24 stories
Crunchbase NewsMost Active And Highest-Spending Startup Investors Diverged In Q1
The investors backing the highest number of startup rounds in a record-setting Q1 were mostly not the ones writing the biggest checks. And the ones funding the largest deals were not the most prolific dealmakers. To see who ranked high for deal counts and totals, we looked at active investors across
Why a former AirPods engineer is now building heat pumps
Merino Energy has simplified the heat pump dramatically in a quest to make them cheaper and easier to install.
Hermeus raises $350M to build unmanned hypersonic fighters
The defense aviation startup is coming off two successful flight demonstrations, and with the next one, it's aiming to go supersonic.
Crunchbase News5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed: A Credit Card Backed By Mineral Rights, Flying Ferries, And A Foundation AI Model For Plants
In a quarter when nearly two-thirds of global venture capital went to just four companies, it’s easy to lose track of the many other companies getting funding to tackle interesting problems. We spotted five companies in just the past month working on issues from cleaner ferries and trains to foundat
Crunchbase NewsNorth America Q1 Funding Surges Across Stages To Record Level
U.S. and Canadian companies secured a staggering $252.6 billion in seed- through growth-stage funding rounds in the first quarter of 2026 per Crunchbase data. That’s more than 3x the total raised in the prior quarter, and the largest quarterly total of all time.
Crunchbase NewsThe Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Largest Financings Went To Defense, Wearables, Energy And Security
Startup investors kept up the busy dealmaking pace this week with a number of big rounds. Top among them was a $1.75 billion Series D for Austin-based Saronic, developer of autonomous vessels.
Crunchbase NewsThis Is A Momentous Year For Early-Stage Unicorns
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.
Crunchbase NewsJust Because We Can: The Strategic Risks Of Automating Everything
While AI and automation can be powerful, many applications use complex global systems to solve simple problems that could be handled locally. Guest author Itay Sagie shares three risks of undisciplined automation of everything, urging more thoughtful and disciplined use of technology.
Crunchbase NewsExclusive: Miravoice, Builder Of An AI ‘Interviewer’ To Conduct Phone Surveys, Raises $6.3M
Miravoice, a startup using AI voice agents to conduct long-form phone surveys, has raised $6.3 million in a seed funding round, the company tells Crunchbase News exclusively.
Crunchbase NewsExclusive: Anvil Robotics Raises $5.5M to Build ‘Legos for Robots’ Platform For Physical AI Teams
Anvil Robotics, an eight-month-old startup that aims to be the “Legos for robots,” has raised $5.5 million in a seed funding round, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively.
Crunchbase NewsSector Snapshot: Venture Funding To Foundational AI Startups In Q1 Was Double All Of 2025
As of March 31, foundational AI startups had raised $178 billion across 24 deals, compared with $88.9 billion across 66 deals in all of 2025 in a 100% increase. That’s also significantly higher — 466.9% higher to be exact — than the $31.4 billion raised across 52 deals in 2024.
Crunchbase NewsQ1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To $300B
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, marking an a
Crunchbase NewsWhoop’s Wearable Fitness Tech Lands $575M From Athletes, Celebrities, Institutional Investors To Reach $10.1B Valuation
Whoop, which provides wearable fitness technology and a subscription platform that tracks physiological data for insights, announced Tuesday that it raised $575 million in Series G funding at a $10.1 billion valuation.
The company behind ClassPass and Mindbody just got a lot bigger with a $7.5B merger
The merger is a sign that the fitness industry is continuing to move toward consolidation to compete at a larger scale. Recent moves include MyFitnessPal acquiring Cal AI, an AI calorie counting app, and Strava buying two apps: cycling app The Breakaway and running app Runna.
Crunchbase NewsThe Largest Recent Seed Rounds Are All For AI Companies
A majority of top seed funding recipients in the past six months operate at the intersection of AI and the physical world. Using Crunchbase data, we take a look at some of the sector's biggest seed rounds in recent months.
Crunchbase NewsThe Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: A Varied Week For Big Deals, Led By AI And Defense
The pace of large-scale dealmaking picked up some this week, led by OpenAI’s disclosure that it raised another $10 billion. Other big financings went to startups and growth-stage companies in sectors including defense tech, enterprise AI, autonomy and even laundry.
Crunchbase NewsAustin’s Star Is Still Shining Bright: Venture Funding To City’s Startups Hits All-Time High
Austin’s startup scene is stronger than ever. That’s the consensus among investors in the city, and it’s borne out by Crunchbase data, which shows startups headquartered in the Lone Star State’s capital raised a record $7.19 billion in venture funding in 2025.
Crunchbase NewsSeed Funding Hasn’t Stalled, But It’s Skewing Larger And Is More Competitive Than Ever, Crunchbase Data Shows
Among U.S. seed funding deals, it’s only the upper bands of larger and outlier seed rounds — those $10 million and above — that grew in 2025, Crunchbase data shows.
Riding the GLP-1 boom, VITL lands $7.5M to overhaul cash-pay clinic prescribing
The startup provides an e-prescribing marketplace for the booming cash-pay clinic market.
How soap opera-TikTok hybrids became a billion-dollar business
Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “micro dramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire r
ReelShort made $1.2 billion on werewolf romances. Watch Club wants to do it better.
Over the past few years, a new category of mobile apps has quietly exploded into a multi-billion dollar business. They’re called “microdramas” — short-form, mobile-first scripted shows designed to be watched vertically on your phone. Think soap opera meets TikTok, complete with secret billionaire ro
Crunchbase NewsExclusive: YC Doubles Down On Trayd, A Construction Tech Startup That Just Raised $10M In 3 Weeks
Trayd, a startup that is building a back office operating system for the construction industry, has raised $10 million in Series A funding, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively.
Crunchbase NewsData: OpenAI Has Already Done Nearly As Many M&A Deals In 2026 As It Did All of Last Year
San Francisco-based OpenAI has turned to M&A to boost its offerings and stay ahead of its rivals through acquisitions, which total 17 companies in the past three years, Crunchbase data shows.
Crunchbase NewsKleiner Perkins Raises $3.5B For AI-Focused Funds
Kleiner Perkins' fundraise includes $1 billion for KP22, a fund to back early-stage companies, and $2.5 billion targeted for growth-stage investments.