VC investment trends: Shrinking, growing, or just moving?

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

While repeatedly writing about VC investment trends over the past year can feel a little like the movie Groundhog Day, like the film, the story is more nuanced than it would first appear. Sure, the overall message of high-dollar deals driving headlines and boosting investment levels to record heights persists, but there are some emerging trends deeper in the data that bear exploring to see if there are issues or opportunities that impact how TBED investors allocate resources going forward.  

While repeatedly writing about VC investment trends over the past year can feel a little like the movie Groundhog Day, like the film, the story is more nuanced than it would first appear. Sure, the overall message of high-dollar deals driving headlines and boosting investment levels to record heights persists, but there are some emerging trends deeper in the data that bear exploring to see if there are issues or opportunities that impact how TBED investors allocate resources going forward. 

Slowing Q1 VC investment could mean more selective investors and difficult fundraising

Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Venture capital investments so far in 2026 are showing the same trends as 2025, with more funding going to fewer companies. According to PitchBook, quarterly U.S. VC investment totaled $267 billion, with the five largest deals raising a combined $195 billion, or over 73% of all Q1 capital. The heavy bias toward the top deals underscores the importance of narrowing the deal segments to understand what trends are faced by the majority of companies.  

National VC trends and which states are bucking them

Wednesday, March 11, 2026
National VC investment over the past five years has seen significant swings, first driven by pandemic impacts and rebounds, then by the rocket ride of AI. According to PitchBook data, national VC activity below $100 million declined from nearly 10,500 deals in 2020 to just under 8,200 in 2025, a 22% drop. Over the same period, the total capital invested increased by just over $5 billion (6%). The trend of more funding into fewer deals is highlighted by the median deal size more than doubling to over $4 million (Fig 1). These macro trends are important as they set the stage for what is happening at the state level. 

Recent Research: Startups with higher scientific orientations face VC funding challenges

Wednesday, February 25, 2026
It may not always be rocket science, but that doesn’t mean companies with scientific or technologically sophisticated innovations have an easy time raising capital. New academic research might lead one to wonder: Should TBED policy makers provide training for angel and VC investors that improves their understanding of critical tech - or continue to focus primarily on funding gaps and teaching founders to speak the language of VCs?
It may not always be rocket science, but that doesn’t mean companies with scientific or technologically sophisticated innovations have an easy time raising capital. New academic research might lead one to wonder: Should TBED policy makers provide training for angel and VC investors that improves their understanding of critical tech - or continue to focus primarily on funding gaps and teaching founders to speak the language of VCs?

The state of US venture capital investment in four charts. How might your innovation startups fare if investment trends hold?

Thursday, January 15, 2026

With 2025 behind us, and some time for the data to stabilize, we can look back at VC activity and try to understand what it means for TBED efforts going forward. The VC storyline of 2025 should be familiar to anyone who has been following investment news. Record funding rounds, huge amounts of capital deployed, questions of an AI bubble. Where amongst the big flashy lights of AI mega-deals do we find the subtlety and nuance that informs TBED investor activity and policy?

With 2025 behind us, and some time for the data to stabilize, we can look back at VC activity and try to understand what it means for TBED efforts going forward. The VC storyline of 2025 should be familiar to anyone who has been following investment news. Record funding rounds, huge amounts of capital deployed, questions of an AI bubble. Where amongst the big flashy lights of AI mega-deals do we find the subtlety and nuance that informs TBED investor activity and policy? Looking closely at historical trends and segmenting the data by deal size highlights what most companies seeking funding face and points to potential outcomes for 2026.

Declining quarterly investment numbers may be an early indication of a larger trend

Thursday, October 23, 2025

The Q3 2025 investment data is in, and trends of fewer deals and more dollars continue.

The Q3 2025 investment data is in, and trends of fewer deals and more dollars continue. With CrunchBase pointing to a record share of funding going to rounds larger than $100 million, SSTI continues to review the deals in PitchBook under that size to uncover trends masked by the high end of the market to uncover trends masked by the high end of the market.

VC data highlights what types of deals are slowing early-stage investment activity

Thursday, October 9, 2025

Long concentrated geographically, venture capital also is growing more concentrated in a small number of larger deals, as SSTI has reported in recent Digest issues. In fact, deals under $100 million—not a small figure in itself—have fallen by 71% according to SSTI’s analysis of PitchBook data. Even more troubling is evidence showing deals under $100 million are moving to later-stage investment and away from early-stage companies.

Long concentrated geographically, venture capital also is growing more concentrated in a small number of larger deals, as SSTI has reported in recent Digest issues. In fact, deals under $100 million—not a small figure in itself—have fallen by 71% according to SSTI’s analysis of PitchBook data. Even more troubling is evidence showing deals under $100 million are moving to later-stage investment and away from early-stage companies. The trend, SSTI believes, should be of concern for nonprofit venture development organizations as well as TBED policy makers and regional stakeholders working to keep their local economies competitive through innovation-driven entrepreneurship. This shift in private capital market behavior may have negative impacts on company survival rates, downstream economic growth opportunities, and the long-term competitiveness of U.S. industry.

Biotech VC funding points to early-stage funding gaps

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

As attention-grabbing as AI might be for the media and large investors (see previous SSTI analysis of AI investment), economic growth through innovation in life sciences and biotechnology is a priority for many state and regional TBED initiatives.  The venture capital market recognizes that as well.

As attention-grabbing as AI might be for the media and large investors (see previous SSTI analysis of AI investment), economic growth through innovation in life sciences and biotechnology is a priority for many state and regional TBED initiatives. The venture capital market recognizes that as well. In fact, Pitchbook estimates the broad biotechnology sector (comprising life science, pharma, health care, devices, etc.) captured 14% of all deals so far in 2025, making it the second largest investment group after info tech this year to date.

Useful Stats: The state of US venture capital in 2024

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Fewer of the youngest and later stage innovation-driven companies are receiving private venture capital at a time when the country needs more of both to retain our global economic leadership, according to data released in the latest report from PitchBook and NVCA. Across 2024, United States VC has seen an increase in overall deal value (+$47 billion) despite a decrease in deal count (-936) since the prior year, reveals the Q4 2024 Venture Monitor report.

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