Startups Raised $42 Billion in First Funding Rounds, but Not More of Them

More money is going into young U.S. companies, but not to more of them. Through October, startups raised $42 billion in what is called a Series A round, up roughly 60% from a year ago. The number of deals is about the same as in recent years, according to Crunchbase data. The money is concentrating in fewer hands.

What changed

A Series A is usually a startup's first large round of money from professional investors, called venture capitalists. The low point of the past five years was 2023, with $23 billion invested. Totals have risen every year since, and this year's is about double that.

Deal counts tell a different story. From 2023 through 2025, about 1,200 companies a year raised a Series A of $1 million or more. This year is holding in that range, give or take 100 deals.

Bigger checks

Rounds are getting larger. So far in 2026, one in ten Series A rounds is $75 million or more. In 2025, the matching figure was $50 million.

Siddharth Ramakrishnan, a partner at Scale Venture Partners, says some of that money is producing very fast growth. In the past, going from zero to $7 million in revenue was amazing. Now, he said, some companies go from zero to $20 million or $30 million.

Investors are splitting

Competition among investors is pushing them in two opposite directions, according to Ramakrishnan.

• Some write much bigger checks earlier, at the seed stage, with $10 million to $20 million deals not uncommon.
• Others wait for Series B or later, when it is clearer that a business is truly taking off.

The result is a squeeze in the middle. Companies still proving themselves face what he calls a Series A crunch, especially those building apps for business customers, while money floods toward the fastest growers. Crunchbase notes a similar pattern of fewer but larger deals at Series B.

What founders face

Big checks often depend on turning a handful of early customers into a repeatable sales process. Many startups get stuck there. Anke Huiskes of NP-Hard Ventures, a European seed investor, said the messy phase is when a company does not yet know its ideal customer. "A lot of the companies hang out here," she said.

Those that break through get chased. Huiskes described getting a text asking for an introduction, and suddenly having 10 term sheets, which are written investment offers. "So it's really black and white," she said.

What it means

For anyone running or working with a young company, steady repeat sales now matter more than ever for winning outside money. Scale Venture Partners, which raised a $900 million fund, still likes Series A. Ramakrishnan says investors there have enough information to make an informed bet, and prices can still be good.