U.S. and Canadian companies secured a staggering $252.6 billion in seed- through growth-stage funding rounds per SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from SA国际传媒, 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. SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 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. SA国际传媒 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. SA国际传媒 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:

And underlining the pace at which some startups are now sprinting to billion-dollar-plus valuations, four of the new unicorns are less than a year old.

In exit news, 9-year-old fintech unicorn was acquired by for $5.2 billion. That鈥檚 well below its January 2022 valuation of $12.3 billion but still marks a win for earlier investors seeking liquidity.

Of the 31 companies that joined the board, 23 are U.S.-based and two hail from Canada. Germany, France, Belgium, Israel, Japan and India each added one new unicorn to the board last month.

Among sectors, AI and AI infrastructure contributed the most new unicorns, totaling nine from those two areas. The next-leading sectors, with three new unicorns each, were manufacturing and security propelled by AI. AI was also a major contributor to new unicorns in the semiconductor, defense and autonomous driving sectors.

The largest funding last month for a unicorn company was $20 billion to 鈥檚 at an . Within a month of that funding, xAI in early February announced a merger with another Musk-led company, rocketmaker .

11 exits

Brex鈥檚 acquisition by Capital One was the largest of the four M&A deals for unicorn-valued companies in January.

On the IPO side, seven companies went public, the most high-profile of which were and , both foundation AI model companies based in China.

Here are January鈥檚 newly minted unicorns.

AI

• , an AI research lab focused on human collaboration, raised a $480 million seed funding led by and 1. The less than 1-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
• , an AI scientific research lab, raised a $180 million seed round led by , and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• AI evaluation platform raised a $150 million Series A led by 2听补苍诲 . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.7 billion.
• Voice AI startup raised a $143 million Series C led by France-based . The 10-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion. As part of its announcement, Deepgram disclosed the acquisition of , a voice AI startup for restaurants and drive-thru ordering.
• , an infrastructure company for voice AI, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

AI infrastructure

• , an AI networking company, raised a $200 million Series A led by , and . The 1-year-old Santa Clara, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• GPU marketplace raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , for secure AI run locally on devices, raised a Series A extension funding of an undisclosed sum. The 6-year-old Austin-based company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• , which manages a GPU marketplace, raised a Series C led by . The 6-year-old company was founded in Lithuania and is now headquartered in Miami. It was valued at $1 billion.

Manufacturing

• , a builder of factories for defense and the aerospace industry, raised a $131 million private equity funding led by . The 5-year-old Hawthorne, California-based company was valued at $1.6 billion.
• , a developer of no-code applications for manufacturing, raised a $120 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• 惭辞苍迟谤茅补濒-产补蝉别诲 , a manufacturing automation company utilizing modular robotics, raised a $90 million Series D led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Security

• , provider of security for cloud services in real time to protect from hackers, raised a $250 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Tel Aviv-based , an AI security platform that integrates with existing security platforms to provide context on incidents, raised a $140 million Series D led by . The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Belgium-based , a developer-oriented security platform, raised a $60 million Series B led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• , an AI chip developer to run transformer models, raised a reported $500 million funding led by . The 3-year-old Cupertino, California-based company was valued at $5 billion.
• , an AI chip design company, raised a $300 million Series A led by . The less than 1-year-old Palo Alto, California-based company was valued at $4 billion.

Cryptocurrency

• Stablecoin payments platform raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old New York-based company was valued at $2 billion.
• Crypto payments network raised a $75 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Healthcare

• Maternity healthcare provider, raised a $92 million Series C led by Stripes. The 4-year-old New York-based company with plans to expand healthcare services to women and children was valued at $1.7 billion.
• , a co-ordination platform for medications across doctors, pharmacies and patients, raised a Series B led by . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Defense

• Paris-based , an autonomous drone maker, raised a $200 million Series B led by aircraft manufacturer . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a builder of secure software for the defense industry, raised a $136 million Series B led by . The 4-year-old Colorado-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Fintech

• Tokyo-based brokerage infrastructure provider raised a $150 million Series D led by . The 11-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• India-based , a payment infrastructure provider, raised a $50 million Series D led by . The 13-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Fitness

• , an owner of physical fitness brands and the parent of , raised a $785 million private equity financing led by . As part of the transaction it announced a merger with . The San Luis Obispo, California-based company was valued at $7.5 billion.

Autonomous Driving

• Toronto-based , a self-driving technology company, raised a $750 million Series C led by and ,valuing it at $3.8 billion. The 5-year-old company announced a partnership with to support robotaxis.

Social media

• , an AI-powered video generation platform for social media, raised an $80 million Series A extension funding which brings its Series A funding total to $130 million. The 3-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Education

• Online tutoring platform raised a $150 million Series D led by at a $1.2 billion valuation. The 14-year-old Brookline, Massachusetts-based company was founded by Ukrainians and maintains a team in Ukraine.

Compliance

• ESG compliance software platform raised a $100 million Series C led by , a joint venture between and . The 7-year-old Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Energy

• , a developer of a residential energy storage device for electricity and electric vehicles, raised a $163 million funding. The 7-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Related SA国际传媒 unicorn lists:

• (1,684)
• (596)
• (37)
• (186)
• (115)
• (102)
• (868)
• (494)
• (226)
• (38)
• (470)

Related reading:

• High-Spending Investors Give 2026 An Active Start
• In The Era Of Unicorn Valuation Escalation, A Trillion Dollars Isn鈥檛 What It Used To Be
• Global VC Investment Surged In January, With U.S. Dominating Funding, But A Pair Of AI Model IPOs In China
• A Growing Share Of Seed And Series A Funding Is Going To Giant Rounds

Methodology

The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on SA国际传媒 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

Today, it wouldn鈥檛 even be enough to buy one, if it was the newly combined and , now valuing itself at $1.25 trillion. It would also fall short for purchasing both of the next two 鈥� and 鈥� at post-money valuations they鈥檙e reportedly seeking.

So how much would it take to buy the top 100 at current valuations? About $3.5 trillion, according to an estimate from private share marketplace . 2

Call it the age of valuation escalation. Leading startups, traditionally known for their skill in growing businesses, are now demonstrating a similar mastery of scaling how much they鈥檙e worth.

It鈥檚 not exactly a new phenomenon, as top venture-backed companies have a long history of securing significant up rounds. What鈥檚 remarkable about the current era, of course, is the sheer size of the valuations.

The past couple months have offered a particularly fast-moving blur of聽 reported valuation gains we thought might warrant a summary.

To illustrate, we鈥檙e highlighting gains in two categories: companies valued at $100 billion-plus (the biggest unicorns)聽 and those valued at between $20 billion and $100 billion (the next-biggest unicorns). Both are seeing some big swings up and to the right.

The biggest unicorns

We鈥檒l start with the biggest recent upward moves at the most highly valued U.S. companies, in order of valuation:

: SpaceX acquired 鈥檚 xAI last week in a that will reportedly value the combined company at $1.25 trillion. The deal comes in advance of an anticipated IPO later this year.

: The generative AI giant is reportedly in to raise $100 billion in fresh funding at a valuation of $750 billion or more. In October, the company at a $500 billion valuation.

: The Claude chatbot developer and OpenAI rival has reportedly at least $10 billion for a new financing at a $350 billion valuation this year, and is said to be likely to a total of more than $20 billion.

: The AI and data unicorn Monday that it has raised at a $134 billion valuation. The latest financing includes $5 billion in equity investment and $2 billion in debt funding. The company also said it crossed a $5.4 billion annual revenue run-rate.

: The autonomous driving company raised $16 billion in last week at a $126 billion post-money valuation.

: The payments platform a tender offer a year ago at a $91.5 billion valuation. It鈥檚 unclear what its most recent valuation would be, although market trends indicate it would likely be higher.

The next-biggest unicorns

: The blockchain and cryptocurrency company had a $40 billion valuation a in November.

: The developer of general-purpose humanoid robots a $39 billion post-money valuation for its last financing, a .

: The AI financing automation platform was at $32 billion in November, up from $22.5 billion just a few months earlier.

: The AI startup was at $32 billion as part of a in April.

: The defense tech unicorn secured at a $30.5 billion valuation in June.

: The AI processor developer picked up a round last week that聽 set a post-money valuation for the company of approximately $23 billion.

: The crypto exchange was reportedly around $20 billion after a funding round in November.

: The company known for its Cursor AI coding platform announced in November that it raised $2.3 billion in Series D funding at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation.

Gains are quite recent

Looking at the companies in both the biggest unicorns and next-biggest unicorns categories, what鈥檚 striking, in addition to the huge valuations, is how recently so many of these companies set or secured these high numbers.

Just over a year ago, SpaceX鈥檚 valuation hit $350 billion following a closely watched secondary share sale. That was considered quite high at the time.

And just 14 months ago, OpenAI鈥檚 valuation was . It was also considered quite high. Go figure.

What鈥檚 also noteworthy is that many of the next-biggest-unicorns secured their highest valuations to date in the last couple months of last year. That was prime-time for valuation escalation, perhaps in anticipation of an opening IPO window and growing investor consensus regarding early leaders in hot, emerging sectors.

Will these numbers hold up? Who knows. But one thing is clear: Anyone predicting a retraction for the 鈥渉igh鈥� valuations attributed to leading unicorns a year or two ago has so far been mostly very wrong.

Related reading:

• The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board
• Cursor鈥檚 $2.3B Financing Reminds Us: Coding Automation Is Still Ultra-Hot

Illustration:

In December alone, 23 companies joined The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board, more than doubling the count from a year ago.

The value of the unicorn board also picked up significantly in the final month of the year, with the highest-ever value accorded to a private company. That was , which vaulted to the top of the list when it was valued at $800 billion in a secondary market transaction, double its valuation from just three months earlier.

And , the seventh-most highly valued private company at $134 billion, was also valued up from its $100 billion valuation months earlier.

New unicorns in December

Of the new unicorns last month, 15 were U.S.-based, two hail from China, and six are based in Europe, including two from the U.K. and one each from Germany, France, Finland and Belgium.

Financial services, aerospace and AI led with the highest count of new companies to join.

It is worth noting that a third of these companies were more than 10 years old, with some seeing a reacceleration in their business driven by AI.

On the other end of the spectrum, the fastest to reach unicorn status in December was , which raised its seed round at a $4.5 billion value.

Here are December’s 23 newly minted unicorns.

Fintech

• Crypto-focused digital bank , co-founded by , raised a $350 million funding led by . The company was granted conditional approval by the 聽 in late 2025. The 1-year-old Columbus, Ohio-based company plans to support technology businesses in AI, crypto and defense, and was valued at $4.35 billion.
• , developer of AI-driven insurance for the trucking industry, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a loan provider for outdoor equipment, RVs and power sports raised a $100 million Series F led by . The funding was part equity and part secondary financing. The 11-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.3 billion and has generated over $7.5 billion in loans.
• , a provider of co-branded credit cards and payment plans for brands to build loyalty, raised a $150 million Series D led by . The 5-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Aerospace

• , a builder of powerful satellites, raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 3-year-old Torrance, California-based company was valued at $3 billion.
• Finland-based , which operates satellites for military and commercial intelligence, raised a $175 million Series E led by . The 12-year-old company was valued at $2.8 billion.
• , a provider of satellites detecting radio frequency emissions for the U.S. government and its partners, raised a $150 million Series E led by and at a value of $1 billion. As part of the deal, the 10-year-old Herndon, Virginia-based company acquired .

AI

• , a new startup from founder that was acquired by Databricks, plans to build an energy-efficient computer for AI. The company raised a $475 million seed round led by and . The less than 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $4.5 billion.
• , a generative AI company for video and images, raised a $300 million Series B led by and 1. The 1-year-old Germany-based company was valued at $3.3 billion.
• , builder of AI models for molecule programming, raised a $130 million Series B led by General Catalyst and . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Energy

• Energy software provider , raised a $1 billion funding led by , with plans to separate from its parent, . The 6-year-old London-based company was valued at $8.7 billion.
• , a builder of nuclear microreactors, raised a $300 million Series D led by and . The 6-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $1.8 billion.

E-commerce

• B2B chemical and industrial materials supply chain company raised a $10 million Series B led by and . The 11-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $2.3 billion.
• , a luxury automotive e-commerce platform, raised funding from collector from his family office . The 40-year-old Miami-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Marketing

• Customer relationship marketing service , which manages a CRM and communication across emails through to messaging and aided by AI, raised a $583 million private equity round led by and . The 18-year-old Paris-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• Synthetic AI marketing research company 聽 raised a Series A led by reported to be above $50 million . The funding was raised at different valuations, giving investors access at a lower value for part of the funding. The 1-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1 billion.

DevOps

• , an IT ticketing management platform reimagined with AI, raised a $75 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• Site reliability platform raised a Series A funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.聽 The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1 billion in a two-tiered round with investors getting access at a lower valuation for part of the funding.

Social media

• The social media giant TikTok spun out its , valued at $14 billion. The Bellevue, Washington-based company鈥檚 new owners Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX each own 15% of the new entity, while retains an ownership stake of 20%.

Security

• Identity security company , which manages security for individuals through to AI agents, raised a $700 million Series B led by . The 16-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $3 billion.

Defense

• Counter drone defense technology deployer raised a $210 million Series B. Investors were not disclosed.聽 The 4-year-old London-based company was valued at $1.8 billion.

IoT

• , an IoT sensor technology for maintaining industrial machines, raised a $23 million funding from existing investors. The 22-year-old Belgium-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Healthcare

• , a medical device company targeting heart disease, raised a Series D led by and . The 6-year-old Shanghai-based company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Related SA国际传媒 unicorn lists:

• (1,669)
• (186)
• (115)
• (102)
• (856)
• (493)
• (225)
• (38)
• (471)

Related reading:

• Exclusive: AI Insurance Startup Nirvana Nearly Doubles Valuation To $1.5B with $100M Series D
• Exclusive: Octane Lands $100M Series F At $1.3B Valuation To Help People Finance Large Lifestyle And Recreational Purchases

Methodology

The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on SA国际传媒 data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

Total valuations at the IPO price for these billion-dollar listings have reached $125 billion so far 鈥斅爉ore than doubling year over year.

鈥淐oming into 2025, folks were optimistic about the IPO market,鈥� said , a corporate partner at legal advisory firm who worked on the and IPOs on the issuer side and on as counsel for the underwriters.

There were a number of high-profile IPOs in 2025 before the government shutdown chilled the market, said Singh, who expects Q1 to be busier due to the hold up.

If interest rates continue to come down, he predicts a pretty good IPO market in 2026. 鈥淚t is a fairly conducive macroeconomic environment,鈥� Singh said.

In this market, 鈥渁 profitable company 鈥� particularly one that either is an AI play or has a good story of how AI will be a tailwind for their business 鈥� are good candidates for a 2026 IPO,鈥� he said.

2025 listings

Among the larger and most high-profile companies to list this year were New Jersey-based AI data center CoreWeave, San Francisco-based design platform Figma, San Francisco-based digital bank , and Sweden-based buy now, pay later fintech giant .

Among these four leading companies, CoreWeave was the best performing stock as of Dec. 16, 2025, having gained over 60% from its listing price.

Crypto valuations up

Leading sectors for the 23 U.S.-based billion-dollar listings were biotech and healthcare with six companies, blockchain and crypto with four companies, fintech with three companies, and聽 insurance and aerospace each with two companies.

The sectors overall that performed well were cryptocurrency and blockchain companies with New York-based stablecoin provider , San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange , and San Francisco-based blockchain lending firm all up from their listing prices, while New York-based crypto exchange platform lagged behind.

These 23 companies’ listing prices totaled $125 billion. That was well above the past three years, but below values seen in 2019 and 2020 before the IPO market took off in 2021.

Singh predicts in the back half of 2026 we will see some bigger listings. While there is this trend of staying private for longer, 鈥測ou can鈥檛 match public market liquidity.鈥�

鈥淭here’s still some uncertainty on valuations. As we see more of the tech IPOs go out, I think the valuations will stabilize, people will get a better sense of investor demand, and so hopefully we’ll see a more certain valuation environment,鈥� he said.

Related SA国际传媒 queries:

Related reading:

• Yes, I鈥檓 Biased. But Still, Leading Unicorns Like Anthropic Should Be Prepping For IPOs
• SpaceX IPO At $1.5T Valuation Would Be 10x Larger Than Biggest VC-Backed Listing Of All Time
• Hottest Deals In Tech Push SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board Toward $7T In Value
• The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board
• The MVPs Of The Startup World Are Still Getting More Valuable

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Funds managed by affiliates of and , along with , , and led the investment. The San Francisco-based company has now raised just under $800 million in funding since its 2012 inception, per SA国际传媒 . Other backers include , , , and .

The latest raise follows a recent $1 billion tender offer at the same valuation, the company says. However, claim that Ripple 鈥渃ame up empty-handed鈥� after the attempt to buy back $1 billion worth of shares from employees.

Meanwhile, Ripple executives say the new fundraise follows the company鈥檚 鈥渟trongest year to date.鈥�

鈥淲e started in 2012 with one use case – payments – and have expanded that success into custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage and corporate treasury, leveraging digital assets like XRP,鈥� , Ripple CEO, said in a . 鈥淭oday, Ripple stands as the partner for institutions looking to access crypto and blockchain.鈥�

Global venture funding to financial technology startups in 2025 has, as of Nov. 5, reached $43.5 billion across 3,188 deals, per SA国际传媒 . That鈥檚 a 26.8% increase in dollars raised compared to the $34.3 billion raised across 4,214 deals during the same time period in 2024.

Growing acquisitions

It has been a busy couple of years for the fintech company. In just over two years, Ripple has , per SA国际传媒 , including two valued at over $1 billion each. Those buys helped the company expand its footprint across payments, custody and stablecoins, while entering new markets in prime brokerage and treasury management.

For example, in April, Ripple announced it was acquiring brokerage house for $1.25 billion in one of the biggest M&A deals ever in crypto.

In March, the dropped a Ripple that accused it of conducting an illegal securities offering.

It鈥檚 been a good year for the crypto sector. Shares of blockchain lender closed up 24.4% at $31.11 in first-day trading. More recently, shares have been trading in the $38 range.

And in early June, shares of closed up 168% at $83.29 in their first day of trading on the minting the stablecoin issuer with a market cap of around $16.7 billion and renewing hopes for an IPO market rebound. More recently, shares have traded in the $118 range.

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All told, venture investors poured $39 billion globally into early- and late-stage startups in October, data shows. Funding was up from $34 billion a year ago, though down from $51 billion month over month.

In a rare occurrence, startups outside of Silicon Valley led the largest funding deals last month, SA国际传媒 data shows.

Funding to New York-based startups surged by more than 200% from a year ago. The largest two venture rounds last month of $2 billion each went to New York-based companies: coding agent , in an -backed round, and trading prediction market , in a deal led by parent .

Other large rounds were also raised by companies outside of Silicon Valley. Denver-based AI data center raised the third-largest round, a $1.4 billion deal led by and . Austin-based battery energy provider raised $1 billion led by private equity firm , and Finland-based health and wellness ring tracker raised a $900 million round led by .

In September by contrast, the largest rounds were raised by foundation model companies ($13 billion), ($2 billion) and AI chip company ($1.1 billion).

China and India were up

The U.S. continued to dominate and led with 60% of global funding.

China, the second-largest funding market, gained more than 200% year over year in October with $3.9 billion invested into its startups. The U.K., the third-largest market, was flat year over year at $1.7 billion. India rounded out the top four markets with $1.5 billion raised 鈥� up 80% from a year earlier.

In the U.S., California-based companies raised $8.5 billion in October, while startups in New York state raised $5.9 billion, and Massachusetts-based companies landed $1.9 billion last month.

Crypto, energy increased

AI again dominated startup funding last month, with 38% of investment going to the sector, up 9% year over year but down from September totals.

Healthcare and biotech was the second-largest sector with $8.6 billion. The third-largest sector, financial services companies, raised $7.6 billion.

Industries that trended up significantly year over year were blockchain and crypto, energy, and funding to developer tools.

Valuations heat up

The SA国际传媒 Unicorn Board added hundreds of billions in value in October as sold employee shares in a secondary sale valuing the company at $500 billion. An uptick in newly valued decacorn companies seen in September, continued into October, albeit at a slower pace.

The IPO markets have opened up since Q2. However, the largest tech IPO in October, travel expense management company , closed at $20, down 20%, on its first day of trading in contrast to many of the larger tech IPOs this year that closed well above the list price on going public.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from SA国际传媒, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Nov. 3, 2025.

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. SA国际传媒 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 SA国际传媒 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. SA国际传媒 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. SA国际传媒 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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On Oct. 21, the publicly traded crypto exchange announced that it is early-stage investing platform for $375 million in cash and equity.

Notably, the acquisition marked the eighth buy for the San Francisco-based company in 2025 so far, according to . Of those eight deals, three involved undisclosed businesses.

Overall, since its 2012 inception, Coinbase has acquired dozens of companies, per SA国际传媒 . Besides Echo, it announced purchases of the following startups in 2025:

• In January, it acquired , the Cyprus-based unit of , as part of a European expansion. Stryk offers CFD trading services to European residents through an app. Financial terms were not disclosed
• Also in January, Coinbase picked up , a 3-year-old San Francisco-based startup that developed a blockchain-based attribution system to help businesses accelerate user growth.
• In May, it acquired , a 10-year-old cryptocurrency derivatives exchange offering options, futures and spot trading for digital assets based in the Netherlands.
• Then in July, Coinbase acquired , a 4-year-old San Francisco-based startup that helps crypto companies automate their token vesting and lockups, and manage their token cap table. Liquifi was a self-described 鈥淐arta for crypto.鈥�
• Now it has announced plans to buy , an onchain digital platform that helps communities invest together and aims to give founders more options for their cap table.

Coinbase鈥檚 buying sprees seem to come in spurts, according to the data.

Crypto鈥檚 crash and recovery

For example, in 2018, it acquired eight known companies. And then in 2021, it picked up seven known companies. But most years, it acquired only one or two companies.

Interestingly, 2018 was defined by what has been described as the 鈥淕reat Crypto Crash,鈥� or a massive market sell-off after the boom that took place in 2017. Things had rebounded by 2021, which saw a bull market for crypto and the rise of NFTs and DeFi. That November, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $68,000.

After a bumpy few years, which saw the arrests of founder and CEO and founder , Bitcoin has rebounded, surging to an all-time high in 2025. Prices reached $113,156.57 on Oct. 15.

In announcing its plan to acquire Echo, Coinbase the two companies shared a similar mission of 鈥渄emocratizing early-stage investing, so that more people can support the next generation of breakthrough companies.鈥�

The buy complemented its earlier acquisition of Liquifi, Coinbase said, noting that: 鈥淲hile Liquifi strengthened our ability to support builders at the start of their journey, Echo extends that support into fundraising.鈥�

The largest of its acquisitions in 2025 so far, though, was its $2.9 billion buy of Deribit.

Meanwhile, Coinbase鈥檚 market cap as of Oct. 23 hovered just under $83 billion, while its stock is up over 25% year to date.

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

This week was a fairly busy one for large financings, with eight of the top 10 exceeding the $100 million mark. Leading the way were two software providers: , focused on health benefits software, and , used for legal practice management.

1. (tied) , $400M, health benefits: Judi Health, formerly known as Capital RX, a New York-based provider of software for employers and health plans to manage benefits, announced $400 million in new investment. The financing included a $252 million Series F round along with what the company described as additional investments into its securities, led by and .

1. (tied) , $400M, legal tech: Salt Lake City-based Filevine, a provider of legal practice management software, that it closed on two previously undisclosed rounds totaling $400 million. led the first round and joined and to co-lead the second.

3. , $250M, AI infrastructure: Modular, developer of an enterprise AI inference stack, raised $250 million in a Series C financing led by at a $1.6 billion valuation. Founded in 2022, the Palo Alto, California-based company has raised $380 million in known funding to date.

4. , $180M, fintech: San Jose, California-based AppZen, an agentic AI platform for finance teams, picked up $180 million in Series D funding led by . The company said it wants its software to enable CFOs and controllers to replace over 50% of manual work.

5. , $175M, enterprise software: Distyl AI, a developer of AI tools for enterprise customers, scooped up a $175 million funding round backed by , , , and . The financing sets a $1.8 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company.

6. , $140M, AI processors: Empower Semiconductor, a developer of power-efficient AI processors, closed on more than $140 million in Series D financing led by . The San Jose, California-based company says its technology can enable energy savings and higher throughput of AI platforms across data centers.

7. , $105M, business communications: San Francisco-based Quo (formerly OpenPhone), raised $105 million in fresh financing led by . The company offers an AI-powered phone system marketed to small businesses.

8. , $104M, cryptocurrency: Crypto and stablecoin infrastructure startup Zerohash raised $104 million in a funding round led by . Founded in 2015, the Chicago-based company has raised $277 million in known funding to date, per .

9. , $100M, healthcare AI: New York-based Inspiren, developer of an AI-powered platform and connected-device system for senior living communities, secured $100 million in a Series B round led by .

10. , $97M, oncology care: Thyme Care, a Nashville, Tennessee-based聽 startup that describes itself as a provider of 鈥渧alue-based care鈥� for oncology patients, picked up $97 million in Series D financing from a long list of venture and strategic backers.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the SA国际传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Sept. 20-26. 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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During the peak of the last bull market, dozens of startups took this quick route to market, merging with publicly traded shell companies, or s, in lieu of a traditional IPO.

Looking back, most of them didn鈥檛 work out so well, in areas from to autonomous driving, and vertical farming 鈥� the list goes on. It was enough to give SPACs a bad name.

Well, maybe not quite enough. Those who thought the SPAC chapter of market history was written and done haven鈥檛 been following recent developments. Over the past few weeks, a new crop of blank-check companies have announced plans to merge with target companies in areas like crypto, autonomous vehicles and nuclear power.

Meet the new SPACs

These aren鈥檛 small deals either.

In the venture-backed startup space, the highest profile deal features , a provider of autonomous trucking technology. Two weeks ago, the Silicon Valley company plans to go public through a merger with a SPAC at a pre-money valuation around $2.5 billion.

Other noteworthy merger announcements in recent weeks include:

• Cancer therapy developer last week that it plans to carry out a merger with a biotech-focused SPAC at a pre-money equity valuation of $1.3 billion.
• , a new venture co-owned by and that is focused on accumulating Bitcoin, will merge with a blank-check acquirer at what it says will be a 鈥減ro-forma enterprise value of $3.6 billion.鈥�
• Two nuclear energy companies also announced SPAC deals. , a developer of micro-modular nuclear reactors, last week that it plans a merger at a $475 million pre-money equity valuation. A few weeks earlier, , a developer of nuclear plants using molten salt reactor technology, a deal at a $925 million pre-money equity value.

Different times

Obviously, much has changed since the last SPAC merger boom. Investors are more skeptical, having been burned before.

鈥淚t won鈥檛 be a repeat of 2021,鈥� said , founder and CEO of , a provider of news and analysis on the space. 鈥淓xpect fewer moonshots and more discipline, both in deal size and execution.鈥�

The field of SPAC sponsors has also narrowed, per Marvin. Those taking blank-check companies to market recently are generally the more seasoned players in the space, with more reputable track records, she said.

In contrast to several years ago, there鈥檚 also a much smaller supply of new technology companies on public markets. With the tech startup IPO market still largely frozen, public investors have limited opportunities to buy stakes in emerging companies in hot growth sectors.

Volatile times, too

Dealmakers are also operating in an unusually volatile market environment, with tariff uncertainty in particular driving wild swings in major indices. Of late, declines have far exceeded gains, with the tech-heavy Composite Index down about 15% from its December high.

Several high-valuation companies on the verge of going public have also hit the pause button in recent weeks. This includes buy now, pay later service and ticketing platform .

In fast-changing market environments, one potential advantage of the SPAC path to market is that it requires less time and prep work for the target company. That means there鈥檚 less risk of prepping for a particular set of conditions, only to see an entirely new variable, like new tariffs, muck up forecasts.

Even so, upstart companies going public today face an investment environment that鈥檚 prone to sharp ups and downs. Moreover, whipsaw effects are intensified for newer players who lack a track record of reasonably predictable earnings and revenue.

And while SPACs sponsors may be doing things a bit differently this time around, it鈥檚 hard to forget that the space is associated with sharp share price swings. And unfortunately, those swings have historically been more down than up.

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