Sometimes you just gotta spend many, many hours building a 145-slide deck on everything you know about startups and the venture capital that funds them.
Read the full State of Startups, 2025. Our best insights in a neat little package with a big bow.
Here are the things will stick with me most from this year in venture:
We look to be speed-running the normal venture ebbs and flows. After a bubble pop like the one we had in 2022, you'd think we would spend a little longer avoiding frenzied valuations and hype cycles. But maybe AI is actually different?
Company funding approaches are more varied than ever, but the attention remains on massive rounds. I bet we'll hear about some quieter winners who've avoided the venture treadmill in 2026.
36% of funding this year went to deep tech. I can't imagine that number being under 40% in the coming years and maybe higher.
Startup hiring has officially been sickly for 24+ months. I'm pessimistic towards a rebound in 2026 but pessimism is not my best look. Hope to be wrong here.
Venture funds have either gone earlier (first check) or gone gluttonous (mega-funds). Living in the middle seems increasingly difficult.
Despite the myriad headlines, I believe it's underreported just how impactful a handful of specific IPOs could be next year.
It is truly a privilege to brighten your inboxes every week with the most interesting startup data we can find. I appreciate each and every one of you, dear readers — and I hope to meet you in-person more often next year.
Onwards to 2026!
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Cheers,
Peter Walker
Carta Insights
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