Startup Funding This Quarter: Deal Volume and Valuations 2026

Public data on startup funding this quarter runs on a reporting lag: the newest hard numbers cover Q1 2026 and H1 2026. CB Insights recorded a record $285.5 billion globally in Q1 2026 across just under 7,000 deals, down 15% quarter over quarter. Dollars up, deals down, AI taking most of it.

• The quarterly VC report in one table
• What the venture funding data says right now
• Seed funding volume and why nobody publishes it cleanly
• Valuations by stage and why post-money is not pre-money
• Time between rounds is now the binding constraint
• Startup funding trends 2026 show concentration not recovery
• Raise now or wait a quarter
• What to do in the next 30 days
• FAQ

Every quarterly venture report on the internet is written for LPs and analysts. This one is written for the founder deciding whether to open a round this month or hold until the next quarter. Same data, different question.

As of August 7, 2026, the most recent hard data on this page covers Q1 2026 and the first half of 2026. Carta, PitchBook-NVCA, CB Insights and AngelList all publish quarterly, and they publish weeks after a quarter closes. Any page claiming week-level precision on venture funding is guessing.

Some rows below are older than others on purpose. Where a source has not published a newer figure, the older dated figure stays rather than being swapped for a fresher-sounding invention. Round counts and time between rounds are cited at Q2 2025 because that is the most recent published figure available.

The quarterly VC report in one table

Here is the full venture funding data set this page runs on, every figure carrying the exact period it describes.

Three habits make this table usable rather than decorative:

• Read the period column before the number. A Q4 2025 valuation median and a Q1 2026 down-round rate are not the same vintage, and mixing them is how founders end up quoting a market that no longer exists.
• Never move a number across a basis. The seed and Series A medians here are post-money. Restating them as pre-money changes the meaning and the negotiation.
• Treat aggregate dollars and your personal odds as separate questions. Total capital deployed tells you what the top of the market did. Deal count tells you how many companies got to participate.

What the venture funding data says right now

Total dollars and your odds of raising have come apart, and the gap is the most important fact in the market.

CB Insights recorded $285.5 billion of global venture funding in Q1 2026, the highest quarterly total on record. The same release put Q1 2026 global deal count just under 7,000, down 15% quarter over quarter. Record money, fewer transactions.

Both directions in that table are true at once, which is exactly why quarter labels matter. Q1 2026 deal count sits above the Q2 2025 level and still fell 15% against the quarter immediately before it. A page that reports only one of those framings is selling you a mood, not a market.

The US picture from PitchBook-NVCA is the same shape with sharper edges: $412.7 billion deployed in H1 2026, a figure that already exceeded the full-year 2025 total, with 87.5% of that H1 2026 capital going to megadeals of at least $100 million. When 87.5% of the money is in nine-figure checks, the headline total says almost nothing about a $3 million seed round.

One clean-up before you benchmark anything: separate venture equity from venture debt. Market maps for this period routinely fold debt facilities in with priced equity. Debt does not set your valuation, does not appear on your cap table as new preferred, and should not be counted when you are asking how much equity capital was available to companies like yours.

Seed funding volume and why nobody publishes it cleanly

There is no reliable public seed-only round count per quarter, and anyone who quotes you one is repackaging an all-stage number.

This is the single most misused statistic in founder-facing venture coverage. Carta reported 1,187 new venture rounds closed by startups on its platform in Q2 2025, down 13% year over year. That count spans every stage from pre-seed to late growth. It is not a seed figure and should never be cited as one.

What the seed and pre-seed data does support:

• Pre-seed is the best-measured early slice. About 3,000 US-based startups had raised more than $2.3 billion at pre-seed in Q1 2026, a total Carta expected to reach roughly $2.9 billion as more data was entered, and Carta characterized the pre-seed market as stabilizing (Carta).
• Seed dollar totals move on single deals. Seed companies on Carta raised $4 billion in cash in Q2 2025, up quarter over quarter, with Carta attributing the increase primarily to one large outlier investment (Carta). One check moved a whole cohort's headline.
• Small checks are not automatically weak signals. AngelList's 2025 analysis of check sizing concludes that smaller checks can reflect access to competitive, high-quality seed deals rather than low investor conviction (AngelList).

Stop treating seed funding volume headlines as a forecast of your round. The dispersion inside any quarter's seed number is larger than the quarter-to-quarter change in the number itself. Use it to understand the environment, never to decide whether your specific round is viable.

Valuations by stage and why post-money is not pre-money

The most quotable seed valuation number in this market is a post-money figure, and founders quietly lose negotiating ground by repeating it as pre-money.

The direction of travel splits by stage, and it does not favor you. Carta reported that early-stage primary valuations softened in Q1 2026 while Series B and Series C primary pre-money valuations rose 17.2% and 12.5% respectively against Q1 2025. The recovery visible in the data is happening above you, not at your stage.

AngelList adds the early-stage read from a different dataset: median pre-seed and seed valuations at the 50th percentile held flat relative to 2024 through H1 2025, with later rounds ticking up slightly. Flat at the median is not a crisis. It is also not a reason to expect a step-up you have not earned.

How this plays out in a live conversation:

✅ Good: "Carta's median seed post-money was $24M in Q4 2025, and we are asking for a $22M post on a $4M raise." Names the basis, the period and your ask in one line, so nobody has to re-derive your math.

❌ Bad: "Seed valuations are around $24M pre-money right now." Wrong basis, no period. A partner who reads the same Carta report will correct you inside a minute, and you spend the rest of the meeting on the back foot.

Price the down-round risk into the terms, not just the headline number. Carta reported an 11.4% down-round rate in Q1 2026 (Carta). A double-digit share of priced rounds coming in below the previous mark is the context in which you should read every liquidation preference and anti-dilution clause you are handed.

Time between rounds is now the binding constraint

The gap between rounds, not the valuation, is the number that should change your operating plan this quarter.

Carta reported a median wait of 696 days between new funding rounds across all stages in Q2 2025, up 5% quarter over quarter and up 5% year over year. Converted to months, that median gap is roughly 23 months of company life between financings. The trend line in that same release is the concerning part: the wait got longer both against the prior quarter and against the prior year.

Carta recorded a median 696 days between rounds in Q2 2025. That is not a fundraising cycle. That is most of a company plan.

Three consequences follow directly, and they are all operating decisions rather than fundraising decisions:

• Size the raise against the gap, not against the milestone. If your plan funds materially fewer months than that median interval, your plan quietly assumes you will beat the median. Write down why you will.
• Start the next raise from a position of runway, not urgency. A longer median gap means more companies arrive at the next round with thin runway, which is the weakest possible negotiating stance.
• Build the milestone story for a longer window. Investors underwriting your next round are pricing what you can prove across a stretch closer to two years than one.

Startup funding trends 2026 show concentration not recovery

The 2026 numbers describe a recovery for a small set of companies and a contraction for everyone else.

PitchBook-NVCA reports that H1 2026 venture deployment already exceeded the full-year 2025 total, but that the H1 2026 rebound was concentrated in AI and megadeals rather than spread across startups. Read that sentence twice before you use "the market is back" in a board update.

The robotics line in the AngelList data is the cleanest illustration of what concentration looks like from the inside: 29% of H1 2025 capital landing on 3.3% of H1 2025 deal volume (AngelList). A category can be enormously well funded in dollar terms while almost nobody in it gets funded.

If you are not building AI, subtract before you benchmark. Comparing your round to a blended market median when Carta put more than 60% of Q1 2026 venture capital into AI companies means comparing yourself to a sample you are not in. Build your comp set from companies in your sector and stage, then check the market number only for direction.

Raise now or wait a quarter

Wait only if a specific number you control will be materially different in 90 days. Otherwise the market is not the thing stopping you.

1. Raise now if you are in AI with real usage. AI accounted for 86% of H1 2026 US venture dollars (PitchBook-NVCA) and more than 60% of Q1 2026 venture capital on Carta (Carta). Concentration is running in your favor and there is no evidence in this data that waiting improves your position.
2. Raise now if your runway is shorter than the median gap between rounds. The Q2 2025 median wait was 696 days (Carta). Starting a raise with a few months left is how founders end up accepting the first term sheet rather than the right one.
3. Wait only for a threshold, never for a mood. A quarter of waiting is worth it if one specific metric crosses a line a lead underwrites. It is not worth it because a headline said funding was down.
4. Do not wait for early-stage valuations to recover. Carta reported early-stage primary valuations softened in Q1 2026 while Series B and Series C primary pre-money rose 17.2% and 12.5% against Q1 2025 (Carta). The lift in this data is later-stage, so waiting at seed is waiting for something the numbers do not promise.
5. Do not read deal-count headlines as your personal odds. Q1 2026 global deal count fell 15% quarter over quarter while total funding hit a record (CB Insights). Fewer deals overall says nothing about whether a specific fund with a specific thesis will do yours.
6. Do not treat a small first check as a soft no. AngelList's check-sizing analysis found smaller checks can indicate access to competitive, high-quality seed deals rather than weak conviction (AngelList).
7. Negotiate assuming down rounds are normal. With an 11.4% down-round rate in Q1 2026 (Carta), the protective terms in your document are not hypothetical clauses.

What to do in the next 30 days

Turn the table above into four decisions before the next reporting cycle changes the numbers again.

1. Rewrite your ask with its basis and period attached. State post-money or pre-money explicitly, and name the quarter of any benchmark you cite. Investors trust founders who label their own numbers.
2. Re-anchor your target against stage benchmarks, not headlines. Check your number against seed valuation benchmarks for 2026 and the detailed seed round valuation benchmark before you commit to a cap.
3. Size the round against the 696-day median gap. Work out what you would need to fund a window closer to two years than one, then sanity check the figure with how much to raise at seed.
4. Build a target list from current activity, not from last year's logos. Fund behavior changes faster than any quarterly report can capture.

Market data tells you what is normal. It does not tell you which funds are actually deploying into your stage and sector right now. Causo matches you to the investors most likely to fund you and drafts the outreach, which is the step that turns a market read into a live pipeline. The concrete next move is the list of seed funds writing checks this quarter, then a shortlist you can actually work through.

FAQ

How much VC funding was raised this quarter? The most recent published quarterly total is Q1 2026, when CB Insights recorded $285.5 billion in global venture funding across just under 7,000 deals, the highest quarterly total on record. For the United States, the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor published with the Q2 2026 cycle reports $412.7 billion deployed across the first half of 2026 rather than a Q2-only figure. Every major source publishes weeks after a quarter closes, so there is always a lag between the calendar quarter you are in and the last quarter with hard numbers.

Is startup funding up or down in 2026? Both, depending on which number you read. Dollars are up: CB Insights recorded a record $285.5 billion globally in Q1 2026, and PitchBook-NVCA reported that H1 2026 US deployment of $412.7 billion already exceeded the full-year 2025 total. Deal count is down: the same CB Insights release put Q1 2026 global deal count just under 7,000, a 15% drop quarter over quarter. Bigger checks into fewer companies is the whole story of 2026 so far.

What is the median seed valuation right now? The most recent published benchmark is a post-money figure, not a pre-money one. Carta reported a median post-money valuation of $24 million at seed and $78.7 million at Series A in Q4 2025. AngelList reported that median pre-seed and seed valuations at the 50th percentile held flat against 2024 through H1 2025 without publishing an absolute dollar seed median. Quote the Carta number as post-money or an investor who reads the same report will correct you in the meeting.

How many seed rounds are being done per quarter? No major public source publishes a clean seed-only rounds-per-quarter count, which is why this number gets misquoted constantly. Carta reported 1,187 new venture rounds closed by startups on its platform in Q2 2025, down 13% year over year, but that figure covers all stages and is not a seed count. The closest seed-adjacent number is Carta's pre-seed data: roughly 3,000 US startups had raised more than $2.3 billion at pre-seed in Q1 2026, with the total expected to settle near $2.9 billion as more data landed (Carta).

Which sectors are getting the most startup funding? AI, by a margin that is still widening. PitchBook-NVCA reported that AI accounted for 86% of H1 2026 US venture dollars, and Carta reported that more than 60% of Q1 2026 venture capital went to AI companies. On AngelList, 41.5% of H1 2025 deals went to AI and ML startups, while robotics took 29% of H1 2025 capital on just 3.3% of deal volume (AngelList). If you are not in one of those buckets, strip those rounds out before you benchmark yourself.

Related on the hub

• AI Startup Funding This Quarter: Deals, Sizes, Valuations — Related fundraising basics guide.
• Raising a seed round for an AI agent startup in 2026 — Related fundraising basics guide.
• Seed round valuation 2026: the benchmark report — Related fundraising basics guide.