The share of U.S. venture funding going to companies with Black founders in 2025 remained low, even as overall startup investment ticked slightly higher, Crunchbase data shows.

Only around $942 million — or just 0.32% of total U.S. venture funding — went to startups with a Black founder or co-founder last year, per Crunchbase data. That’s one of the lowest shares in years, and down more than two-thirds from just three years prior.

This year has started off on a slightly rosier note, with $643 million raised by U.S.-based startups with a Black founder or co-founder as of May 20. The majority of that was raised in the first quarter, marking the most raised in a single quarter since Q2 2022, when $653 million was raised by a Black founder or co-founder.

It’s important to note that the relatively robust quarter was in large part due to an outsized round — a February $350 million Series E raise by Palo Alto, California-based . Co-founded in 2017 by chief technologist , the AI chip startup has raised a total of $1.5 billion in known funding. and co-led its latest raise.

As such, it’s not surprising that the $643 million raised so far this year was secured across just 34 deals, signaling larger deal sizes overall.

It’s important to note that the total funding raised by startups with a Black founder or co-founder so far this year is still a small percentage of the $252 billion raised by U.S.-based startups in 2026.

Last year’s total also represents a sharp decline from the record venture funding year of 2021, when investment in Black startup founders hit a high of $5.2 billion in the wake of the 2020 racial justice movement. Still, even during the peak year, investment in Black founders represented just 1.5% of U.S. venture funding, per Crunchbase data.

, managing partner at said the decline in venture funding to Black entrepreneurs coincides with a marked shift in the political environment. “There are fewer conversations on the topic as many are afraid to speak on it directly, which is concerning,” he told Crunchbase News via email.

Overall, Pierre-Jacques believes venture capital is about finding outliers. “That isn’t going to change for any group,” he said. “I focus on what we can do as a firm and then advocate for underserved founders.“

Notable rounds

Similar to 2025, much of the funding tally for Black-founded startups in 2026 came from a few larger rounds. Standouts include:

• SambaNova, the AI hardware and software company mentioned above. It specializes in providing infrastructure for AI and machine learning applications. Notably, tech giant reportedly in SambaNova to 8.2% following its investment in the Series E round.
• , a New York sweepstakes-based sports prediction market, picked up $75 million in a February Series B round led by at a $500 million post-money valuation. The platform has users participate in peer-to-peer wagering on sporting events.
• San Francisco-based , which is building an AI-native insurance brokerage for SMBs, also raised in February, a $47 million Series A led by . It is an alumnus of the prestigious startup accelerator .
• Live events platform in March raised a $37 million Series B led by .
• , which sells AI-driven government contracting software, raised $30 million in a January Series B round co-led by and.

Relationships and networking

Investors and founders who spoke with Crunchbase News on the topic said that in the current AI-centric funding environment, relationships and networking have only become more important for startup founders, particularly Black and other historically overlooked entrepreneurs.

“In an age of AI, who you know matters more than ever,” Pierre-Jacques said. “There are fewer deals getting done by firms and partners. You have to build personal relationships in order to make it to the top of the stack. It isn’t just about KPI comparisons.”

is a two-time startup founder currently raising capital for his fintech startup, . He agrees with Pierre-Jacques on the importance of Black founders widening their networks as much as possible.

Spearman urged younger or Black founders who are building and raising for the first time to gain as much insight and inside knowledge as possible from other founders.

“This can save significant headaches, time and limited resources, especially during the early stages,” he said. “Black people in America have defined, and continue to shape, what it means to be in community, and I’m thankful to play a small role in that ecosystem.”

Having worked at , an Austin analytics software company, Spearman said that he built a network over time that included exited founders whom he was able to turn to as “adviser-investors.”

“These advisers can write checks, make intros and think like operators, which is sometimes better than seeking advice from VCs who haven’t been operators during the zero-to-one stages,” he said. He also recommends that new founders, particularly those in focused sectors such as fintech or insurance tech, consider attending industry-specific conferences like Money 20/20 or ITC to make connections with VCs “months and sometimes years before you’re ready to raise.”

Spearman also said Black founders should be open to sources of funding other than traditional venture capital, particularly when first starting out. Many are steered toward accelerators at the early stages, he noted.

“I don’t think this is bad counsel,” he told Crunchbase News via email, “especially if it involves an accelerator like the one offers annually.” TenYour participated in that accelerator in 2025, which resulted in both an investment and industry connections, he said.

Looking forward, not back

The startup funding landscape has drastically changed in the span of just five years. In 2021, the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, a heated 2020 presidential election, and the high-profile killings of Black Americans including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery spurred many of the largest startup investors to make high-profile pledges to back more Black and other underrepresented founders.

Now, “we are so far from 2020, not only in the pledges made but also in the social and venture landscape,” Spearman said.

Still, “rather than looking back,” he said, “I’d recommend we collectively continue to push forward to envision and co-create the world we want. For founders, that often starts with their ventures and the choice to solve a meaningful problem that other founders (and investors) may overlook.”

, co-founder of and an investor with , is frustrated that funding to Black-founded startups relative to overall venture investment funding has fallen in the past few years. That’s especially disheartening, she said, given research indicating that Black Americans are more active consumers of AI tools than the general population, with a reported 53% using such tools daily or weekly, versus 39% of people overall.

“To me, this shows early signals that the investment cycle creating wealth from AI is not flowing back to the communities using AI the most,” she said.

In 2021, Lal and started VC Unleashed, a nonprofit, to increase access to the venture capital world for both founders and aspiring investors. While the organization is open to all, Lal said, Unleashed uses its platform “to uplift underrepresented founders as much as we can to help them access capital and build their network,” including through its upcoming conference.

When asked if she could change one structural aspect about how venture capital operates to improve outcomes for Black founders, Lal said it would be moving the conversation upstream from general partners at VC firms to those firms’ limited partners.

“GPs deploy capital that LPs give them, and if a pension fund or endowment isn’t asking its VC managers about founder portfolio composition with the same rigor it applies to sector concentration or stage exposure, that absence gets transmitted all the way down to the founder level,” she wrote via email. “Questions on founder demographics, asked consistently and at scale, would do more to shift behavior than anything else.”

Related Crunchbase queries:

Related reading:

• Share Of Startup Funding For Black Founders Hits Multiyear Low
• Funding To Black Startup Founders Quadrupled In Past Year, But Remains Elusive

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data provided by our partners, venture partners, our community network and news sources. The data in this report is focused on the U.S. market for underrepresented minorities, namely Black-/African-American-founded companies.

Crunchbase’s dataset is constantly expanding, but there are gaps. A company may not have founders listed, or the Diversity Spotlight data may not be updated on its Crunchbase profile.

We do believe we are missing companies, especially at the early stages of funding.

If you notice missing data, please reach out to spotlight@crunchbase.com or verify with your company email to update your company’s Diversity Spotlight tags directly onsite.

Crunchbase, like all databases of private-market transactions, experiences some reporting delays. The data for 2025 and 2026 will increase over time relative to previous years. As data is added to Crunchbase over time, some of the numbers in this report may shift.

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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

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We’re not talking about confidential filings either. Sure, they signal serious intent and contain valuable information for regulators. But for the rest of us, it’s the public S-1 filing that signifies an IPO is actually imminent.

By this latter measure, the past few weeks have been pretty busy for venture-backed startups. , the designer of speedy AI inference chips, filed publicly last week for an offering expected to raise around $2 billion. The Silicon Valley company, which withdrew plans for an IPO last fall, is reportedly seeking a valuation upwards of $35 billion this time around.

That alone would be enough to set IPO market watchers abuzz. Per Crunchbase data, it stands to be the largest initial share offering of a U.S. semiconductor company to date.

However, Cerebras wasn’t the only venture-backed company seeking a multibillion-dollar IPO valuation.

Power players

Another, albeit smaller, contender is nuclear power startup , which is making its debut today. The Rockville, Maryland-based company priced shares at $23 each late Thursday, above the projected range, raising around $1 billion. Shares closed up 27% in first-day trading Friday.

Meanwhile, on the geothermal power front, is also looking to take its clean energy ambitions to the public market. The Houston-based company filed last week for a offering that could bring in around $250 million.

Biotech IPOs heating up

Biotech is also heating up. Last week delivered a big debut from , a Waltham, Massachusetts-based developer of oral and injectable treatments for obesity and metabolic disease that $718 million in its Nasdaq offering. , a Fremont, California-based startup applying proteomics to early disease detection, made its market entry as well, securing a current market cap around $1.6 billion.

More biotech debuts are on deck too. Austin-based , a venture-backed developer of a nerve stimulation device for stroke survivors, filed last week for an offering. The prior week brought S-1 filings from Boston’s , a developer of medicines for depression, anxiety and other neuropsychiatric disorders, and , a Denmark-based biotech which focuses on treatment of blood coagulation disorders.

Space and defense on the rise

Of course, everyone knows the Texas-based company on deck to publicly file for a space tech offering of unprecedented magnitude. for an IPO a few weeks ago, with media reports pegging its target valuation around $1.75 trillion. If the company forges ahead with reported plans for a June market debut, a public filing should follow in the next few weeks.

In the interim, another, much, much smaller offering in the defense tech space is on track to hit the market much sooner. , a Herndon, Virginia-based developer of radio frequency intelligence for military customers, filed earlier this month for a offering. It comes amid a period of heightened investor appetite for defense tech, with an expectation of more debuts in the space likely in coming months.

Now we just need some software

Of course, it’s not an IPO market that is welcoming to all venture-backed startup sectors. One area noticeably absent from the impending offering list is enterprise software. While SaaS has long been a mainstay of the IPO pipeline, the sector has taken a hit of late amid investors’ concerns of AI disruption.

That said, it’s still encouraging to see a swathe of other sectors dipping a toe in IPO waters.

Related Crunchbase queries:

Related reading:

• After Swarmer’s Soaring Debut, Here Are 12 Other Potential Defense Tech IPOs
• IPOs Are Holding Up In 2026, But SaaS Debuts Aren’t Happening

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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.

Transportation and biotech were leading themes among this week’s largest U.S. funding recipients. This includes the week’s largest round, a $650 million financing for electric pickup truck maker . Other sizable investments went to spaces including drug development, autonomous public transit and software engineering.

1. , $650M, electric vehicles: Troy, Michigan-based Slate Auto, a developer of lower-cost electric pickup trucks that can be customized as SUVs, raised $650 million in Series C funding led by . The -backed company said it plans to deliver its first vehicles to customers later this year.

2. , $300M, biotech: Beeline Medicines, a Boston-based developer of precision therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, emerged from stealth with $300 million in Series A funding led by . The company’s initial portfolio includes five programs licensed from .

3. , $170M, autonomous transportation: Glydways, a developer of personal autonomous pods designed to operate on dedicated lanes, closed on $170 million in Series C funding. , ACS Group and led the financing for the San Francisco-based company, which is launching operational pilots in three cities this year.

4. , $150M, AI software development: Factory, a startup focused on bringing autonomy to software engineering, secured $150 million in a Series C round led by . The financing set a $1.5 billion valuation for the 3-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

5. , $108M, biotech: South San Francisco, California-based Terremoto Biosciences, a developer of small molecule medicines for cancer and rare diseases, raised $108 million in Series C funding from backers including , , and .

6. (tied) , $100M, student transportation: Zum, a provider of a platform for optimizing K-12 student transportation, secured $100 million in new funding from . Founded in 2015, Redwood City, California-based Zum has raised about $500 million in known funding to date, per .

6. (tied) , $100M, biotech: Neomorph, a developer of cancer therapeutics, closed on $100 million in Series B funding to support clinical trials. led the financing for the San Diego-based company.

6. (tied) , $100M, fintech: San Francisco-based Slash, a business banking platform, picked up $100 million in a Series C round led by , and . The financing set a $1.4 billion valuation for the company, which said it surpassed $250 million in annualized revenue in 2025.

9. , $80M, semiconductors: nEye, a developer of integrated optical interconnects for data center connectivity, raised $80 million in Series C financing led by . Founded in 2020, Silicon Valley-based nEye has raised $152 million in funding to date.

10. , $75M, space tech: Irvine, California-based Turion Space, a provider of an orbital intelligence and operations platform, over $75 million in a Series B round 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 April 11-17. 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.

While no billion-dollar rounds led this week’s list, we nonetheless saw a variety of startups in industries ranging from semiconductors to aerospace to biotech raise sizable rounds. The week’s biggest deal was $400 million for SiFive, a semiconductor startup challenging incumbent with chip designs built on an open rather than proprietary standard.

1. , $400M, semiconductors: San Mateo, California-based semiconductor startup SiFive raised a $400 million Series G round led by . SiFive makes the blueprints used by companies such as to develop their own internal chip designs, on an open standard called RISC-V. CEO Reuters he expects the raise to be SiFive’s last funding round before an IPO, though didn’t say when an offering would take place.

2. , $200M, aviation: Hermeus, an El Segundo, California-based startup developing autonomous military aircraft, raised $200 million in equity in a -led round. The company, which is developing what it says will be the fastest unmanned defense aircraft, also raised $150 million in debt as part of the round, which pushes its valuation to $1 billion. Other investors in the deal include , and

3. $137M, biotechnology: San Diego-based Sidewinder, a biotech startup developing cancer drugs to target difficult-to-treat tumors, raised a $137 million Series B led by and . The company is developing next-generation cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, which are designed to act like “guided missiles” by using engineered antibodies to deliver toxic payloads directly into tumor cells. The company said its new funding will be used to push its lead drug candidates into clinical trials.

4. , $125M, AI infrastructure: Palo Alto, California-based Aria Networks raised $125 million in a -led Series A funding round. The company develops an AI-driven networking platform that monitors, analyzes and optimizes data center performance.

5. , $111.7M, aerospace: Starfish Space, a Seattle-based startup developing and manufacturing autonomous space vehicles that perform in-orbit, satellite servicing missions, raised $111.7 million. The Series B round was led by , and . Starfish’s spacecraft dock to satellites already in orbit to service and reposition them. They can also remove defunct satellites and debris from space.

6. (tied) , $100M, biotechnology: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Stipple Bio raised a $100 million Series A round to advance its precision cancer therapies. The round was led by , and . Stipple aims to develop highly targeted cancer treatments that selectively attack cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.

6. (tied) , $100M, health insurance: led the $100 million Series E for Chapter, a New York-based startup offering a Medicare navigation platform that provides advisory services for seniors seeking health coverage. Other investors include ​​, and 1.

8. , $85M, fintech: Modus, a Philadelphia-based startup, raised $85 million in a -led seed and Series A round. The startup describes itself as a tech‑enabled audit platform that acquires CPA firms and equips them with AI‑driven audit tools to deliver higher‑quality audits. and also participated in the deal.

9. , $80M, medical devices: and led the $80 million Series C for Menlo Park, California-based Endovascular Engineering, also called E2, which has developed a device called Hēlo for the treatment of venous thromboembolism, or VTE. The company secured clearance for Hēlo in December.

10. , $80M, biotechnology: Boston-based Life Sciences, which aims to develop drugs to promote longevity and find treatments for age-related diseases, says it raised $80 million in Series D funding. The company says it will use the funding to advance human trials of its cellular rejuvenation therapy, called ER-100, which aims to make older, damaged cells act younger again. Investors in the round were not disclosed. The company has previously been backed by , , , and.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of April 4-10. 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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U.S. and Canadian companies secured a staggering $252.6 billion in seed- through growth-stage funding rounds per Crunchbase data. That’s 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 Crunchbase AI-related categories.

To say these are record funding tallies is somewhat of an understatement. It’s more like Q1 smashed the prior quarterly record — $95.7 billion — 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’ll start with AI, since that’s where the overwhelming majority of the money went.

A staggering $221 billion went to North American companies in Crunchbase AI-related categories in the first quarter. That’s 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’s 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 Crunchbase data, $222.4 billion — or 88% of all North America startup investment — went to rounds at these stages. That’s more than 5x the prior quarter’s 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’s 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’s next-biggest late-stage financing — a $30 billion February Series G — followed by xAI, which announced a $20 billion Series E in January. landed another of the quarter’s 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’s up 17% from the prior quarter and 56% from year-ago levels. It’s 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’ 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 Crunchbase data, an estimated $5.1 billion went to seed and pre-seed investments in Q1. That’s 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 ’s agreement to purchase business credit card provider for $5.15 billion. Biotech also delivered some large outcomes, including ’s planned acquisition of RNA therapeutics startup , and ’ purchase of allergy treatment startup .

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

Big picture: A paradigm shift

Having written many of these funding reports over the years, it’s 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’s $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’ve demonstrated there are plenty of investors willing to shell out billions in private offerings as well.

Related Crunchbase queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, 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. 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.)

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A total of 47 seed- and early-stage companies joined the unicorn ranks in the first quarter of this year, per Crunchbase data. Barring a major slowdown, that puts 2026 on track to deliver the  largest cohort of young unicorns to date.

This year’s newcomers follow a good-sized 2025 cohort of early-stage companies that secured valuations of $1 billion or more as well. Per Crunchbase data, 59 hit this valuation milestone last year, up about 50% from 2024.

Over the past 10-plus years, meanwhile, the number of new early-stage unicorns has fluctuated widely, from a couple dozen to more than 100, as charted below.

Recent early unicorns are all about AI

Virtually all of the early-stage unicorns minted in the past couple quarters are AI-focused.

This includes several of the most heavily funded newcomers. Examples include , the physical AI startup launched by , , the foundational AI company co-founded by former CTO , and , a London-based AI infrastructure unicorn that has raised over $5 billion.

All this represents the opposite of a surprising development, given that 80% of global venture funding this past quarter went to AI. Additionally, later-stage AI companies are famously securing unheard-of private market valuations, with and recently valued at $852 billion and $380 billion, respectively.

While we’re not seeing those kinds of numbers for more recently minted early-stage unicorns, several are hitting post-money valuations previously unheard of for such young companies. Thinking Machines Lab, valued at $12 billion for its first funding, is reportedly looking to secure a $50 billion valuation for its next round. And 2-year-old , which secured an $8 billion valuation late last year, is reportedly fresh funding at a $25 billion value.

Fastest climbers

In addition to their high valuations, many newcomers to the early-stage unicorn club are also noteworthy for the speed of their ascents.

Quite a few unicorns minted in the last 15 months were founded in 2025. And one — — was apparently founded just this year. For a broader view, we used Crunchbase data to aggregate some prominent examples of recently founded early-stage unicorns.

By now, some of our early-stage unicorns have also already moved on to later stage. Nscale, for instance, closed a Series C this month. And residential backup power provider closed on $1 billion in Series C funding in October, just eight months after its Series B. Others are already close to securing new funding at Series C and beyond.

Was this the peak?

Given the new funding records set last quarter, and the blistering pace of early-stage unicorn creation, it’s worth considering whether this could be the peak for the ultra-high AI newcomer funding rounds and valuations. After all, public markets haven’t done well in recent weeks, and private markets have a history of following suit.

For those of us who’ve followed startup funding ebbs and peaks for some time, it’s clear the current environment shares characteristics of a market top. By the same token, top performing tech startups have long demonstrated that doubters are often wrong.

Related reading:

• Investors Are Once Again Rapidly Minting Early-Stage Startups As Unicorns
• More Early-Stage Startups Are Getting Minted As Unicorns
• The Crunchbase Unicorn Board

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The first quarter of 2026 was unlike any other for venture investment, driven by unprecedented spending on AI compute and frontier labs. Crunchbase data shows investors poured $300 billion into 6,000 startups globally in the quarter, up over 150% quarter over quarter and year over year.

That marks an all-time high for global venture investment not approached by any other quarter on record. In fact, startup investment in the first quarter of 2026 alone totaled close to 70% of all venture capital spending in 2025. The quarterly sum also tops all full-year investment totals prior to 2018.

Q1’s startup investment largely went to AI startups and disproportionately to a handful of U.S.-based companies in record-setting deals. Four of the five largest venture rounds ever recorded were closed in Q1 2026, with frontier labs ($122 billion), ($30 billion), ($20 billion) and self-driving company ($16 billion) collectively raising $188 billion, or 65% of global venture investment in the quarter.

Overall, AI shattered records last quarter, with $242 billion — 80% of total global venture funding in Q1— going to companies in the sector. The previous record was set in Q1 2025, when AI accounted for 55% of global venture funding.

Table of Contents

• Valuation surge, capital concentration
• US above 80%
• Late-stage hike
• Early stage up over 40%
• Seed funding up over 30%
• IPO slowdown, M&A pick up
• Public pressure
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Valuation surge, capital concentration

Along with the three major frontier labs and Waymo, another 10 companies raised funding rounds of $1 billion or more in Q1, in sectors spanning generative and physical AI, autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, data centers, robotics, defense and prediction markets.

Those outsized rounds pushed overall startup valuations higher in Q1. The Crunchbase Unicorn Board added $900 billion in value during the quarter, marking the largest valuation bump in a single quarter.

US above 80%

U.S.-based companies raised $250 billion, or 83% of global venture capital in Q1, Crunchbase data shows. That’s up significantly from 71% in Q1 2025, which was already well above historical averages in the decade before 2024.

The second-largest market globally for venture funding in Q1 was China, with $16.1 billion invested. The U.K. followed, with $7.4 billion invested. Both countries were up quarter over quarter and even more significantly year over year.

Late-stage hike

The Q1 funding surge was concentrated in late-stage funding, which reached $246.6 billion — up 205% year over year — across 584 deals. A total of $235 billion was invested in 158 late-stage companies that raised rounds of $100 million and more.

Early stage up over 40%

Early-stage funding totaled $41.3 billion across 1,800 deals, Crunchbase data shows.

Funding was up marginally quarter over quarter but up 41% year over year from $29.4 billion. Much of that increase went to Series A rounds, Crunchbase data shows. Series B deals were down quarter over quarter but still up year over year.

Seed funding up over 30%

Seed funding totaled $12 billion, up 31% year over year, though the increase was entirely due to larger rounds, with deal counts falling 30% year over year to 3,800.

IPO slowdown, M&A pick up

Record venture investment in U.S. companies did not translate into a stronger IPO market in Q1.

In fact, the U.S. market for new listings slowed in Q1 amid a broader stock market selloff in software, although China’s IPO market picked up.

A total of 21 venture-backed companies exited globally above $1 billion in Q1. Thirteen of those were from China, four more from elsewhere in Asia, and four from the U.S.

The largest IPO in Q1 was Japan-based , a fintech for mobile payments valued at $10 billion upon listing.  Two foundation lab companies from China — and — debuted on the , each valued at more than $6 billion.

While the IPO market was somewhat lackluster, startup M&A was strong in Q1 with exits cumulatively valued north of $56.6 billion, Crunchbase data shows. That marked the third-highest startup M&A quarter since the downturn of 2022.

The largest M&A deals in Q1 were ’s $6 billion planned acquisition of ’s gaming platform , and ’s planned $5.15 billion acquisition of fintech startup .

Public pressure

While frontier lab megarounds defined Q1 2026, a closer look at the data shows every startup funding stage grew last quarter, as did round sizes across the board.

And unlike the cloud and mobile era, this cycle is also being built in the physical world, with massive capital flowing not just into software, but infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, robotics and manufacturing.

Now, with startup valuations surging and a backlog of companies with unprecedented sums of private capital behind them, pressure is intensifying on the IPO markets to reopen in 2026.

Related Crunchbase queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, 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. 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.)

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Venture firms that set up shop in the Texas capital city included , , and 1, among others. famously moved ’s headquarters to Austin in 2021, while also purchasing a house and establishing a residence there.

But as more employees returned to in-office work, Austin slowly seemed to fall out of favor with the tech community, some of whom said it had been overhyped as a startup hub.

There were reports of tech workers who had moved to the city during the pandemic and , saying they were going back to places like the Bay Area. Musk back to California in 2023.

Funding tops pandemic peak

Undeterred by the “tourists,” the startup and venture community in Austin kept plugging away. And those efforts are reflected in a surge in funding to startups headquartered there last year, with 2025 posting an all-time high for Austin venture investment, Crunchbase data shows.

Investment into Austin-based startups spiked 64.8% to $7.19 billion in 2025 as more investors poured money into companies based in the region, according to Crunchbase . That’s compared with the $4.37 billion raised by Austin-area startups in 2024 and tops even the $6.1 billion raised in 2021, at the height of the venture funding frenzy.

Notably, deal counts actually decreased from 312 in 2024 to 272 year over year, signaling an increase in later-stage deals. Indeed, the data corroborates that with $4 billion of the total raised in 2025 classified as late-stage rounds.

Last year’s totals were also more than double — 130% higher — than the $3.1 billion raised in 2023. That money was raised across 403 deals, signaling much smaller round sizes at the time and a more mature market.

A tech scene decades in the making

, managing partner of , doesn’t believe that the Austin funding performance in 2025 was anomalous.

Rather, he calls it “the payoff from decades of compounding.”

“Talent density in venture categories such as software, fintech, health tech, defense and  robotics has reached a critical mass, driven by waves of Bay Area relocations, both full HQ moves and satellite offices, that brought technical, product and operational talent into the market,” Flager said.

That talent eventually left to build new companies, he said, and the cycle repeated.

“On the capital side, the stack has matured across all stages, from pre-seed through growth, with local firms that have now cycled through multiple funds and understand the market deeply,” Flager said. “Layer in a business-friendly regulatory environment, a relatively lower cost of living, as well as a lower effective tax rate, and Austin becomes an attractive place to start and scale a company.”

Former Austin Mayor saw so much potential in the city’s startup scene that he began a career in venture investing after his tenure ended in early 2023. (He now works for New York-based ).

Part of the city’s success as a startup hub stems from its reputation as a haven for mavericks and risk-takers, Adler has said.

“Most cities in the world, you try something, you fail; it’s hard to have access to the capital the second time,” he told co-founder in a in 2022. “In Austin, the civic folk heroes are the people that tried something and it didn’t quite work out and they worked on it until it did.”

, founder of , a solo GP venture firm based in nearby San Antonio, said that it feels like Texas and the Austin metro area specifically are becoming more attractive to manufacturing- and engineering-heavy businesses.

“Some of that may be thanks to Tesla, and some of it may simply reflect the physical advantages of the state,” he told Crunchbase News. “Either way, this [surge in financing] feels less like hype returning and more like capital concentrating around a narrower set of serious, technically differentiated companies.”

Deal sizes grow

That diversity among funded startups is reflected in last year’s investment totals for Austin, which were boosted by several large, late-stage deals across a broad range of industries.

The largest was a $1 billion Series C round for energy provider in October. New York-based led that financing, which valued the 2-year-old company at $4 billion.

Looking back, February in particular was a busy month for venture funding. That month alone saw the second-, third- and fourth-largest rounds in Austin for the year. They included:

• A February Series C round in which autonomous surface vessels maker raised $600 million at a $4 billion valuation. led the round for the defense tech startup.
• Also in February, , which provides endpoint management, security and monitoring, raised $500 million in Series C extensions at a $5 billion valuation — more than doubling its value from just 12 months prior. The funding came in separate tranches led by and ’s , with participation from other investors.
• Robotics company in February raised $415 million in Series A financing led by  and accelerator (A $520 million extension to that Series A was raised in February 2026, taking the total round to over $935 million.)

The findings correspond with Flager’s observations.

“A good chunk of the capital raised in Austin was driven by several large deals. Similar to what we saw across the U.S. in 2025, venture funding in Austin was more concentrated than it has been in the past,” he told Crunchbase News. “Roughly 38% of the capital deployed went to the top five venture financings in Austin. I believe the top 10 deals nationally accounted for more than 40% of the capital raised last year. We’ll see if this trend continues into 2026 and beyond. The start of the year suggests it will.”

, founding partner of , agrees, noting that from a dollars perspective, the surge in financings was driven by a handful of outsized capital-intensive deals in newer categories such as defense and deep tech.

“These companies require a combination of technology, land for manufacturing facilities, and talent for manufacturing tasks. Austin has unique skillsets for that,” he said. “It has a density of three things: talent in deep tech with , and many others moving to Texas in light of favorable business conditions with expertise in these industries; expansive land around Central Texas that is inexpensive, especially compared to California; and lower cost manufacturing-related labor especially given the surge in manufacturing jobs such as at Tesla in recent times.”

Burgeoning industries

Once upon a time, Austin was better known as home to software and CPG companies. And while those types of companies certainly still exist, a number of other industries are growing increasingly robust, as the local investors have pointed out.

As with many top tech markets, Flager said Austin has long been strong for application and infrastructure software, which is currently being challenged by AI. In his view, that talent has migrated to building “quality” vertical agentic software and AI-native businesses.

“We are seeing these companies grow quickly and build scale, while using less capital — which is exciting,” he added. “The domain experts who built and scaled application software companies here over the last two decades are spinning out to build the next generation of native AI businesses.”

The market overall is also broadening in interesting ways. Defense and autonomy have emerged as breakout categories, with Austin becoming one of the stronger markets in the country for dual-use and autonomous systems companies, noted Flager.

“The combination of software and hardware skills now in Texas, along with a business-friendly regulatory environment, has allowed Austin to take a leadership position in these important and developing markets,” he said. “Energy tech is also a natural fit given Texas’ grid scale and the surging power demands of AI infrastructure.”

Finally, robotics and advanced manufacturing are also gaining momentum, driven by deep engineering talent and the ability to scale manufacturing near Austin cost-effectively, allowing engineers, executives and other factory employees to coexist and collaborate in close proximity.

Srinivasan noted that his firm is seeing strong activity in vertical AI companies, or companies that serve vertical markets with AI that is tuned on specialized proprietary vertical data, often targeting the services and labor expenditures by their customers.

“These companies deliver ‘Services as Software’ with close to software gross margins and pricing models that are based more on usage and outcomes as opposed to the traditional seat-based models,” he said.

Srinivasan also expects the city to continue to see large funding deals in defense and deep tech, given the combination of local strengths and robust global demand for such products.

Continued momentum

Investors and companies continue to be drawn to Austin. In late December, San Francisco-based venture firm in the city. One of the firm’s founders, , also announced that he had personally moved to Austin. The firm’s other founder, , had lived and worked in the city since 2022.

In late March of this year, Musk to build two semiconductor factories totaling 100 million square feet in Austin to supply advanced chips for and Tesla. The venture, known as Terafab, aims to manufacture 1 trillion watts of computing power per year, he said. Media outlets valued the initiative at nearly

Also this week, Barcelona-based AI health tech startup announced it will open an office and hire in Austin.

CEO told Crunchbase News that with the company’s New York office already established, the next step was not just expansion, “but choosing the right place to build.”

“And we chose Austin for one reason above all: talent,” he said. “As an AI health tech company, our success depends on attracting exceptional people across engineering, data and life sciences. Austin has rapidly become one of the most competitive talent markets. The city is one of the fastest-growing in the United States. This brings together deep tech expertise, entrepreneurial energy and a growing concentration of healthcare innovation. Ideal for our goal of building an R&D hub. “

Coelho also points out that Biorce has witnessed a “trend” of people moving from the Bay Area to Austin, noting that “the quality of life has gained notoriety.”

“But for us, this isn’t about following a trend,” he added. “It’s about building where the best people are — and where they want to be.”

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• Only 2 States Saw Their Share Of US Venture Funding Rise Last Year
• Texas Startup Funding Declines, Led By Dip In Austin-Area Investment
• Lower Costs, Laid-Back Lifestyle Continue To Draw Tech Companies To Austin, Texas
• The 10 Biggest Rounds Of February: Saronic And NinjaOne Lead Big Month
• NinjaOne Snags $5B Valuation In Massive $500M Round
• Amid Record Robotics Funding, Apptronik Raises $520M Series A Extension To Boost Production Of Humanoid Robot Apollo

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A total of 27 companies joined the Unicorn Board last month, including six robotics companies and four semiconductor-related startups. Healthcare minted three new unicorns, while foundation AI, cloud services, aerospace and financial services each accounted for two companies that joined.

The U.S. once again dominated, with 19 companies joining the board. China tallied four new unicorns, the U.K. contributed two, and India and Germany each added one new unicorn.

Soaring valuations

Overall unicorn values soared in February as raised $110 billion at a value of $840 billion, making it the most highly valued private company of all time. Its closest rival, , raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion, making it the fourth-largest valued company on the list. , the autonomous driving technology company, was valued at $126 billion, positioning it among the top 10 most highly valued private companies.

February’s new unicorns

Here are February’s newly minted unicorns.

Robotics

• , a solution for automating building equipment for autonomous construction, raised a $270 million Series B led by and . The 1-year-old company, based in San Francisco, was valued at $1.8 billion.
• Beijing-based , a physical intelligence foundation model and humanoid robotics company, raised a $290 million Series A led by and . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• , a builder of intelligent robots for industrial and service industries, raised a $145 million Series B round. The 2-year-old Beijing-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• Humanoid robotics company raised a $145 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old China-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a testing and control software layer for aerospace, defense, robotics and industry, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old Los Angeles-based company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a company that transforms 5G and Wi-Fi into spatial awareness for connective devices, an underlying layer necessary for physical AI, raised a $100 million Series B from well-known investors , , , and . The 9-year-old Belmont, California-based company was valued at $1 billion.

Semiconductor

• China-based , developer of a chip for advanced autonomous driving, raised a $330 million Series A led by and . The company, which is less than a year old and spun out of automaker , was valued at $1.5 billion.
• London-based , a photonic chip company for more efficient AI inference, raised a $220 million Series A led by . The 2-year-old company, valued at $1 billion, has plans to ship its first product in 2027.
• Reno, Nevada-based , builder of memory chips for AI, raised a $230 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a chip developer for AI training, raised a $500 million Series B led by and . The 3-year-old company, based in Mountain View, California, was valued at $1 billion. It plans to ship its first product in 2027.

Healthcare

• New York-based , a platform that helps employers and employees source the best doctors with improved costs, raised a $118 million Series D led by . The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• Palo Alto, California-based , a women’s telehealth provider, raised a $100 million Series D led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a Redwood City, California-based digital platform that helps medicare customers connect with advocates to navigate healthcare, raised a $130 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Cloud services

• , a cloud platform for application development teams, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 8-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.5 billion.
• Mumbai-based , a cloud service GPU provider, raised a $600 million round led by . The 3-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion.

Foundational AI

• , builder of an AI model to analyze large databases, raised a $225 million Series A led by . The company also says it has signed a partnership agreement with ‘s to offer the model to its customers. The 2-year-old, San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.4 billion.
• , a model developer to debug and understand AI, raised a $150 million Series B led by . The 1-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.

Aerospace

• , a space-based communications infrastructure player to support commercial satellite and government missions, raised a $100 million Series B led by and. The 4-year-old Livermore, California-based company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• , an aviation hardware and software company for automated flights, raised a $300 million Series C led by and . The 10-year-old El Segundo, California-based company was valued at $1.2 billion.

Financial services

• London-based , a U.K.-based digital bank for small and medium-sized businesses, raised a $155 million Series D led by , and . The 8-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion.
• , an agentic platform for accountants, raised a $100 million Series B led by , and . The 3-year-old company, based in New York, was valued at $1.2 billion.

E-commerce

• Brooklyn-based , a marketplace for creators to sell digital products, raised a $200 million round led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $1.6 billion.

Coding

• , a Boston-based code translation service for legacy code, raised a $125 million Series B led by 1. The round valued the 2-year-old company at $1.3 billion.

Defense

• Berlin-based , a developer of strike drones and autonomous defense systems, raised an undisclosed sum in a round led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1.2 billion.

Forecasting

• Boston-based , an AI-native weather satellite constellation, raised a $175 million Series F led by and . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Sales & marketing

• New York-based , a brand marketing platform geared for AI search, raised a $96 million Series C led by that valued the 1-year-old company at $1 billion.

Web3

• , a blockchain intelligence platform to detect crime networks, raised a $70 million Series C led by . The raise valued the 8-year-old company, based in San Francisco, at $1 billion.

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:

• (1,703)
• (604)
• (65)
• (187)
• (115)
• (102)
• (878)
• (500)
• (228)
• (38)
• (471)

Related reading:

• Massive AI Deals Drive $189B Startup Funding Record In February While Public Software Stocks Reel
• Crunchbase Data: The AI Boom Has Drastically Changed Who’s Funding The Hottest Companies In 2025 Vs. 2021
• January Delivers Highest New Unicorn Count In More Than 3 Years

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.

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