🎯Today's Venture Capital Pulse
Updated 38m agoWhat's happening: AI fuels record $119.5B venture fundraising despite fewer rounds
Venture capital fundraising jumped 16.9% to $119.5 billion in 2025, the strongest recovery since the 2022 market reset. The total number of rounds fell 41% to 4,859, concentrating capital in larger AI‑focused financings, with AI startups capturing 58% of Series D cash and median valuations rising across all stages.
Also developing:
By the numbers: OpenAI raises $110B in corporate funding
News•Jan 1, 2026
The Longevity Startup That Already Has the Data Altos Labs Is Seeking: Hidden in Plain Sight
Celljevity, a low‑profile biotech, has treated over 1,000 patients for seven years, amassing Phase‑3‑level safety and efficacy data at a fraction of the cost of its high‑profile rivals. The company’s small‑molecule epigenetic reprogramming avoids the tumor‑formation risks associated with Yamanaka‑factor approaches and has shown significant improvements in autoimmune, osteoarthritis, and Alzheimer’s indications. With IND approval in China and pending FDA/EU submissions, Celljevity stands poised for regulatory validation that could dramatically reshape its valuation. Its data‑first strategy contrasts sharply with Altos Labs and Retro Biosciences, which have yet to treat patients.
By FinSMEs
Social•Jan 1, 2026
AI-Powered Restaurant SaaS Hits 3x YoY Growth
Nothing like epic investor updates on 1/1/26. First up is @owner: 👩🍳 One of the best companies I've ever invested in is @owner — AI for restaurants. A great example of AI Vertical B2B. They dramatically accelerated in 2025: • Growing almost...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Jan 1, 2026
YC Should Open Austin to Diversify Beyond Silicon Valley
.@garrytan I would urge you to reconsider this decision and open YC Austin. First, the data is looking in the rear view mirror. “Past performance does not guarantee future results,” as the saying goes. The Austin startup ecosystem is off...
By David Sacks
News•Dec 30, 2025
Almost 80 European Deep Tech University Spinouts Reached $1B Valuations or $100M in Revenue in 2025
Europe’s deep‑tech and life‑science university spinouts have coalesced into a $398 billion pipeline, with 76 companies reaching either $1 billion valuations or $100 million in revenue, according to Dealroom’s 2025 Spinout Report. New funds PSV Hafnium and U2V each aim to raise €60 million...
By TechCrunch Venture Feed
Social•Jan 1, 2026
Document Your SOPs Now, Or Lose Premium Sale
When the buyer asks for the SOPs and the founder realizes the "manual" is just their brain. Every founder reaches a point where they feel ready to exit. The growth is there, the product is solid, and they’re already eyeing the next...
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Jan 1, 2026
Billionaire Tax Drives $500B Out, Burdens Californians
People I know, with a collective net worth of $500B, scrambled and left California for good yesterday. They took no risk because of the proposed asset seizure tax - introduced as a “Billionaire Tax”. Without these people, the California budget deficit...
By Chamath Palihapitiya
Podcast•Dec 30, 2025•28 min
VC10X - Inside a $1.5 Billion Japanese Fund’s Big Bet on India - Rajeev Ranka, Partner, Incubate Fund
In this episode, Rajeev Ranka of Japan's Incubate Fund explains their 100‑year investment horizon and how it shapes decisions like backing Captain Fresh during COVID and pivoting it from a domestic brand to a global seafood exporter. He argues that...
By VC10X
Social•Jan 1, 2026
Jared Friedman: The Hacker‑Builder Rock of YC
YC Managing Partner Jared Friedman is a rock. He's a hacker, builder, and true founder. It's one of my favorite things about returning to YC the last 3 years, getting to work with him.
By Garry Tan
Social•Jan 1, 2026
SpaceX IPO Could Top $1 Trillion, Biggest Ever
"What happens once SpaceX goes public at $1T+? It will be likely the biggest IPO of all time." with @rodriscoll @HarryStebbings + me https://t.co/jJPfjo7ShA
By Jason Lemkin
Blog•Dec 30, 2025
Gross Profit per Token
Meta announced a $2 billion acquisition of Singapore‑based AI agent firm Manus, which reported $100 million annual recurring revenue and 147 trillion tokens processed since its March 2025 launch. The deal underscores the relevance of gross profit per token as a valuation lens,...
By Tomasz Tunguz
Social•Jan 1, 2026
Join Batter Up X H‑On Dream: Korean Startups Pitch Jan 8
SF investors, join us at Batter Up x H-On Dream SF on January 8th! We're bringing Korean founders onstage to pitch their startups, get feedback from a panel of investors, and eat some za🍕. RSVP here: https://t.co/FH4yBleMSg https://t.co/SVGvNz6HXh
By Elizabeth Yin
Social•Dec 31, 2025
Cash at Close Beats Inflated Valuation Every Time
You get an LOI with a $10M valuation. Your heart jumps. You’re already thinking about the "I made it" moment. Then you read the fine print: > $2M is Cash at Close > $3M is an "Earn-out" based on crazy growth targets >...
By Andrew Gazdecki
News•Dec 29, 2025
Traini Raises $7.5 Million
Pet‑emotional‑intelligence startup Traini announced a $7.5 million financing round. The round was led by Banyan Tree, Silver Capital, ZhaoTai Group and NYX Ventures, with participation from NVIDIA VPs, Anthropic staff and other high‑profile investors. Existing backers such as Xiaomi co‑founder Feng...
By VC News Daily
Social•Dec 31, 2025
AI-Native B2B Firms Command Premium, Others Face Discount
Navan IPO’d in October and hit $800m ARR growing 29%. And it still is trading at 5x ARR. If you aren’t truly AI Native, the world doesn’t love you today in B2B. Even with those numbers....
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 31, 2025
Bernie Right About
A couple of important thoughts and clarifications: Where is Bernie right? He is right that a handful of the Tech Billionaire class are completely and totally loathsome. Monopolists who’ve flouted privacy, dampened free speech, enabled debanking and sewed societal chaos with...
By Chamath Palihapitiya
News•Dec 27, 2025
Investors Share What to Remember While Raising a Series A
At TechCrunch Disrupt, investors Thomas Green, Katie Stanton, and Sangeen Zeb outlined the new criteria for raising a Series A in an AI‑driven market. They noted that while the number of funded rounds is shrinking, average deal sizes are expanding,...
By TechCrunch Venture Feed
Social•Dec 31, 2025
Enterprise AI Adoption Hinges on Forward‑deployed Engineers, Not Just Data Labeling.
Enterprises will not adopt AI without forward-deployed engineers? Are revenue numbers posted from data-labelling companies real revenue or GMV? There are 8+ players in the data-labelling market with $100M in ARR, who wins? Who loses? Are AI talent marketplaces dead? Do you have...
By Harry Stebbings
Social•Dec 31, 2025
2026 H2 Set for Massive IPO Wave: SpaceX, Databricks, More
"2026 will be a year of MASSIVE IPOs in back half of the year: SpaceX first, Cavna, Databricks, and Anthropic. And that's just a start." with @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me https://t.co/DiFPYJGaET
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 31, 2025
Meta Pays $2B for $100M ARR Startup
Meta is acquiring Manus for $2 billion. Manus disclosed $100 million in ARR achieved in eight months, 147 trillion tokens processed since launch. Can we use those figures to explain the acquisition price?
By Tomasz Tunguz
Social•Dec 30, 2025
VC Veteran Calls Venture Capital a Scam, Proposes Reform
On the TWISTYs, we celebrate our favorite moments from the past year of “TWiST.” In this highlight, Guest of the Year winner Doug Leone (of Sequoia fame) tells us why he thinks venture capital is a scam and a sham,...
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Dec 30, 2025
Founder‑Led ETF Targets Creative, Long‑Term U.S. Winners
Founder-led companies are often more creative, capable of thinking long term, and mission-driven. $FDRS is an ETF of the top 50 U.S.-listed companies that are still founder-led. How do you think it will do? I am into it. Smart move...
By Kanyi Maqubela
Social•Dec 30, 2025
ARR Multiples Often Irrelevant in Acquirer’s Strategy
M&A pricing can be a weird thing Meta buys Manus for $2B+ at $125m ARR Then likely … abandons all that revenue. It is a distraction, and in the end, immaterial to Meta’s revenues. Whatever Meta does with it, it...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 30, 2025
Detach Ego, Embrace Feedback to Close Your Exit
When a buyer calls your codebase "messy" during due diligence. Selling your startup is emotional. No way around it. You’ve spent years bleeding for the business with late nights, zero salary, the works. Then a buyer comes in and looks at your "baby"...
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Dec 30, 2025
Niche SaaS Will Thrive Despite AI Agent Disruption
Here’s why I think there will STILL be room for great SaaS companies, even in the age of the AI Agent. We’ve all heard the fear-mongering… AI is coming for every other category of software, particularly companies relying on recurring...
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Dec 30, 2025
Simple AI Apps Deliver Massive Revenue and Growth
Simple app ideas are crushing it! Look at this AI text humanizer on @acquiredotcom: > $550K TTM revenue > $392K TTM profit > 269% YoY growth Check full listing: https://t.co/J9L0LHJ8o1 https://t.co/dssv07wJMb
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Dec 29, 2025
Founders Should Meet VCs Only on Their Own Terms
Here’s why I say founders need to always maintain “ball control”. It can be a nerve-wracking moment for a founder whose company is just starting to get traction… a VC reaches out cold and wants to take a meeting. It...
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Dec 29, 2025
AI Valuation Bubble Exists, Not Technology or Revenue
Are we in an AI Bubble? Technology Bubble -> NO Investment Bubble -> Likely YES Valuation Bubble -> Absolutely YES, in the private markets. Revenue Bubble -> NO. https://lnkd.in/g2ea7pFK
By Hunter Walk
Social•Dec 29, 2025
Make Yourself Irrelevant to Boost Exit Valuation
If your business can’t survive without you, it isn’t an asset. It’s a job. I talk to founders every day who are proud of being "in the weeds." They close every lead, ship the critical code, and manage every fire. In...
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Dec 29, 2025
Motive's S‑1 Shows Growth Outpacing Samsara's IPO
Motive, the AI-powered fleet management company formerly known as KeepTruckin, filed their S-1 this week. The company has grown tremendously & in this post, we compare it to Samsara at IPO :
By Tomasz Tunguz
Social•Dec 29, 2025
Benchmark, A16z, Hummingbird, Creandum Battle For
"Who Is The VC Fund of the Year? @benchmark vs @a16z vs @HummingbirdVC vs @creandum" with @HarryStebbings @rodriscoll + me https://t.co/9aw20r6YHL
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 29, 2025
Treat Your Roadmap as a Hypothesis, Ship to Validate
A product roadmap is a hypothesis about user behavior. Shipping is how you interrogate it.
By Hiten Shah
Social•Dec 29, 2025
Tackling America’s Broken Healthcare, Housing, and Education Systems
If/when I run, I’m going to focus on solving the big 3: 1. Healthcare 2. Housing 3. Education These are the most regulated, calcified, inefficient & corrupt verticals in America. We’ve funded companies in each & it’s been brutal. So hard,...
By Jason Calacanis
Social•Dec 28, 2025
VCs Overrate AGI Timelines, Give Themselves 0.9
VCs score their own annual predictions like "We'll achieve AGI in 2025" Grade: .9
By Hunter Walk
Social•Dec 28, 2025
Even VPs Discover CEO Role Is Tougher than Expected
"I actually didn't know being CEO was this hard" -- every top VP that starts their own startup
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 28, 2025
Taxing Unrealized Startup Equity Ignores High Failure Rate
It's deeply troubling to me that people really think this. The argument that taxing unrealized startup equity like real estate is like taxing lottery tickets based on what someone might win. Houses don’t expire worthless. Startups do. Most of them.
By Alexis Ohanian
Social•Dec 28, 2025
Founder Advice Misses the Emotional Burden They Bear
Most founder advice fails because it ignores what the founder must emotionally carry.
By Hiten Shah
Social•Dec 27, 2025
California Tops List as Worst State for Startup Exits
California already taxes founders far, far more than any other state. Far more. 5 worst states for startup exits (tax rate + QSBS combo): California - 13.3% + NO QSBS exclusion 💀 Hawaii - 7.25% + only 50% QSBS Alabama - 5% +...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 27, 2025
AI Agents Halve B2B Sales Teams by 2026
Ok I'm not any sort of savant. But I chatted (using AI) with every SaaStr AI speaker from 2025 — from OpenAI to Anthropic to Zapier and beyond — reviewed 100+ past conversations, and synthesized what the best operators are actually...
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Financial Buyers Beat Strategic Acqs for SaaS Exits
Every founder dreams of the "strategic" acquisition. You imagine Google, Meta, or Salesforce knocking on your door with a blank check because they "need" your tech. It’s a great story but it’s a rare outcome. Strategic deals are notorious for: > Months of...
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Scaling Secrets in AI Era Revealed by 10,000 Experts
https://t.co/5gjWmKLRrD is back. MAY 12-14 2026. The Secrets to Scaling in the Age of AI 10,000 of the best sharing how it's done https://t.co/f9I8gHsF4U
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Niche Real‑Time News SaaS Delivers $800K Revenue, 70% Growth
Niche SaaS plays like this are game changers. Real-time news API for global coverage live on @acquiredotcom > $800K TTM revenue > $600K TTM profit > 70% YoY growth Full listing: https://t.co/qAPFWjNXCv https://t.co/3T3Kq6mdfG
By Andrew Gazdecki
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Antitrust Should Foster Small Tech, Not Block M&A
Antitrust regulators should just allow M&A and focus on helping little tech so consumers get alternatives and keep big tech in check American antitrust policy should be about creation Support little tech, allow M&A and stop big tech structural self-preferencing instead https://t.co/HNE3w7wX4r
By Garry Tan
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Federal Pre-Emption Threatens AI Innovation, Favours Big Tech
If you’re wondering why we should support a federal pre-emption for AI regulation, this is a case study in the idiocy that will destroy AI innovation in America, particularly for little tech Big tech can afford the army of lawyers. Startups...
By Garry Tan
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Billionaire Tax Threatens California Startups, Fuels Exodus
Why might the proposed “billionaire tax” kill startups in California? This is simple and extreme uncertainty that will cause people to leave the state before their startup becomes successful Many will choose not to start in California at all https://t.co/yPhUDw0Tbn
By Garry Tan
Social•Dec 27, 2025
California's Agglomeration Fuels Billions, Protects US Innovation
California already has incredible agglomeration effects. It’s a thing that generates companies worth billions to trillions Why dismantle it? Startups in SF Bay succeed 2.5X more than every other place in the world. Protecting California *is* protecting American innovation
By Garry Tan
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Emerging Managers Spend 18 Months Fundraising, Not Building
According to @johnfelix123, emerging managers take an average of 18 months to raise. Wild. As an LP in several funds, I’d rather see that time spent deploying capital and supporting founders. https://t.co/8iT5zLIypS
By Ryan Hoover
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Silicon Valley's Collapse: California Platform Failing Unpriced Disruption
The disruption that’s not priced in is the disruption of Silicon Valley itself. Because California is the physical platform on which it’s built. And that platform is collapsing.
By Balaji Srinivasan
Social•Dec 27, 2025
Tech Tax Could Disperse Startups Beyond California
Ro mistakes this for a big tech tax But over a decade all of big tech won’t start in CA anymore because little tech, the startups, will start in all the other states If you want to kill the golden goose of...
By Garry Tan
Social•Dec 26, 2025
Mediocre VP Breeds a Cascade of Weak Hires
When you get tired, and settle on a mediocre VP You also settle on their 10-15 mediocre hires to come
By Jason Lemkin
Social•Dec 26, 2025
Multiple LOIs Create Auction, Maximize Exit Value
If you want a premium exit, you can’t rely on one "perfect" suitor. One buyer means no buyers. You need leverage and leverage comes from competition. To get the deal you want, the funnel usually looks like this: > 100 NDAs signed >...
By Andrew Gazdecki