The gist: Global venture funding in October totaled $59 billion, a 45% jump from a year earlier, per Crunchbase data, in large part due to a record-setting $15.9 billion funding round for China’s DeepSeek.
The gist: Venture funding to robotics startups has soared in 2026, with the bulk of investment going to companies based in China and the U.S., Crunchbase data shows. All told, global venture funding to robotics startups totaled $9.9 billion in Q3, more than double the $4.3 billion invested in Q3 2025, per Crunchbase data.
The gist: Semiconductors, financial services and space technology led for new Unicorn Board counts with the remainder hailing from a broad swath of industries including biotech, AI infrastructure, AI training, security and frontier labs.
The gist: European startup funding reached $25 billion last quarter, well above the $14 billion invested in Q3 2025 and up slightly from the $24 billion invested in Q2. Quarterly funding was up 77% year over year, per Crunchbase data.
The gist: Global venture funding totaled $159 billion in Q3 2026 with close to 6,000 startups funded, Crunchbase data shows. And while the third quarter was the lowest for startup investment so far this year, it still exceeded every other quarter since Q2 2022. We take a look at where the funding went.
The gist: Crunchbase News Research Lead Gené Teare moderated panels and spoke with leaders building Europe and the Middle East’s AI ecosystems at HumanX in Amsterdam. Here we share a snippet of her conversation with Axelera AI CEO Fabrizio Del Maffeo and AI71 CPTO Mehdi Ghissassi.
The gist: A total of 29 companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in August, adding around $63 billion in value to the board. More than a third of the companies to join last month were under 3 years old, underscoring how quickly some of today's best-funded startups are reaching multibillion-dollar valuations.
The gist: Venture investors poured $42 billion into just over 1,500 startups worldwide in August, Crunchbase data shows, down 25% from July’s $56 billion but still up a significant 122% compared to last August, which is typically a slower month for startup investment.
The gist: So far this year, 250 companies have joined the unicorn ranks through Aug. 15, up from 2025's 193 companies. Leading sectors included robotics, AI labs, healthcare and biotech, financial services, AI infrastructure, and AI deployment, among others. But which investors are winning the 2026 funding surge? We take a look.
