Joanna Glasner

Coding automation platform Cursor announced today that it has raised $2.3 billion in Series D funding at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation — more than 3x higher than what Cursor parent company Anysphere secured just six months ago.

Consumers and businesses are projected to spend more than $6 trillion on e-commerce retail platforms this year. But nonetheless, startup investors are finding fewer deals they like. We take a data dive to see what's happening in the space.

Consumers willing to pay handsomely for a container of liquid are commonly looking for health and wellness benefits, as well as an energy boost, if not a buzz. We take a look at some recently funded companies in the drinks space that typically check one if not all of those boxes.

This week has been a busy one for good-sized rounds, led by $500 million financings for crypto unicorn Ripple and AI-enabled parking provider Metropolis. We also saw multiple large financings for biotech startups, plus some big rounds for cybersecurity and enterprise software.

We provide a look at October’s most-active investor rankings in closer detail across four metrics: active venture investors, lead backers, high spenders and seed dealmakers.

Over the past couple years, the top tech giants have made comparatively few big-ticket purchases of venture-backed companies. The Big Five have, however, been actively and extravagantly investing in startups, particularly of the AI variety, and those stakes are adding up. We take a look at what Crunchbase data finds.

While humanoid robots startups have drawn headlines in recent months for big funding deals and flashy prototypes, an array of companies working on less-anthropomorphic designs have also secured considerable investment. We take a look at some of the non-humanoid robotics-related startups getting funded.

The week’s largest funding rounds confirmed that we’re still very much in the AI era. This included the biggest deal, a $350 million Series C for AI hiring startup Mercor, along with good-sized financings for legal tech, a shopping platform and an email security provider.

Cleantech- and sustainability-related startup investment has been on a downward trajectory for several years now. And, despite some pickup in recent months, 2025 is on track to be another down year. We take a look at where some of the sector's limited funding is landing.

In another active week for large startup financings, an AI data center developer reported $1.38 billion in fresh financing, and several other megarounds went to AI-focused startups. Other standouts hailed from a diverse array of sectors, including battery recycling, biotech and even fire suppression.

In 2021 the market hit a cyclical peak under conditions that in many ways look a lot like those we’re seeing today. While there are many differences (more on that later), we take a look at some of the similarities in valuations, investment and the cracks in the new offering front.

An estimated 70% of all U.S. startup funding this year went to jumbo-sized financings of $100 million and up, per Crunchbase data.

Funding to wearables is looking comparatively perky this year, Crunchbase data shows. While largely due to Oura, maker of a smart ring that tracks health and wellness metrics, our data found several other wearables-related companies pulling in significant venture investment recently.

In total, investors put just over $3.3 billion globally into seed- through growth-stage rounds for cybersecurity-focused companies, per Crunchbase data. That’s about a third lower than the prior quarter.

This week offered a change of pace on the giant round front as it was a biotech company, rather than an AI startup, at the top of the ranks. Other sizable financings went to companies offering fractional aircraft ownership, fintech services and hair loss treatments.

Where are seed- and early-stage AI investors placing their bets? To answer this question, we analyzed a dataset of AI-focused startups that raised at least a few million dollars in seed- or early-stage funding this year.

We took a look at Q3 2025's busiest lead dealmakers, highest spenders, and top venture and seed backers, and found that established leaders among startup investors are still very much in the game.

The past week brought a varied assortment of large startup financings, with big rounds in sectors ranging from events-based betting to AI to energy to biotech. Leading the pack for round size were prediction market platform Polymarket and open standards-focused AI startup Reflection AI, which each raised $2 billion.

Asia’s startup funding rose sequentially in the third quarter, boosted by a handful of hardtech-focused megarounds that led to a 20% increase from the prior quarter and a 16% rise from the year-ago period.

In total, investors put $63.1 billion into reported seed through growth-stage rounds for U.S. and Canadian companies in Q3, per Crunchbase data; up incrementally from the prior quarter and far above year-ago levels.