Latin American startups raised $1.3 billion in Q3, up 26% year over year, Crunchbase data shows, as late-stage investment remained strong and seed funding more than doubled from the prior quarter. Notably, the region’s two largest rounds went to energy startups in Chile and Colombia rather than the usual powerhouses of Brazil and Mexico. Although Mexico has pulled ahead of Brazil in total venture funding so far this year, Brazil continues to attract a broader range of deals. An investor tells Crunchbase News that international VCs are returning to Latin America after years of relative quiet, potentially setting the stage for what he calls another “rediscovery moment.” news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

AI startups promise autonomous software, but some are spending fortunes hiring engineers to make their products work inside customer organizations. @AnuragGurtu, co-founder and CEO of @Airrived_ai, argues that Silicon Valley’s growing reliance on forward deployed engineers risks disguising labor-intensive services businesses as scalable software companies. In a sharply worded guest essay, he questions whether the recurring revenue generated by these deployments justifies software-style valuations and offers a simple test for investors: Would the product still deliver what customers paid for if the embedded engineers disappeared tomorrow? news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

Startup investors aren’t exactly hitting pause, but they did scale back on giant rounds this week, with just two startup financings in the multiple hundreds of millions. The biggest round went to AI infrastructure provider @modal, which picked up $750 million, followed by construction automation unicorn Icon, which secured $200 million. Other sectors that attracted larger rounds included biotech, insurance and AI. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

Asia-based startups raised $38.5B in Q3, up 93% year over year and the region’s second-highest quarterly tally in years, Crunchbase data shows. China dominated with roughly $27B, while AI-focused companies attracted more than half of all investment. We take a look at the country's biggest rounds and seed funding growth. The picture was less rosy elsewhere in Asia, with India and Singapore seeing significant sequential funding declines. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

For the third quarter of 2026, global cybersecurity- and privacy-focused startups pulled in a total of $6.8 billion, per Crunchbase data. That’s up about 50% from the prior quarter and tied for the highest quarterly tally in years. news.crunchbase.com/cybersec…

As AI enables smaller, faster teams, companies should hire curious, adaptable people who challenge established practices and can be trusted to make independent decisions, according to guest author Eric Francia, who writes that giving employees real responsibility, encouraging questions and investing in continuous learning helps teams innovate, stay engaged and retain talent. news.crunchbase.com/ai/build…

New York-based Chariot Claims has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Silverton Partners to help consumers pursue claims over alleged privacy violations, hidden fees and subscriptions that are difficult to cancel. news.crunchbase.com/ai/legal…

Semiconductors, financial services and space technology led for the 38 new companies joining The Crunchbase Unicorn Board, with the remainder hailing from a broad swath of industries including biotech, AI infrastructure, AI training, security and frontier labs. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

In this Crunchbase News exclusive, we spoke to @MarkloAI founder @JessicaHerrin about her solution to the marketing problems she encountered when building earlier startups, and how a group of investors, led by @ForerunnerVC, are backing that early experience with a $5 million seed funding round. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

Complex, interconnected problems like compliance require a comprehensive product from the outset, argues guest columnist Daniel Kjellén, CEO and co-founder of Freda. Drawing on his experience selling @tink, he explains how repeat founders can combine capital, credibility and hard-earned lessons with AI’s development speed to pursue bigger ambitions without shrinking their vision. news.crunchbase.com/startups…

AI is changing not just how real estate companies operate, but what kinds of startups are worth backing, according to @fifthwallvc co-founder @BrendanFWallace. In an interview with Crunchbase News, the investor explains why specialized proptech software is becoming easier to replicate, while opportunities are emerging in broader AI platforms and companies that use technology to own and operate real estate themselves. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

The next big fintech success stories may emerge from countries where consumers have the least faith in traditional financial institutions, argues Nnamdi Okike (@thedatavc), co-founder and managing partner of @645ventures. In a guest column, he examines how companies have built massive businesses by combining financial services, commerce and other everyday needs into trusted platforms. He also identifies four emerging markets where the conditions may be ripe for the next generation of super apps, powered by AI and stablecoins. news.crunchbase.com/fintech/…

Active startup investors largely kept up or increased their dealmaking pace in the third quarter, even as overall venture funding declined with the absence of new record megarounds for AI leaders. We break down which investors were busiest, who led the most deals, where the biggest dollars flowed, and which firms dominated seed investing. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

Drawing on deals involving Schneider Electric and @PTC, as well as @ServiceNow and @moveworks, strategic adviser and Crunchbase News columnist @ItaySagie explains why AI companies that own critical workflows are hard to replace and why acquiring access to those workflows may become an increasingly important M&A strategy. news.crunchbase.com/ma/custo…

European startup funding reached $25 billion last quarter, well above the $14 billion invested in Q3 2025 and up slightly from the $24 billion invested in Q2. Quarterly funding was up 77% year over year, per Crunchbase data. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

Minneapolis-based Gudea has raised $7 million in seed funding, co-led by Mudita Venture Partners and Silicon Road Ventures, to help companies anticipate which online narratives will go viral and understand who is driving them, the startup tells Crunchbase News exclusively. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

North American startups raised $92 billion in the third quarter, down 35% sequentially but still well above year-ago levels, Crunchbase data shows. AI-focused companies captured roughly two-thirds of Q3 funding, with @databricks, Safe Superintelligence and @CrusoeAI among the largest recipients. M&A was another bright spot, with 11 North American startups acquired for $1 billion or more during the quarter, while the IPO market remained comparatively quiet. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

As AI IPOs bring greater scrutiny, argues guest author @maor_farid, founder and CEO of Leo AI, investors will increasingly prioritize customer spending growth, sustainable margins and deployment efficiency over rapid revenue growth alone. news.crunchbase.com/venture/…

The latest in our series of articles on venture funding to non-tech founders features a 19-year-old former magician's assistant and ballet dancer who's building cybersecurity software with $4.2 million in seed funding. news.crunchbase.com/cybersec…

Some of the AI industry’s fastest-growing startups are becoming serial acquirers, buying smaller companies to fill product gaps, enter new markets and bring specialized teams in-house, a review of Crunchbase data shows. news.crunchbase.com/ma/ai-st…