Global Startup Funding In August Fell To Lowest Monthly Total In 8 Years As Seed And Late-Stage Investors Retreated

Global venture funding in August fell to the lowest monthly amount since 2017, Crunchbase data shows. Startup funding last month totaled $17 billion — down 12% from a year ago and a massive 44% drop month over month.

The slowdown marks a respite from the frenzied pace of venture investment in the first half of 2025 — especially for fast-growing AI companies — when startup funding increased by more than a third year over year.

Summer pullback

Since 2023, we’ve seen a noticeable summer pullback in either July or August, when global venture funding typically dips below $20 billion.

It’s typical for late-stage funding to lag in these slower months. Less typically, there was also a significant pullback at the seed stage last month, when funding at that phase nearly halved compared to July and fell a third from a year ago.

Late-stage funding declined more than 50% compared to July and fell by a fifth year over year, Crunchbase data shows.

Early-stage funding also declined month over month, but to a lesser degree, and increased slightly from a year ago. Relative to past months, Series B rounds held up by both counts and amounts.

Series B active

The two largest funding deals last month were Series B rounds to deep tech and AI startups, both based outside of the Bay Area. The largest round went to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Fusion, a fusion energy company that raised $863 million. The second-largest was Colorado-based quantum computing Quantinuum’s $593.8 million raise.

The third-largest round was a tie between Toronto, Canada-based AI lab Cohere’s $500 million Series D and San Francisco-based coding startup Cognition’s $500 million Series C at a $9.8 billion valuation following its earlier acquisition of Windsurf.

US funding dominated

Funding to U.S.-based startups last month totaled $10.4 billion, or 61% of venture investment, per Crunchbase data.

Funding to startups headquartered in the U.S. has increased significantly year to date in 2025 to 68% of global venture capital, thanks to billion-dollar-plus funding deals for American AI companies.

AI led global startup funding again last month, totaling $4.8 billion. Healthcare and biotech followed, with startups in the sector raising $4 billion globally in August, per Crunchbase data, and more than $2 billion each went to startups in the financial services and energy sectors.

Looking forward

Despite the August funding slowdown, there are some positive signs for the startup world to look forward to, notably the reopening of the IPO markets. A more robust exit market will provide some much-needed liquidity to venture capital firms, which could in turn help reopen the funding spigot.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Sept. 3, 2025.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. Crunchbase includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)