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Briefings and deep analysis on the world of startup funding — angel investment, crowdfunding, venture capital and corporate venture. Automatically updated, always sourced.

Angel investment · 7 Aug 2026

Angel investment in 2026: a bigger market through a narrower door

The global angel market keeps growing while seed funding falls 27%. The two numbers do not contradict each other — they describe two different groups of investors.

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Deep analysis

Corporate venture · 14 Sept 2026

Corporate venture 2026: one in five funding rounds now has a corporate backer

Global Corporate Venturing's World of Corporate Venturing 2026 shows corporate venture capital hitting a record just as the rest of the venture market cooled. That changes how Vietnamese founders should structure a round and how angels should think about reserves.

Venture capital · 14 Sept 2026

A record number of first financings — while the money still piles into five deals

PitchBook expects more than 7,000 US first financings in 2026, beating the old record by over 1,300 deals. At the same time, the five largest Q1 deals took nearly three-quarters of all venture dollars. The two numbers are not in conflict — they describe two different markets.

Venture capital · 10 Sept 2026

Private liquidity in 2026: a record secondaries market, with pricing split into two worlds

Secondary deal volume passed $120 billion in the first half of 2026, with GP-led transactions taking the larger share. Yet the money concentrates in a handful of companies, while the rest still trades at deep discounts.

Crowdfunding · 10 Sept 2026

European crowdfunding in 2026: one licence, still no single market

Five years into the ECSPR rulebook, EU crowdfunding raises more than €4 billion a year across 181 authorised platforms. But the equity segment is shrinking, and the cross-border passport still stalls on enforcement.

Corporate venture · 7 Sept 2026

Defence primes as early-stage investors: corporate venture money moves into dual-use tech in 2026

Defence-tech startups raised nearly $15.8 billion globally in H1 2026. The new part is not the total but who is at the early-stage table: the primes themselves — and they are buying more, too.

Angel investment · 3 Sept 2026

Tax relief for angel investors: rereading the UK's 2026 SEIS/EIS data

HMRC data published in May 2026 shows SEIS funding at a record £276m while EIS stayed flat at £1,575m and the number of investors claiming relief fell. The schemes still work, but with fewer angel investors writing more selective cheques.

Venture capital · 3 Sept 2026

Exits in 2026: record IPOs at the top, while most companies still leave through a sale

Q2 2026 was the largest US listing quarter on record at $104.8bn, but SpaceX alone accounted for $75bn of it. Beneath the record, the structure of exits barely moved: by count, 94% of 2025 exit events were mergers and acquisitions.

Venture capital · 31 Aug 2026

The small-fund layer is starved: 12 firms take nearly three-quarters of commitments

PitchBook's Q2 2026 data shows $1 billion-plus funds taking 68.3% of every dollar raised, while sub-$50 million funds are 67.7% of fund count but 4% of capital. That is the layer most Southeast Asian founders rely on for a Series A.

Angel investment · 31 Aug 2026

Angel money rotates: life sciences absorbed nearly half the dollars

The Angel Capital Association's 2026 Angel Funders Report shows angel capital rotating hard into life sciences and artificial intelligence. That rotation changes holding periods, diligence capability and exit routes for a whole portfolio.

Angel investment · 27 Aug 2026

US angel capital 2026: bigger cheques, fewer companies funded

The Angel Capital Association's 2026 Angel Funders Report shows angel dollars up 12% but concentrated in fewer companies, at a time when the share of seed-backed startups reaching a next round has fallen sharply.

Venture capital · 27 Aug 2026

Physical AI funding in H1 2026: dollars up fourfold, deal count nearly flat

Crunchbase counted US$47.4 billion into physical AI companies in the first half of 2026 across 521 deals. Average deal size has jumped, and much of the money is strategic capital.

Venture capital · 24 Aug 2026

Venture secondaries in 2026: liquidity moves inside the private market

The US venture secondary market reached $121.7 billion in the twelve months to Q2 2026, for the first time exceeding the scale of public listings. But 20 names account for more than four-fifths of trading value, and three of them are leaving at once.

Angel investment · 24 Aug 2026

Exits in 2026: the most billion-dollar deals since 2021, the thinnest deal count since 2016

The first half of 2026 set a record for global startup funding and reopened the exit window, but value piled into a few giant deals while deal counts kept shrinking. For angel investors, these are two opposing signals that must be read together.

Venture capital · 17 Aug 2026

Seed capital in 2026: record first financings, dollars piling up at both ends

Global seed funding hit $12 billion in Q2 2026, but $2.8 billion of it sat in seed rounds of $100 million or more while $5 billion went to rounds of $10 million and under. That barbell shape defines where Vietnamese angels can realistically play.

Crowdfunding · 17 Aug 2026

US investment crowdfunding in 2026: flows in the tens of millions while platforms thin out

In June 2026 the entire US Regulation Crowdfunding market recorded $26.36 million of net investment, after $10.65 million in May, while the count of active funding portals fell to 93. The lesson for Vietnam sits in disclosure discipline, not in the size of the capital pool.

Venture capital · 13 Aug 2026

Established firms took 89% of VC commitments in H1 2026: the door is closing on first-time managers

US venture fundraising is at its healthiest in years, yet nearly all of the new money is going to firms with a track record. This is not only a US story: much of Asia's seed capital comes from exactly the manager cohort now being squeezed.

Crowdfunding · 13 Aug 2026

Investment crowdfunding in Q1 2026: the US shrinks to $87.8m while Europe consolidates around licences

Fewer US issuers are using investment crowdfunding, but each deal is bigger. Meanwhile the SEC has tightened operational rules and is weighing higher offering limits, while Europe shifts from experiment to licensed infrastructure.

Corporate venture · 10 Aug 2026

Defense tech venture 2026: $14.6B in five months, while deal count stands still

Defense tech venture funding beat the full-year 2025 record in just five months, mostly through a handful of megarounds. What should Vietnamese angels and founders read into that structure?

Venture capital · 10 Aug 2026

Climate capital in H1 2026: $26.1B flows to power for AI, carbon left behind

Climate venture funding rose 55%, not because the market rediscovered climate, but because low-carbon data centers absorbed most of the money. That structure reshapes where Vietnamese angels should be looking.

Crowdfunding · 7 Aug 2026

Crowdfunding in 2026: from crowd capital to coordinated capital

Regulatory rails in Europe, the UK and the US are pulling equity crowdfunding into mainstream capital markets. Institutional investors are the fastest-growing segment.

Venture capital · 7 Aug 2026

Venture capital in 2026: one market, two economies

US$510 billion in the first half is a record. But strip out the AI mega-rounds and the rest of the market looks entirely different.

Corporate venture · 7 Aug 2026

Corporate venture in 2026: corporates become the most powerful venture investors

3,068 active corporate investors — a record, surpassing even the 2021 peak. Deal value climbed 75% to US$233.8 billion.

Venture capital · 7 Aug 2026

A new kind of liquidity: secondaries and continuation funds set records in H1 2026

Capital is returning to limited partners not only through IPOs and M&A, but increasingly through secondary transactions and continuation funds — a shift that is reshaping pricing and fee-sharing across venture and private capital.

Briefing

01Venture capital · 7 Sept 2026Three sectors dominate 2026's largest funding rounds: AI, energy and biotechCrunchbase News's weekly largest-round tables show a stable pattern through 2026 — and it signals where later-stage money will be waiting.

02Angel investment · 7 Sept 2026Asian founders are moving to the U.S. as the region's funding slump drags onFortune reported a wave of Asian founders, especially in AI, relocating to the U.S. for capital — a shift that changes how local angels must write their terms.

03Venture capital · 7 Sept 2026Southeast Asia blockchain funding rebounds to $680M — on fewer dealsCoinDesk reported on Sept. 5 that venture funding into Southeast Asian crypto companies doubled in 2026, with capital concentrating in more mature firms rather than spreading across early-stage rounds.

04Corporate venture · 7 Sept 2026Early September: corporate funds, hedge funds and accelerators show up in the same deal listsDeal roundups from Sept. 1–3, 2026 show a defining feature of this market: the mix of investor types inside a single round keeps widening.

05Ecosystem · 3 Sept 2026Late August 2026: Southeast Asian startup funding hits a record low as pan-Asia funds absorb the capitalAn Aug. 31, 2026 report says Southeast Asian startup funding fell to a record low while pan-Asia funds absorbed the bulk of the capital — a contrast with the steadier round cadence in the U.S.

06Venture capital · 3 Sept 2026Week of Aug 22–28: U.S. megadeal list thins out, Instinct leads with $250MCrunchbase News tracked the largest U.S. rounds for Aug. 22–28, 2026 and found deals skewed smaller than in recent weeks, with AI assistants and tools still on top.

07Angel investment · 3 Sept 2026Early September 2026: the Q4 fundraising window reopens as big funds return to the listsFunding round-ups dated Sept. 1 and Sept. 2, 2026 list Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, QED Investors and Y Combinator back among investors, after a late-August week that Crunchbase News described as skewing smaller.

08Crowdfunding · 3 Sept 2026A petition to amend U.S. equity crowdfunding rules sits on the SEC's docketRulemaking petition file 4-914, asking the SEC to amend Regulation Crowdfunding, has been posted in the agency's 2026 petitions folder, even as weekly deal flow continues.

09Corporate venture · 3 Sept 2026Alphabet's venture arm takes the lead seat in 2026's large AI roundsPer Crunchbase News round-ups during 2026, Google Ventures — Alphabet's corporate venture arm — shows up as lead or principal backer in AI rounds of several hundred million dollars.

10Corporate venture · 31 Aug 2026Gatik raises a $200M Series D with sovereign, public-market and corporate money side by sideGatik's 25 August 2026 round brought together the Qatar Investment Authority, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Millennium Management and ARK Invest — a portrait of what a late-stage round looks like in 2026.

11Angel investment · 31 Aug 2026India's angel investing passes $1 billion while participation thins outIndia's market regulator SEBI wants individuals to be accredited along US lines. Capital has grown past the $1 billion mark, yet the angel base itself is shrinking under regulatory pressure.

12Crowdfunding · 31 Aug 2026US crowdfunding in 2026: 11 exits and 15 failures through 3 AugustKingscrowd data shows failures among crowdfunded companies down 57% from the same point a year earlier — while exits are still countable on two hands.

13Ecosystem · 31 Aug 2026Google opens an AI startup corridor from Southeast Asia to Silicon Valley, with Vietnam's NIC and SIHUBA three-month, equity-free accelerator taking 25 startups in its first cohort, starting August 2026, with public-sector partners in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.

14Venture capital · 31 Aug 2026Southeast Asia to July 2026: $12.8bn across 178 rounds — capital up 137%, deal count down 30%Totals jumped on data-centre and AI infrastructure mega-deals, but there were fewer rounds. Do not use mega-deals as a benchmark for valuation or pay.

15Venture capital · 27 Aug 2026Later-stage rounds are being restructured: terms replace valuationWhen growth capital is scarce, negotiations shift from the headline valuation to investor protections — and that pressure flows back to angel investors from the earliest rounds.

16Angel investment · 27 Aug 2026Pre-seed AI diligence: look at inference cost, not just the teamAngel diligence checklists are being rewritten around model operating costs and single-vendor dependency.

17Ecosystem · 27 Aug 2026Southeast Asia: legal structure decides who can raise the next roundIn a region where rounds beyond Series A remain a minority, what sorts startups is not only growth but the parent entity, the cap table and the exit path built in from day one.

18Corporate venture · 27 Aug 2026Corporate capital comes with a contract: read the exclusivity and ROFR clausesCorporate venture capital is attractive because it brings a first customer, but the price usually sits in clauses that never appear in the deal announcement.

19Crowdfunding · 27 Aug 2026Crowdfunding shifts to the community round: capital that comes with distributionEquity crowdfunding is increasingly used to turn customers into shareholders, not as a fallback after funds say no.

20Crowdfunding · 24 Aug 2026$45M+ from over 15,000 retail shareholders: Reg A+ is still a real funding channelFrontieras North America says it has raised more than $45M through an expanded Regulation A+ offering, scheduled to close on 27 August 2026.

21Angel investment · 24 Aug 2026A $31M seed round: in the US, 'seed' has drifted away from angelsMIT spinoff Apollo Atomics closed an oversubscribed $31M seed round, backed by funds and collective-investing platforms alike.

22Venture capital · 24 Aug 2026Castelion raises more than $1B: equity now comes bundled with a credit lineThe largest US financing of the week split in two: about $800M of equity and a $250M revolving credit facility.

23Corporate venture · 24 Aug 2026Aug 17–20: corporate funds appear in nearly every hard-tech roundGoogle, Salesforce Ventures, Woven Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Aramco Ventures, Intel Capital and Mirae Asset Capital all showed up in the week's satellite, semiconductor and medtech rounds.

24Ecosystem · 24 Aug 2026Southeast Asia AI funding hits $4.1B in 2026 — but one deal accounts for $2.8BPer Tracxn data, Southeast Asia's native AI companies have raised $4.1B so far in 2026, more than double all of last year — largely on the back of a single $2.8B round.

25Ecosystem · 17 Aug 2026Lovable raises a $400M Series C at a $13.3B valuationThe Stockholm AI coding company was backed in a round led by EQT and Menlo Ventures; it claims 900 million visits a month and 60 million projects created.

26Corporate venture · 17 Aug 2026Corporates are not just writing cheques: the new CVC toolkit in 2026Per Global Corporate Venturing, corporate venturing is expanding into venture building, buying from startups and fund-of-funds — while spreading across Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

27Venture capital · 17 Aug 2026Databricks closes a $5B round at a $190B valuationA strategic round announced on Aug. 13, 2026 lifts the valuation from $134B to $190B. CEO Ali Ghodsi says soaring AI costs are boosting demand for the data platform.

28Venture capital · 17 Aug 2026Southeast Asia startup funding fell 84% in July 2026 after June's megadeal surgeDealStreetAsia recorded a sharp monthly drop; meanwhile regional native-AI startup funding reached $4.1bn, but mostly from a single deal.

29Angel investment · 17 Aug 2026Angel syndicates back in focus as regional deal counts thin outCrunchbase News highlighted a Kazakh angel club that channelled more than $2 million in six months — a model worth revisiting as Southeast Asia posts its lowest equity deal count in eight years.

30Venture capital · 13 Aug 2026195 new unicorns in H1 2026: the fastest pace since 2022The Crunchbase Unicorn Board added 195 companies in the first six months of the year, far surpassing any period since the second half of 2022. But this is a late-stage valuation story, not a seed-stage signal.

31Ecosystem · 13 Aug 2026Southeast Asia's capital map, August 2026: 15,333 funded companies, only 1,484 past Series ATracxn data updated in early August 2026 shows the regional funnel narrowing sharply after seed, with the deepest capital still in logistics tech and payments.

32Venture capital · 13 Aug 2026Monashees opens a permanent San Francisco presence: emerging-market funds follow the capitalOne of Latin America's oldest and most influential venture capital firms argues the region's next phase requires a permanent Silicon Valley presence.

33Corporate venture · 13 Aug 2026Google's Southeast Asia AI accelerator starts its first cohort in August 2026, with Vietnam in via NIC and SIHUBGoogle Cloud is building an AI startup corridor from Southeast Asia to Silicon Valley: a first cohort of 25 companies, three months, equity-free, run with EnterpriseSG, Komdigi, NIC and SIHUB.

34Angel investment · 13 Aug 2026Week of 11 August 2026: $17–18M rounds still close, with angels sitting beside institutional leadsAmid AI megarounds, mid-size rounds keep closing: Axle raised a $17.5 million Series A and Quartr raised €15.6 million ($18 million).

35Venture capital · 10 Aug 2026VC funds holding 'zombiecorns' struggle to raise new capitalBloomberg, 4 August 2026: outsized AI bets are splitting venture capital in two, leaving smaller funds behind.

36Venture capital · 7 Aug 2026July 2026: Global venture funding hits $65B as billion-dollar rounds set a recordCrunchbase data shows 14 rounds of $1B or more in a single month, the highest count on record, led by a $10B investment in Blue Origin.

37Ecosystem · 7 Aug 2026India in early August 2026: small cheques keep flowing as Vaaree raises $6.8MHero and Cap Alpha co-led a $6.8M round in Vaaree; the first week of August also brought a $27M round for InRisk Labs and several multi-million-dollar deals.

38Angel investment · 7 Aug 2026Index Ventures raises $2B, earmarking $400M for seedThe 30-year-old firm lifts total investing capacity to $3.5B, including a new dedicated seed fund — the stage where angels usually co-invest.

39Ecosystem · 7 Aug 2026Singapore's Acrab raises $130M Series B as Asia AI funding tops $20B in H1The round again drew support from Vertex Ventures SEA & India and Vertex Growth, lifting Acrab's cumulative funding above $480M; the valuation was not disclosed.

40Corporate venture · 7 Aug 2026Corporates as acquirers: exits reopen, with Alphabet paying $32B for WizThe deal, completed this year, handed a very large payout to a seed-stage investor, while Crunchbase recorded the most billion-dollar exits since 2021 in Q2 2026.

41Venture capital · 6 Aug 2026Global startup investment hits a record US$510B in H1 2026The AI boom pushed both funding and exits to unprecedented levels — but most of the money went to a very small group of companies.

42Ecosystem · 6 Aug 2026Southeast Asia draws US$12.8B across 178 rounds to July 2026Singapore continues to absorb most of the region's capital. Vietnam and Indonesia, together with Singapore, account for over 80% of deal volume.

43Ecosystem · 6 Aug 2026Southeast Asia's AI startups raise US$9.3B — Vietnam ranks second in the regionAccording to Tracxn, Singapore is the region's largest AI hub with US$9.3 billion across 227 rounds. Vietnam is the second-largest AI market.

44Angel investment · 5 Aug 2026Seed and angel funding falls 27% — a K-shaped marketWhile total funding set records, the earliest stage contracted the most in years. This looks structural, not cyclical.

45Venture capital · 5 Aug 2026Base Power raises a US$1B Series D at a US$13B valuationThe round was led by a consortium including Ribbit Capital, Addition, Valor Equity and JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group.

46Venture capital · 4 Aug 2026An estimated 75% of 2026 venture capital went to just five AI companiesThree senior investors called the concentration “unprecedented”. One company alone took close to a third of global Q2 funding.

47Venture capital · 4 Aug 2026Valar Atomics raises US$1B led by Sequoia, plus US$200M in creditThe nuclear energy company's Series B came with a US$200 million credit line from a JPMorgan-led syndicate.

48Corporate venture · 3 Aug 2026Corporate investors account for a record 87.9% of US AI deal valuePitchBook Q3 2026: fewer deals but bigger ones. Corporate capital is reshaping the AI market.

49Ecosystem · 2 Aug 2026Asia's startup funding hits a multiyear peak in Q2, led by China and AIAsian capital flows recovered clearly, but the bulk concentrated in China and AI-related deals.

50Venture capital · 1 Aug 2026Cybersecurity is a steady bright spot for startup funding in H1 2026While early-stage capital contracts, cybersecurity keeps growing steadily — a sector worth noting for angel portfolios.

51Corporate venture · 30 Jul 2026River raises US$120M from Yamaha Motor and MitsuiThe EV maker's Series C is a textbook example of industrial corporates using venture investment to secure a seat in an emerging value chain.