led the round, which included participation from , , , , and others.

Founded in 2020, New York-based Capchase initially made a name for itself by providing revenue-based financing for SaaS companies. However, by late 2022, the company began to evolve into its current iteration: a vendor-financing technology platform. Capchase embeds itself directly into the sales workflows of companies such as original equipment manufacturers, software vendors and cybersecurity providers.

It has entirely discontinued its revenue-based financing, and instead now focuses on B2B buy now, pay later tools that help software and hardware vendors offer flexible payment terms while getting paid upfront.

The concept addresses a longstanding friction point in enterprise sales: vendors want cash immediately, while buyers want to preserve capital. Rather than forcing a buyer to pay $1 million upfront in 30 days, Capchase allows a sales rep to offer more flexible terms — say, $15,000 per month for up to five years. When the deal is signed, Capchase pays the vendor the full amount upfront, net of a financing fee.

“We started to see that there was a very big pull in the market,” , co-founder and CEO of Capchase, said in an interview. “We saw that sales cycles were expanding, CAC was going up, and all of this was driven by the high interest rates. Buyers wanted to pay as late as possible and pay installments.”

He added: “We shipped a product quickly to solve that need, and we started to get very strong market pull to the point that that ended up eclipsing the other product lines, and we decided to focus everything there.”

Displacing a legacy market with AI

The pivot has unlocked impressive growth. Capchase says it has a 400% growth rate over the past 12 months and forecasts another 200% growth in the upcoming year. Its workforce has scaled alongside this momentum, expanding to 75 employees, up from 50 a year ago.

While legacy banks, independent financing firms and captive financing arms have dominated the $1.3 trillion equipment financing market for decades, Capchase says it differentiates itself by replacing 1980s-era workflows with real-time automation.

Traditional financing approvals often require an email-driven back-and-forth that can take four to 17 days, according to Fernandez. Capchase claims to compress that timeline into seconds.

Capchase uses artificial intelligence and machine learning agents across its platform. For example, an “order generation agent” parses uploaded quotes or purchase orders to create flexible payment links in under 60 seconds — down from a manual process that typically took eight hours — according to Fernandez. As another example, an AI email agent automatically handles multiparty coordination between vendors, resellers and buyers, all without human intervention.

“What makes us different is that we are both the lender and the technology. And AI is what makes the combination work at the speed enterprise tech sales demands,” Fernandez told Crunchbase News in an interview. “We built the credit decisioning engines that allow us to look at all the data these other players look at as well, but we were able to do it and infer it in just seconds.”

Moving upmarket and expanding globally

The new capital will primarily support Capchase’s rapid transition into the enterprise space.

“In the past 24 months, we went from serving vendors in the tens of millions of revenue to in the last 12 months in the hundreds of millions in revenue, and now in the multiple billions of revenue,” Fernandez said.

The startup’s platform now underwrites more stable, established borrowers. The average buyer utilizing Capchase has roughly $80 million in annual revenue, has been operating for over 20 years, and is profitable, he added. This profile has allowed Capchase to maintain a highly controlled risk environment and what he described as a “spectacular” default rate.

Capchase currently supports hundreds of tech vendors and tens of thousands of buyers. Its customer roster features enterprise tech giants, public cybersecurity firms and massive distributors, including , , , and .

Though Capchase keeps its specific financials, valuation and cumulative funding figures confidential, Fernandez confirmed that the latest capital injection represents a valuation step up from its 2021 $80 million Series B round. At the time of that raise, the company had raised more than $400 million in equity and debt.

Looking ahead, Capchase will use its fresh capital to scale beyond its core markets in North America — the U.S. and Canada — and Europe, including the U.K., Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, the Nordics and Spain. Driven by direct demand from its enterprise partners, the company is officially entering the Australian market this year.

Reducing friction with flexible terms

, co-founder and managing partner of 01 Advisors, said he was drawn to Capchase primarily because of how AI has helped it disrupt traditional vendor financing.

Incumbents possessed plenty of capital but “have never been forced to build real technology because their customers had nowhere else to go,” he wrote via email.

AI fundamentally shifts this dynamic, allowing Capchase to “underwrite a buyer and create accurate docs in 30 seconds,” he said.

This solution hits close to home for Bain, who previously ran the sales team at and says he intimately understands the friction Capchase aims to eliminate. In traditional enterprise sales, momentum frequently stalls when a ready-to-buy customer hits a roadblock over payment terms, forcing sales leaders to either “discount to close, wait for the next budget cycle, or spend weeks negotiating.”

Those outcomes drain margin or time. Capchase completely removes that friction, Bain said, by offering instant approvals and flexible terms.

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

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• Fintech Startups Globally Raise More Money In Far Fewer Deals In Q1 2026
• Exclusive: Capchase Raises $80M Series B To Give Startups Alternatives To Venture

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At least not these days. The space and AI pioneer posted a net loss of $4.28 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up more than 700% from a year ago. Revenue, meanwhile, totaled $4.69 billion in Q1, up 15% from a year ago.

As a public company, SpaceX is reportedly seeking a valuation of around $1.5 trillion or more, . It’s aiming to raise up to $80 billion or more in the offering, which would make it the largest IPO in history.

At its target valuation, SpaceX would join a rarified club of just seven U.S. public technology companies with market caps of $1.5 trillion or more. Of those, just five have crossed the $2 trillion mark.

Of course, those companies took time to grow into their 13-digit valuations. But at some point, they too made their first public IPO filings. And they too had revenue.

The similarities end there. For a sense of how SpaceX compares at IPO time to other members of the trillion-plus-club, we took a look at their original S-1s from the 1980s and onward. Here’s what their numbers looked like just before their public market debuts:

: Today, the Silicon Valley chip designer is a $5.3 trillion market cap company. Anyone who invested in its 1999 IPO, needless to say, has done extraordinarily well.

At the time of its market debut, of course, such a trajectory was not obvious. Still, it looked like a solid bet. The company, which then focused on designing 3D graphics processors for the PC market, had $93 million in revenue for the three reported quarters prior to its IPO, growing severalfold year over year. Over the same period, it posted a modest $3.5 million loss.

: Google was already the dominant player in online search when it went public in 2004, with impressive financials to boot. Revenue for the first half of that year totaled $1.35 billion, more than doubling in a year, paired with a $326 million profit.

While that was impressive, so is Google’s ongoing growth. Currently, its market cap is $4.7 trillion and it posts more than $400 billion in annual revenue, with massive profits as well.

: The iconic smartphone and computing giant knows a thing or two about longevity. Apple turned 50 last month, and it went public over 45 years ago, in 1980.

It was an impressive and attention-getting offering for the time, with $118 million in sales and nearly $12 million in profit. It helped that Apple was already a prominent consumer brand at the time due to its popular home computers. These days, its market cap hovers around $4.5 trillion.

: Microsoft went public in 1986, so it’s had some 40 years to grow into its current $3.1 trillion valuation. But even back in the era of big hair and floppy disks, the software giant’s IPO prospectus showed clear signs this would be no ordinary market entrant.

In the year before its IPO, Microsoft had revenue of $140 million and net income of $24 million. That income figure, however, includes stepped-up spending on marketing and R&D. Without those expenses, profit margins looked astoundingly high for a time before software business models were status quo.

: At the time of its public offering in 1997, Amazon was known as an online bookseller, branding itself as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” All the other stuff came later.

Still, it was a compelling offering at the time, with Amazon growing annual sales from zilch to around $16 million in just two-and-half years after its inception. It pitched losses as part of its growth strategy, which called for investing heavily in marketing and promotion, site development and operating infrastructure.

Needless to say, things worked out well, with Amazon currently valued at more than $2.8 trillion.

SpaceX is not like the others

If we look at the most valuable public tech companies, a few commonalities about their earlier days stand out. All went public relatively early in their operating histories and debuted with sharply growing revenue and either profits or losses in the single-digit millions.

SpaceX, founded in 2002, looks by comparison like an oldster for a company on the cusp of a public market debut. It’s also worth pointing out that Google, founded in 1998, is only four years older than SpaceX. That means, it’s had 28 years to grow into becoming a company with over $400 billion in revenue over the past 12 months and $138 billion in operating income.

SpaceX, by contrast, has had 24 years to grow into becoming a company that loses $4.3 billion in a single quarter.

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• SpaceX IPO At $1.5T Valuation Would Be 10x Larger Than Biggest VC-Backed Listing Of All Time
• The IPO Pipeline Finally Gets Interesting
• PwC’s US IPO Lead On The 2026 Outlook, IPO Timing And The Secondary Boom
• IPOs Are Holding Up In 2026, But SaaS Debuts Aren’t Happening

Illustration:

When I was a child growing up in Japan, Dragon Ball was “contraband.” My parents were unhappy about me reading manga for hours every day. Teachers confiscated manga magazines at school. But I was fascinated by a universe created from the pure imagination of a single person that went on to shape the aesthetic consciousness of more humans than almost any artist of the twentieth century.

Japan didn’t build Dragon Ball. Akira Toriyama did.

From One Piece, Slam Dunk and Hello Kitty characters to , and , each traces back to a singular, obsessive individual who looked, by Japanese social standards, like a weird outcast.

The country globally perceived as the ultimate collectivist society made its greatest contributions to the world through lone visionaries building what no committee would have approved.

What makes this pattern remarkable is what accumulates underneath it. Each obsessive builder, over decades, pulled behind them layers of precision craft, knowledge and discipline that no bureaucracy could have planned.

Japan’s extraordinary concentration of underleveraged assets, from precision manufacturing expertise, materials science technology, longevity and gastronomical research to a generational cultural content library, is the sediment left by people society once called misfits.

The vault is opening

The global anime market was only 30 years ago and to hit around $88.5 billion by 2033, growing annually at more than 9%. Overseas anime revenue and accounting for 56% of total sales — confirming that international markets now outweigh Japan’s domestic earnings.

Sources: AJA Industry Reports, Grand View Research, Fortune Business Insights.

has disclosed that more than 50% of its 300 million global members watch anime. Viewership on the platform has tripled over five years, with anime content watched more than 1 billion times in 2024 alone. Naruto, a manga serialization that began in 1999, logged 330 million hours watched on Netflix in the second half of 2024 alone. Out of the top 10 global franchises, five are Japan-originated.

That is critical social infrastructure.

Note: Some other rankings instead have Mario, Harry Potter and/or Shōnen Jump, but generally Japan-originated IP accounts for half.

The convergence nobody is pricing

At the same time, there is a louder conversation happening in Japan.

The nation is rearming. Its defense budget has nearly doubled in three years, exceeding for the first time the symbolic 2% of GDP threshold. Under a five-year Defense Buildup Program through 2027, Japan has committed ¥43 trillion (~$275 billion) to defense-related spending.

Globally, VC investment in defense-related startups totaled $7.7 billion in 2025, Crunchbase data shows, a record high.

Most observers treat this as a separate story. To me, it is not.

Japan’s manufacturing edge in silicon wafers, photoresists, specialty ceramics, industrial robots, optics and sensors is the same precision culture that made watches accurate to the second and frames hand-painted with obsessive fidelity. The outcast engineers who spent careers perfecting micron-level tolerances for consumer electronics built capabilities that now happen to matter enormously in a world consuming autonomous, high-precision munitions at industrial scale.

The creative and the industrial share the same genealogy: a Japanese individual, largely ignored, building something to an extreme that no one asked for.

This convergence of Japan’s technological prowess and cultural impact is what makes the country’s opportunity genuinely unusual. IP that a teenager in Jakarta, Riyadh, Paris or Lagos carries emotionally,�� and precision hardware that only a handful of countries on earth can actually produce, originate from the same national psychology.

One crosses geopolitical lines. The other determines them. Japan’s soft infrastructure and hard capability are rooted in the same stubborn, misfit tradition.

Manufacturing advantage is learnable. The history of industrial development is a history of production methods moving across geographies, in the past over decades, increasingly over months. Competitors can close the gap.

What is harder to replicate is the cultural depth. A franchise relationship formed in childhood does not transfer by policy or investment. , built by a man who spent years mapping insects on foot and wanted to share that obsession with other children, now lives inside the emotional architecture of an entire global generation.

The window is real, and it will not stay open for long

Wars are hard and exhausting. People do not stop wanting to be moved, amused and alive. If anything, that appetite sharpens during geopolitical turmoil. The world increasingly demands the safety that precision manufacturing enables and the meaning that great storytelling provides.

Japan offers both, not by strategic design, but because its most consequential builders were, for a long time, left alone to be strange.

The assets exist. The global demand is accelerating. What Japan is missing is the cross-border fluency — legal, cultural and financial — needed to connect them at the speed the moment requires in the age of AI.

The world is finally ready to pay for what remarkable, overlooked individuals in Japan have quietly been building for decades. The question is whether Japan will be ready to let them and if so, how it can capitalize on its valuable assets quickly enough.

is a seasoned investor, serial entrepreneur and attorney with 25 years of experience bridging law and global business. He currently serves as the inaugural managing director of Japan, where he leads one of the world’s most active startup accelerator programs. He also serves as a senior adviser at , a U.S. and Canada-based hardtech venture capital firm, and as a venture partner at , an innovation advisory firm. An active angel investor, he has backed more than 50 startups, including several unicorns, and founded , an international angel network connecting investors across Japan, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. His track record also includes co-founding three venture-backed startups. Previously, Shirato spent a decade at global law firms across New York, Toronto, Abu Dhabi/Dubai, Singapore and Tokyo, and before that, held strategic roles as a management consultant at and as a trade negotiator at . He holds a law degree from the , an MBA from the and , and a bachelor’s degree in international law and economics from the .

Photo by�����Dz���

His company raised a few million in seed, and lifted the curtain, and … crickets. Nothing happened. Businesses didn’t sign up. My friend was confused while prospective clients hesitated. This simply didn’t sit well with them.

Then the founder decided to do something odd. He charged money on top of the original monetization plan. Same product, same value proposition, but now there is a monthly subscription. Almost overnight, new businesses began signing up.

Today, that startup is worth billions.

This highlights a counterintuitive truth in strategy: In real-world markets, free or lower prices don’t always drive demand. Frequently, they achieve the opposite.

Higher prices amplify perceived value

The price-quality heuristic is a cornerstone of behavioral economics. When buyers lack complete transparency, they use price as a shortcut for quality. This is why identical items, from fine wines to electronics, are rated higher when they cost more. In B2B, this effect is amplified: A cybersecurity solution priced far below the market doesn’t look like a bargain; it looks like a risk.

Pricing dictates customer behavior and expectations

Low entry points tend to attract price-sensitive users who optimize for cost over outcomes. These cohorts are often more prone to churn and demand excessive support. Conversely, premium pricing attracts partners who value reliability and performance. Opting for higher pricing means going after clients with a different mindset. Even in strategic advisory, I see premium pricing as a filter for commitment.

Your price defines your competitive landscape

Pricing at the bottom floor frames the company within a commoditized segment where differentiation is minimal. Pricing at a premium forces a higher standard of depth, service and trust. Price defines who you are competing against and how you will be compared to them.

is a strategic adviser to tech companies and investors, specializing in strategy, growth and M&A, a guest contributor to Crunchbase News, and a seasoned lecturer. Learn more about his advisory services, lectures and courses at . for further insights and discussions.

Illustration:

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

Busy week, big checks, lots of AI and robotics. That, in ultra-brief synopsis form, characterized the general startup fundraising environment this week. Notably, the two largest global rounds were U.K.-based and Paris-based , which raised $2 billion and $1.03 billion, respectively.

In the U.S., meanwhile, e-commerce platform , AI networking developer and industrial automation startup each picked up $500 million.

1. (tied) , $500M, e-commerce: Quince, an online fashion and home goods retailer with an affordable luxury theme, said it secured $500 million in Series E financing led by . The round sets a $10.1 billion post-money valuation for the 8-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

1. (tied) , $500M, AI infrastructure: AI networking startup Nexthop AI raised $500 million in Series B funding led by , with joining as a major investor alongside other backers. The Santa Clara, California-based company develops switching technology built on open-source operating systems for AI and cloud networking.

1. (tied) , $500M, robotics: spin-out Mind Robotics closed on a $500 million Series A round, co-led by and Andreessen Horowitz. The Palo Alto, California-based company is developing an AI-enabled industrial robotics platform, with a focus on automating industrial and manufacturing tasks at scale.

4. , $450M, robotics: Palo Alto, California-based robotics startup Rhoda AI emerged from stealth with $450 million in Series A funding reportedly led by . The startup trains robots using hundreds of millions of videos to develop intelligent models for operating in complex and changing environments.

5. , $400M, AI software creation: Replit, an agentic AI software creation platform, picked up $400 million in Series D funding at a $9 billion valuation, up from $3 billion just six months ago. led the financing for the Foster City, California-based company, joined by a long list of venture and celebrity investors.

6. (tied) , $200M, AI networking: AI startup Eridu emerged from stealth with over $200 million in a newly announced Series A round led by , , , and . Saratoga, California-based Eridu develops a high-performance network switch for AI data centers.

6. (tied) , $200M, artificial intelligence: Palo Alto, California-based Axiom Math AI, a developer of AI systems that can perform automated verification of computer code, $200 million in Series A funding at a $1.6 billion valuation. led the round, joined by , , and .

8. , $165M, robotics: Sunday, a startup planning a beta launch for a household robot called Memo later this year, raised $165 million in Series B funding. led the financing, which set a $1.15 billion valuation for the Mountain View, California-based company.

9. , $125M, cybersecurity: San Jose, California-based Kai, developer of an agentic AI cybersecurity platform, announced that it secured $125 million in funding led by .

10. , $100M, procurement: Oro Labs, developer of a procurement platform for enterprise customers, raised $100 million in Series C funding. and led the financing, which the company said follows a year of 300% revenue growth.

Global financings

The week’s largest rounds went to European startups.

, $2B, AI infrastructure: Nscale, an AI infrastructure hyperscaler, secured�� $2 billion in Series C funding. and led the financing, which set a $14.6 billion valuation for the London-based company.

, $1.03B, artificial intelligence: Advanced Machine Intelligence, a startup co-founded by computer science pioneer and former AI chief , said it has raised $1.03 billion to develop “world models,” or AI designed to learn from and interact with the physical world. The funding for the Paris-based company represents the largest seed round ever for a European startup.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of March 7-13. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

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

The first week of March was a relatively brisk period for large startup funding rounds, led by three deals of $500 million or more in the space tech and AI infrastructure sectors. In addition, we saw some good-sized deals around healthcare, neuroscience and enterprise software.

1. , $550M, space tech: Sierra Space, a space and defense tech company that designs and manufactures satellites, spacecraft and space subsystems, secured $550 million in equity funding led by . The financing sets an $8 billion valuation for the 5-year-old, Louisville, Colorado-based company.

2. (tied) , $500M, AI infrastructure: Ayar Labs, a producer of co-packaged optics for use in AI infrastructure, landed $500 million in Series E funding led by . The financing sets a $3.75 billion valuation for the 11-year-old, San Jose, California-based company.

2. (tied) , $500M, space tech: Long Beach, California-based Vast, a startup developing next-generation space stations, announced it has raised $500 million in fresh funding. The financing includes $300 million in Series A equity and $200 million in debt, with as lead investor.

4. , $250M, care platform: Findhelp, developer of a platform to coordinate care across health systems, governments, benefits providers and other entities, secured $250 million in investment from ’s . Founded in 2010, Austin-based Findhelp describes its mission as connecting people to help and support systems.

5. , $230M, neurotech: Alameda, California-based Science Corp., a biotech startup focused on brain-computer interface technologies, announced it has closed on a $230 million Series C fundraise. , , , and were among the investors participating in the syndicated round.

6. , $180M, e-commerce: Cart.com, provider of an e-commerce platform and logistics services for brands to sell across digital channels, picked up $180 million in growth equity investment. led the financing for the Houston-based company.

7. , $150M, mental health care: Grow Therapy, a New York-based platform for providing mental health care, raised $150 million in Series D funding led by and .

8. , $105M, neuroscience: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Cognito Therapeutics, a developer of therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, secured $105 million in Series C funding. , and led the financing.

9. , $80M, engineering software: Nominal, a self-described provider of tools for engineers to test and operate critical technology, picked up $80 million in new funding. led the financing, which set a $1 billion valuation for the Austin-based company.

10. , $65M, health software: New York-based Sage, provider of a software platform for senior living and skilled nursing, raised $65 million in Series C funding led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Feb. 28-March 6. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

In December alone, 23 companies joined The Crunchbase 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 �� 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 �� 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.�� 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’s 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.�� 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 Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase Unicorn Board is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on Crunchbase 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 — such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options — 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. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

While Europe’s venture investment did not grow significantly year over year, the region saw a shift to deep tech funding in 2025. Startup investment has also now maintained well above pre-COVID levels for the past three years.

Still, Europe notably has not seen the same AI-driven boost that North America has. Venture investment in North America-based companies last year soared 46% year over year, with mega rounds into AI-related companies leading the way.

Table of contents

• Quarterly uptick
• AI led for the first time
• UK leads but other countries gain
• Late stage grew in Q4
• Leading investors
• Above pre-COVID funding
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Quarterly uptick

European venture funding did gain steam in Q4, reaching $16.6 billion — up 20% quarter over quarter and 27% year over year — per Crunchbase data.

The largest rounds in Q4 were raised by London-based energy software provider , Finland-based smart ring , Paris-based customer engagement platform , Dutch online grocer , and London cloud GPU provider .

AI led for the first time

Last year, artificial intelligence was the leading sector for venture investment in Europe for the first time, with around $17.5 billion in funding to AI in 2025 compared to just over $10 billion in 2024.

Paris-based frontier lab raised the largest round in the year, close to $2 billion led by Dutch chip machine manufacturer . Other large European funding rounds raised last year in AI went to Nscale and Brevo as well as Munich-based defense manufacturer , London-based AI drug discovery , and Freiburg, Germany-based image frontier lab .

The second-largest sector in Europe in 2025 for startup investment was healthcare and biotech, with companies in the space raising around $13.4 billion.

The third-largest sector was hardware with around $10.8 billion invested. The total demonstrates Europe’s renewed focus on deep tech including investment in data centers, wearables, defense, quantum, aerospace, robotics and energy.

Financial services, once the leading sector in Europe’s venture scene, was only the fourth-largest sector for funding in 2025, with around $7.4 billion invested.

UK leads but other countries gain

The U.K., the leading country in Europe, raised around $17 billion. That represents about 29% of total European venture funding in 2025, down from a third of all funding in 2024.

Startups based in France raised $8.5 billion and Germany-based companies came in a close third with $8.4 billion. Each nation’s startups represented about 15% of funding to the continent last year.

Switzerland was the fourth-largest European country for venture investment in 2025, with $3.6 billion invested in its startups last year. The Netherlands was the fifth largest at $3.4 billion, and was followed by Spain ($2.9 billion) and Finland ($2.2 billion).

With the exception of the U.K., each of those countries raised more venture funding in 2025 than in 2024.

Late stage grew in Q4

Late-stage funding in Q4 reached the highest amount in two years. A total of $9.2 billion was invested across 87 deals, up 65% by amounts year over year.

Early-stage funding reached $5.3 billion in Q4 across more than 250 funding rounds, down 4% year over year.

Seed funding reached $2 billion in Q4 across more than 750 deals, inline with totals year over year.

Leading investors

Investors that led or co-led the largest fundings into the region’s startups last year were dominated by Europe-based venture and private equity firms. Firms that led or co-led from outside of Europe included a mix of venture or private equity firms from the U.S. or Asia.

Above pre-COVID funding

Funding in Europe did not grow significantly year over year in 2025, but was well above pre-COVID funding levels and growing in deep tech and AI. With a renewed focus on science, funding has also shifted toward cities across Europe with leading research institutes.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Jan. 4, 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. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $51.8 billion for the year, per Crunchbase . That’s a fairly significant – 27% – increase from 2024’s total of $40.8 billion raised.

Unsurprisingly, the numbers are still much lower than the peak of $141.6 billion raised in 2021 and the $90.2 billion raised in 2022. But they are trending upward at least, unlike in 2024, when they fell below 2023 levels.

And, for the first time in recent years 2025 funding totals came in above pre-pandemic sums, which were $50.8 billion in 2020 and $49.3 billion in 2019.

Deal flow, however, was down — signaling fewer, but larger rounds. The year saw 3,457 deals consummated, a 23% decline from the more than 4,486 completed in 2024.

Table of contents

• Large deals
• ‘Chasing the AI-hype cycle’
• ‘Flight to quality’
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Large deals

The fact that the sector experienced an increase in funding despite a lower deal count indicates that the first half of 2025 saw a number of large rounds. Interestingly, several of the largest deals involved blockchain or crypto companies and prediction marketplaces.

• In October, trading prediction market raised $2 billion in a deal led by parent .
• In March, cryptocurrency exchange received a massive $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based investment firm .
• And in early December,�� New York-based announced it raised $1 billion in Series E funding at an $11 billion valuation. Crypto-focused investment firm led the financing.
• Crypto exchange in November raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation.

Other sizeable deals that occurred during the year include U.K. payments platform ’s $500 million haul in mid-March; HR and payroll startup $450 million Series G in May; and expense management platform ’s $500 million Series E-2 at a $22.5 billion valuation in late July and $300 million raise at a $32 billion valuation in November.

‘Chasing the AI-hype cycle’

All the VCs we spoke with said they believe 2021 and 2022 were outlier periods for venture funding. The record funding during those years were driven by “the Covid-19 rebound and ultra-low interest rates,” said , managing director at , who is based in New York and focuses on investments in the firm’s financial services sector, including financial technology.

“After a reset, a more constructive overall market in 2025 has driven renewed investor appetite, albeit with investor selectivity around scale and quality in a world with continued uncertainty,” he wrote in an email interview.

VCs appear to be just fine with funding not returning to those elevated levels.

put it this way: 2021 and early 2022 were not healthy markets for the tech or startup industry as a whole. Fintech got a disproportionate amount of capital because of the COVID “everything is going digital” craze.

“Too much money was chasing too few great founders,” he said. “There would be four to five companies building the same thing, with business models that shouldn’t have been funded in the first place, and in many cases none of them were successful because none of them got to scale.”

‘Flight to quality’

Returning to the pace and exuberance of 2021, isn’t necessarily desirable or sustainable, according to ���ձ� , who believes fintech is seeing a continued flight to quality with capital increasingly concentrating on companies with differentiated ideas, clear execution and “bona fide traction.”

Meanwhile, it has become meaningfully harder for others to raise.

“That dynamic helps explain why total funding dollars are up even as deal volume is down,” he told Crunchbase News. “I think the level of activity we saw in 2025 is healthy. At the earliest stages … the pipeline remains very strong, particularly across AI and stablecoins. Those areas have real structural tailwinds.”

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Jan. 4, 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.

Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• Here Are The Fintech Companies That Could Go Public In 2025
• Crypto Giant Binance Scoops Up $2B From Abu Dhabi’s MGX
• Kalshi Secures $1B To Expand Predictions Market Platform

Illustration:

After a prolonged slowdown, the IPO market is showing clearer signs of life. As our 2026 IPO outlook forecast details, improving public-market conditions, stabilizing interest rates and renewed investor appetite for growth are setting the stage for a wider reopening of the listing window.

Against that backdrop, a growing cohort of late-stage private companies now looks increasingly prepared to make the leap. Using ����ܲԳ����������’s — which evaluate factors including funding history, growth signals, investor mix and market timing — we’ve curated a list of 15 companies across AI, enterprise software, fintech, space, defense, healthcare and consumer tech that could realistically go public in 2026, should market momentum continue to build.

AI and enterprise tech

: When the window is open, you make your move. That’s something IPO market timers take to heart. But while well-funded private companies are aware of this cyclicality, actually prepping and orchestrating a public debut takes the kind of prep that doesn’t always align with the perfect window. That said, AI infrastructure unicorn Crusoe Energy Systems is certainly scaling in a direction that points to a public exit, a likelihood that Crunchbase predictions affirm with a “probable” rating on a listing for the Denver-based company. Crusoe closed on a in October at a valuation of more than $10 billion. With generative AI platforms currently expanding and investing at an unprecedented rate, the timing is certainly right for the kind of growth metrics IPO investors appreciate.

— Joanna Glasner

: Databricks has been on our list since the end of 2021, when it missed the IPO window. ����ܲԳ����������’s predictive tools label it a “very likely” IPO candidate and that makes sense. The 12-year-old, San Francisco-based company is well placed to go public. As of Q3, it announced it is growing more than 55% year over year, with an over $4.8 billion revenue run rate as of its . Of that revenue, $1 billion was from its AI products. Net retention was above 140% and the company has been free cash flow positive for more than 12 months. Its valuation in recent months has soared. It was valued at $100 billion in September and in December at $134 billion in a round led by and public market investors and .

: Competition among model developers is heating up. AI lab has engaged to begin to explore an IPO, according to the . While 2026 might be too early for Anthropic to go public, another, less-known model developer could make a public-market debut this year. Cohere, co-headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, focuses on supporting sovereign and secure AI for enterprise and governments. Its customers hail from across North America, APAC and EMEA, and include , and . , its founder and CEO, spoke at a event in London expressing an interest in a public listing in the near future for the 6-year-old company, which was recently valued at $7 billion with . Crunchbase predicts it is a “probable” IPO candidate.

: Design platform Canva is another strong contender to go public in 2026. The 13-year-old Sydney, Australia-based company was valued at $42 billion in its most recent funding — a share sale for employees led by public market investor . As of its August 2025 funding, Canva’s . The company, which Crunchbase bills a “probable” IPO candidate, claimed 240 million monthly users designing with its tools at that time. And adding further validation of Canva’s public-market readiness, competitor went public in July 2024 at a valuation of $16.1 billion. (Although, Figma’s stock is slightly up as of mid-December but remains well below its first-day massive .) As of Q3, Figma, by comparison, has reached .

— Gené Teare

: Before the AI boom, quantum computing was the hot, capital-intensive tech that got VCs and technologists excited. While AI has eclipsed investor interest in quantum, the latter continues to draw big checks from investors, who see enormous potential for the technology to facilitate breakthroughs in areas ranging from drug discovery to cybersecurity and defense. At least one quantum startup is actively mulling an IPO. That’s Quantinuum, which Crunchbase labels a “probable” IPO candidate. That prediction squares with other reporting, including a March 2025 that cited a source with direct knowledge of the matter saying parent company is aiming for a 2026 or 2027 listing. The Broomfield, Colorado-based startup, formed in 2021 via the merger of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum, has raised $925 million from venture investors to date, including a $600 million -backed Series B in August at a $10 billion pre-money valuation.

— Marlize van Romburgh��

Space and defense tech

: Space tech has been a strong area for venture investment of late, and with the prospect of a IPO in 2026, it’s an increasingly buzzy sector for public markets as well. Among recently funded startups in the sector, Torrance, California-based K2 Space is a standout on several fronts. For one, it’s a fundraising machine, securing more than $400 million across three rounds since 2024. That culminated in a $250 Series C led by last month at a $3 billion valuation. The company, founded in 2022, develops large, high-power satellite platforms and has secured $500 million in signed contracts across commercial and U.S. government customers. Crunchbase predicts it’s “probable” that the startup will IPO.

— Joanna Glasner

: This one is kind of a gimme. Late last year, -led SpaceX was reported to be eyeing an IPO that would be the largest VC-backed listing of all time —��by about 10x — at a target valuation of $1.5 trillion. The company is already one of the most valuable private businesses in the world. Its reported IPO ambitions make a lot of sense, given the capital-intensive nature of space exploration, aforementioned investor appetite for space tech, and its revenue: an $15 billion in 2025, much of it from its fast-growing StarLink satellite internet business. Founded in 2002, SpaceX has raised nearly $12 billion in its lifetime, according to Crunchbase, which pegs a “very likely” IPO probability on the Hawthorne, California-based company. Investors include , , , and , among others.

: Venture investment into defense tech hit an all-time high last year, and no company received more money than Anduril. Of the more than $7.7 billion that flowed to defense-related startups in 2025, roughly a third went to Anduril in its $2.5 billion Series G at a $30.5 billion valuation. The startup, founded in 2017 by founder , is well-connected in the administration and has been the beneficiary of the U.S. military’s efforts to modernize its defense and war technologies, including a contract with the to supply VR/AR headsets to the . The company has raised $6.3 billion to date from investors including , the , and . The Costa Mesa, California-based company is deemed a “very likely” IPO candidate.

— Marlize van Romburgh��

Health and consumer tech

: Innovaccer, provider of AI-enabled data and intelligence platform for healthcare providers, hits a lot of the checklist items we see in pre-IPO startups. It’s been around for a while (founded in 2014), raised considerable capital, secured a big early this year, and has high-profile strategic backers including . With 1,200 employees across five global offices, San Francisco-based Innovaccer is also a fairly large operation at this point, and certainly looks scaled enough for a public market debut, all factors that contribute to its “probable” IPO prediction from Crunchbase.

— Joanna Glasner

: Hardware-maker Nothing is taking a more unconventional path to a potential IPO. The London-based startup is working to be “IPO-ready” in three years, CEO and co-founder last month. In the meantime the company is giving fans of its smartphones and other gadgets a chance to invest at a via platforms like and . “The timing will depend on market conditions and what makes sense for the business at that point in time,” Pei told the publication. Crunchbase puts a “probable” prediction on an IPO for Nothing, which has reportedly posted fast growth, particularly in markets like India, the U.K. and Japan. The company has said it hit more than $1 billion in lifetime sales last year and has sold more than 7 million devices. Along with its crowdfunding campaigns, Nothing has raised more than $446 million from venture investors including and , .

— Marlize van Romburgh��

Cybersecurity

: Cybersecurity has long been one of the most robust and predictable areas for venture investment. One of the faster-growing startups in the sphere is Huntress, which offers cybersecurity products for small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have the resources for a fully staffed 24/7 security team. Crunchbase pins a “probable” IPO prediction on the company, and CEO has also indicated a Huntress listing is a strong possibility in coming years. on the floor of the in late October, he said that the Columbia, Maryland-based company has posted 60% year-over-year growth and is on track to hit $185 million to $190 million in revenue this year. Demand for its offerings has only increased as generative AI has aided scammers and hackers to craft more sophisticated phishing and other cyber attacks, he said. The company has raised nearly $310 million from investors to date, , including a June 2024 Series D led by , and .

: Crunchbase says it’s “probable” that crypto wallet startup Ledger will IPO. That’s down from a “very likely” prediction last year, but other signs continue to point to the likelihood of an offering for the Paris-based startup, which provides a hardware wallet to secure crypto private keys. That means Ledger, founded in 2014, is well-positioned at the intersection of two currently hot industries: cybersecurity and blockchain. It has raised some $577 million from venture investors including and , per . CEO in mid-2025 that Ledger is actively thinking about a U.S. stock market debut, likely within the next three years. He reiterated that an IPO is actively under consideration in an interview with last year, adding that the company’s revenue had hit triple-digit millions in 2025 amid soaring demand for secure crypto storage devices spurred by rising hacks. Ledger secures about $100 billion worth of bitcoin for its customers, he said. Gauthier has previously said an estimated 20% of the world’s crypto assets are protected by his company’s wallets.

— Marlize van Romburgh��

Fintech

: With a “very likely” IPO prediction from Crunchbase, 2026 could be the year that Plaid, a fintech company that connects bank accounts to financial applications, finally decides to go public. In April, the company sold about $575 million worth of common stock at a $6.1 billion post-money valuation. At the time, Plaid told that it would not go public in 2025, but confirmed that an IPO was a milestone the company continued “to track towards.” The startup has not revealed specifics around revenue, noting only that 2025 was a record-setting year in which revenue grew over 25%. Plaid has raised about $1.3 billion from investors such as , , , and .

: Revolut, a digital bank based in London, is a “very likely” candidate for an initial public offering, per Crunchbase predictions. In November, it completed a secondary share sale, boosting its valuation to $75 billion. That was a 67% jump compared to the $45 billion that Revolut was valued at in August 2024 when it announced to provide liquidity to employees. Investors include , , , , ’s venture capital arm , and . Revolut has seen impressive growth since its 2015 inception. In 2025, it achieved $1 billion in annualized revenue and surpassed a 65 million customer base across 100 countries. The company likely won’t IPO until it secures its full U.K. banking license, for which it is still .

: Monzo, another U.K.-based banking platform, is also said to be eyeing an IPO in 2026 and Crunchbase pegs a “very likely” prediction for an offering too. Timing of the IPO is so sensitive for the company now that its CEO was pushed out of the head role due to his reported attempts at a listing earlier than some directors apparently wanted. He also reportedly indicated he might leave soon after. In June, Monzo revenue of more than $1.35 billion and “a sharp rise” in annual profit. It also increased its customer base by 25% to 12.2 million in its last fiscal year. The company was valued at $5.9 billion in October 2024 after selling shares to a group of existing investors. Backers include , , , and .

— Mary Ann Azevedo

An IPO prediction is never a promise. But as market conditions shift and investor appetite broadens, these companies are flashing more of the signals that tend to precede a public offering.

Methodology

����ܲԳ����������’s utilize Crunchbase data — including funding and valuation, and milestones such as financial growth, key leadership hires, market share expansion and headcount growth — to forecast the likelihood of a private company launching an IPO, providing a probability score and its supporting evidence. Read more about ����ܲԳ����������’s Predictions & Insights and its methodology for IPO predictions .

Related reading:

• Crunchbase Predicts: IPOs Picked Up In 2025 And The Outlook For 2026 Is Even More Optimistic��
• Crunchbase Predicts: Why Top VCs Expect More Venture Dollars, Bigger Rounds And Fewer Winners In 2026
• Crunchbase Predicts: Why The Race For Talent And Tech Could Accelerate Startup M&A In 2026
• 6 Charts That Show The Big AI Funding Trends Of 2025
• The IPO Market Is Opening Up. These 14 Companies Could Be Next.

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