI, raised a $400 million funding led by , and . The 2-year-old Coral Gables, Florida-based company was valued at $2.4 billion. The company has filed for a direct listing on .
• Las Vegas-based , a cloud operator that offers customer AMD chips, raised a $350 million Series B led by and . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• Beijing-based , an inference solution offering customers API access to hundreds of models, raised a $296 million Series B. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• , an AI developer cloud to train, fine-tune and deploy AI, raised a $100 million Series A led by . The 4-year-old New Jersey-based company valued at $1 billion has 1 million developers using the platform.

Defense

• , a precision weapons company enabling existing weaponry to defend against unmanned drones, raised a $200 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $2.2 billion.
• , a manufacturer of unmanned aerospace and defense systems, raised a $300 million Series C led by and . The 3-year-old Huntington Beach, California-based company was valued at $1.8 billion.
• , a cyber intelligence company building products for the U.S. military, raised a $100 million Series B led by , and . The 1-year-old Arlington, Virginia-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Proptech

• Montreal-based , a mortgage financing platform, raised a $217 million Series E round. The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion.
• India-based ,听 a property brokerage that also owns a mortgage marketplace, a property management platform, and a home interior brand raised a $95 million private equity and debt financing led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Data analytics

• Belgium-based , an intelligence platform for global physical trade, raised a $1 billion secondary market funding led by . The 12-year-old company was valued at $3.7 billion.

Biotechnology

• , a biotech company focused on reverse cellular aging, raised a $435 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old San Francisco-based company with plans for clinical trials next year for human liver cells, was valued at $3.1 billion.

Materials

• Cambridge, U.K.-based听 , building a network of labs using AI for new material discovery, raised a $450 million funding led by and . The 2-year-old company was valued at $2.6 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• , a blockchain and smart contract solution for global financial institutions, raised a $355 million Series F led by . The 12-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.

Image generation

• Beijing-based , a video generation company, raised a $300 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company was valued at $2 billion and says it has built a creator community of more than 30 million users. As of May 2026 the company has $300 million in annual recurring revenue.

Financial services

• Saudi Arabia-based , a mobile banking company, raised a $400 million Series A. The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.6 billion.

Semiconductor

• Rotterdam-based , a 3D metrology inspection tool for semiconductor manufacturing, raised a $380 million Series D led by . The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.6 billion.

Aerospace

• Beijing-based , a space infrastructure and satellite company, raised a $207 million Series D. The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

E-commerce

• , an e-commerce provider that supports customer interactions post purchase, raised an $81 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old Utah-based company supporting 4,100 brands and 1,750 merchants was valued at $1.3 billion.

AI healthcare

• , an AI agent built for a patient’s healthcare journey and used by healthcare providers, raised a $120 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Transportation

• Munich-based , a car subscription platform operating in Germany and partnering with 25 brands, raised a $113 million Series D led by . The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 unicorn lists:

• (1,822)
• (637)
• (213)
• (190)
• (118)
• (102)
• (935)
• (539)
• (248)
• (39)
• (488)

Related reading:

• 小蓝视频色情网页版 Data: Global Startup Investment Hit Record $510B In H1 2026 As AI Boom Accelerates Funding And Exits
• AI Services And Robotics Lead Diverse Crop Of 29 New May Unicorns As SpaceX, Anthropic And OpenAI Line Up Blockbuster Exits

Methodology

The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 小蓝视频色情网页版 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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All told, fintech startups raised $28.6 billion globally in the first half of 2026, a 22.7% increase from the first half of 2025, but down 17.3% compared to the $34.6 billion raised in the second half of last year. (It鈥檚 important to note that H2 2025 marked the strongest six-month funding period for fintech startups since the second half of 2022.)

Fintech funding in the first half of 2026 also topped the sector鈥檚 investment totals in 2020 and the pre-pandemic year of 2019, though they remain lower than the peak funding year of 2021 as well as 2018.

Historically, the United States has led the globe when it comes to fintech funding, and the first half of this year was no exception. More than 52% 鈥� $15 billion 鈥� of the global fintech funding in H1 flowed into companies based in the U.S. The United Kingdom was the second-largest recipient of capital, with companies there raising a collective $2.7 billion. India came in third, with a total of $1.9 billion raised, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

Deal count drops

Even as dollar volume climbed, deal flow into venture-backed fintech startups fell fairly significantly in H1 2026, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. The first half of the year saw 1,605 funding deals announced in the sector, a 25.7% decline from the more than 2,161 completed in H1 2025 and down 40% from H1 2024.

Where investors are placing their bets

Active fintech investors who spoke with 小蓝视频色情网页版 News said they see a split market emerging.

In general, the startup investment market has been cleaved into two extremes, with funding either pouring into brand-new companies or concentrating into a tiny handful of larger, established giants, according to , a partner at (Google Ventures).

The fintech sector is following the same pattern, Sakach told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News via email, but its biggest players are using their size in an unusual way. 鈥�2026 marks the definitive ‘lab-i-fication’ of the modern corporation,” she noted, with some fintech platforms using their scale and steady profits to fund experimental new divisions.

Because these companies have significant data and distribution advantages, they are becoming magnets for top-tier workers, according to Sakach. For instance, she said, is now competing directly with top AI research labs for engineering talent, while is using its dominant position to build out new products in enterprise billing and blockchain.

For early-stage startups inside the U.S., the focus is shifting away from copying legacy financial services toward creating entirely new categories.

Wealth management is seeing a massive surge, driven by an influx of assets from a younger generation demanding AI tools, Sakach pointed out.

Fintech startups are also targeting massive, hidden corporate headaches.

鈥淎 50% reduction in global chargebacks is a ~$60 billion opportunity when accounting for both the merchant and banking overhead,鈥� she said.

The biggest shift, however, is happening around artificial intelligence and financial services. 鈥淐oding was AI’s first killer use case; financial markets could be the second, given its extraordinarily broad corpus of data,鈥� said Sakach, pointing to new concepts such as automated hedge funds and prediction markets.

, partner at , said the firm鈥檚 investments into the fintech sector have surged this year, as areas such as money movement infrastructure, stablecoins and tracking of real-world assets on the blockchain draw attention.

鈥淲e’ve never been busier: The quality of founders, the size of the markets they’re going after, and the maturity of the technology being built has never been more impressive,鈥� he said.

Those trends showed up among fintech鈥檚 largest fundraisers last quarter, with companies such as New York-based , which is building an agentic decision platform for banks and insurers, and , an African payments infrastructure startup, clinching some of the period鈥檚 largest funding deals. Both raises took place in June, with Taktile raising a $110 million Series C funding round led by and Flutterwave landing a Series E round of an undisclosed amount that valued the company at $3.2 billion.

Risks and opportunities

Even with a wealth of new opportunities in the sector, investors are also wary of the risks introduced by AI and hype around businesses that don鈥檛 have a clear path toward growth or profitability.

Sakach was particularly skeptical of new stablecoin networks that lack a clear way to get users, personal credit card startups with tough profit margins, and traditional banking software.

The problem with selling software to legacy banks is that their slow buying cycles 鈥渆ffectively break the hypervelocity speed needed for AI-level product evolution,鈥� she said. Instead, Sakach believes that AI tools will likely succeed by embedding highly specialized engineering teams directly into specific business units.

The era of the generic digital bank or basic payment app is largely over, in Overdorff鈥檚 view: 鈥淲ithout a real wedge or distribution advantage, it’s hard to build a durable business there.”

The real value of AI right now is its ability to act as the central engine for financial products rather than just a side feature, Overdorff believes. Startups are using the technology to compress complex underwriting, fraud detection and advisory workflows 鈥渢hat used to take teams of analysts weeks into tasks that happen in minutes.鈥�

As a result, traditional industries such as tax and audit are being completely upended, he said.

Traditional financial institutions, which are usually the slowest to adopt new tech, are finally bringing AI into their core operations, though Overdorff cautioned 鈥渢hat shift is opening up as much risk as opportunity.鈥�

He also flagged the cybersecurity risks associated with the rapid adoption of new technologies and AI into the financial system. 鈥淭he compliance and governance layer becomes just as important as the AI itself,鈥� he wrote.

Mega-valuations keep top fintechs private

While the fintech IPO market was robust in 2025, it has been markedly quieter in the U.S. so far this year. Three fintech companies went public in the first half of 2026, and they were all foreign companies opting to list in New York: Brazil鈥檚 and and Japan鈥檚 . That鈥檚 the same number of finance-related startups that went public in the first half of 2025, when , and made their debuts.

Many of the fintech companies expected to list in 2026 have remained private, often at escalating valuations. That includes fintech giants such as Stripe, , Ramp, , and others that have opted for more private financing, secondary sales or simply waiting out the public markets.

For example, in February, payments infrastructure giant Stripe announced it had inked deals with investors to provide liquidity to current and former employees through a tender offer at a $159 billion valuation. That valuation represented an impressive 49% increase from the $106.7 billion Stripe was valued at in September, when it completed .

In early June, expense management startup Ramp announced a $750 million funding round at a $44 billion valuation, just a few months after raising $300 million at a $32 billion valuation.

The H2 outlook

The trend of capital concentration seen in the first half of the year will continue into H2, Overdorff predicted, with 鈥渕ega-rounds for a small set of category leaders, and a tougher fundraising environment for everyone else.鈥�

And while AI adoption will continue to deepen rather than flatten out, the industry will also be watching the stock market closely. The conversation around IPOs is heating up for mature fintech companies, though Overdorff notes that 鈥渢he timing may hinge on how other high-profile tech IPOs perform this year.鈥�

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led the financing, which included participation from (Google鈥檚 early-stage AI fund), , , , and several angel investors. The raise brings Fazeshift鈥檚 total raised to $22 million since its 2023 inception.听

The San Francisco company was founded by a team with an unconventional pedigree: (CEO), a former consultant and mechanical engineer and (CTO), an -trained nuclear submarine officer.听

The two met at , but their lightbulb moment came while running a previous startup, , where they found themselves color-coding spreadsheets to track payments for just 10 customers and realized that the tools they were using failed to solve the basic problem of ensuring money actually hits the bank.

They realized that while there are more than a million accounts receivable (AR) clerks in the U.S. alone, many of them spend their time bouncing between systems such as , CRMs like , bank portals, and email threads because these systems do not natively talk to each other.听

Unlike accounts payable, which a company can standardize internally, Leksana contends, accounts receivable is a “snowflake” problem that remains one of the least automated functions in finance. Every customer has a unique set of requirements; for instance, a large retailer might demand that an invoice be submitted through a specific proprietary portal with Part A and Part B attached as PDFs.听

Fazeshift claims that it can automate more than 90% of manual AR tasks 鈥� from invoicing and collections to payment matching and reconciliation 鈥� by operating on top of existing systems and executing workflows across them. It essentially sits on top of a company鈥檚 current stack as a 鈥渂rain.鈥�

Competitors, according to Leksana, are generally focused on automating tasks, while Fazeshift is working on building what she described as an 鈥渋ntelligent control layer鈥� that helps companies 鈥渃ollect faster, more predictably and with less effort, and that is continuously improving through proprietary payer behavior data.鈥�

鈥淲hat sets us apart is our ability to handle complex workflows that other tools fail to solve 鈥� especially in industries like wholesale, construction, staffing, and HVAC, where AR processes are highly fragmented and manual,鈥� Leksana told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News in an interview.

An OS for the finance organization

After launching at the start of the Summer 2024 Y Combinator cohort, Fazeshift has seen its revenue grow 12x in a single year, attracting dozens of enterprise customers, including eight unicorns and its first public company, according to Leksana.

Customers include , , , and , as well as one of the largest independent wholesale distributors in the Southeast, the world鈥檚 top e-commerce aggregator, and a leader in music publishing, per Leksana.听

Looking ahead, Leksana believes that Fazeshift has the potential to expand beyond accounts receivables. The goal is for Fazeshift to become the primary operating system for the entire finance organization.

鈥淥ur long-term vision is to expand into a broader CFO suite,鈥� she said, 鈥渂uilding toward a future of autonomous finance where core operational work is executed by AI and human teams can focus on agent management, strategic work, and governance.鈥�

Broken workflows for 鈥榗ritical functions鈥�

, partner at F-Prime Capital, said her firm was impressed by Fazeshift鈥檚 efforts to meet the needs of companies still running AR mostly on spreadsheets and email.

鈥淵ou鈥檇 be surprised how many Fortune 500 companies only started adopting software a few years ago and still have dozens, if not hundreds, of AR clerks on staff,鈥� she wrote via email. 鈥淭hat gap between how critical the function is and how broken the workflows remain is exactly the kind of opportunity we look for.鈥�

Wu also believes the market is at an inflection point where AI is moving from co-pilot to co-worker, and human teams are shifting from doing the work to reviewing and managing AI agents.

鈥淔azeshift is bringing us closer to an autonomous future for finance,鈥� she said. The founders had 鈥渓ived the pain of broken AR workflows firsthand at their last company and set out to build the platform they wished they鈥檇 had. When you meet founders like that, you move fast.鈥�

Fintech startups, particularly those that apply AI to traditionally manual or burdensome processes, have benefited from increased investment in recent quarters. Global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $53.8 billion in 2025, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . That鈥檚 a more than 29% increase from 2024鈥檚 total of $41.6 billion raised.

Related reading:

• Fintech Startups Globally Raise More Money In Far Fewer Deals In Q1 2026

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With that in mind, its venture arm, , is backing startups that build the financial and technical infrastructure for a more autonomous economy.听

小蓝视频色情网页版 News recently conducted an email interview with , managing director of , about the firm鈥檚 investment thesis, the kinds of startups it aims to back, and how it works with founders to build and scale projects in the American Express ecosystem.听

Amex Ventures鈥� recent investments reflect its focus on an autonomous future. In April, it led a round into business identity infrastructure platform and also wrote a check into , an agentic marketing platform that raised a $43 million Series B. It also backed Candex, a startup that uses AI and aims to help large companies pay small, one-time, or irregular vendors without the administrative headache or risk that comes with onboarding them.听

Since joining Amex 15 years ago, Tsang has been responsible for identifying and executing strategic investments in early- to growth-stage startups that fit the American Express thesis. He also leads the firm鈥檚 consumer services investment vertical, focusing on the future of membership, and oversees the firm鈥檚 global portfolio management operations.

Before joining American Express, he was part of the diversified industrials investment banking group at , where he focused on M&A and corporate finance transactions.

The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

小蓝视频色情网页版 News: In the 鈥�2025 GenAI era,鈥� we focused on tools that inform decisions. Now that we鈥檙e in the ‘2026 Agentic era,’ where agents execute transactions, how has the bar shifted for founders pitching Amex Ventures? Are you prioritizing the AI model or the trust/identity layer that will allow an agent to use a Platinum card autonomously?

Tsang: The bar for Amex Ventures investment has shifted toward agentic commerce systems that can navigate complexity and help facilitate end-to-end workflows for customers, with appropriate user authorization and controls. The most compelling founders operate companies that can handle much more of the full commerce journey, not just surfacing options, but incorporating context, executing user decisions, and ultimately completing tasks, with personalization increasingly becoming a key differentiator in how those experiences are delivered and retained.

Agentic commerce systems are sometimes framed too narrowly as just the final execution step, but the real opportunity 鈥� and where we are seeing the most innovation 鈥� is in systems that can understand preferences, constraints, and intent, and then orchestrate a complete experience that properly reflects them.听

Over time, this could evolve to support more comprehensive experiences, such as planning entire trips rather than just recommending a flight, or managing a series of related actions instead of a single step. AI also has the potential to help scale the kind of high-touch, tailored experiences that were once reserved for a small set of customers to a much broader base.

From our perspective, we are less focused on any single layer, whether that is the underlying model or the trust and identity infrastructure, and more focused on how these components come together to deliver a seamless and high-quality customer experience.听

Trust and security are foundational, especially in financial services. Ultimately, we are looking for founders who are building with the ambition and technical depth to address real-world complexity, while delivering meaningful outcomes for customers with a focus on security and compliance.听

Many founders struggle with the 鈥淐VC paradox鈥� 鈥� getting a pilot with Amex is a huge win, but scaling it globally can take years. What is the most effective way a founder can leverage your firm to move from a localized experiment to a core membership benefit?

We see the most successful commercial partnerships follow a crawl, walk, run model 鈥� starting with a focused pilot, learning quickly, and then building toward broader integration and scale.

Our investment model creates shared incentives to build commercial partnerships that benefit both American Express and our portfolio companies, and we help advance these relationships over time. We look for founders who continue to iterate and innovate so that the scope of these partnerships can expand in a meaningful and sustainable way.

For example, we recently invested in the startup , an agentic marketing platform that helps enterprises understand, influence, and measure how brands are represented across AI-powered channels. At American Express, we are utilizing Bluefish鈥檚 technology to support our agentic search efforts, including our Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategy.

For travel and dining startups, customer acquisition cost (CAC) is skyrocketing due to influencer-driven marketing. How much does a startup鈥檚 ability to plug into the Amex 鈥榗losed-loop鈥� ecosystem factor into your valuation, versus their organic growth?

When we evaluate companies, we start with the fundamentals. We are looking for businesses that can stand on their own, with strong products, clear value propositions, and sustainable growth models. That is core to any investment decision we make.

At the same time, one of the advantages of an investment from Amex Ventures is the potential to partner with American Express and engage with our ecosystem, which we see as a meaningful opportunity for many companies. When there is a clear path to creating mutual value through a commercial partnership, it can strengthen our conviction to invest.

That said, we do not invest simply because a company is likely to have a commercial relationship with American Express. To invest, we must believe in the underlying business on its own merits.听 The potential for an American Express partnership represents additional upside and an opportunity to accelerate the company’s growth together.

With tech M&A volumes up significantly this year, are you managing the current portfolio with an eye toward strategic buyouts by Amex鈥檚 parent company, or are you pushing for independent IPO-ready unit economics given the partially reopened window?

We are not managing the portfolio with a specific exit outcome in mind. Our focus is on investing in companies that can build strong, durable businesses and on creating strategic relationships with our portfolio companies that drive value on both sides.

In many cases, that means working closely with our portfolio companies to explore potential commercial relationships with American Express, which is core to our role as a corporate venture investor. In fact, nearly two-thirds of our portfolio companies have had a commercial relationship with American Express.

From there, a company鈥檚 path, whether toward an IPO or M&A, is ultimately driven by the founder and the broader investor group. Our role is not to steer that outcome, but to support the company in building long-term value and maintaining the flexibility to pursue the right exit opportunity.

When you look at the current 鈥渟ervice-as-software鈥� startups, do you see them as long-term standalone companies, or are we looking at a massive consolidation cycle where travel/dining tech eventually gets absorbed back into the major financial rails?

There are a number of ways this could play out, and it will likely vary by industry. In some sectors, particularly those with high levels of specialization or unique requirements such as regulation, there is a clearer path for companies to build durable, standalone businesses that deliver meaningful value over the long term.

At the same time, we are starting to see early signals that consolidation could emerge in certain areas, particularly at more horizontal layers of the AI stack, where capabilities can extend naturally across multiple use cases. It is still early, though, and the boundaries of how far that consolidation will go are being defined.

In lifestyle categories like travel and dining, I believe the outcome will be a mix. For example, in travel, there is already a range of booking options available to consumers. While there has been some consolidation amongst these companies, many have continued to find ways to differentiate and add value.听

We expect a similar dynamic to continue, with some companies scaling independently while others partner more deeply or join broader platforms over time.

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led the financing, which included participation from , , and . It brings Boulder, Colorado-based Schematic鈥檚 total funding since its 2023 inception to $12 million.

Schematic builds entitlements and enforcement infrastructure for SaaS and AI companies. Put more simply, it serves as a digital gatekeeper for software and AI companies. For example, if a company鈥檚 sales team wants to give a major client a special discount or extra storage, they have to ask an engineer to go in and 鈥渕ove the walls.鈥� The process can be slow, expensive and tedious.

That鈥檚 where Schematic comes in. It essentially acts like a universal remote control for a company鈥檚 features.

Instead of burying those rules in the code, a company can plug Schematic into its product. Then, if it, for example, wants to launch a new “AI Tier” or change how many users a client can have, a person in marketing or sales can flip a switch in a simple dashboard.

鈥淲hen a software company sells you a plan, something inside their product has to enforce what you can do and access based on what you paid for,鈥� said CEO and co-founder . 鈥淢ost companies build that enforcement infra themselves, often badly, and it becomes the thing that slows down every future monetization change. Schematic is the infrastructure that handles it, so engineering doesn’t have to.鈥�

In addition to the fundraise, Schematic is also announcing that payment giant has tapped it 鈥渢o solve entitlements as a first-class primitive: decoupled from code, enforced at runtime, on top of Stripe Billing.鈥�

Schematic will be launching its new Stripe app publicly on stage next week at Stripe Sessions.

Systems like Stripe currently handle the money, sending invoices and charging credit cards. But Stripe doesn’t actually sit inside the app to block or allow a user from clicking a button. Schematic claims it will now serve as the “muscle” that actually enforces the rules that a platform like Stripe sets.

鈥楢n emergent crisis鈥�

By using Schematic, Glover said that companies like went from taking weeks to change their pricing to just 10 minutes. The startup鈥檚 other customers include , and .

AI has made entitlements an emergent crisis, in Glover鈥檚 view.

鈥淣either underlying costs nor customer value are predictable, and both accrue at runtime,鈥� he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News. 鈥淭his is why we describe what we’re building as runtime monetization infrastructure: Value is now accruing nondeterministically at runtime, and as a result, pricing and packaging have to be enforced at runtime. A shadow enforcement system catching webhooks from a billing platform cannot support this inflection.鈥�

, general partner at S3 Ventures, said his firm was drawn to invest in Schematic for a few reasons.

鈥淎s operators and through our portfolio companies, we’ve seen firsthand how often pricing changes get delayed or deprioritized because entitlement logic is buried in application code. On top of that, AI is accelerating a structural shift away from seat-based pricing; hybrid and consumption-based models now represent 38% of SaaS companies and that number is rising as companies hone their AI pricing strategies, putting real pressure on legacy monetization architectures,鈥� he wrote via email. 鈥淔inally, Fynn, Ben, and Gio have worked together for nearly a decade, and each of them encountered this specific problem while running pricing and packaging at growth-stage SaaS companies.鈥�

Fintech startups have benefited from increased investment in recent quarters. Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $53.8 billion in 2025, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . That鈥檚 a more than 29% increase from 2024鈥檚 total of $41.6 billion raised.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

Related reading:

• Fintech Startups Globally Raise More Money In Far Fewer Deals In Q1 2026

Illustration:

AI infrastructure also added four new unicorn companies focused on data center technology and provisioning. Fintech, including startups in wealth management, payment and digital assets, added four companies, while developer tools and defense each added three.

Twenty of March鈥檚 new unicorns are U.S.-based, including 11 from the San Francisco Bay Area. China added six companies in sectors ranging from robotics to AI and quantum computing.

From Europe, four new March unicorns are U.K.-based, while France, the Netherlands and Belgium each minted one. The UAE, Seychelles, India and Australia also each added one new unicorn to the board.

The most valuable unicorn newcomer last month was Seychelles-based crypto exchange , valued at $25 billion. The largest funding was a $1 billion round raised by AI pioneer 鈥檚 new frontier lab startup, Paris-based .

The board also saw a sizable cohort of very young companies earning their unicorn horns: 18 of the companies that joined the board last month were less than 3 years old. Five were not even a year old.

March鈥檚 new unicorns

AI-centric sectors by far led unicorn creation in March, with 14 of the 36 newcomers hailing from the robotics, foundational AI or AI infrastructure industries:

Robotics

• , a robotics for manufacturing company spun out by , raised a $500 million Series A led by and . The 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Shenzhen-based , an intelligent sensor technology for robotics, raised a $145 million Series B led by , and . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Beijing-based , a humanoid robotics company, raised $145 million in funding. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a humanoid robotics company for household tasks, raised a $165 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Mountain View, California-based company was valued at $1.2 billion. The company plans to deploy robots to homes this year.
• Pudong, China-based , an intelligent layer for robotics in manufacturing, raised an $87 million Series D round. The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• , a provider of simulated data for robotic intelligence, raised a $146 million Series A. The 3-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Foundational AI

• Paris-based raised a $1 billion seed round led by , ,, and . The less than 1-year-old company was founded by LeCun, 鈥檚 former AI lead, and is working to develop models for physical AI. It was valued at $4.5 billion in the round, which is Europe鈥檚 largest seed round on record.
• , a robot foundation model developer trained on internet scale video, raised a $450 million Series A led by . The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
• , a math foundation model developer for verified AI useful for coding and other applications, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• Beijing-based , a text-to-video startup with its own AI model, raised a $300 million Series C led by . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

• , a provider of networking hardware and software for data centers, raised a $500 million Series B led by and . The 2-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $4.2 billion.
• , a chip cooling technology, raised a $143 million Series D led by . The 8-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• , which offers GPU rentals for startups, raised a Series A funding led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Redmond, Washington-based , a company building data centers in space, raised a $170 million Series A led by and . The 2-year-old company听 was valued at $1.1 billion.听 It launched its first satellite with a H100 in November 2025.

Financial services

• London-based , an AI-native platform for debt providers including banks, asset managers and advisory firms, raised a $170 million Series C led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• Mumbai-based , a wealth asset advisory firm for high-net-worth individuals and family offices, raised a $53 million private equity funding led by . The 4-year old, venture-backed asset manager was valued at $1.1 billion.
• Brussels-based , an investment group for digital assets, raised a Series C led by . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion.
• Abu Dhabi-based , a payments infrastructure provider for regulated gaming markets, raised a $250 million funding led by . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Developer tools

• , which promises to make your app enterprise ready with authentication and other features, raised a $100 million Series C led by and. The 8-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• , an observability platform for agentic AI, raised a $110 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a software developer for hardware testing and development, raised an $80 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• , a drone technology company built for defense, raised a $110 million Series B led by . The 7-year-old Huntsville, Alabama-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Sydney-based , provider of advanced navigation beyond GPS for military and industrial capabilities, raised a $112 million Series C led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• London-based , a builder of unmanned systems used in the Ukrainian war, raised a $50 million seed听 funding led by and . The 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Biotechnology

• Austin-based , a biological AI research company spun out of听 , raised a $10 million seed extension. The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
• , a neurotech company focused on brain computer interfaces, raised a $230 million Series C led by and听 Lightspeed Venture Partners. The 5-year-old Alameda, California-based company, whose primary product, an implant to restore vision for those who suffer retinal disease, was valued at $1.5 billion.

Sales and marketing

• Amsterdam-based , a builder of agents for companies to deploy in customer service and business operations, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
• , an agentic layer that monitors customers and researches prospects, raised a Series B led by . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

• , native AI security with its own human triage for customers, raised a $250 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old Sarasota, Florida-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , which uses AI for offensive security, raised a $120 million Series C led by and . The 2-year-old Seattle-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• Seychelles-based , a global cryptocurrency exchange platform, raised a $200 million corporate round led by , the parent company of the . The 12-year-old company was valued at $25 billion.

Telehealth

• Miami-based , ‘s telehealth provider for GLP-1 medications through employers, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.

Professional services

• London-based , an AI notetaking startup, raised a $125 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Consumer goods

• , a company with a mattress, thermal blanket and pillow designed to monitor and improve sleep, raised a $50 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Accelerator

• London-based , an accelerator that sources founders from top schools, raised a $200 million Series D. The 11-year-old company, which hosts its latest cohorts in Silicon Valley, was valued at $1.3 billion.

Quantum computing

• Sichuan, China-based , a quantum computer and chip-production company, raised a $145 million Series B. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Autonomous driving

• Hangzhou-based , an intelligent driving platform, raised a Series A led by , and . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 unicorn lists:

• (1,739)
• (609)
• (101)
• (188)
• (117)
• (102)
• (896)
• (510)
• (236)
• (38)
• (472)

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• This Is A Momentous Year For Early-Stage Unicorns
• The Rising Investors Behind The New Unicorn Class
• While OpenAI Shattered Records, Robotics and Semiconductor Startups Quietly Added The Most New Unicorns In February

Methodology

The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on 小蓝视频色情网页版 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

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听 $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� 小蓝视频色情网页版 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.

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Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 小蓝视频色情网页版, 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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 小蓝视频色情网页版 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

While no billion-dollar rounds led this week鈥檚 list, we nonetheless saw a variety of startups in industries ranging from semiconductors to aerospace to biotech raise sizable rounds. The week鈥檚 biggest deal was $400 million for SiFive, a semiconductor startup challenging incumbent with chip designs built on an open rather than proprietary standard.

1. , $400M, semiconductors: San Mateo, California-based semiconductor startup SiFive raised a $400 million Series G round led by . SiFive makes the blueprints used by companies such as to develop their own internal chip designs, on an open standard called RISC-V. CEO Reuters he expects the raise to be SiFive鈥檚 last funding round before an IPO, though didn鈥檛 say when an offering would take place.

2. , $200M, aviation: Hermeus, an El Segundo, California-based startup developing autonomous military aircraft, raised $200 million in equity in a -led round. The company, which is developing what it says will be the fastest unmanned defense aircraft, also raised $150 million in debt as part of the round, which pushes its valuation to $1 billion. Other investors in the deal include , and

3. $137M, biotechnology: San Diego-based Sidewinder, a biotech startup developing cancer drugs to target difficult-to-treat tumors, raised a $137 million Series B led by and . The company is developing听next-generation cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, which are designed to act like 鈥済uided missiles鈥� by using engineered antibodies to deliver toxic payloads directly into tumor cells. The company said its new funding will be used to push its lead drug candidates into clinical trials.

4. , $125M, AI infrastructure: Palo Alto, California-based Aria Networks raised $125 million in a -led Series A funding round. The company develops an AI-driven networking platform that monitors, analyzes and optimizes data center performance.

5. , $111.7M, aerospace: Starfish Space, a Seattle-based startup developing and manufacturing autonomous space vehicles that perform in-orbit, satellite servicing missions, raised $111.7 million. The Series B round was led by , and . Starfish鈥檚 spacecraft dock to satellites already in orbit to service and reposition them. They can also remove defunct satellites and debris from space.

6. (tied) , $100M, biotechnology: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Stipple Bio raised a $100 million Series A round to advance its precision cancer therapies. The round was led by , and . Stipple aims to develop highly targeted cancer treatments that selectively attack cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.

6. (tied) , $100M, health insurance: led the $100 million Series E for Chapter, a New York-based startup offering a Medicare navigation platform that provides advisory services for seniors seeking health coverage. Other investors include 鈥嬧��, and 1.

8. , $85M, fintech: Modus, a Philadelphia-based startup, raised $85 million in a -led seed and Series A round. The startup describes itself as a tech鈥慹nabled audit platform that acquires CPA firms and equips them with AI鈥慸riven audit tools to deliver higher鈥憅uality audits. and also participated in the deal.

9. , $80M, medical devices: and led the $80 million Series C for Menlo Park, California-based Endovascular Engineering, also called E2, which has developed a device called H膿lo for the treatment of venous thromboembolism, or VTE. The company secured clearance for H膿lo in December.

10. , $80M, biotechnology: Boston-based Life Sciences, which aims to develop drugs to promote longevity and find treatments for age-related diseases, says it raised $80 million in Series D funding. The company says it will use the funding to advance human trials of its cellular rejuvenation therapy, called ER-100, which aims to make older, damaged cells act younger again. Investors in the round were not disclosed. The company has previously been backed by , , , and.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 小蓝视频色情网页版 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of April 4-10. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

Global venture funding to financial technology startups totaled $12 billion across 751 deals in 2026 as of April 6, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . That鈥檚 a 5% increase in dollars raised compared to the $11.4 billion raised across 1,097 鈥� or 31.5% fewer 鈥斕齞eals 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 鈥� by 43% 鈥� 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 小蓝视频色情网页版 . That鈥檚 an approximately 29.3% increase from 2024鈥檚 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 鈥� or $6.3 billion 鈥� 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 鈥渕ore a quirk of deal flow鈥� and where it gets conviction, rather than a decision to slow the firm鈥檚 investing pace.

鈥淚t’s certainly true that macroeconomics and geopolitics play a role,鈥� he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News, 鈥渂ut mostly we’re just focused on finding high-conviction companies to back.鈥�

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

鈥淛ust 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,鈥� Gerety said. 鈥淔inance runs on trust, not probability.鈥�

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 鈥渢ransforming鈥� their operations with agentic workflows, Gerety noted.

鈥淢ore and more transformation is moving from the 鈥榗o-pilot鈥� phase, and we鈥檙e 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,鈥� he added.

The geopolitical situation will likely hinder some companies from taking the IPO plunge, in Gerety鈥檚 view, although a few companies in QED鈥檚 portfolios are 鈥渂ubbling.鈥�

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

鈥淲e鈥檙e investing in AI-enabled applications while maintaining patience and focus in our deployment of capital,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e look for durable, enduring businesses that we believe will withstand the current hype cycle and investment frenzy.鈥�

While TTV is investing in AI-enabled companies, Kapur said it also agrees with that 鈥渁n AI reset is coming.鈥�

鈥淢any investors have already made their money by getting in on the ground floor, and others are trying to replicate their success,鈥� he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News. 鈥淲e鈥檙e focused on investing in the application layer of AI, and we鈥檙e still in the early days with more widespread prosperity and a democratization of enterprise value creation yet to come.鈥�

In particular, TTV sees the biggest opportunity in early-stage AI-native companies that are solving problems in mission-critical workflows 鈥渨hile building durable moats.鈥�

鈥淭hese platforms will earn the right to be distribution endpoints for financial products 鈥� and are even more valuable in the age of AI,鈥� 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.

鈥淚f those IPOs underperform, others may opt to stay private longer,鈥� Kapur said.

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

鈥淢ore broadly, we鈥檙e watching how the foundational LLMs further move up into the application layer, which is imperative to the long-term sustainability of their business models,鈥� Kapur said. 鈥淲e think financial services and fintech are unique enough categories where de novo startups and standalone businesses will beat platforms building experimental applications.鈥�

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

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• Fintech Funding Jumped 27% In 2025 With Fewer Deals But Bigger Checks
• Kalshi Secures $1B To Expand Predictions Market Platform
• Digital Savings Startup Vestwell Lands $385M, Doubles Valuation
• Stablecoin Startup Rain Raises $250M Series C at $1.95B Valuation 鈥� Its Third Round In Less Than A Year
• Exclusive: Zocks Raises $45M Series B From Lightspeed, QED For AI Assistant To Financial Advisers

Illustration:

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

Of that total, $761 million went into late-stage and growth deals, up 158% compared to the $295 million that flowed into such deals in the first quarter of 2025. It鈥檚 also up 203% compared with the $251 million in late-stage and growth rounds that were raised by LatAm startups in the 2025 fourth quarter.

Table of contents

• Mexico leads
• Fewer deals
• Some big rounds
• Investor POV
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Mexico leads

Nearly one-third of the total amount raised in the first quarter went to one startup. Mexico City-based , an online used car marketplace, secured a $300 million Series F financing led by and in February.

Notably, mostly due to that outsized round, Mexican startups outperformed their Brazilian counterparts in the first quarter, raising a total of $404 million compared to Brazil鈥檚 $240 million.

Historically, Brazil has been the powerhouse in Latin America for venture capital funding. But it鈥檚 not the first time in recent quarters that Mexico has topped Latin America鈥檚 largest country. Mexico also raised more funding in the second quarter of 2025.

Overall, the first quarter marks only the second time since Q2 2012 that Mexican startups raised more venture capital than their Brazilian counterparts in Latin America, our data indicates.

Fewer deals

Round counts and total dollars raised decreased substantially sequentially and year over year across angel, seed and early stages. Of the $1.03 billion raised by Latin America鈥檚 startups in the first quarter, less than 9% 鈥� or $92 million 鈥� was raised across the angel and seed stages.

That compares to $161 million raised across those stages in the fourth quarter of 2025, and $152 million in the same first quarter last year.

Just over 17%, or $179 million, was raised at early stages, significantly lower than the $690 million raised in the fourth quarter and $472 million in the same period last year.

We expect the Q1 deal counts to rise somewhat over time, however, as seed rounds in particular are commonly reported weeks or months after they close.

Some big rounds

While Kavak鈥檚 round was the largest financing in Latin America in the first quarter, it was not the only nine-figure raise the region saw in Q1.

Argentinian fintech raised $195 million at a $3.2 billion valuation in March in a round led by .

Other large deals that took place in Q1 include:

• Mexico City-based , a financial app built around stablecoins, raised $70 million in a round co-led by and .
• Buenos Aires-based , a payments infrastructure startup, landed a $55 million Series C financing co-led by and.

Notably, the largest rounds included participation from high-profile global funds, including Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital and Insight Partners.

Investor POV

, managing partner of New York-based , said his firm has made more than 60 investments in Latin America since 2022 鈥� steadily increasing its investment pace every year from 11 deals in the region in 2023 to 20 in 2025.

In his view, many of the global investors who began putting more funding into Latin America鈥檚 startups in recent years are still writing checks there. However, he acknowledges that some 鈥渕omentum鈥� investors have slowed down.

Still, 鈥渁lmost all of the long-term smart capital investors have remained very active,鈥� he said.

Last year was 鈥渁ll about stablecoins and fintech infrastructure鈥� for the region. We should expect more of that this year, along with increased AI use across all sectors and strong enterprise growth in Brazil, he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News.

Brazil continues to be Endeavor Catalyst’s top market, but it is watching startups across the region, including in countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and even smaller markets such as Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.

Endeavor Catalyst has reason to be bullish on Latin America. Startups it has backed in the region are among the top performers of the firm鈥檚 portfolio. More than one-third (34%) of its 2026 Outlier class, which comprise roughly the top 10% best performers in its network, are from Latin America, according to Taylor.

, general partner at S茫o Paulo-based seed-stage firm , told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News that his firm鈥檚 pace in Latin America has remained constant and 鈥渋ntentionally selective.鈥�

鈥淲e’ve always believed that seed in Latin America works best when you’re deeply involved with a small number of exceptional founders and not try to index the market,鈥� he noted.

But like many other investors, OneVC is also investing at an earlier stage.

鈥淥ne notable shift is that, as founding teams move faster than ever, often reaching product-market signal with leaner teams and AI-native tooling,鈥� Cartolano said, 鈥減re-seed is taking a larger share of our investments, and we expect that to continue being the case for this cycle.鈥�

Like Endeavor Catalyst, Brazil is OneVC鈥檚 primary market. It has a home court advantage, but as Cartolano notes, the country also has a lot going for it including being the largest economy in Latin America, one of the world’s most active early-adopter communities for new technology (, -native commerce, AI), and a regulatory environment 鈥� particularly in financial services 鈥� which in his view 鈥渢hat fosters innovation鈥�

As a secondary focus, interestingly, his firm is tracking an increasing number of strong Latino founders relocating to the United States to build companies.

鈥淲e like that,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey combine deep operational instincts from LatAm with access to the largest addressable market and most liquid exit environment.鈥�

He agrees with Taylor that global interest appears to be renewing in Latin America startups.

鈥淭here is no shortage of capital for the best companies in the region, regardless of the state, and we are seeing some large firms investing in LatAm for the first time or coming back after a long period,鈥� he said.

And while fintech has historically dominated when it comes to venture funding in Latin America, Cartolano said that fintech is now unsurprisingly giving way to AI-first companies that sell services, particularly to enterprises.

鈥淭he broader market is also shifting from consumer-facing models toward B2B, as enterprise companies are more incentivized than ever to adopt new technologies,鈥� he added. 鈥淥neVC is especially focused on GenAI companies that 鈥榮ell work,鈥� replacing headcount and outsourced services with AI-driven delivery at a fraction of the cost.

Related reading:

• In Q2, Mexico Surpasses Brazil In Venture Dollars For First Time In Over A Decade

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 小蓝视频色情网页版, 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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 小蓝视频色情网页版 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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. 小蓝视频色情网页版 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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