Global venture funding surged in the third quarter of 2025, reaching $97 billion, marking a 38 percent year-over-year increase from $70 billion in Q3 2024, according to Crunchbase data. The strong rebound in startup investments was fueled by megarounds in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, underscoring the dominance of AI in global capital flows.
Venture Capital Investment Hits Three-Year High
For the fourth consecutive quarter, global startup funding surpassed $90 billion, levels not seen since Q3 2022. Quarter-over-quarter, total funding rose slightly from $92 billion in Q2 2025, signaling sustained investor confidence despite macroeconomic uncertainties, Crunchbase report said.
Capital Concentration and Megarounds Dominate
Capital has become increasingly concentrated in large funding rounds. Over 30 percent of global venture funding in each of the last four quarters went into megarounds of $500 million or more.
The top three VC funding rounds in Q3 2025 were raised by foundation model leaders — Anthropic ($13 billion), xAI ($5.3 billion), and Mistral AI ($2 billion). Other billion-dollar rounds went to Princeton Digital Group, Nscale, Cerebras Systems, Figure, Databricks, and PsiQuantum.
In total, 18 companies accounted for one-third of global venture investment, with most of these deals closing in September, reflecting renewed investor appetite for late-stage AI startups.
AI Leads Global Venture Funding
AI remained the undisputed leader in venture funding, attracting $45 billion — roughly 46 percent of all global venture investment in Q3. Remarkably, Anthropic alone received 29 percent of the total AI funding.
The hardware sector followed, securing $16.2 billion, driven by investments in robotics, semiconductors, and quantum infrastructure. Healthcare and biotech raised $15.8 billion, while financial services secured $12 billion.
The U.S. dominated global funding, with startups in the country attracting $60 billion, representing nearly two-thirds of total global investment.
Late-Stage Funding Surges 66 percent Year Over Year
Late-stage funding reached $58 billion, up 66 percent YoY, supported by large AI and infrastructure rounds. Although slightly below Q1’s record-setting numbers (boosted by OpenAI’s $40 billion round), late-stage deals continued to drive most of the capital inflows in 2025.
Early-Stage and Seed Rounds See Modest Growth
Early-stage funding hit $30 billion, covering over 1,700 companies, a modest 10 percent YoY increase. Notably, larger Series A and B rounds went to startups focused on AI data workloads, energy tech, robotics, quantum computing, and biotech.
Seed-stage investments also ticked upward, totaling $9 billion across more than 3,500 companies, slightly above the previous year’s $8.5 billion.
Strong Exit Activity Marks Q3 2025
Venture-backed exits showed strong momentum. IPO activity rose for the second straight quarter, led by Chery Automobile, Figma, Klarna, and Netskope. In total, 16 companies went public at valuations exceeding $1 billion, collectively worth over $90 billion — a substantial rise from Q2’s $60 billion.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) also remained active, with $27.5 billion in reported exit value. Nine companies were acquired for over $1 billion, including deals in AI, healthcare, cybersecurity, and financial services. Notably, OpenAI acquired Statsig, while Workday acquired Sana to enhance AI-driven capabilities.
The third quarter of 2025 confirmed a resurgence in global venture capital, driven by AI and advanced technology sectors. With sustained late-stage funding, robust IPO activity, and continued dominance of U.S. and AI investments, the global startup ecosystem appears to be entering a new growth phase — one characterized by concentrated capital flows and transformative innovation.
Rajani Baburajan
