Global Startup and Venture Capital News for November 26, 2025: The Return of Mega Funds, Record Rounds in AI, Revival of the IPO Market, M&A Wave, Renewed Interest in Crypto Startups, and the Emergence of New Unicorns. A Review for Venture Investors and Funds.
By the end of November 2025, the global venture capital market is confidently recovering after a prolonged decline in recent years. According to industry analysts, the total volume of venture investments in the third quarter of 2025 reached approximately $97 billion — a 38% increase compared to the previous year, marking the best quarterly performance since 2021. The prolonged "venture winter" of 2022-2023 is behind us, and the influx of private capital into technology startups is significantly accelerating. Large funding rounds and the launch of new mega funds signal a return of investor risk appetite, although investments are still being made selectively and cautiously.
Venture activity is on the rise in virtually all regions of the world. The USA leads the way (especially in the rapidly growing AI sector). Investment volume in the Middle East has doubled over the year, while in Europe, Germany has overtaken the UK in total venture capital for the first time in a decade. In Asia, the robust rise in India and Southeast Asia compensates for a relative decline in China, while new tech hubs are emerging in Africa and Latin America. Startup ecosystems in Russia and CIS countries are striving to keep pace despite external constraints. Overall, the global landscape indicates the emergence of a new venture capital boom, although investors continue to seek out the most promising and resilient projects.
- The Return of Mega Funds and Large Capital. Leading venture players are creating record funds and actively investing significant resources in the market, injecting capital into the ecosystem and reigniting risk appetite.
- Record Funding Rounds in AI and New Unicorns. Unprecedented investments are driving startup valuations to unseen heights, particularly in the artificial intelligence segment, leading to the emergence of a new wave of "unicorn" companies (startups valued over $1 billion).
- Revival of the IPO Market. Successful IPOs of tech unicorns and new applications confirm that the long-awaited "window" for exits remains open.
- Diversification of Sector Focus. Venture capital is being directed not only into AI but also into fintech, climate tech, biotech, space, and defense projects, broadening market horizons.
- A Wave of Consolidation and M&A Transactions. Major mergers, acquisitions, and strategic investments are reshaping the industry landscape, opening up new opportunities for exits and scaling companies.
- Renewed Interest in Crypto Startups. After a prolonged "crypto winter," blockchain projects are once again attracting significant funding and attention from venture funds and corporations.
- Local Focus: Russia and the CIS. Despite restrictions, new funds and initiatives are emerging to develop local startup ecosystems, drawing investor attention to the region.
The Return of Mega Funds: Big Money Back in the Market
The largest investment players are triumphantly returning to the venture arena, signaling a new wave of risk appetite. Following a downturn in capital raising from 2022 to 2024, leading funds are renewing their fundraising efforts and launching mega funds, demonstrating confidence in market prospects. For example, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has announced the formation of its third Vision Fund, with a target of around $40 billion for investments in advanced technologies (primarily in AI and robotics). In the USA, Andreessen Horowitz is raising a record-sized venture fund — approximately $20 billion — aimed at late-stage investments in AI startups. Sovereign wealth funds from Gulf countries are also becoming more active, injecting billions of dollars into high-tech projects and developing their own tech hubs in the region.
Concurrently, dozens of new venture funds are emerging worldwide, attracting significant institutional capital for investments in technology companies. American venture funds have accumulated unprecedented reserves of "dry powder" — hundreds of billions of dollars in uninvested capital ready for deployment. The return of such massive "megafunds" means that startups have more opportunities to secure funding for growth, while competition among investors for the best deals is intensifying.
Record Investments in AI: A New Wave of Unicorns
The artificial intelligence sector has become the primary driver of the current venture capital boom, showcasing record inflows of funding. It is estimated that nearly half of all venture capital raised in 2025 is directed towards AI startups. Global investments in artificial intelligence this year may exceed $200 billion — an unprecedented level for the industry. The excitement surrounding AI is driven by its potential to significantly enhance efficiency across various domains — from industrial automation and transportation to personal digital assistants — opening new markets worth trillions of dollars. Despite concerns over overheating, funds continue to increase their investments, fearing the loss of the next technological revolution.
This unprecedented capital influx is accompanied by a concentration of resources among leaders. The lion's share of funds is directed toward a limited number of companies that could become defining players in the new AI era. For example, California-based startup OpenAI has raised approximately $13 billion, the French company Mistral AI has attracted around $2 billion, and Jeff Bezos's new endeavor, Project Prometheus, launches with an initial capital of $6.2 billion. Such mega rounds significantly boost valuations, creating a new cohort of "super-unicorns." While such deals inflate multiples and fuel discussions about a bubble, they also concentrate enormous resources on the most promising directions, laying the groundwork for future breakthroughs.
In recent weeks, dozens of companies worldwide have announced significant funding rounds. Among the most notable examples are the UK platform Synthesia, which raised $200 million at a valuation of about $4 billion to develop AI-based video generation technologies, and the American cybersecurity firm Armis, which secured $435 million ahead of its IPO at a valuation of $6.1 billion. These transactions have instantly elevated both companies to the status of "unicorns," vividly demonstrating how rapidly large-scale funding can transform a startup into a billion-dollar company.
Revival of the IPO Market: The Exit Window is Open Again
Against the backdrop of rising valuations and capital inflows, technology companies are actively preparing to go public once again. Following nearly two years of pause, 2025 has seen a surge in IPOs as a key exit mechanism for venture investors. A series of successful IPOs of technology companies this year has confirmed that the long-awaited "window of opportunity" for exits is open. In the USA, more than 300 IPOs have already taken place this year — significantly more than in 2024 — and the stocks of several debutantes have shown strong growth. Positive signals are also evident in emerging markets: for instance, Indian education unicorn PhysicsWallah went public in November, and its stock surged over 30% on the first day of trading, providing an encouraging indicator for the entire EdTech sector.
The success of recent offerings is restoring confidence that the market can absorb an influx of new tech companies going public. Following the first "swallows," several large private companies have announced plans for IPOs, eager to take advantage of favorable conditions. Even giants like OpenAI are considering a public offering in 2026, potentially valuing in the hundreds of billions of dollars — an unprecedented case for the venture industry, if realized. Overall, the revival of the IPO market is expanding the horizons for investment exits, easing capital return for funds and stimulating a new cycle of investments in startups.
Diversification of Industries: Investment Horizons are Expanding
In 2025, venture investments are covering a much broader range of sectors and are no longer concentrated solely in AI. Following last year's downturn, there has been a noticeable revival in fintech: new fintech startups are securing large rounds, especially in payment systems and decentralized finance (DeFi). A booming growth is also evident in climate ("green") technologies in response to the global demand for sustainability — investors are financing projects from renewable energy to carbon capture technologies.
Interest in biotech and medtech is also resurgent: major funds, particularly in Europe, are forming specialized vehicles to support pharmaceutical and medical startups. Aerospace and defense technologies are also coming to the forefront — geopolitical factors and the successes of private space companies are driving investments in satellite constellations, rocket construction, drone systems, and military AI. Thus, the sector focus of venture capital has broadened significantly, enhancing market resilience: even if the excitement surrounding AI wanes, other sectors are ready to pick up the baton of innovation.
A Wave of Consolidation and M&A: The Industry is Changing Shape
High startup valuations and heightened competition are prompting companies to seek synergy through mergers and acquisitions. In 2025, a new wave of consolidation has emerged: large tech corporations are once again actively engaging in acquisitions, while mature startups are merging to strengthen their positions. These deals are reshaping the industry landscape, enabling the construction of more resilient business models and providing investors with the long-awaited exits.
In recent months, several high-profile M&A transactions have attracted the attention of the venture community. For example, American IT giant Cisco announced the acquisition of a startup in the AI translation space to integrate its technology into its product line. Other corporations are keeping pace: strategic investors from the financial and industrial sectors are acquiring promising fintech and IoT companies, eager to gain access to their developments and customer bases. Simultaneously, some "unicorns" prefer to merge with each other or sell to major players to jointly overcome rising costs and accelerate scaling. For venture funds, this wave of consolidation opens up new exit pathways — successful M&A transactions often yield substantial profits and confirm the viability of invested business models.
Renewed Interest in Crypto Startups: The Market Awakens After the "Crypto Winter"
After a prolonged decline in interest in cryptocurrency projects — the so-called "crypto winter" — the situation began to change in 2025. Venture investments in crypto startups have seen a notable rise: the total funding volume for blockchain projects this year exceeded $20 billion, more than double that of 2024. Investors are once again showing interest in infrastructure solutions for the crypto market, decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain platforms, and Web3 applications.
Even the largest Silicon Valley funds and previously conservative players are returning to this segment. In recent weeks, several crypto and DeFi startups have secured funding rounds from well-known investors. For instance, the venture arm of broker Robinhood and the Founders Fund, led by Peter Thiel, participated in financing a promising blockchain platform. In one of the biggest deals of the year, American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken raised $800 million, achieving a valuation of around $20 billion. By the end of the year, the volume of venture capital invested in crypto projects could approach a record $25 billion. All these developments indicate a sort of renaissance in the industry: following the market's cleansing of speculation, the focus has shifted to real use cases of blockchain technology, attracting "smarter" money. Several crypto startups are once again approaching unicorn status, with some exchanges and infrastructure projects having already reached billion-dollar valuations.
Local Focus: Russia and the CIS
Despite external constraints, active steps are being taken in Russia and neighboring countries to develop local startup ecosystems. Government and private institutions are launching new funds and programs aimed at supporting early-stage technological projects. For example, the authorities in St. Petersburg discussed the creation of a city venture fund in November to finance promising high-tech companies, similar to the Republic of Tatarstan, where a fund of 15 billion rubles is already in operation. Additionally, major corporations and banks in the region are increasingly acting as investors and mentors for startups, developing corporate accelerators and their own venture units.
Beyond government efforts, there has been a noticeable revival in the entrepreneurial community. International technology forums and summits (for instance, the recent Moscow AI Journey 2025) are being held, attracting attention to local innovations and building bridges between Russian developers and global investors. All these changes show that even under sanctions, the local venture scene continues to adapt and evolve. For investors, the region, with a measured approach to risks, offers new growth points — as a potentially promising market for venture investments.
