In 2023, venture capital firms invested $170B in over 15,000 US companies

Venture capital is a type of financing that firms and funds use to invest in startups they believe have the potential for long-term growth

Household name companies such as Airbnb and Uber might not exist without venture capital, which is commonly referred to as "VC" for short.

Global investing in startups hit a record $297B in Q1 2026

The level of startup funding around the world broke all previous records in Q1 2026 by a significant margin: Only $118B was raised in the previous quarter, and Q1's haul outpaced every full year of global VC activity before 2019. The increase was partly due to the enormous funding rounds from AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

See a list of 2024’s top 10 VC firms

A list of the top 10 VC firms, like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, ranked by assets under management shows how those two firms stack up against their competitors—and what kinds of companies those competitors invest in.

How venture capital firms came to be

The venture capital firm that kickstarted an industry.

71% of equity investments in Q1 2025 went to AI companies

That's up from just 14% in 2020, according to JPMorgan, which recently conducted an analysis of venture capital investment trends in the US.

The fintech industry was worth roughly $340B as of 2025

Venture capitalists have been bullish on the industry’s future in recent years, too. Some estimate that global investment in fintech increased by 12,000% between 2008 and 2020.

Angel investors funded startups with nearly $28B in 2024

Statistics about the angel investing market show that billions are spent funding early-stage startups each year. Companies with more angel interest had higher success rates.

Asia-Pacific's share of global venture capital investment has jumped from 3% to 28% in 20 years

China has driven much of that growth due to its manufacturing power and tech sector. This graphic shows how the share of total venture capital deal value changed around the world between 1997 and 2023.

From 19th-century whalers to startup accelerators, venture capital has a pretty exciting history

While the aforementioned whaling industry has a lot of similarities to today’s venture fund models, the first modern venture capital firm wasn’t founded until 1946.

The main bank serving Silicon Valley startups and venture capitalists collapsed in 2023

Silicon Valley Bank—the 16th largest bank in the US—served many tech startups in the area as well as many venture capitalists. The bank collapsed in 2023—in a single day, bankers took out $42B.

80% of a VC firm's returns come from 20% of the deals, per VC's 'power law'

Early-stage startups are highly risky investments. Many companies in a VC portfolio will not provide any significant return.

2025 venture capital funding by destination, visualized

This chart's source, Dealroom, uses "breakout capital" to refer to funding rounds or companies in the $15M to $100M total funding range. It labels the startup stage as under $15M, and the scaleup stage as $100M+.

The venture capital mindset is shaping the US into a 'portfolio state'

For decades, the US has operated as a low-regulation, private-sector-driven, globalized economy (also known as neoliberalism). In recent years, the Trump administration has taken direct stakes (rather than providing subsidies) in private companies with strategic products like semiconductors and rare earths. This paper argues the approach allows the US to capture the upside of growth.

The American Research and Development Corporation is considered the first modern VC firm

Best known for investing in companies that wanted to utilize some of the technology developed during World War II, the ARDC’s cofounders all held prestigious positions at places like MIT and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

See the anatomy of a venture capital firm

Venture capital firms get the money they use to invest in companies from limited partners, also called LPs. It’s the general partner’s job to manage that money and invest it in the right startups.

Why women are underrepresented in VC

Only about 11% of investing partners at venture capital firms are women, according to Harvard Kennedy School research. What’s more, only about 13% of VC dollars go to startups with a woman on the founding team. To learn more about why women are so often sidelined on both sides of the venture capital equation, click here.

US IPO issuance—the total dollar amount of new stock sold to the public via IPOs—hit a record high in 2026.

According to some estimates, roughly 75% of venture-backed startups fail, making startups inherently risky ventures.

Angel investors typically fund a startup at an earlier stage than venture capitalists

Angel investors and venture capitalists both invest in startups, but they differ in a few key ways. Angel investors typically invest earlier and in a smaller amount.

Some venture capitalists believe cryptocurrency will revolutionize global finance

Some of the brightest minds at Andreesen-Horowitz, one of the country’s leading venture capital firms, believe the cryptocurrency ecosystem will revolutionize global finance in the coming decades. This podcast recounts, through their view, the history of crypto, how it works, and trends they see emerging in the future.

Find out how venture capitalists make decisions

More than 30% of venture capital deals come from leads courtesy of a VC’s former colleagues or professional network. You can learn more about how venture capitalists decide which companies to invest in by reading this article.

Visualize the world's top 50 private equity firms in 2025 by capital raised.

Andreessen Horowitz is among the most well-known venture capital firms

Also known as a16z, the firm has invested in companies such as Airbnb, Facebook, and Lyft since its founding in 2009. A podcast episode offers a deep dive into how the firm got started and became the industry disruptor it is today.

More than $3.5B has been invested through AngelList

AngelList was created to connect startups and angel investors. It’s evolved since its 2010 founding and has been used by companies like Uber and OpenSea.

Venture capital explained through Lego bricks

Startups fundraise in 'rounds' as they prove out their business and scale

When startups take on outside funding, those investments are divided into different "rounds." These rounds are catered to different stages in a startup's life cycle—a startup often needs different types of investors and amounts of funding at different stages of the business. For instance, a pre-seed investment round can include investments ranging from about $25K to $500K, whereas a Series D investment can be hundreds of millions of dollars.

Many of the top companies in the US by market cap began as tech startups

Combined, the top seven companies by market cap in the US as of December 2024—Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla—were worth more than $16T at the time.

A successful angel investor can multiply their investment by 3 to 10 times.

Worth more than $14T, Silicon Valley may be getting too expensive for future founders.

In 2024, US private equity posted an 8.1% return

Tracked by Cambridge Associates, 2024 performance saw limited partner distributions overtake contributions for the first time in years. Cambridge Associates, a leader in the space, typically uses a 2.0x+ MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital) as a benchmark for top-quartile PE fund success.

The top 100 companies in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley has pumped out some of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple, Meta, and Google. Thousands of companies operate in the area, ranging from valuations in the trillions to startups only worth thousands.

Venture capitalists were once bullish on DTC brands

While a physical store can only hold so many objects, online retailers without the limits of four walls that could sell their products direct-to-consumer could theoretically be great investments. But they didn’t always provide investors with expected returns.

See Silicon Valley's real estate, employment, population, and innovation statistics

As a leader in the global economy, Silicon Valley's growth is closely watched around the world. In 2025, companies in the region posted $92B in venture capital deals and created 23,000 new patents. The average wage in the region is $189K, which is much higher than the national average, but the median home price sits around $2.25M—which calls the sustainability of the region's living standards into question.

Venture firm a16z's crypto canon

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a leading venture capital firm with deep expertise in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. For 10 years, the firm has built its internal knowledge in the area, and archived a wide range of explainers exploring everything from fundamentals to emerging crypto trends, and much more.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has called OpenAI 'the most capital-intensive startup in history'

As of 2024, Silicon Valley was set to spend $1T in the coming years building AI. As companies, including Google and Microsoft, fling billions at AI dreams, concerns are rising about whether that money will ever be recouped. To learn about the argument that there is an AI bubble—and that it could soon burst if AI doesn't prove its worth—read this article.

The world’s top 20 cities for startups include San Francisco

In 2023, Singapore had the highest venture capital funding per capita in the world. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best place to have a startup. In 2023, PitchBook analyzed data to determine the world’s best startup city, including fundraising activity, venture capital deals, and exit value. San Francisco ranked as No. 1. See which other locales landed in the top 20 with this graphic.

Nearly half of billionaires planned to increase exposure to direct private equity investments in 2026.

Nonprofit VC funds invest in startups, but have donors instead of LPs

Examples include Andreessen Horowitz’s TxO (Talent x Opportunity) Initiative and Fifth Star Funds, which allows donors to write “Friends & Family” checks for Black tech founders.

Platforms like AngelList help angel investors find startups to fund

Angel investors leverage their high net worths to fund seed-stage startups. While they could see high returns, investing in such an early company is a risk.

In 2025, American tech companies will spend $300B to $400B on AI

That is, in nominal dollars, more than any group of companies has ever spent to do anything. Notably, these companies are not remotely close to earning $400B on artificial intelligence.

More than 650 companies went public in the US in 1996

As the dot-com bubble reached its peak, most dot-com companies went public with little proof of being profitable and were often overvalued. In 1999, the Nasdaq's price-to-earnings ratio (a tool used to determine a stock's value that divides its price by earnings) hit 90.2, signaling that many companies were operating at a net loss. Startups promised investors that more time and money would help scale their businesses and become profitable.

Explaining the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

In March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank—the nation's 16th largest bank at the time—collapsed after a rapid run on its deposits. Among other factors, the bank had placed more than half of its investments into long-term bonds, leaving it without the necessary cash on hand as its clients, largely start ups, panicked and withdrew their money at the same time. This visualization lays out the timeline and impact of the collapse.

Angel investors often come together as a syndicate

Startups raise money in different rounds from investors that include their friends and family, angels, and venture capital funds. These types of investors serve different purposes.

Startup accelerators offer mentorship and seed funding in exchange for equity

Those programs, such as Y Combinator and Techstars, not only offer expert advice to founders, but also seed funding in exchange for equity. The goal is to help young startups learn from successful companies, making it more likely they attract venture capital.

As of 2022, about 40% of scientific research aimed at generating new knowledge has been funded by the federal government—a percentage that has decreased from a high of 72% in 1967.

The alternative investments industry is expected to grow significantly in the coming years

More specifically, as of 2024, the alternative investments industry was expected to grow to more than $24T in assets in 2028—up from roughly $15T in 2022.

Visualizing the world's $261T in investable assets

Nearly half of the world's portfolio of stocks and bonds originate in the US. Roughly 1% of all investable assets are in the form of cryptocurrency.

Dive deep into the numbers that shape each YC deal

Y Combinator invests $500K into each company in any given batch. $125K of that investment converts into a fixed 7% in ownership of the startup, and the other $375K is invested on something called an uncapped MFN safe. YC explains what that means and more terms of the deal in a detailed article on their website

Private equity companies are selling off more acquisitions—but at much lower prices

In 2025, private equity exits were up by 5.4%, but the total value of those deals was down by 21.2% year-over-year. An exit occurs when a private equity firm either sells an acquired company or takes that company public.

87% of the startups in Y Combinator’s Fall 2025 batch were AI companies

Y Combinator also recently increased its number of cohorts or “batches” per year from two to four. Its leaders cited artificial intelligence’s rise as a reason for the increase.