After all, that is the year cemented its status as the most valuable technology company, with a staggering $4.6 trillion market cap. Public valuations of semiconductor companies also hit a historical peak, with sector-focused funds like the soaring to all-time highs.

The broad trend: These gains coincided, of course, with record investment to AI companies hungry for faster, cheaper, and more energy-efficient processing power. And startups offering an edge in this arena were juicy targets for acquirers, as evidenced by Nvidia’s recent deal to acquire assets of AI inference chip developer in a transaction reportedly at $20 billion.

All this is to say that, while U.S. semiconductor startup funding is higher than ever, tallies actually look somewhat modest considering how much investors are valuing top innovators in the space.

The numbers: How modest? Across stages, U.S. semiconductor-related startup equity funding totaled $6.2 billion in 2025, per Crunchbase data. That’s a gain of 85% year over year, and also the highest annual tally on record.

For perspective, we charted total investment and deal counts for the past six calendar years below.

Globally, semiconductor startup investment was also up year over year in 2025, totaling around $12.2 billion. That’s up incrementally from 2024, but not a record high.

For both global and U.S. charts, the number of reported semiconductor funding rounds rose year over year, but remained below peak levels.

We’re not arguing that these are small investment tallies. However, in comparison to how much money is sloshing around in the industry, it does look comparatively paltry. The $20 billion deal for Groq, for instance, is one of the largest M&A-like transactions in startup history. Yet the cost represents just 0.4% of Nvidia’s valuation.

Noteworthy rounds

Meanwhile, among semiconductor venture investors, capital was highly concentrated, indicating belief that a handful of winners will drive returns. The three largest rounds accounted for nearly half of U.S. startup funding. All were later-stage financings for already well-known unicorns.

AI chip company was the largest fundraiser, locking up . Shortly afterward, the Silicon Valley company formally withdrew plans for an IPO. While Cerebras is reportedly for a public offering, it should be enough cash to continue scaling for the foreseeable future.

, a quantum computing company that is developing a quantum photonic chipset, was another investor favorite. The 10-year-old, Palo Alto, California-based company secured , bringing total funding to date to at least $2.3 billion, per Crunchbase .

Groq landed the third-largest round — , also in September. That one was a quick turnaround for investors, who will see an enviable return from Nvidia.

For a bigger-picture view, below we put together a list of the 10 largest semiconductor-related funding round recipients of 2025.

Exits and more

Venture investors also tallied up large exits on semiconductor-related investments. And it wasn’t just Groq driving the gains.

In March, announced a deal to acquire silicon design company in a cash transaction valued at $6.5 billion. In another multibillion-dollar outcome, data infrastructure provider in December that it is buying , a developer of optical interconnect technology for AI computing systems, in a $3.25 billion deal.

Also in December, picked up , a developer of performance CPUs, for an undisclosed sum. And on the acquihire front, this summer brought on board the team of , a startup that developed AI inference chips. Untether AI shut down afterward.

IPOs ahead?

Given the ultra-deep pockets of prospective acquirers, the urgency to meet demand amid fast-paced AI build-outs, and the penalties for too late or unsuited for the technology needs of today’s largest customers, it seems reasonable to expect deal and exit pace to keep up or even rise in coming quarters.

Who knows? In 2026, we may even see the semiconductor space deliver some significant IPOs.

Related Crunchbase queries:

Related reading:

• Q3 Venture Funding Jumps 38% As More Massive Rounds Go To AI Giants And Exits Gain Steam

Illustration:

Last year was a stellar one for venture funding, in large part thanks to AI. Preliminary Crunchbase data shows global venture investment in 2025 was on pace to be the third-highest on record, after the peak years of 2021 and 2022.

A total of $205 billion was raised through mid-2025, up 32% from H1 2024, and marking the strongest half-year for venture capital since the first half of 2022. In the third quarter, global funding jumped 38% year over year, with funding up at all stages, albeit concentrated at the top into the largest AI companies. (Final year-end 2025 numbers were not yet available at the time of this writing.)

Both of the two largest venture fundings on record were also raised last year, and both were AI-related. They were , with $14.3 billion in Q2, and with $40 billion in Q1.

With that momentum behind the industry, what’s ahead for 2026? Will it be more of the same, or will investors finally pull back on AI?

To get a sense of the startup funding outlook for the year ahead, Crunchbase News reached out to four investors via email: , managing director at ; partner at ; , managing director and partner at Menlo Ventures; and , partner at . The following interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Crunchbase News: In 2026, do you expect total dollars deployed to be up, flat or down vs. 2025, and by roughly what percentage?

Mathew: We expect global venture capital deployment to increase from the low $400 billion to the high $400 billion mark, which implies a 10% increase in dollars deployed.

Tully: The data indicates about $340 billion was invested in 2024, and we are on track for north of $400 billion in 2025, which was a 17.6% increase, so I’d ballpark this goes up even further, perhaps closer to 25%. You’re seeing large funds raise progressively larger funds, giving them more capital and dry powder to deploy. Additionally, the round sizes themselves are getting larger at all stages. Putting those two ideas together would lead to this prediction.

Murphy: Up, mainly due to the fast growth and maturation of AI native companies that will raise large expansion rounds. Early-stage will be robust, likely the same as this year, but we could see some slowdown as the bloom comes off the rose in competitive overfunded categories.

Ranum: Up vs. 2025, by roughly 10% to 15%, driven by reopening growth rounds and fewer, but larger checks from scaled funds.

In 2026, do you expect more rounds to be priced up, priced flat or priced down? What does “normal” look like?

Mathew: This will likely be a tale of two cities. AI funding will be about half the total funding and will continue to accelerate with likely large raises, especially in growth and later stage.

Murphy: For the AI native companies, rounds will continue up, but there will be a bifurcation as the winners emerge and the number 3 to 8 players in categories really struggle to raise and likely seek M&A. Winning SaaS companies from the ZIRP era will finally start to exceed previous valuations and raise flat to slightly up rounds. Those that didn’t rebound substantially will seek liquidity, with PE increasingly becoming the option.

Ranum: “Normal,” meaning hyper-growth AI companies clearing at premium valuations, while the median remains flat with tighter terms and less available capital.

Where do you expect net new dollars to concentrate in 2026: seed, Series A or growth? Why?

Mathew: We believe that seed and Series A will aggregate the highest number of deals, but the net new dollars will continue to concentrate on growth, especially in the megarounds of AI infra and foundational models.

Tully: I expect net new dollars to concentrate more in seed and growth deals, primarily because the seed rounds are getting quite large thanks to fundraises by the likes of neolabs, neoclouds, and others. Furthermore, the capital needs of existing high-growth companies will continue to grow due to dependencies on frontier lab and hardware spend.

Murphy: Bigger rounds in growth. The early AI winners will continue to separate, and the enormous capital in the private growth market continues to pour in. Seed likely sees an uptick, but dollar-wise, it’s trumped by growth.

Ranum: Series A, as seed remains crowded and growth selectively reopens for companies with real revenue and AI leverage. It’s a bit of a barbell where concentrated bets continue to take place on the growth end.

Which three sectors will gain share of venture dollars in 2026, and what’s the concrete catalyst for each? Which will lose share?

Mathew: Simply put, AI, AI and AI are the three sectors that are positioned to gain. In all seriousness, foundation models, agentic infrastructure and vertical AI are all expected to expand in 2026. That said, it will likely be very difficult for a SaaS company without native AI/agentic capabilities to find VC dollars at any stage.

�ճܱ�����:�� I expect an increase in:

• AI infrastructure: As the old saying goes, when there’s a gold rush, invest in picks and shovels …
• Defense tech: The current administration’s focus on defense procurement will create increased near-term contract wins, particularly for startups.
• Robotics: The convergence of decreasing hardware costs for sensors, batteries, etc. … combined with increased AI capabilities will make 2026 an inflection point where physical AI becomes not only more viable, but rather likely.

I expect a decrease in:

• Climate tech: They will still get funding, but I predict this sector will lose share because climate tech requires long-term patient capital along with long development cycles.
• Crypto: decreasing crypto prices in the back half of 2025 will continue to sour investors and force them into a wait-and-see mentality in 2026 and vertical SaaS.
• Vertical SaaS without AI differentiation or a technical moat: This will be hard to justify for investors demanding strong fundamentals and dramatically higher multiples relative to the past for their companies.

Ranum: AI infrastructure (cost/performance breakthroughs), defense (geopolitical), healthcare AI (provider margin pressure) will gain share, while consumer and horizontal SaaS will lose.

In 2026, does capital shift from “AI wrappers” to infrastructure, data and verticalized workflows — or do apps still attract venture dollars?

Mathew: We believe that shift has already happened. Last year demonstrated that it’s difficult to survive as an AI wrapper company. Even the vertical AI providers have to be deeply embedded into industry workflows to differentiate themselves from a foundation model doing more of the repetitive work in the market.

Murphy: The market is more balanced in 2026 as the number of companies deploying AI apps scales up significantly, and operational challenges of scale require more tooling and more great infra products to help replatform. Apps remain strong, but more 50-50 in 2026.

Ranum: There are enough dollars chasing exposure to continue to support apps on generic AI wrappers and to infrastructure, data and deeply verticalized workflows. We will also see a few app-layer winners breaking out in accounting, ITSM and ERP.

What’s your 2026 base case for liquidity: More IPOs, more M&A, secondaries or still mostly private?

Mathew: We would expect more IPOs and more M&A as drivers for liquidity in 2026.

Tully: According to , for companies that went public in 2025, the median time to IPO for those valued at $500 million or more has reached over 11 years, the longest in a decade. The bar for IPOs has risen in recent years, with the bar now set at close to $500 million-plus in revenue, at least 30% growth if not more, as well as positive rule of 40. There are only a handful of companies positioned to go public based on these factors. Based on that, I do believe we will see continued growth in M&A and secondaries in 2026 as shareholders seek outlets for liquidity.

Murphy: IPOs slightly up, continued upward trend in M&A as legacy companies seek AI assets and as private-market players consolidate to gain scale. Secondary continues to rise as VCs get more intentional about liquidity, and even become more active in buying and selling to each other.

Ranum: I’m excited to see more M&A and secondaries, as well as an uptick in IPOs at the high-end/scaled companies.

How do you expect 2026 venture fundraising to impact deployment? Are too many firms “underfunded” to keep pace?

Mathew: Again, a tale of two cities. Scale and domain expertise will matter. It will be increasingly harder to be a generalist tech investor, especially in venture markets.

Murphy: Given the size of AI rounds, multistage firms have an advantage. Smaller funds are forced to go earlier or write small participation checks. It could be a great time to be an early-stage firm if you can pick well and get in before the big uptick rounds, which are increasingly happening at the A stage.

Ranum: I don’t expect there to be less capital available to funds. I think total fundraising in 2026 will be comparable to, or stronger than, 2025. The totals for 2024 were notably low relative to prior years, and LPs are actively seeking exposure to the AI wave.

Give me your 2026 predictions in one sentence.

Mathew: We are accelerating to a world where models and agents can complete a full day’s worth of work with minimal or no human intervention, and we may already be there in some domains.

Murphy: AI hits a further inflection in the enterprise as security issues and technology choices are largely addressed, and enterprises substantially increase their application development velocity with tools like Claude Code.

Ranum: 2026 is a fundamentals-first year where capital rewards revenue growth, efficiency and real AI advantage, and punishes anything that is AI veneer on old ideas.

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• Crunchbase Predicts: Why The Race For Talent And Tech Could Accelerate Startup M&A In 2026
• Crunchbase Predicts: IPOs Picked Up In 2025 And The Outlook For 2026 Is Even More Optimistic 
• 6 Charts That Show The Big AI Funding Trends Of 2025
• What We Learned In 2025 From 6 Active AI Investors Backing Startups Across The Stack

Illustration:

The popular fast-fashion startup based in China has reportedly raised $2 billion at two-thirds of its valuation, .

The company rose through The Crunchbase ������Ƶ ranks during the pandemic, receiving a valuation of $100 billion and ranking just under the likes of owner and . But this new round of funding cut its valuation down to $66 billion. No big deal — it’s still the fourth-highest-valued startup in the world.��

Shein quickly won the hearts of American consumers as e-commerce and delivery exploded during work-from-home orders, and investors took note — in 2021, funding rose to more than $27 billion, around three times higher than the year before.��

The company has remained relatively quiet as rumors swirled that the e-commerce giant had a plan to raise money and, later on, go public. But while Shein contemplates its lofty plans, the company faces numerous obstacles to going public, including weaving through complex international regulations and declining activity in e-commerce.

E-commerce loses its luster

Funding toward e-commerce has seen a slow but steady rise in the last 10 years.��

That all changed in 2021, when the tech industry pinpointed e-commerce as a long-lasting consumer behavior much like working from home was. Funding jumped around 3x higher than 2020, and then immediately crashed to normal levels in 2022. Several big tech giants like and were quick to build up their e-commerce services, only to lay off thousands of workers when those strategies didn’t play out.��

It’s unclear if Shein will face a similar, less drastic fate. The company reportedly garnered $23 billion in revenue in 2022, on par with other fast-fashion retailers like and fashion conglomerate , which owns popular brands like . But the e-commerce model isn’t as popular as it once was, and global regulations around environmental and sustainability laws could dwindle its popularity even further.

Stricter environmental regulations

Shein’s clothing is known for being extremely cheap — women’s shirts sell for as little as $2. The company has had to dodge questions over forced labor and environmental impacts of its production line.��

Despite telling U.S. congressional members Shein worked with third-party firms to audit its supply chain of forced labor, the company used cotton from Xinjiang (which has been cited for using forced labor) . In some instances, workers spent 18-hour days in the factories, or were given one day off a month, .��

The European Union is also on imports, taxing companies more based on how high their carbon footprint is. This could drive up the price of Shein-made items, or require the company to make changes to its supply chain in order to lower its environmental impact.��

If Shein does go through with its IPO, it has the potential to disrupt the $1.53 trillion apparel industry, but changing headwinds could ruin its course.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Shein raised money at a third of its previous valuation. We have updated the story to reflect the accurate number.

Related Crunchbase Pro queries:

Illustration:

and led the round for Boston-based Gradiant, which is now valued at $1 billion.��

The startup develops technology to reduce water usage and wastewater treatment systems for companies in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, food and beverage, and other water-demanding industries. The company says its client list includes chip companies and , pharma giants and , and food and beverage manufacturers and .

The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand into new markets, including the Middle East and Europe, and to invest in R&D.

“As global manufacturing and supply chains continue to advance, they demand more and more water resources which are increasingly rare and finite,” Centaurus founder said in the funding announcement. “We are excited to partner with a company that has truly proven the ability to support these demands in an economic and energy efficient manner.”

Gradiant has now raised $392.4 million total, per Crunchbase data. The company was founded in 2013 at the . It now has more than 900 employees internationally, it says, and has achieved more than 100% top-line revenue growth for four consecutive years.��

Gradiant marks one of the largest venture funding rounds so far this year. It’s also the largest, by far, funding in the wastewater treatment space, at least since the beginning of 2022.��

Other recently funded startups in the industry include:

• , which develops wastewater technology for the energy industry and raised just under $45 million last year;
• , which raised $33 million last year and uses a membrane technology for water treatment; and
• , which makes water recycling systems for residential and commercial buildings and raised $10 million in January.

Related Crunchbase Pro queries

Related Reading

• The Crunchbase Megadeals Board
• The Crunchbase ������Ƶ

Illustration:

Technology-focused is the latest, announcing it has closed on $5.3 billion of new capital commitments for both its Capital Partners VII LP and Emerging Buyout Partners II LP funds.

The Menlo Park, California-based private equity firm has made more than 350 investments in its two-decade-plus history. It invests in tech companies through a series of different funds and strategies including buyout, emerging buyout, growth capital and credit. It now has $19 billion in cumulative capital commitments.��

Some of the firm’s most recent investments include: Australia-based workforce management software developer ; Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation data provider and U.K-.based processor of rental payments .

The new funds

The Capital Partners VII LP closed with $4.4 billion of equity capital commitments and will continue the firm’s strategy of making majority buyout investments in lower-middle market and middle-market tech companies.

The Emerging Buyout Partners II closed with $920 million of equity capital commitments. That will enable Accel-KKR to invest in software and tech-enabled services companies — with a special focus on small-cap companies.

“In raising these two new funds, we will continue our long-term strategy of working in partnership with management teams of the companies in which we invest, aggressively supporting their growth objectives by providing capital and operational support to fuel accelerated organic and inorganic growth,” said , co-managing partner at Accel-KKR, in a .

As financing options decline for startups and share prices of publicly traded companies drop, many think the M&A market will heat up later in the year. That likely is especially true for private equity firms, as many have raised huge funds recently that could take advantage of bargains in the market.

Illustration:

Positive indicators are scarcer. That’s why it’s encouraging to see at least one small sign of positive momentum coming from the startup sector. It comes in the form of more money.

In recent quarters we’ve seen unprecedented sums going to software startups focused on tracking and reducing carbon emissions, and on speeding up the shift to cleaner energy sources. The funding surge comes amid a broader rise in funding to climate-focused startups of all stripes.

A sampling of top funding recipients for climate and clean energy software shows at least $1.68 billion in capital raised since the beginning of 2022, per Crunchbase data. For a sense of where the money is going, we chart out 34 of the most recently or heavily funded companies below:

Consumer is out, enterprise is in

The most heavily funded companies are an enterprise-focused bunch, with many of the largest rounds going to those selling technologies to energy industry customers.

Washington, D.C.-based , a climate software and data startup focused on decarbonizing the electric grid, is a perennial top fundraiser in this space. The company closed on $325 million in the past year alone, in rounds led by and , bringing total funding to over $495 million.

, a platform for designing and cost-estimating solar power installations, is also up there, with $523 million in funding to date, including a $200 million Series D a year ago. It’s currently posting annual revenue over $100 million while still growing over 50% per year, according to , managing partner at backer .

But Aurora isn’t the only company in the space with significant revenue that’s scaling fast. Since launching early-stage-focused Energize seven years ago, Tough said he’s seen revenue at climate- and clean energy-focused software companies rising alongside venture investment.

“When we launched in 2016, there probably wasn’t a single (software-focused) company in the solar or wind space with more than $25 million in revenue,” he said. “Now there are a dozen.”

Tough sees the likelihood of further growth given that companies in the energy industry have historically spent less on software than those in other sectors. One analysis his firm conducted estimated that energy companies spent only about 1% of their budgets on software — roughly half the Fortune 2000 average.

A maturing startup pipeline

The pipeline of funded climate and clean energy software startups is also maturing at a rapid clip.

In an initial Crunchbase roundup of climate software deals, published in October 2021, virtually all the cited companies were seed or Series A funded at the time. Since then, a majority have raised subsequent rounds and a number have moved on to Series B.

Clean energy-focused software companies, meanwhile, are also moving to later stage, with the largest funding recipients mostly at Series B and beyond. Per Tough, there are also a handful with metrics suitable for a public offering should the IPO window open further.

That could be in the cards. This week, Silicon Valley-based , a provider of software and hardware for solar tracker systems, raised $638 million in its IPO after raising its price per share to $24. The higher-than-expected demand for its offering bodes well for other clean energy- and climate-focused offerings.

Impact of broader slowdown to be seen

Still, the resilience of climate and clean energy software funding comes against a backdrop of falling venture investment across most other industries. As tech valuations flatten and the biggest growth investors scale back the pace and size of deals, it’s not unlikely this space will see some impacts too.

For now, though, it looks like this corner of the space continues to heat up — but in a good way.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

On Friday it was revealed the investor offering up the money would be none other than tech titan — obviously not willing to stand idly by and let win the battle for AI supremacy.

The news was first reported by the .

The deal — which gives Google a 10% stake in the company — comes just weeks after news broke of Microsoft’s massive investment in .

Anthropic’s AI chatbot, Claude, is in closed beta mode, but , it is expected to combat harmful prompts by explaining why they are dangerous or misguided.

This is not Google’s and its parent ’s first foray into AI. In 2015 Alphabet bought , a London-based AI startup founded in 2010, and is building an NLP model .

AI dominance

The new year is shaping up to be an all-out AI war. Late last month, Microsoft finally confirmed it has agreed to a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment” into OpenAI, the startup behind the artificial intelligence tools and for a reported $10 billion.��

Per Crunchbase data, funding in the AI space has accounted for around 10% of all venture funding in recent years. Even last year, as venture dried up, AI flourished in its second-best funding year ever.��

Just this week, it was that an AI startup co-founded by a pair of entrepreneurs who had left recently raised $8 million. And Perplexity AI, which is developing a search engine that lets people ask questions through a chatbot, is looking to raise a $15 million seed round.��

Anthropic’s new round could bring the company’s total valuation to $5 billion, . The startup previously raised $704 million across Series A and Series B funding rounds in 2022, according to Crunchbase data.

Illustration:

Clarification: This story has changed since its original publication to clarify terms of the deal.

It’s no secret that the relationship between the and the crypto industry is akin to that of a dog and a feral cat.

However, an interesting further illustrates that frayed relationship and the fact that the SEC will not make it any easier for crypto to break out of its tailspin.

According to the story, the SEC did not give approval for public listings to crypto-focused companies such as , and . The companies all were looking to go public through mergers with special-purpose acquisition companies.

While the SEC did not stop any of the firms from merging, the slow pace of the review process and extensive questioning seemed to hurt their efforts to list, per the report.

Circle’s plight

Boston-based Circle’s effort to go public certainly caught our eye before finally reaching its long, winding conclusion last month.

Circle’s proposed merger with blank-check firm Concord, which is backed by former boss , has been its own long and winding story.

The company — an issuer of USD Coin, a type of stablecoin — announced in July 2021 it would merge with Concord in a deal that would value the company at $4.5 billion. However, USD Coin’s circulation quickly doubled and, in February of last year, Circle terminated its previously announced merger agreement and agreed to new terms that doubled the crypto company’s valuation to $9 billion.��

That deal was expected to close last month, but instead the company called off its proposed merger agreement.

According to the report, the SEC raised more than 100 questions with Circle’s disclosures about the SPAC agreement.

Again, none of this comes as a surprise, but it is significant. VCs and other institutional Investors are likely more wary than ever about backing crypto startups. If it becomes clear one of the paths to a liquidity event is blocked by an agency such as the SEC, the appetite to invest in the space becomes even less.

In a market where it likely will be hard to raise funding for crypto-focused startups, the SEC’s actions may increase that difficulty level even slightly more.

Further reading:

• ������Ƶ Web3 Startups Plummets 74% in Q4
• FTX Collapse Will Reverberate Throughout The VC World For A Long Time
• How VCs Invest In Crypto Will Be Changed By FTX’s Spectacular Fall
• Semafor To Buy Back Bankman-Fried’s Stake — Report

Illustration:

The deal has been rumored for weeks. While the exact dollar amount was not confirmed, earlier this month that Microsoft was in talks to invest as much as $10 billion.

The deal follows a $1 billion investment in 2019 from Microsoft into the AI startup. That deal made Microsoft’s Azure the exclusive provider of cloud computing services to OpenAI.��

“We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform,” , chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications.”

Microsoft is in a battle for AI dominance with other tech giants such as and .

Big money for AI

Earlier this month the startup could be valued at $29 billion thanks to a new tender offer.

Venture firms and were reported to be in talks to invest in the offer that would have allowed them to buy shares from existing OpenAI shareholders.

OpenAI had been valued at $14 billion during a tender offer in 2021.

Related reading:

• ChatGPT Creator OpenAI Could Be Valued At $29B In Tender Offer — Report
• Writing-Focused Startups Draw Big Bucks
• The Promises And Perils Of A Decade Of AI Funding
• Billions Of Dollars Roll Into AI-Enhanced Cybersecurity
• AI Could Transform Medical Imaging — So Why Don’t We See It More?
• From Wigs To Fish, Some Very Quirky AI Startups Got Funded In 2022

Illustration:

With layoffs, massive funding pullbacks and an overall sense of doom clouding the economy, we naturally saw attention drawn to our coverage of those issues. Readers want to be prepared and understandably gravitated toward our reporting on why these unfortunate economic events are happening.

Layoffs specifically drew interest from readers, namely our updated tracker of tech companies that cut workers in a given week. This year we also launched The Crunchbase ������Ƶ, where we list the most valuable private companies in the world, and our Emerging ������Ƶ of up-and-coming unicorns.

1. Weekly tech layoffs: Earlier this year we noticed the uptick and then steady pace of tech companies laying off workers. Hence, we began tracking those numbers — seeking tips from readers and also watching for the latest layoff news. As of mid-December, 90,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector have been laid off in mass job cuts so far in 2022. Companies large and small made unfortunate debuts on this list, which we will continue to update throughout 2023.

2. The Crunchbase ������Ƶ: Earlier this year, we launched our curated list of private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more. New companies are added to the board as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round. Data for companies already on the leaderboard is updated when there is a new funding round announced.

3. Layoff analysis: Consistently throughout the year, we have paused to reflect on what our layoff tracker told us. These analyses (including this one written by reporter Chris Metinko in May and others written later in the year by Sophia Kunthara and Keerthi Vendatam) provided thoughtful insight on the road ahead.

4. Emerging ������Ƶ:  In addition to the ������Ƶ, we also launched the Crunchbase Emerging ������Ƶ this year to track global private companies on the path to achieving unicorn status. Powered by Crunchbase’s comprehensive data, this list is updated as companies reach a valuation of $500 million or more but less than $1 billion and consistently drew readers this year.

5. VCs spent billions on scooters, with little to show for it: Five years ago, the scooters came. These nimble little vehicles offered riders a quick trip to work or a quick trip to the ER, depending on who you asked. Scooter mania spread worldwide, fueled by more than $5 billion in total funding. Since then, many scooter stocks have been tossed aside with just a penny stock. We wrote about the industry and readers took an interest in what we had to say.

6. The VC reset: Senior Data Editor Gené Teare has done a stellar job this year providing monthly recaps of funding at every stage. This report from May held particular appeal for readers as it illustrated that while late-stage and technology-growth investing have been most severely impacted, seed funding remains surprisingly robust (at the time, anyway). Times have certainly changed since then.

7. Global VC pullback dramatic in Q3: With our recap of Q3 data, we could definitively say that the big global venture capital pullback we were all expecting had arrived. Venture and growth investors in private companies scaled back their investment pace significantly as the slump in the public markets stretched into the third quarter.

8. Self-driving truck upstart Embark: From $5B+ to basically worthless: San Francisco-headquartered Embark, which develops autonomous driving technology for the trucking industry, has presided over a roughly 98% share price decline since going public a year ago. In the process, it’s wiped out close to $5 billion in market capitalization. Contributing reporter Joanna Glasner dove into the company’s numbers and her insights struck a chord with readers.

9. VCs embrace a new type of dating app: Nothing better than a startup dating story in February. We wrote about a fresh crop of dating startups getting venture funding to help people find connections in new mediums.

10. Y Combinator warns of economic downturn: In May, accelerator warned the good times may be coming to an end for startups and the venture market. “No one can predict how bad the economy will get, but things don’t look good,” the letter said. The warning came shortly after announced it would become much more selective in investments after posting a loss of $27.7 billion on investments in its Vision Fund for its just-ended fiscal year.

Illustration: