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聽 $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.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 query:

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:

鈥淚 recognized both the massive potential AI brought to the tax world, as well as the risks to firms and clients by making mistakes and hallucinations,鈥� he told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News.

The accounting industry has historically been slow to adopt new technologies. As of today, the majority of small to mid-sized accounting firms 鈥� which make up 90% of the market 鈥� remain stuck in a cycle of manual data entry.

Addressing both the opportunities 鈥� and risks 鈥� that came with advances in AI, Haase started building , a tax prep automation startup, on the side in 2023. Rather than targeting the self-prep market, like does, or the mega-enterprise firms that can afford $15,000-per-return software, Juno was built for the underserved SMB accounting firm.

鈥淲e continuously 鈥榙og fed鈥� the early Juno prototypes into the firm to see what worked best, what slowed things down, and to make it the most efficient tax preparation platform as possible,鈥� Haase said.

It took about a year and a half just to build integrations. 鈥淲e had to do a bunch of hacky things to be able to work with the existing tax software,鈥� he explained, 鈥渂ecause your typical tax software is actually around 15 to 20 years old and they don鈥檛 have public APIs.鈥�

By 2024, Juno had launched a co-pilot. Then, in July 2025, it had a tax product. The startup began onboarding other tax firms, growing to nearly 500 customers over the past year. Last year, Haase sold his accounting firm to focus on growing Juno full-time.

Today, he鈥檚 announcing that San Diego-based Juno has raised $12 million in a seed funding round led by , including participation from and .

AI to help humans 鈥榖e the advisers they were trained to be鈥�

What makes Juno different from others in the market, Haase believes, is that it operates on the premise that, at least for the foreseeable future, human tax preparers should be the ones driving the tax-return preparation process.

鈥淎 business or high-net-worth tax return requires hundreds of calculations, edge cases, deductions and more,鈥� said Haase, who holds an MBA from . 鈥淎I simply can鈥檛 do that with the 100% accuracy required not to get audited or charged with tax fraud.鈥�

Describing much of the manual work that most accountants must perform to complete returns as extremely tedious, Haase acknowledges that it鈥檚 also very easy for accountants to make mistakes that could prove very costly.

鈥淚n school, if you get a 93, an A, you get all the credits,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut on a tax return, if you have a 99%, you fail, and your client could pay the price in penalties.鈥�

In a nutshell, Juno acts as the bridge between a client鈥檚 raw documents and the accountant鈥檚 filing software. It performs tasks like pulling data from IRS forms and even unstructured documents, such as business financial statements. Overall, it automates 90% of data entry across more than 90 document types while also flagging prior-year changes and inconsistencies for human validation.

The result is that a process that typically takes a human two to three hours is shrunk down to seven to 10 minutes, Haase estimates.

鈥淲e do 95% of a tax return in minutes, leaving the accountant to handle the strategic human decisions 鈥� the parts that actually save the client money,鈥� he said.

While he declined to reveal hard revenue figures, Haase said that in just eight months, Juno grew to mid-seven-figure annual recurring revenue.

The startup sells on a per-return basis, starting around $45, dropping to the low $30s for high-volume firms.

‘s recent move into consumer taxes and OpenAI’s hiring of a tax director show that the bigger players are eyeing the tax market. But Haase doesn鈥檛 feel threatened.

鈥淗igh-wealth individuals want assurance. If you鈥檙e paying $40,000 in taxes, you don’t want to 鈥榗ross your fingers with a chatbot,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou want a human to talk to, someone who understands the context of your life.鈥�

Juno isn’t trying to replace accountants, he added.

鈥淚t’s trying to rescue them from the data-entry basement so they can actually be the advisers they were trained to be,鈥� Haase said.

The startup plans to roll out business returns soon, a move that Haase expects will significantly scale its customer base.

鈥楢 huge, obvious pain point鈥�

, co-founder and managing director of Bonfire Ventures, said he was drawn to invest in Juno because he believes the company is going after 鈥渁 huge, obvious pain point in a category that hasn鈥檛 been meaningfully modernized in a long time.鈥�

鈥淭he workflow pain is real, the labor dynamics make the timing right, and Dave brought exactly the kind of founder-market fit you hope to see,鈥� Andelman told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News via email. 鈥淗e lived this problem before he built the company. That always matters.鈥�

The investor believes that tax prep is a category where trust is crucial to product success.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to bring AI into that workflow, it has to be transparent, auditable, and built with a human in the loop,鈥� Andelman added. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what Juno understood early, and I think that鈥檚 a big part of why the product is resonating.鈥�

Fintech startups, particularly those that apply AI to traditionally manual or burdensome processes, 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:

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.)

Illustration:

That, in broad strokes, was the state of startup funding in Q1 of this year, a period characterized by record-setting rounds and investment tallies. The most famous names in AI captured a lion鈥檚 share of funding, drawing in some deep-pocketed backers who are traditionally less active in venture.

This includes the quarter鈥檚 two lead investors in the priciest rounds 鈥� 聽 and . The two co-led mega-financings for both and collectively valued at over $150 billion.

By deal count, meanwhile, the most active post-seed investor was familiar front-runner , while the busiest lead investor was .

To see who else ranked high for deal counts and totals, below we charted out active investors across multiple metrics, including venture, seed and lead investment.

Most active and highest-spending lead investors

We鈥檒l start with lead investors, as these are typically the ones putting the most capital to work.

For Q1, the most active lead investors in post-seed rounds were Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and . Overall, 19 investors led six or more rounds this past quarter, as charted below.

Of course, the most active lead investors aren鈥檛 always the ones writing the biggest checks. We don鈥檛 have an exact measure for the latter, but we can get a sense by looking at lead investors in rounds with the highest aggregate value.

By this metric, lead investors in the quarter鈥檚 two biggest rounds 鈥� OpenAI鈥檚 record-setting $122 billion financing and Anthropic鈥檚 enormous $30 billion Series G 鈥� rank highest on our list. This includes tech giants and , which took part as strategic investors in the OpenAI round.

Below, we rank the top 26 by total value of Q1 lead investments.

Busiest post-seed investors

As for sheer deal count at post-seed, familiar names once again topped the list. This included investors participating in rounds as both lead- and nonlead backers.

For this category, participated in the highest number of rounds 鈥� 47 in total for Q1. While the storied accelerator is best known as a seed backer, it also racks up deal count at later stages by partaking in follow-on rounds for startups it helped incubate.

The next-busiest post-seed investors for the quarter were Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and . For a bigger-picture view, below we rank the 18 most active by this metric.

Prolific seed dealmakers

At seed, Y Combinator once again captured the top slot for most active. Next on the list were the regularly featured , and .

Below, we ranked the top 21 busiest seed investors.

Familiar names, unfamiliar sums

Overall, the standout takeaway from the Q1 most active investor rankings isn鈥檛 the names on the list. Most are familiar players in the space, balanced out by a few more sporadic investors lured by the promise of AI.

No, what stands out for Q1 is the size of the deals getting done and the overwhelming concentration of capital around AI. We鈥檒l stay tuned to see if either of these trends lets up or further intensifies in coming months.

Related reading:

• Q1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To $300B聽

Illustration:

U.S. and Canadian companies secured a staggering $252.6 billion in seed- through growth-stage funding rounds per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. That鈥檚 more than 3x the total raised in the prior quarter, and the largest quarterly total of all time.

Predictably, artificial intelligence was the driver. More than 87% of Q1 investment went to companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版 AI-related categories.

To say these are record funding tallies is somewhat of an understatement. It鈥檚 more like Q1 smashed the prior quarterly record 鈥� $95.7 billion 鈥� set in Q3 2021.

Just a single financing for was bigger than the prior quarterly record for all startup funding rounds put together. And the four next-largest financings totaled almost as much as the prior quarter, which at the time we considered a very strong period for startup funding.

So, in summary, it was a lot of money. For a more detailed picture, we drill down more deeply into how that largesse was distributed across stages and sectors. We also take a look at exits for the quarter, including both IPOs and acquisitions.

Table of contents

• AI
• Later stage and technology growth
• Early stage
• Seed
• Exits
• Big picture: A paradigm shift
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

AI

We鈥檒l start with AI, since that鈥檚 where the overwhelming majority of the money went.

A staggering $221 billion went to North American companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版 AI-related categories in the first quarter. That鈥檚 about 6x the AI investment total from the prior quarter, which was itself no slacker on this front.

For perspective, we charted out AI-related funding over the past 13 quarters to compare.

A few megarounds for high-profile companies accounted for most of the quarter鈥檚 AI funding, led by OpenAI, , and .

Later stage and technology growth

These same names factor heavily in tallies for late-stage and technology-growth funding, which comprised the vast majority of total startup investment.

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, $222.4 billion 鈥� or 88% of all North America startup investment 鈥� went to rounds at these stages. That鈥檚 more than 5x the prior quarter鈥檚 tally, and more than triple year-ago levels.

The gains were driven by bigger deals, not more of them. Later- and growth-stage round counts were actually down a smidge sequentially in Q1. For perspective, below we chart round counts and investment totals at this stage for the past five quarters.

Enormous rounds for AI companies accounted for a majority of the late- and growth-stage totals. The biggest of these was OpenAI鈥檚 record-setting $110 billion February financing led by , and . The generative AI giant topped it off with a raise in March.

Anthropic secured the quarter鈥檚 next-biggest late-stage financing 鈥� a $30 billion February Series G 鈥� followed by xAI, which announced a $20 billion Series E in January. landed another of the quarter鈥檚 very big deals, with a $16 billion February Series D.

Early stage

Early-stage investment was also running high in Q1, albeit not setting records.

Overall, investors put $25.1 billion into deals around Series A and Series B stage in the first quarter. That鈥檚 up 17% from the prior quarter and 56% from year-ago levels. It鈥檚 also the highest quarterly total in over three years, though still below peaks scaled in 2021.

Early-stage round counts, meanwhile, were down a bit, indicating investors鈥� increasingly concentrating their bets among perceived star performers.

As usual, a few jumbo-sized deals significantly boosted the early-stage totals. For Q1, this included four rounds of $500 million or more.

Of these, Austin-based humanoid robotics startup was the biggest fundraiser, pulling in $520 million in a February Series A. Three other companies secured $500 million financings: AI infrastructure developer , semiconductor startup , and industrial robotics-focused .

Seed

Seed-stage investment, meanwhile, did not show an upswing but remained at historically robust levels.

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, an estimated $5.1 billion went to seed and pre-seed investments in Q1. That鈥檚 roughly flat with the prior quarter and up a bit from year-ago levels.

Seed round counts declined in Q1, both sequentially and year over year. However, we expect these tallies to rise some over time, along with investment totals, as seed deals commonly get added to the data set weeks after they close.

Exits

Exit activity was fairly staid in comparison to the high-rolling startup fundraising environment.

That said, the IPO market did boast a few sizable startup debuts. Of these, the largest was the January IPO of construction equipment rental marketplace , followed by space tech company , and crypto platform .

Below, we aggregated a list of 12 private, venture-backed companies that carried out IPOs on U.S. exchanges.

Acquirers also announced several large deals to purchase venture-backed private companies.

The priciest planned M&A deal was 鈥檚 agreement to purchase business credit card provider for $5.15 billion. Biotech also delivered some large outcomes, including 鈥檚 planned acquisition of RNA therapeutics startup , and 鈥� purchase of allergy treatment startup .

Below, we put together a list of five of the quarter鈥檚 biggest M&A deals.1

Big picture: A paradigm shift

Having written many of these funding reports over the years, it鈥檚 common for one quarter to quietly blur into another. Not so for Q1 of 2026.

The just-ended quarter cemented a notion that startup insiders have been circling for some time: Private markets now have the capital stores and appetite for ultra-high valuations to rival public markets. For evidence, look no further than OpenAI鈥檚 $122 billion raise at a valuation higher than all but a handful of the largest large-cap technology companies.

IPO enthusiasts may pine for a future period when these most sought-after foundational AI names finally do make it to public markets. But for now, they鈥檝e demonstrated there are plenty of investors willing to shell out billions in private offerings as well.

Related 小蓝视频色情网页版 queries:

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.)

Illustration:

Instead, recent months have served as a busy period for big commitments to seed-stage companies that are short on operating history and long on ambition.

To illustrate, we used 小蓝视频色情网页版 to cull a list of the largest seed rounds of the past six months 1. Globally, at least 12 companies within these parameters pulled in rounds of $100 million or more.

Physical AI is leading theme

A majority of top seed funding recipients operate at the intersection of AI and the physical world.

This includes the largest recent fundraiser, Paris-based , which raised $1.03 billion in a March seed round backed by a long list of prominent venture firms, individual investors and strategic backers. The startup is developing AI models that learn abstract representations of real-world sensor data and make predictions.

, meanwhile, is operating at the intersection of AI and energy. The San Francisco company secured a $475 million seed round in December to develop energy-efficient silicon circuits that demonstrate similar non-linear dynamics to biological neurons.

Also up there is , which is applying AI to science and experimentation, with goals including automating materials design in areas like semiconductor manufacturing, transportation and power grid engineering. The San Francisco company raised $300 million six months ago.

China-based startups have also recently landed large seed rounds tied to physical AI. This includes , developer of an AI platform for robotic device development that simulates physical world environments, and , a developer of AI robotic technology.

Humans and AI

AI startups haven鈥檛 forgotten about humans either.

One example is , a startup co-founded by that raised $252 million in an -led financing earlier this year. The San Francisco company is focused on applying AI advancements to brain-computer interfaces,

, the second-largest seed recipient, is a bit harder to categorize. The Silicon Valley startup, which raised $480 million in January, is focused on foundational models 鈥渃entering around people and their relationships with each other.鈥�

A new era for seed

In addition to spotlighting investors鈥� growing enthusiasm for AI, the latest batch of jumbo seed round recipients also demonstrate changing dynamics around how capital is allocated at the earliest stage of company formation.

The general trend points to fewer deals and larger average seed round sizes. While the majority of seed-stage deal counts still occur for rounds $5 million and under, that percentage has trended down over time.

Meanwhile, larger and outlier seed rounds of $10 million and above have climbed from 2% of deals in 2018 to 9% over that time. Seed rounds of over $100 million 鈥� once exceedingly rare 鈥� are also more commonplace, with 27 such deals announced globally since the beginning of 2025, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Of course, it鈥檚 too soon to say if such large checks written at such a nascent startup stage will prove worth it in hindsight. For now, it鈥檚 certainly at least a boon to the seed-stage companies at the receiving end, which have the rare opportunity to iterate highly ambitious missions without the added burden of having to do it all on a shoestring budget.

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Smaller funds and more modest seed rounds are seemingly out of favor.

Seed trends bifurcate

小蓝视频色情网页版鈥檚 U.S. seed funding numbers confirm that perception.

Deal counts and amounts are down roughly 20% year over year for the pre-seed and regular seed funding range bands that include deals of $200,000 to under $5 million. (As always, that proportion will improve a bit over time as smaller seed rounds are added to 小蓝视频色情网页版.)

The mid-tier band, from $5 million to under $10 million, was on par year over year.

Among U.S. seed funding deals, it鈥檚 only the upper bands of larger and outlier seed rounds 鈥� those $10 million and above 鈥� that grew in 2025, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

It’s a bifurcated market, according to , founder of seed fund . 鈥淵ou鈥檙e either an AI elite team that is growing really fast and you鈥檙e going to raise a ton of capital at Series A from one of the big firms 鈥� or you鈥檙e everybody else,鈥� she said.

In reaction to the market changing, her fund has shifted its strategy, saving a greater proportion 鈥� 60% to 70% for primary capital 鈥� compared to 50% in prior funds. 鈥淲e would rather have more shots on goal,鈥� she said.

The second shift has been to find founders even earlier, often not even waiting for product-market fit.

Seed deal counts

The majority of seed-stage deal counts still occur for rounds $5 million and under. But that percentage has trended down over time, from 93%聽 in 2018 to 75% of deals in 2025.

Meanwhile, larger and outlier seed rounds of $10 million and above have climbed from 2% to 9% over that time. That means roughly 1 in 10 seed deals over $200,000 in 2025 were in deals $10 million and over, numbering around 360.

Seed amounts

U.S. seed funding totaled $19.4 billion in 2025, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Large deals drove that increase 鈥� 51% in seed deals $10 million and over, compared to a third in 2024. The largest seed round in 2025 was $2 billion for 鈥檚 .

Between 2018 and 2025, seed rounds of $200,000 to $5 million fell, from 70% of all seed funding amounts to 26%.

At the same time, seed rounds of $5 million and above have gained ground since 2021, and remained elevated in contrast to 2020 and earlier.

In 2025, the biggest jump in amounts were the outlier seed rounds 鈥� those deals $50 million and above 鈥� which increased more than 300%. Even those larger seed rounds of $10 million to $50 million gained 20%.

Seed reshaped

小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows seed funding has by no means stalled.

Instead, AI is reshaping seed investment, with multistage venture and mid-tier funds backing hot companies earlier and at higher values due to founder pedigree or company traction.

As a result, larger seed rounds increased in 2025 with more than 20 outlier deals of $50 million-plus and over 300 in the $10 million to $50 million range.

Seed fund managers are shifting strategies based on a changing funding market.

鈥淚t has never been so easy to build a product, and it鈥檚 never been so hard to build a business,鈥� said Stanton.

A small seed round can lead to the next breakthrough company.聽 鈥淭here鈥檚 still a need for the smaller companies to emerge, and the smaller VCs to emerge to serve those different constituencies,鈥� she said.

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The fundraise includes $1 billion for KP22, a fund to back early-stage companies, and $2.5 billion targeted for growth-stage investments.

It鈥檚 a considerable increase in capital commitments compared to the last time the Silicon Valley-based firm raised a flagship fund, back in 2024. In that raise, Kleiner just over $2 billion for funds to back early- and later-stage startups.

This time around, Kleiner believes market fundamentals look particularly attractive for scaling up.

鈥淭he AI super-cycle is one of the most important company-building moments in our lifetimes, and we are still in the early innings,鈥� its fundraising announcement states. Kleiner also notes that AI is enabling today鈥檚 startups to iterate and grow faster than in past cycles.

Founded in 1972, Kleiner has long been known as a cross-industry investor, active in virtually every popular sector for venture dealmaking. For its latest fund, the firm also identified a broad array of focus areas, including professional services, healthcare, autonomy, security, financial services and the physical economy.

Recent investments

Most recently, Kleiner, like most venture heavyweights, has been focused on AI startups. Beyond that, however, its portfolio companies are a highly varied lot.

To illustrate, we used 小蓝视频色情网页版 data to put together a list of the latest reported rounds in which it served as a lead or co-lead investor. It spans healthcare, accounting and cybersecurity, among other areas.

Large lead investments

While it鈥檚 active in seed- and early-stage dealmaking, Kleiner also leads quite a few larger rounds. Over the past year, it鈥檚 been lead investor in at least five valued at $150 million or more, which we list below.

Of these, the largest was a $600 million Series F for , a developer of autonomous vehicle technology. The next-largest include a $356 million Series D for , focused on secure open-source software for AI systems, and a $300 million Series E for , the AI legal tech unicorn.

Exits too

Kleiner has also seen a few sizable recent exits for portfolio companies that it backed as lead investor. This includes last year鈥檚 largest software IPO 鈥� 鈥� which counted Kleiner as Series B lead investor.

The firm was also an early lead investor in business credit card provider , which agreed to acquire this year for $5.15 billion.

Of course, Kleiner also has much more famous portfolio investments in its more distant past, including , and , to name a few. You don鈥檛 last 50 years in the venture business without at least some of those too.

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Seed-stage investors have a different view. Over the past few months, two startups focused on the intersection of AI and biosecurity have raised good-sized initial rounds with among their investors.

, a developer of AI systems that identify biological threats and design countermeasures, last fall in its first known funding round. The New York-headquartered company counts and as backers, along with OpenAI.

Weeks later, , a self-described AI biosecurity company, secured $15 million in a seed round led by OpenAI and joined by investors including , and . The company鈥檚 operating thesis is that as AI capabilities advance, biological risks grow exponentially, so defenses must scale at the same rate.

On the nonprofit front, meanwhile, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based secured grant funding from multiple sources last year, $1.4 million from in December. The organization鈥檚 stated mission is to secure the future from catastrophic pandemics.

A drop in the AI bucket

Given all the capital that has poured into artificial intelligence of late, these are not comparatively large sums going to biosecurity. To put it in perspective, the two biggest seed rounds are less than one-tenth of a percent of the record-setting $110 billion financing OpenAI secured last week.

What鈥檚 more noteworthy than sums invested is these are relatively new areas for startups to scale.

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, the term 鈥渂iosecurity鈥� and similar terminology has cropped up in funded startup descriptions but not so much in the context of AI. Funded startups around this theme have also commonly focused on livestock.

The Australian startup , for instance, raised a few million two years ago, , with a focus on tracking biosecurity risks for cattle, pigs, eggs and poultry. And Nebraska-based last year for a business focused on swine disease surveillance.

Running in place

In addition to their AI focus, the latest crop of biosecurity seed-funded startups stand out for the dire scenarios they鈥檙e hoping to contain.

, it’s now faster to weaponize biology than to advance new cures, an ominous development that AI leaders have identified as one of the largest threats of our time. The company envisions a future where any threat to human health can be immediately identified and neutralized.

Red Queen Bio evokes a similarly alarming specter of threats, reflected in its nomenclature. The , a notion that evolution requires constant adaptation to ever-evolving threats, stems from a 鈥淭hrough the Looking Glass鈥� passage. In it, the tyrannical Red Queen explains that in her kingdom, 鈥渋t takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.鈥�

Running to keep in the same place seems a more broadly apt metaphor for the modern era in myriad domains, not just biosecurity. However, this is one of the spaces where not keeping up carries the potentially deadliest penalties.

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Nonetheless, the first couple months of the year have brought a steady stream of market entries from companies in sectors such as construction tech, space tech and biotech. Noticeably absent, however, are new offerings from SaaS companies, long an IPO market staple.

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, 11 venture- or seed-backed U.S. companies went public on major exchanges so far this year, raising just over $3 billion. Comparatively, that鈥檚 a fairly robust showing for the first couple months of the year, which tends to be a reasonably active period for IPOs.

Looking at recent years charted below, the first couple months of 2026 are well above the bottom ranks, but still far below the 2021 market peak for volume of offerings and total raised.

Leading offerings weren鈥檛 your typical VC-backed deals

The lineup of companies going public so far this year, however, includes many that don鈥檛 look like your typical VC-backed offering.

This includes the year鈥檚 largest VC-funded IPO: , a service that provides construction equipment rentals and support for building projects. The 11-year-old, Columbia, Missouri-based company raised more than $700 million in its January offering and had a recent market cap of over $7 billion.

The second-largest debut was also somewhat of an outlier: space tech company , which is majority-owned by private equity firm . It鈥檚 down from its initial trading price but recently valued around $3.4 billion.

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, there have been six IPOs of venture-backed companies this year that raised $200 million or more, which we list below.

小蓝视频色情网页版 squashed

It鈥檚 also noteworthy who isn鈥檛 on the list. For years, enterprise software companies have been among the more reliable IPO market entrants. This year, however, they鈥檝e been notably absent as the sector contends with an extended selloff fueled partly by concerns of AI-abetted disruption.

We鈥檙e also not seeing SaaS companies in the immediate IPO pipeline. A perusal of so far this year showed no venture-backed SaaS unicorns that submitted a new IPO filing in 2026.

It鈥檚 a sharp contrast to just a few months ago. One of last year鈥檚 splashiest IPOs 鈥� design software platform 鈥� is now down more than two-thirds from its peak. Another of the more recent big SaaS offerings 鈥� business travel and expense platform 鈥� has shed more than half its value.

Meanwhile, -backed , which provides tools for marketers and app developers, withdrew its planned IPO this month, amid the software route. It鈥檚 likely a delay, as that Liftoff filed a new confidential plan shortly afterward.

IPO market in an odd place

Overall, the IPO market is in an odd place at the moment. It鈥檚 an unfriendly scene for companies with business models viewed as vulnerable to AI-driven displacement. At the same time, there鈥檚 still continued buzz around the potential for record-setting offerings from , and .

Of those, the one rumored to be closest on the horizon is SpaceX, newly combined with at a reported $1.25 trillion valuation. The company is said to be eyeing a market debut as early as this summer.

If that happens, and the current SaaS squeeze continues, it wouldn鈥檛 be surprising to see a pattern of record-setting IPO returns coinciding with a very small number of actual debuts.

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