The nine startups each raised $500 million or more last month, making October the second busiest month in the last two years for such massive financing deals. Busiest? This title refers to September and highlights the degree to which startup investment deals of half a trillion or more have develop into normalized in just the last few months.
All told, enterprise capitalists pumped $39 billion into early- and late-stage startups globally in October, Crunch Base data shows. Funding is up from $34 billion a 12 months ago, although down from $51 billion month-over-month.
Startups outside Silicon Valley made the biggest funding deals in rare occasions last month, according to Crunchbase data.
Funding for New York-based startups has increased by greater than 200% compared to last 12 months. Last month’s two largest enterprise rounds, each valued at $2 billion, went to New York-based firms: Coding Agent reflection.aiIn Nvidiasupported round and trade forecast market Polimarketin the contract conducted by NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange.
Companies outside of Silicon Valley have also raised other large rounds. Denver-based AI data center Crusoe’s energy systems led by its third-largest round, value $1.4 billion The capital of Mubadala AND Valor Equity Partners. Austin-based battery energy provider Base power raised $1 billion led by a private equity firm Additionand the Finnish health and wellness ring tracker Our raised a $900 million round led by Faithfulness.
However, in September, model firms raised the most rounds Anthropic ($13 billion), Mistral AI ($2 billion) and an AI chip company Cerebras Systems ($1.1 billion).
China and India went up
The United States continued to dominate and lead, with 60% of global financing.
China, the second-largest financing market, gained greater than 200% year-on-year in October, investing $3.9 billion in its startups. The UK, the third-largest market, was flat year-on-year at $1.7 billion. India closed the top 4 markets with $1.5 billion raised, up 80% from the previous 12 months.
In the U.S., California firms raised $8.5 billion in October, New York state startups raised $5.9 billion, and Massachusetts firms raised $1.9 billion last month.
Crypto, energy has increased
Last month, artificial intelligence once again dominated startup funding, with 38% of investment going to the sector, up 9% year-on-year but down from September’s total.
The second largest sector was healthcare and biotechnology at $8.6 billion. The third-largest sector, financial services firms, raised $7.6 billion.
Industries that have seen significant growth 12 months over 12 months include blockchain and cryptocurrencies, energy, and software tool financing.
Valuations are rising
Crunchbase Unicorn management added tons of of billions in value in October OpenAI sold worker shares in a secondary sale, valuing the company at $500 billion. The increase in the value of newly valued decacorn firms observed in September continued until October, although at a slower pace.
IPO markets opened from the second quarter. However, the biggest tech IPO in October was a travel expense management company Navanclosed at $20 on its first day of trading, down 20%, unlike many of the larger tech IPOs this 12 months that closed well above list price when they went public.
Methodology
The data in this report comes directly from Crunchbase and is based on reported data. The data provided is from November 3, 2025.
Please note that data transfer delays are most noticeable in the earliest stages of a enterprise, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after quarter/12 months end.
Please note that each one financing amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currency to U.S. dollars at the spot rate in effect on the date financing rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if these events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historical spot price.
Glossary of financing terms
Seeds and Angels consist of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes enterprise rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding, and convertible notes with a size of $3 million (in U.S. dollars or a U.S. dollar equivalent) or less.
The early stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, in addition to other types of rounds. Crunchbase includes enterprise rounds of unknown series, corporate ventures and other rounds above $3 million and those valued at lower than or equal to $15 million.
The Late Stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E, and later lettered expedition rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are enterprise rounds of unknown series, corporate ventures, and other rounds over $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if the company has raised seed financing as part of a series enterprise financing round.
A technology development is a private equity round led by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (Basically any round from the pre-defined stages.)