For starters, global investment in clean technologies is running high. Spending on the category, which includes renewables, grids, low-emissions power sources, and energy efficiency, is on course to hit $2.2 trillion this year, . That鈥檚 twice what is invested in fossil fuels.

Venture capital is pretty flush as well. Global venture funding in the first three quarters of the year topped $300 billion, the highest level in years. Moreover, a record share of this funding is going to companies focused on AI, a technology whose immense power demands will require massive new energy infrastructure.

The environmental case for cleantech is also only getting more urgent. Concentrations of greenhouse gases and ocean heat content both reached record levels this year, the World Meteorological Organization, with the past three years being the warmest on record.

All this is to say that the macro picture, a bullish one for cleantech investment, contrasts sharply with the actual numbers, which show this was an unusually weak year for the space.

Lowest funding in years

How weak? This year, investors put just over $24 billion across all stages into startups in 小蓝视频色情网页版’s cleantech-, electric vehicle- and sustainability-related categories. That鈥檚 by far the lowest annual total in five years.

Quarter over quarter, the picture looks sunnier. Cleantech investment actually hit a low in Q1 and has since been moving higher.

One interpretation is that U.S. investors paused on some dealmaking around Q1. With the incoming administration taking a hostile stance to the administration鈥檚 cleantech- and climate-friendly subsidies and policies, startups and their backers needed to recalibrate strategy for an altered political environment. Once that happened, the pace picked up some.

Some of the year鈥檚 largest rounds, meanwhile, are for companies in sectors with fairly broad support across the political spectrum. In this category is nuclear 鈥� both fusion and fission聽1 鈥� which was a particularly popular investment theme. We also saw good-sized deals around geothermal power, energy storage and electric aircraft.

Largest rounds

For a broader sense of where big-ticket investment was going, we put together a list of 12 of the largest cleantech-, EV- and sustainability-related funding rounds of 2025.

Clearly, investors were still enthused about backing jumbo-sized rounds in some cases.

Case in point: The leading funding recipient this year was Austin鈥檚 , which provides battery backup power for residential properties. The 3-year-old company landed $1.2 billion across two rounds this year, with as a repeat lead backer.

The next three biggest rounds, notably, were all for startups focused on nuclear power. Among them, the standout for funding was , which raised $863 million in an August Series B2 round. The Devens, Massachusetts-based company also said it is moving closer to being the first in the world to commercialize fusion power.

Nuclear fission is also a popular category for venture investors of late. In this cohort, , which develops small modular nuclear reactors and nuclear fuels, was another power fundraiser. The Rockville, Maryland, company secured a $700 million Series D in late November led by . And nuclear startup also landed a huge follow-on financing this summer, picking up $650 million, with 鈥檚 as a backer.

Battery investment, on the other hand, has been less robust. Investors braced for a heavy loss last year when Swedish EV battery maker , one of the most heavily funded companies in the space, initially filed for bankruptcy.

Still, deals were getting done. Besides Base Power, there were three other battery-related companies on our top rounds list for 2025. These were Dutch battery storage startup , Woodinville, Washington-based silicon battery material producer , and battery recycling company .

Perking up at year鈥檚 end

Probably the most encouraging signal for cleantech investment is it closed 2025 in a much stronger position than when it began the year. Given that drivers of demand are only strengthening, it looks reasonable to be optimistic about a continued rise.

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• 小蓝视频色情网页版 Sector Snapshot: Cleantech Isn鈥檛 Having A Great Year

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and co-led the round for San Diego-based Measurabl. , , , , , 1, , , , , and also participated.聽

Measurabl has now raised $172.6 million total, .

The startup was co-founded in 2013 by CTO and CEO , the former director of sustainability at commercial real estate brokerage giant . The company claims it鈥檚 the most widely used ESG platform for the real estate industry, with 37% of top asset managers using its platform to measure and manage the impact of $2 trillion worth of properties.

The company acquired a couple other startups in 2022 to help it build out its platform. It bought , a building energy and carbon management platform, as well as , a platform for building managers to track energy and utility usage, that had raised $4.9 million .

鈥淭he antidote to greenwashing is objective measurement and transparency,鈥� Ellis said in a statement announcing Measurabl鈥檚 new raise. 鈥淭his funding allows us to further enhance our market-leading ESG technologies, expand to new geographies, and ensure the real estate industry has the investment-grade data necessary to transition to a sustainable, pro铿乼able future for all.鈥�

Sustainability draws huge VC dollars

ESG refers broadly to a set of criteria that evaluate the sustainability and ethical impacts of a company or investment, looking at factors including carbon emissions, labor practices, animal welfare, workplace diversity and inclusion efforts, supply chain transparency, executive compensation, and board composition. , 鈥嬧�婨SG accounts for $1 out of every $8 in U.S. assets under professional management.

Billions of venture dollars have also gone to startups in the sustainability industry: $7.3 billion globally last year, just shy of the $7.4 billion they raised in 2021, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. Those figures are particularly significant, given that overall venture spending fell 35% globally last year from 2021鈥檚 record highs.

Startups that describe themselves as ESG-related specifically raised $480.9 million in venture backing globally last year, per 小蓝视频色情网页版, a huge leap compared to $95.2 million in 2021.聽

Venture investors鈥� continued interest in ESG startups also comes despite new pressures on corporate sustainability efforts, which some prominent Republicans have criticized as politicized investing that leads to lower returns for the sake of virtue signaling.

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, a battery production startup, announced on Wednesday it raised a whopping $300 million Series B, bringing total funding to $390 million and raising its valuation to $1.2 billion, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

The Series B was led by and real estate-focused with additional participation from the likes of and . The latest raise will help fund the operations of its battery cell factory that completed construction in December and will formally launch in 2024.

“We are transitioning from a startup funded by venture capital to a manufacturer fueled by growth capital,鈥� said ONE CEO . (Ijaz previously worked at and 鈥檚 secretive transportation initiative before founding the company in 2020.) 鈥淭hat’s important in this environment where urgent demand for U.S.-based cell manufacturing is on the rise.”

Charging up the market

Indeed, the U.S. trails China in battery manufacturing. And, thanks to the rise of electric vehicles and the subsequent need for high-powered, easy-to-scale battery technology, that鈥檚 something the U.S. government is looking to change.聽

The Inflation Reduction Act promises subsidies for EV companies, including a tax credit for those that use battery materials sourced in the U.S. The U.S. also passed a new law called the Invent Here, Make Here Act to prevent new developments in battery technology made in the U.S. .

This comes at a time when supply chain issues and the rising cost of battery and metal material are bottlenecking U.S.-based electric-car manufacturers. Funding for electric-vehicle startups has plummeted from its 2021 highs thanks to the rising cost of materials. General Motors announced on Tuesday electric-vehicle production due to manufacturing and logistics issues.聽

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That was the broad finding from our latest tally of 小蓝视频色情网页版 data for U.S. and Canadian venture funding. It shows the pullback that commenced earlier this year has intensified in recent months, as tech valuations in public and private markets contract and the IPO window remains largely shuttered.

Overall, investors put $39.7 billion to work in seed- through growth-stage deals in Q3, down 53% year over year and down 37% from Q2. The year-over-year decline was most pronounced at late stage, which was down 63% in the just-ended quarter.

For perspective, we lay out North American funding totals, color-coded by stage, for the past 11 quarters:

The latest numbers appear less alarming when looking across a two-year time horizon, rather than solely comparing to 2021鈥檚 record-breaking tallies. By historical standards, funding totals are still pretty high. Early- and seed-stage dealmaking, for instance, is actually above 2020 levels.

Below, we look at the latest quarterly numbers in more detail, focusing on investment by stage as well as major exits.

Late-stage and tech growth contract sharply

We鈥檒l start with late stage, which saw the sharpest slowdown.

Altogether, late-stage venture and technology growth funding totaled $19.4 billion in Q3. That鈥檚 a drop of nearly two-thirds from the $53 billion invested in the year-ago quarter. Funding is also down about 45% from Q2.聽

Deal counts also fell, albeit not as precipitously. For perspective, we look at round counts and investment totals for the past five quarters below:

Public markets may be driving much of the pullback in late-stage private markets. With tech and biotech shares down sharply on major exchanges, investors are rethinking valuations. Additionally, with few IPOs happening, pre-IPO rounds aren鈥檛 getting done either.

Meanwhile, many late-stage startups, still flush with cash from the 2021 funding spree, may be putting off new raises until signs of market recovery emerge.

Even as late stage contracted, we did see some big rounds. The largest late-stage funding recipients for Q3 include digital manufacturing startup ($355 million Series C), small business policy provider ($315 million Series D), and urban greenhouse company ($310 million Series E).

Early stage is down, but less so

Investors also tapped the brakes on early-stage dealmaking. For Q3, they put $17 billion into 879 known funding rounds. In dollar terms, that represents a 40% drop from the year-ago total and a 28% drop from Q2.

For context, we look at early-stage investment and round counts for the past five quarters below:

Early stage is showing a less dramatic decline than late stage in part because companies are further from exit. Apparently, there鈥檚 more confidence that market conditions will improve as these startups mature.

By far the largest early-stage deal of the quarter was a $1 billion Series A for , which provides charging stations for electric fleets. Next up was a $350 Series A for , a spinoff working on asthma treatments, followed by a $300 million Series B for , a developer of Web3 infrastructure.

Seed slows some

The funding slowdown was much less pronounced at seed stage.

Overall, investors put $3.3 billion into seed-stage deals in Q3. That鈥檚 down 18% from Q2 and 6% from the year-ago quarter, which is markedly less than what we saw at later stages.

Seed stage鈥檚 comparatively strong showing indicates that investors are more confident about the long-term outlook than the short-term one. Also, while odds of failure are higher for newly minted startups, valuations are lower, which helps mitigate the risk.

Some of the Q3 rounds were unusually large by seed standards. For instance , an NFT project around intellectual property, snagged $50 million in a July financing. And , a mental health startup focused on seniors, landed a $32 million seed round in September.

Still, those were the outliers. The median disclosed seed or pre-seed round for Q3 was around $2 million, and only 25 deals were for $15 million or higher.

Exits

As Q3 was winding to a close, it was looking like a pretty sluggish exit environment, with a mostly shuttered IPO window and not a ton of big M&A action.

But then, in mid-September, shattered that narrative, announcing an agreement to buy digital design collaboration unicorn for $20 billion in stock and cash, in what鈥檚 been called the largest acquisition of a private, venture-backed company to date.

So yes, it might still look like lean times for most exit-hungry investors. But clearly, it鈥檚 still an environment where big deals can get done. Below, we look at what transpired in Q3 for both public offerings and M&A exits.

M&A

We鈥檒l start with M&A, which, as previously mentioned, was largely dominated by the ginormous Figma acquisition. That deal was several multiples larger than every other disclosed acquisition combined.

Still, while no one else was spending like Adobe, there were some interesting and good-sized M&A deals over the course of the quarter. We list the top seven below:

Public offerings

The third quarter was not a great time for tech and biotech public offerings, given that both sectors have been taking a beating on major exchanges. Unprofitable companies鈥攁 category that includes most-recently public venture-backed deals鈥攚ere particularly out of fashion.

Even in this suboptimal environment, however, several funded companies did make it to market, either through previously announced SPAC transactions or traditional IPOs. We list nine public market debuts below:

The largest debut was , a Lexington, Kentucky-based online marketplace for waste and recycling, which wrapped up a SPAC merger in August and debuted at a $1.7 billion valuation. Shares have fallen sharply since the debut.

Next up was , a quantum computing company that completed its SPAC merger in August in a deal that valued the company around $1.6 billion. Shares are well below their peak but are holding at better-than-average for a SPAC deal.

Down from a very high peak

So as we bid adieu to Q3, what should one make of these mostly downwardly trending numbers?

One of the key things to keep in mind is that we are scaling down from extremely tall heights, as 2021 surpassed prior funding records by a long shot. So, while an over 50% year-over-year funding decline may make for an alarming headline, we鈥檙e still close to where we were a couple years ago. And at the time, that was considered a pretty good period for startup funding.

Of course, late stage is faring worse than early stage and seed. Given the large sums of dry powder still in the coffers of venture investors, however, it鈥檚 likely they鈥檒l begin spending more profusely once more consensus emerges around valuations and exit conditions improve.

For now, however, the numbers are indeed down. No up cycle lasts forever.

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 reported is as of Oct. 3, 2022.

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.

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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Rounds were not that big this week, as only a handful were $100 million or more. Much like last week, investment was all over the board, as storage, grocery and energy startups led the way in what was a pretty down week.

1. , $125M, storage: The cloud services sector is dominated by the big tech names we all know. Boston-based Wasabi would like to change that, and just this week became a unicorn as it travels down that road. The 鈥渉ot鈥� cloud storage company raised $125 million in Series D equity led by at a valuation of $1.1 billion. The company also expanded its existing debt facility to $125 million. The startup claims it can offer its hot cloud storage鈥攚hich refers to data that is readily available鈥攁t a fifth of the price of the big guys and now has 40,000 customers in over 100 countries. The cloud data market is big, but dominated by incumbents not likely to let new players in. We鈥檒l see if Wasabi can heat things up. Founded in 2015, the company has raised more than $535 million, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版.

2. , $120M, grocery: It was this week that San Francisco-based GrubMarket raised $120 million from new investors including 鈥� venture arm. The company develops software and has an e-commerce platform that connects farmers and wholesalers with customers. It鈥檚 been quite busy in the last few years, making 60 acquisitions in the last four years and just last year raised $200 million at a $1.2 billion valuation. Per the story, GrubMarket now has an annual run rate of about $1.5 billion. Founded in 2014, the company has raised approximately $500 million, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版.

3. , $100M, energy: Sustainable and cleaner alternatives for power has been a big theme this year for investors. So far this year, the cleantech industry has seen 17 funding rounds worth $100 million or more, . This week included one of those rounds, as Richmond, California-based locked up a $100 million Series B led by . Moxion manufactures mobile batteries and energy storage to enable last-mile electrification in sectors that include construction, transportation, events and entertainment, film production and telecommunications. Although venture capital in general has slowed this year, cleantech is on pace to see a slight uptick from last year, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版. Last year, VC-backed cleantech startups saw $7 billion of investmentment, while already this year investors have poured more than $6.6 billion into the sector. Founded in 2020, the company has now raised just more than $113 million, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版.

4. , $80M, payments: While digital payments can be convenient, they can also be slow and cluttered with fees. Chicago-based Strike, built on Bitcoin鈥檚 Lightning Network, is looking to allow customers to avoid those hassles. The Lightning Network is known for fast transactions and could be a solution to Bitcoin鈥檚 scalability issues. Strike is looking to leverage that and make cheaper, faster, global payments a real thing for everyone. To that end, the company raised an $80 million funding round led by Ten31, its first funding round, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版. The company will look to use that new cash to attract large merchants, marketplaces and financial institutions to its payments platform.

5. , $70M, biotech: Waltham, Massachusetts-based Ventus Therapeutics announced an exclusive license agreement with and received an upfront payment of $70 million in cash as part of the deal. Under terms of the agreement, Novo will help develop and commercialize therapies from Ventus鈥� portfolio. Ventus has developed a platform to identify and develop small molecule therapeutics for a broad range of diseases. Ventus will be eligible to receive up to an additional $633 million in potential milestone payments as well under the agreement. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $370 million, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版.

6. , $66M, SaaS: Montclair, New Jersey-based Sitetracker, a developer of deployment operations software servicing critical infrastructure, closed a new round of equity and debt financing totaling $96 million.The round includes $66 million in equity and was led by . Sitetracker has raised nearly $200 million since 2013, per the company.

7. , $60M, human resources: San Francisco-based Workstream extended its Series B funding round with an additional $60 million, bringing the total Series B to $108 million. The extension was led by . The company had developed a mobile-first hiring and onboarding platform for the deskless workforce. Founded in 2017, Workstream has raised $118 million to date, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

8. (tied) , $50M, cloud data services: Denver-based Flatfile, a AI-assisted data exchange platform, locked up a $50 million Series B funding led by . Founded in 2018, Flatfile has raised $100 million, per the company.

8. (tied) , $50M, big data: Palo Alto, California-based observability platform startup Unravel Data closed a $50 million Series D led by . Founded in 2013, the company has raised $107 million, according to the company.

10. , $48M, blockchain: Santa Barbara, California-based blockchain technology platform Candle Labs raised a $48 million funding round. Lead investors in that round were not disclosed. The startup develops software for decentralized services in sectors like finance.

Big global deals

Rounds were on the small side this week for U.S.-based startups. However, there was a large global deal.

• Saudi Arabia-based , a flight booking firm, raised a $1 billion venture round.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the 小蓝视频色情网页版 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of Sept. 24 to 30. 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.

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Richmond, California-based is hoping to provide just that, as the carbon-free portable generator manufacturer locked up a $100 million Series B led by .

Founded in 2020, the company has now raised just more than $113 million, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. Others participating in the round included , , 鈥檚 , , , Ventures, and .

Moxion manufactures mobile batteries and energy storage to enable last-mile electrification in sectors that include construction, transportation, events and entertainment, film production and telecommunications.聽

The company recently started construction at its first manufacturing facility and expects to commission a second domestic manufacturing facility in 2024.

Moxion will use the funding to scale production at those facilities.

鈥淭emporary power generation is a critical part of many industries, including construction, film production, live events and disaster response,鈥� said co-founder and CEO in a . 鈥淎s these industries look to decarbonize, there鈥檚 enormous demand for cleaner alternatives to the fossil-fuel-burning generators that these industries have historically relied on.鈥�

Cleantech grows

Moxion鈥檚 funding is just the latest big round to go to VC-backed startups in the cleantech sector, as many industries look to decarbonize and go greener.聽

So far this year, the industry has seen 17 funding rounds worth $100 million or more, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Despite venture capital investing slowing this year, cleantech is on pace to see a slight uptick from last year, . In 2021, VC-backed cleantech startups saw $7 billion of investments come into the sector. Already this year, investors have poured more than $6.6 billion into cleantech.

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