Seven companies raised billion-dollar fundings in August, tied with a few months for the year鈥檚 second-highest count after July, when 13 companies did the same.

The largest startup funding deal in August went to 13-year-old which raised $5 billion at a $190 billion valuation.

Other companies across a broad range of industries raised billion-dollar-plus rounds, a testament to the strength of the technology sector impacting听 a range of more traditional industries, including physical manufacturing, defense, aerospace and energy. They included defense tech startup ; , which performs custom AI fine-tuning for businesses; low-orbit satellite network ; nuclear energy company ; automated coding provider ; and home battery service .

Notable exits

On the IPO front, Hangzhou, China-based humanoid robotics company went public on Aug. 19 and soared 460% on its first day of trading on the .

The largest M&A news in August was 鈥檚 announcement that it aims to acquire open-source AI platform for $12.9 billion. Other notable acquisition news was Milan-based tech aggregator 鈥� plan to acquire 13-year-old database company for around $1.3 billion.

Big rounds are coming faster

Venture capital continues to concentrate rapidly among a small group of fast-growing companies. Two of August鈥檚 billion-dollar recipients illustrate the trend: Databricks added $56 billion to its valuation in just six months, while River AI raised both its seed and Series A rounds this year, amassing a staggering $1.1 billion in early-stage funding.

That accelerated cadence extended across August鈥檚 megadeals: Five of the seven billion-dollar funding recipients had last raised capital less than 12 months earlier, including three that closed their previous rounds earlier this year. The numbers underscore how quickly investors are doubling down on companies they believe can become the next generation of technology giants.

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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 Sept. 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.)

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But startup investors haven鈥檛 abandoned the sector, either, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. Instead, they鈥檙e being more selective about their bets and putting more money into companies using AI and other technology to make construction, property operations and real estate transactions faster and less expensive.

That shift shows up in both the year鈥檚 largest funding rounds and biggest acquisitions 鈥� and, notably, much of the biggest funding activity is happening outside the U.S.

The broad trend: Even before the pandemic-fueled funding peaks, proptech startups received more than double the venture funding in 2019 than in more recent years. While investors haven鈥檛 given up on proptech, funding to startups in the space remains down as interest rates hover in the .

In case you forgot, during the COVID-19 pandemic, home buyers and owners had access to 15-year mortgage interest rates as low as 2.5%. Those historically low interest rates fueled investor interest in the space, especially in the U.S.

Today, venture investors are backing startups working in areas such as AI-driven construction, property operations, underwriting and transaction infrastructure with demonstrable ROI. At the same time, more generic real estate software and later-stage companies without exceptional growth face significant funding challenges, our data shows.

And interestingly, four of the five largest deals in 2026 to date took place outside the United States.

The numbers: So far in 2026, global real estate-related startups have pulled in about $8.7 billion in seed- through growth-stage financing, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . That compares to $24 billion in 2019, the second-highest year on record after the 2021 venture funding spike. It also compares to $12.3 billion raised in 2025. It appears that with four months left in the year, proptech funding is on pace to roughly match or slightly exceed 2025 levels.

Deal count is also down fairly significantly, with 794 deals so far this year. For context, the space saw more than 2,400 deals in 2019. Last year, the sector notched 1,446 transactions. The lower deal count signals both potentially decreased investor interest in the space and larger round sizes.

Noteworthy deals

The three largest deals in the proptech space so far took place in Europe, and two of those top deals involved companies doing work with steel.

Stockholm-based , a green steel startup, landed the largest haul in a private equity deal led by , also of Sweden. In June, the 6-year-old company raised about $1.6 billion in a transaction that made Wallenberg its majority owner.

In August, of Madrid raised $695 million in a venture round led by another Madrid-based company, , for its own green steel plant. The 3-year-old startup raised the money at a $3.1 billion valuation.

And in January, Amsterdam-based , a cloud-native hospitality management system, closed a $300 million Series D funding round at a $2.5 billion valuation. London鈥檚 led the financing for the 14-year-old company.

The only U.S. company to crack the top five when it comes to the largest deals was San Francisco-based autonomous construction tech startup , which raised $270 million in a Series B funding round in February. The financing, co-led by and , brought Bedrock鈥檚 total funding to over $350 million and valued the company at $1.75 billion.

Montreal-based AI-powered digital mortgage startup rounds out the list with a $216 million Series E raised in June at a $1.47 billion valuation.

Exits

There have been some meaningful proptech exits in 2026, although the activity is much stronger in M&A than in IPOs.

The only known significant initial public offering in the space was conducted in January by Columbia, Missouri-based , a construction-equipment rental company with a jobsite technology platform. EquipmentShare raised about $747 million in primary proceeds by pricing 30.5 million shares at $24.50. Including shares sold by existing holders, the offering totaled approximately $859 million.

Real estate-related startup M&A, however, has been robust in 2026 so far, with several of the largest transactions involving brokerage consolidation. Overall, the broad acquisition trend is centered around incumbents buying data, workflow ownership and distribution so they can build credible AI products more quickly.

The largest deal in the proptech space was $3.6 billion cash purchase of , which operated an AI-powered equipment maintenance and asset management platform, announced in May. (MaintainX had seen its valuation jump to $2.5 billion in 2025 after a $150 million Series D raise.)

There were several other large acquisitions.

• In January, completed its acquisition of in an all-stock $1.6 billion transaction that made it 鈥渢he world鈥檚 largest brokerage,鈥� according to .
• Construction tech giant announced in July that it was acquiring , a provider of aerial and ground-based reality-capture software for construction and other industries, for $845 million in cash. In a smaller deal, Procore also picked up construction AI-agent platform .
• Commercial real estate giant in August completed its $800 million cash purchase of , a housing-market data and technology provider for the homebuilding industry.
• And also in August, officially completed its $880 million acquisition of , forming a new parent entity named the Real REMAX Group.

The AI effect

AI is starting to move from the testing stage into everyday use across real estate and construction, according to a from and titled 鈥淧roptech鈥檚 Impact on Real Estate Innovation and Transformation.鈥�

The report says companies are using it to cut costs, make better decisions, and handle routine work more efficiently. Meanwhile, proptech is expanding beyond property-management software into areas such as construction, energy, infrastructure and climate technology.

Overall, proptech funding remains far below its pandemic-era highs, but the types of companies attracting money are evolving. Investors and buyers tend to favor businesses that can show they save customers time or money, particularly in construction, building operations and real estate finance. As such, the proptech sector increasingly includes companies that look quite different from those funded in years past.

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For the past few years, global funding to biotech startups has hovered between $36 billion and $40 billion. Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, 2026 is on track to stay close to that range.

The numbers don鈥檛 paint an especially bullish picture, even though overall venture investment rose to a record level in the first half of this year. Still, given that much of that largesse went to a couple of generative AI behemoths, biotechs scooped up a respectable share of what was left.

Biggest rounds

A few biotechs picked up some especially large financings. A good share of those were for 鈥� no shocker here 鈥� companies at the intersection of biotech and AI.

So far this year, more than $6 billion has gone to AI-focused biotechs, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

The largest round 鈥� and the biggest for any biotech this year 鈥� was a $2.1 billion Series B for London-based , which describes itself as an AI-first drug design and development company.

Delaware-based , which develops AI platforms for developing protein therapeutics, was the second-largest fundraiser, closing on $787 million in March. The next-largest AI-focused fundraise was San Francisco鈥檚 , a startup applying AI to drug discovery, which secured $400 million in Series C this summer at a $3.8 billion valuation.

Of course, not all of this year鈥檚 heavily funded biotechs describe themselves as AI-centric. A case in point is , a longevity startup based in South San Francisco, California, focused on developing medicines to restore youthful function in old cells, that raised $435 million in a June Series C. For a broader view, below we put together a list of 10 of this year鈥檚 most heavily funded global biotechs.

Still an early-stage game, with plenty of exits

But while top-funded biotechs may skew a bit later-stage, that鈥檚 not the case for the overall startup pipeline.

Funding rounds this year are heavily tilted toward seed and early stage, which comprise more than half of all investment and most rounds. This is a pattern we see in prior years as well, as later-stage biotechs often seek to go public after a Series B or Series C financing rather than raise another venture round.

This year, we鈥檝e also seen a fair share of biotechs go public rather early in their lifecycles, particularly for hot areas like obesity therapeutics and pain management.

, a developer of oral and injectable therapies for obesity, was a prominent example. The Waltham, Massachusetts, company, founded in 2024, went public in April, six months after closing its Series B.

Personalized medicine startup followed a similar trajectory, making its debut in June after raising more than $550 million in early-stage funding the prior year. And , a developer of non-opioid therapies for chronic pain, completed its IPO in August, about a year-and-a-half after its Series B.

Later-stage biotechs also didn鈥檛 sit out the IPO parade. The year’s largest biotech offering, for example, was 10-year-old , focused on cancer therapeutics, which raised its Series F in January.

Biotech startups also delivered some big M&A exits. Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, at least 12 funded companies sold in transactions valued at $1 billion or more, including potential milestone payments. They are listed below.

Healthy outlook

Overall, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows biotech funding and exits holding up at healthy levels this year. True, conditions look pretty tame compared to the exuberance of the AI investment blitz. As funding at the intersection of AI and biotech continues to accumulate, however, we might see more of that enthusiasm spilling over in coming quarters.

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So far this year, a record $20.3 billion in global seed- through growth-stage funding has gone to companies in space- and satellite-related sectors, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. That鈥檚 already by far the highest annual tally on record, and we鈥檝e still got four months left in 2026.

Excitement extends beyond obvious markers like a behemoth IPO. The latest quarterly from venture investor declares that 鈥渢he space economy has entered a new era,鈥� and that 鈥渃apital is flowing at unprecedented scale,鈥� with scant indication of a near-term pullback.

It鈥檚 a global phenomenon as well, with the United States, China and Europe accounting for the overwhelming majority of funding. So far this year, U.S. startups pulled in around $12.7 billion, more than 60% of global space tech funding. Just over 20% of funding went to China-based companies, while Europe pulled in about 10%.

Top fundraisers

Funding looks robust, but, as usual, the larger rounds cluster at later stages.

This is true for 2026 fundraising leaders. The top-ranked investment recipient, , pulled in $5 billion in a May Series H. (Anduril is a diversified defense technology company rather than a pure-play space tech company, but it includes space and satellites among its focus areas.)

Shanghai-based , also referred to as SpaceSail, which is developing a low-Earth orbit satellite internet constellation to rival , was another prodigious fundraiser, pulling in a $1 billion round in August.

, a Torrance, California-based developer of large, high-powered satellites, also picked up a big round, securing $500 million in Series D funding in July.

For a broader view, below we put together a list of nine of this year鈥檚 largest space tech funding round recipients.

Exits rising

Needless to say, space tech investors aren鈥檛 just deploying capital 鈥� they鈥檙e also seeing eye-popping exit returns.

SpaceX set an initial valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion for its June IPO 鈥� the largest by far of any public offering to date 鈥� and raised over $80 billion in the process. Shares of the rocket developer, launch provider, Starlink operator and AI hyperscaler have fluctuated since then, but recently hovered near the initial offer price.

Of course, no other company operating in the space tech sector will come close to that. Leaving that aside, however, we did see some offerings and acquisitions that were significant by most other comps.

One example was , a private equity-backed space and defense tech company, which went public in January at a valuation of over $4 billion. Its stock has fallen sharply since then, however, indicating that a space tech focus alone is not enough to keep shares aloft.

More recently, , operator of a satellite constellation that sells signals intelligence to defense and government customers, went public in May. Its shares are also down some from their first-day closing price.

Startup M&A deals are also happening. York Space Systems announced this year that it is acquiring , a provider of satellite communications terminals, in a $355 million deal. It acquired two other venture-backed companies this year for undisclosed sums: , a developer of satellite propulsion systems, and , focused on solar energy for space.

Another recent market entrant, , also made a significant acquisition, picking up , a developer of lunar landers and rovers, for $300 million in June.

Risks and rewards

Of course, even the most sunnily optimistic startup investors don’t expect space tech valuations to always move up and to the right. It鈥檚 a notoriously risk-prone sector, and even the sector鈥檚 high-valuation market newcomer, SpaceX, has suffered its share of rocket failures and other high-profile disappointments.

That said, startup backers clearly believe space tech rewards outweigh the risks. We鈥檒l see in coming quarters if that still holds true.

Correction: The 2025 dollar amount in the chart was updated.

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The Incline Village, Nevada-based company is also acquiring Austin-based agentic AI startup as it looks to automate more of the labor-intensive work involved in investigating financial crime.

led the investment, which includes both primary capital and a secondary tender offer for employees. , , and others also participated. Socure did not disclose the terms of its acquisition of Fravity.

With the latest funding, Socure has raised over $742 million in disclosed funding since its 2012 inception. It was previously valued at $4.5 billion at the time of its Series E round in 2021. The company did not break down how much of its raise was primary and secondary capital.

Rapid growth as fraud surges

The transactions come as Socure says it is seeing both rapid growth in its own business and a sharp rise in increasingly sophisticated fraud. The company is refreshingly open about its financials, telling 小蓝视频色情网页版 News that it ended the second quarter with $364 million in annual recurring revenue, up 63% from a year earlier, and added 95 customers during the quarter, including , , and . It also claims to be growing 鈥減rofitably.鈥�

Socure uses AI and machine learning to help banks, fintechs and government agencies verify identities so they can 鈥渁pprove real customers instantly while stopping fraud.鈥�

It now has more than 3,000 enterprise customers. They include 19 of the 20 largest U.S. banks, more than 600 fintech companies, major sportsbook and prediction-market operators, and 160 public-sector organizations. Specifically, some of those customers include , , , , and . The company鈥檚 revenue model mixes usage- and transaction-based SaaS.

AI creates both an opportunity and a problem

Socure co-founder and CEO said AI is creating both an opportunity and a problem for the business. For example, Socure saw an 8,000% increase in AI-driven fraud across its network last year, according to the company, as generative AI and other tools make it easier to create convincing fake identities and automate attacks.

At the same time, AI could help address one of the more costly parts of fraud prevention: investigating the large number of cases and alerts that automated systems flag for human review.

That is where Fravity comes in.

Automating fraud investigations

Fravity has built an AI-native platform that uses agents to automate fraud, risk and compliance investigations. Its technology will be incorporated into Socure’s RiskOS platform as RiskOS_Agents, initially focusing on watchlist screening and monitoring and know-your-business checks.

Socure and Fravity already share several enterprise customers that use the two products together, according to Socure. Across its existing deployments, Fravity has reduced cost per case by 80%, sped up case resolution fivefold and cut false positives by as much as 70%, the companies say.

The acquisition puts Socure more directly into what identity intelligence company estimates is a $71.1 billion financial crime investigation market. The problem is particularly acute at banks, where 53% spend at least an hour reviewing each alert, and 37% manually review more than 40% of alerts, according to Liminal.

As AI increases the volume and sophistication of fraud, Ayers argues that the identity layer 鈥� determining whether people and increasingly AI agents are who or what they claim to be 鈥� is becoming more critical to doing business online.

“I believe there are two types of companies that matter in the AI-driven global economy: those that are AI-native, and those that fight the consequences of AI acceleration,” he said in a statement.

Expanding beyond financial services

The investment follows a period of expansion for Socure beyond its financial services roots. In May, the company won a five-year, $163 million federal contract to provide identity-proofing technology for Login.gov. It is also pushing further internationally.

Socure had more than 550 employees as of March 2026, more than 100 more than it had about a year ago, according to Ayers.

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It鈥檚 been a rapid progression to get here. In the past two years, venture investors have poured more than $7 billion into legal and legal tech startups, most with an AI focus. Funding to the space hit a record level last year, with $4.6 billion invested, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. So far this year, legal tech startups have pulled in more than $2.2 billion.

Top fundraisers

The biggest chunk of funding in recent quarters has gone to startups familiar to followers of the space.

, a provider of AI tools for legal professionals, is the sector鈥檚 top fundraiser with $1.2 billion in investment to date. The 4-year-old, San Francisco-based company is reportedly now another $500 million at a $15.5 billion valuation.

, an AI platform built for lawyers, is also in the midst of a massive scale-up. The Stockholm-based startup raised $600 million in Series D funding this year, securing a valuation of $5.5 billion, tripling over a six-month period.

, a 2008 vintage provider of legal practice management software that has pivoted heavily into AI, has also been attracting growth funding. While it didn鈥檛 secure a round this year, the Vancouver company closed on $1.4 billion in equity financing in 2024 and 2025.

For 2026, meanwhile, at least 12 legal tech-focused startups have secured rounds of $50 million or more. We’ve put together a list below.

Notably, there鈥檚 still quite a bit of activity at the early stage. Out of the 12 largest rounds this year, eight were Series A or Series B financings. Seed-stage dealmaking is also busy, with more than 50 legal- and legal-tech seed rounds of $1 million or more this year, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Exits

Legal tech startups are also selling to acquirers at a steady clip.

Legora has been particularly acquisitive of late, snapping up at least five companies this year, all of which raised seed or venture funding. Harvey is also a serial buyer, acquiring at least three companies in 2026. Neither company has disclosed purchase prices.

Among publicly traded acquirers, , a Dutch legal and healthcare software provider, has made at least two sizable legal tech startup acquisitions since last year. It paid $500 million for , a provider of legal spend management tools, and $105 million for , an AI workspace for legal professionals.

We haven鈥檛 seen venture-backed legal tech companies go public lately, but the biggest names seem to be signaling the possibility. Harvey, for instance, it added over $100 million in ARR in the first quarter of this year, indicating it has the revenue and growth trajectory of a strong IPO candidate.

With high investment comes high expectations

Robust investment in legal tech comes amid high expectations for AI-delivered efficiencies among legal professionals.

A of professionals in the space this year found that 80% of respondents believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within the next five years.

Early benefits look promising too, with more than half of respondents attesting that their organizations are already seeing a return on investment from investing in AI. Top use cases include document review, legal research, summarizing documents, and drafting briefs or memos.

One of the highest-impact areas for AI ahead is saving time, with tools that automate repetitive tasks. Generally speaking, that鈥檚 a welcome offering, although legal professionals do widely anticipate it could disrupt the hourly billing model.

Overall, the storyline looks similar to what we see in other industries where AI is shouldering more tasks. AI isn鈥檛 expected to replace lawyers and legal support staff. However, it could free people to spend more time on valuable tasks only a human can do, enable employers to run with a smaller staff, or both.

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has been operating in that market since 2013. The New York-based company operates a marketplace for shares of privately held companies, giving employees and other shareholders a way to sell stock before a company goes public or is acquired.

announced plans to acquire EquityZen in October 2025 and completed the deal in January 2026, bringing the company under the investment bank鈥檚 umbrella.

, who co-founded EquityZen and serves as its chief strategy officer, has had a front-row seat to the secondary market’s evolution. 小蓝视频色情网页版 News spoke with Haslett about what secondary-market pricing says about today鈥檚 most sought-after startups, why AI companies are commanding premiums while many older startups trade at discounts, what the IPO market looks like beyond its biggest names, and why investors are taking a closer look at hard tech.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

小蓝视频色情网页版 News: The second quarter was one of the strongest venture-backed IPO quarters since 2021, but drove much of that activity. If you remove SpaceX, how open is the IPO market for the typical late-stage startup?

Phil Haslett: Generally, I鈥檇 say it鈥檚 better than it was three or six months ago. If you were a private late-stage technology company, you probably were going to wait until after SpaceX anyway, so that hurdle is gone.

Tech markets are also doing well. The stock market is at an all-time high, and there鈥檚 been a strong recovery in tech stocks overall. I assume that we鈥檙e gearing up for a busier summer than usual.

Another thing to consider is IPO performance beyond SpaceX. Some have had initial enthusiasm followed by a slowdown. has come down a bit. So companies may see it as a good time to go public, while post-IPO performance has been, in a word, 鈥渕eh.鈥�

But within AI, I think we鈥檝e seen that there鈥檚 opportunity up and down the production curve 鈥� from energy for data centers, to the technology inside them, to orchestration of compute, to efficient spending on training and inference. There are a lot of interesting companies along that spectrum, and I think that bodes well for companies in the space that want to go public.

A few companies entered your Top 20, including , , and . Does that reflect a durable shift away from traditional software, or are investors chasing a small group of scarce, high-profile hard-tech companies?

Haslett: I think it reflects a thematic shift. The companies entering that list generally fall into AI infrastructure, space tech and robotics.

If those are industries we think will have generational growth opportunities, the logical conclusion is that each sector will have winners. SpaceX gets people thinking about opportunities in space and space tech, and by extension defense tech.

The same applies to AI infrastructure. If the market is that big, and we鈥檝e seen companies go public over the last year or so, it stands to reason investors will be interested in other companies in that space. I think that鈥檚 more important than simply chasing scarce supply.

These businesses tend to be more capital intensive and may take longer to reach predictable revenue than a traditional SaaS company. How are secondary investors underwriting them?

Haslett: If a company needs more capital, investors have to decide whether the overall opportunity is big enough to justify waiting longer and having the company raise more.

If you have to build a factory or get regulatory approval, that can delay the company鈥檚 ability to increase its valuation or reach an exit. Investors discount that into what they鈥檙e willing to pay.

Secondary investors are making the same calculus as primary venture and growth investors, so you鈥檇 imagine much of that is already baked into headline valuations from primary raises.

What鈥檚 changed is that capital-intensive companies now have more financing options. Five or six years ago, a battery company or new chip manufacturer might have had little choice but to raise equity. In 2026, more credit and asset-based financing options are available.

That matters because if one of these companies underperforms or has a distressed asset sale, creditors and lenders get paid first. Secondary investors have to factor that in, too.

EquityZen says the average transaction occurred at a 38% discount to the last funding round, while many AI transactions traded at premiums. What does that say about how bifurcated the private market has become?

Haslett: I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 a mispricing. There are essentially two vintages of private companies right now.

Some companies weren鈥檛 built AI-first and have had to adapt. Many raised during the go-go years of 2021, at very high valuations, and may not have raised since. They鈥檝e had to rethink their strategies, which can slow growth and execution. That gets reflected in the discount.

Then there鈥檚 a new wave of companies, from 2023 and beyond, that were built with an AI-first mentality. They started from a clean slate, may operate more efficiently, and have a cleaner story for the market.

Some of those companies are raising rounds in quick succession at higher valuations. Secondary investors may pay a premium because they believe the company鈥檚 trajectory is clear and the next valuation increase could happen quickly.

is an example from the 2021 cohort. It raised at roughly a $10 billion-plus valuation and just sold for substantially less. It鈥檚 still a good business, but when investors compare 20% growth with newer companies going from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue in just a few years, you can understand why their appetite changes.

We may see more companies from that era sell for less than where they raised in 2021.

Over the past few years, many private companies have conducted secondaries because they weren鈥檛 ready to go public. When should founders consider establishing a company-approved secondary program?

Haslett: Historically, companies started thinking about liquidity programs after they鈥檇 been around five, six, or seven years, largely to reward employees for their patience and provide liquidity to early investors.

Now we鈥檙e seeing younger companies engage in controlled liquidity and tender offers.

One reason is talent retention. There are only so many engineers and data scientists, and companies need to compete for them. Secondary liquidity has become more normalized.

More solutions are available than before. Morgan Stanley, for example, has significantly grown its tender-offer activity as investor interest and available tools have expanded.

There鈥檚 also more investor appetite. Investors are increasingly willing to gain ownership through tender offers or secondary transactions. Five years ago, that was far less common.

Right now, it鈥檚 a very founder- and employee-friendly environment, and investors are willing to support secondary liquidity because they want access. If markets turn, that pendulum could shift back.

For investors considering private-company shares, what does a secondary-market price tell them compared with the valuation at the company鈥檚 last fundraise?

Haslett: I think it gives them the true price.

A primary valuation is a point-in-time measure of what investors were willing to pay, and those investors generally received preferred stock with additional rights and liquidation preferences.

The secondary market is more telling of what you could actually get in your pocket now. For companies that embrace secondary liquidity, those prices help employees, former employees and early investors understand what their shares are actually worth.

How does EquityZen calculate popularity and distinguish durable investor demand from curiosity or hype?

Haslett: Our platform allows investors, typically retail accredited investors, to tell us what they鈥檙e interested in. They can browse companies, review our analysis, and indicate which companies they would invest in, if shares became available, and at what size.

That gives us a real-time metric of what our user base wants to invest in and how much. It helps guide where we spend our time bringing opportunities to clients.

The last thing we want is to work with a shareholder when we can鈥檛 find a buyer, or with a buyer when we can鈥檛 find shares for sale.

What does the recent consolidation in the secondary market tell you about how the market is evolving?

Haslett: There was a lot of attention toward the end of 2025 around consolidation in the secondary-market space. went to , and EquityZen went to Morgan Stanley.

To me, that reflects market growth, increasing adoption of secondary liquidity, and the fact that the biggest financial institutions are paying attention. I don鈥檛 expect that to change.

Your data showed that some software companies began trading at premiums again in the second quarter. What separates those gaining investor confidence from those still trading at deep discounts?

Haslett: Execution. Leadership and execution.

It鈥檚 about a company鈥檚 ability to take a legacy SaaS business and turn it into something AI-enabled across the business. Are you using AI tools to improve internal tasks? Are you building AI into your product for clients?

Companies that can combine the stickiness and customer loyalty they鈥檝e already built with their domain expertise and AI are going to do just fine. The ones that are slower to adopt are going to get pummeled.

Six months ago, there was concern that when a company like announced a cybersecurity or legal tool, companies in those sectors would immediately lose value. I think some of that was a knee-jerk reaction.

Customers already using your software have some patience, but they also expect you to keep improving the product and give them a reason not to switch. The companies that are slow to react, or too proud to react, are the ones I think will get hit hardest.

, and 1听are examples of software that is deeply ingrained in large enterprises. If companies can keep their products working well and keep adapting them, they still have a shot at being successful standalone businesses. It comes down to management execution.

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So far this year, more than 500 seed- or venture-backed private companies across the globe have sold to other private, venture-backed companies, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. The most prolific acquirers include many of the most famous and valuable unicorns, including , and .

Overall, the pace of dealmaking in 2026 looks relatively flat听1Reported deal counts are down slightly this year from the comparable period, but are likely to even out more over time as some acquisitions, particularly smaller deals, are added to the dataset weeks or months after they close.2 compared to last year. That鈥檚 not entirely surprising given that overall market conditions haven鈥檛 changed dramatically. The number of tech startup IPOs remains below normal. Hot venture-backed AI companies are still sustaining unheard-of valuations. And the rise of megarounds means favored startup acquirers are flush with cash.

Startups buying startups in recent years

In total, at least 440 funded startups sold to other startups in the first half of this year. The second half is shaping up to be a bit slower, meanwhile, with fewer than 100 deals so far.

For a more expansive chronological view, below we charted startup M&A deal counts by half-year beginning in 2021.

The pace of M&A dealmaking peaked about four years ago and fell afterward, in tandem with a broader dip in startup investment. But activity has picked up over the past couple of years with the rise in AI investment.

Startups that buy a lot of other startups

A few startups have proven particularly acquisitive.

The standout in this category is probably OpenAI, which has acquired eight startups this year, most of them seed- or early-stage companies. To date, the generative AI giant has bought at least 19 companies, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Anthropic has also been a busy buyer. It鈥檚 snapped up at least five startups so far this year, including the $400 million purchase of AI biotech startup .

In the fintech space, meanwhile, has been on an M&A spree. The crypto transactions platform acquired five funded startups focused on cryptocurrency or blockchain between April and July.

Others with multiple funded startup M&A deals this year include AI infrastructure unicorn , security provider , and the legal tech startups and .

No big slowdown in sight

While prediction can be a fool’s game, there鈥檚 not much in the immediate set of indicators pointing to a slowdown in startups鈥� appetite for acquisition. Amid fierce competition for an edge in the AI race, well-funded startups commonly find it鈥檚 simply faster to buy another company than try to build out certain technologies themselves.

Same goes for talent. Through acquihire transactions, startups can bring on board not just top-tier individuals but experienced teams with a track record of building impressive things together.

Concentration of capital is another factor driving M&A deals. While overall startup funding has risen this year, it鈥檚 increasingly spread across a smaller pool of companies. That leaves one large cohort of startups struggling to raise funding while another has plentiful capital for acquisitions.

Go-to-market expenses also factor into M&A considerations. A startup might produce a compelling offering in-house but find it costly to bring it to market. The process may look more feasible under the wing of a larger, more mature startup.

Bottom line: Given the high number of willing sellers and well-funded buyers, expect the startup-to-startup acquisitions to continue.

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I asked him whether the company and board had started thinking about a potential M&A process. His answer was telling.

“Not really,” he said. “When my board is in the mood, I will reach out and we can discuss a process.”

What I heard was something different: When things start going south, or when the VC is stressed about liquidity (typically five years in) we will think about selling.

That is how many boards approach M&A. They treat it as a fallback plan in case growth slows, cash tightens, or strategic options narrow, and an escape route later on when liquidity is needed to pay back LPs. But by then, the company’s leverage may already be gone.

The first signal is often the most counterintuitive: Everything is going exceptionally well

When revenue is growing rapidly, customers are happy, retention is strong and the leadership team is excited about the future, selling is usually the last thing anyone wants to discuss. Yet this is often when companies command their highest valuations. Strategic acquirers pay premiums for momentum. They want businesses that are winning markets, not struggling businesses trying to survive.

Boards should periodically ask themselves a difficult question: If we are currently operating from a position of maximum strength, should we at least understand what the market might pay for the business?

A second signal emerges when the founder begins losing energy

In many growth-stage companies, the founder remains the primary driver of vision, product strategy, recruiting, customer relationships and culture. After a decade or more of building a company, it is not unusual for founders to begin thinking differently about their future.

That does not automatically mean the company should be sold. In some cases, a CEO transition may be appropriate. In others, a secondary transaction can provide liquidity to founders and reduce the pressure to pursue a full exit. However, boards should not ignore founder fatigue. If the founder’s personal objectives are changing, that reality should become part of the strategic discussion long before it begins affecting company performance.

A third signal occurs when buyers begin calling

Many CEOs dismiss inbound acquisition interest because they believe their company is still too early to sell. While that may be true, repeated inbound interest often contains valuable information. Strategic buyers spend significant resources analyzing markets, technologies and competitive dynamics. When multiple buyers independently express interest, it may signal that the company occupies a more valuable strategic position than management realizes.

This does not mean launching a formal process. It means listening. Understanding why buyers are interested, how they view the market, and what strategic value they see can help boards better assess their options. Sometimes the market identifies value before the company itself does.

Ironically, the situation that most often triggers discussions about selling may be the weakest reason to pursue it

When growth slows, competitors appear stronger, or cash reserves begin shrinking, boards frequently turn their attention toward M&A. The logic seems straightforward: If the company is struggling, perhaps it should be sold.

Unfortunately, buyers can see the same challenges.

When a company enters the market because it is running out of options, valuations typically reflect that reality. Acquirers gain negotiating leverage, and shareholders often receive less attractive outcomes than they expected. In many situations, a strategic reset may create more value than an immediate sale. A product pivot, leadership change, market repositioning or operational turnaround can restore momentum and dramatically improve future strategic options.

What I have observed from conversations with CEOs and boards is that many begin thinking about selling precisely when they should be thinking about reinventing. Meanwhile, the strongest exits often begin when nobody feels urgency to sell at all.

In my mind, the role of a board is to actively avoid inertia, and continuously evaluate whether selling, scaling, pivoting or remaining independent creates the most value for shareholders. The best time to have that conversation is usually before circumstances force it.

is a strategic adviser to tech companies, investors, CEOs and boards, specializing in strategy, growth and M&A. He is a guest contributor to 小蓝视频色情网页版 News and a university lecturer on strategy, finance and entrepreneurship. Learn more at and connect with him on .

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Venture investors, luckily, seem to be more upbeat than they have been in years about the future of fitness and wellness. Startup investment in those categories totaled more than $3.6 billion in the first half of this year, putting 2026 on pace to come in about a third higher than 2025, though notably last year marked the lowest sum for wellness-related startup funding in at least six years.

The recent uptick also puts investment into fitness- and wellness-related startups on pace to top each year since 2022, though deals are concentrating into fewer, larger bets.

Largest fundraisers of H1 2026

This year鈥檚 funding totals have been driven by a handful of outsized deals, like wearable health tracker 鈥檚 $575 million Series G in March.

Other companies that have raised large rounds this year include senior healthcare provider , which raised a $366 million Series F at the beginning of the year, and , which raised a $130 million Series C from investors including in February. Its platform connects patients with professional healthcare advocates who support them through complex medical journeys like cancer, rare-disease management and substance abuse treatment.

Those fundings are markedly different from the hardware plays that received investor attention during the pandemic. For example, connected fitness devices startups and each raised hundreds of millions of dollars during the peak funding years, but haven鈥檛 received new investment in three-plus years.

AI gives devices a second act

That doesn鈥檛 mean investors have entirely given up on hardware. Rather, the more compelling pitch in 2026 appears to be a device that continuously collects health data and uses AI to turn it into personalized guidance to improve overall wellness and fitness.

Along with Whoop鈥檚 Series G, New York-based sleep technology company raised a $50 million Series D in March, while India-based metabolic health wearable maker secured the equivalent of about $44 million in Series C funding in February.

A few entrants are also drawing substantial checks. New Delhi-based raised a sizable $54 million seed round in February for a wearable focused on brain-centered health and performance metrics. The company says its technology tracks cerebral blood flow and uses a proprietary measure called Entropy to quantify users鈥� real-time energy expenditure.

The future of fitness funding and exits

We expect to see continued investor interest in companies that bring AI to bear on wellness-related offerings, including in more specialized areas such as longevity, mental health, sleep and athletic performance.

We may also see more funding for devices that serve as data-collection layers for AI-driven health platforms. At the same time, we don鈥檛 expect investors to broadly return to large, pricey home-gym gadgets or hardware that doesn鈥檛 have a strong recurring software, data or healthcare component.

We could also see more exits in the sector as companies combine their capabilities through M&A deals or private equity roll-ups. And, we would not be surprised to see more established players make strategic buys of smaller companies, as we saw last year with fitness tracking platform 鈥檚 acquisition of running workout planner , or more recently with 鈥檚 purchase of endurance-training platform .

Still, we don鈥檛 foresee a flurry of IPOs from the sector, perhaps with the exception of a few star players. 小蓝视频色情网页版鈥檚 predictive intelligence tools suggest likely IPO candidates in the fitness and wellness categories include Whoop, rival wearable wellness tracker , mental health platform , and , which operates a network of clinics offering what it bills as AI-driven longevity and preventative health services.

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