This report is designed to help companies, investors, and founders track the trends and benchmarks established by venture capital leaders.

Updated monthly, our report and database provide verified data and expert insights.

We examine the activities of the largest and most experienced firms — the technologies and sectors they support, and the types of investments they make. We believe that a deeper understanding of the priorities held by venture capital market leaders can help our subscribers more effectively build their investment and growth strategies.

The VC companies we analyze are smart money – they backed more than 800 companies, which became unicorns or even decahorns.

According to our calculations, because of their role in the ecosystem and their smart approach, the leaders reach almost around 15% unicorns to their portfolio.

Key facts

190 deals (5.1% from January 2026 deals)

142 deals from 190 were leaded by this 13 venture firms, in other 48 deals, the firms participated in syndicates.

Syndicates with top VC included 9.8 bn USD mn (not including megadeals **)

Top VC supported 22 of January unicorns (66% from 33 unicorns according to Dealroom Unicorns)

The report based on 190 deals concluded or announced with the participation of these companies in January 2026— approximately 5.1% of the total number of venture investments for the month. 142 deals from 190 were leaded by this 13 venture firms, in other 48 deals, the firms participated in syndicates.

In January 2026, the top venture funds backed 52.1% of Pre-Seed / Incubator stage rounds and 10% of Seed stage rounds.

The total share of VC backed by top firms: Pre-Seed, Incubator, and Seed rounds backed by major VC firms is 62%, which is the highest level in recent months (compared to 51% in September, 56% in October 2025).

The largest proportions of Pre-Seed and Seed rounds were observed in Legal (100%, 6  total), Media & Advertising (67%), AI Infrastructure (67%).

Still January 2026 syndicates (lead or participated  by lead VC), reached 6.8 bn USD

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The data on the number of deals (Rounds) continues to show a level below last year January (-18% compared to January 2025 with 3,745 deals versus 4,586 and -37% compared to January 2024).

The share of new Pre-Seed / Seed rounds has declined to 27-28%, one of the lowest levels in recent years (January 2026 – 30.4%).

Almost all new startups supported by market leaders are implementing or using AI. This represents a very high barrier to entry and places high demands on the team.

AI integration has become virtually mandatory for startups. As of January 2026, 88% of Pre-Seed startups, 100% of Seed-stage startups, and 87% of Early-stage companies either use or have announced the use of AI in their products.

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AI Infrastructure

According to our monthly analytical report “Startup Report: Venture Funds Deals and Trends”*  in January, 18% funding rounds by 16 leading venture capital funds were directed toward projects supporting the development and practical application of artificial intelligence technologies.

It is interesting to note that the majority of projects in this category that received funding in January 2026 were founded in 2025 (23 out of 30). Meanwhile, two projects were founded in 2026—specifically in January—and secured funding within that same month.

Additionally, out of the 6 companies that achieved unicorn status in January 2026, 4 received funding and reached a market value of over $1 billion while still at the Early Stage. We especially would like to particularly highlight unicorn LMArena (backers include a16z, Lightspeed Venture Partners) which created platform for benchmarking LLMs via human-led side-by-side battles. Skild AI  aimed on developing a general-purpose AI brain for robots that uses massive scaling to enable autonomous physical movement across diverse hardware. Ricursive Intelligence (Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia, Radical AI, NVentures) aimed at AI self-improvement, with a focus on chip design.

The undisputed leader in attracting significant Early-Stage capital was Humans&, in subcategory “Applied, Interactive & Research AI” securing $480 million (Empathetic AI technologies designed to amplify human collaboration and connection through long-horizon reinforcement learning models. Their target customers include global enterprises, government agencies, and diverse communities seeking human-centric, multi-agent AI solutions).

Additionally, two other projects within the “Compute & Systems Optimization” subcategory attracted substantial Early-Stage funding:

Recursive Intelligence - $300 million (New technology of recursive self-improvement for AI via task-specific reasoning strategies with min data points and compatible with existing LLMs. The company targets enterprises and AI product teams seeking to solve complex business problems that standard language models struggle to handle).

Upscale AI - $200 million (An open-standard networking platform and custom silicon designed specifically to optimize and scale high-performance AI workloads. Their target customers include hyperscale data centers, AI infrastructure operators, and enterprises building large-scale GPU clusters for AGI).

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Investors have shown high activity in specific subcategories, effectively funding projects that are creating entirely new markets:

AI Development & Agent Frameworks- this subcategory consistently draws high investor interest, accounting for 10 out of the 30 projects in the AI Infrastructure category.

The "Compute & Systems Optimization" and "Data & Knowledge" subcategories each saw 7 projects funded. The "Interactive & Research AI Infrastructure" subcategory saw 5 projects.

Notably, "Interactive & Research AI Infrastructure" has the fewest early-stage startups, with only 2 out of 5 projects being at the Pre-Seed stage.

As for “Data & Knowledge Infrastructure” in this subcategory, investors continue to actively support projects focused on creating new models and interaction systems between data providers and consumers—essential for the evolution of AI models. This accounts for 5 out of 7 projects in the subcategory, with the majority of these currently at the Pre-Seed stage.

Startups in the AI Infrastructure category that received funding from venture capital market leaders at the Pre-Seed and Seed stages warrant particular attention and interest. These projects launched across all four subcategories:

AI Development & Agent Frameworks: Polymath, Moda, Oximy, Jinba, Sentrial, Salus, RadixArk, Inferact.

Applied, Interactive & Research AI: Traverse, Ishiki Labs, and Poetiq.

Compute & Systems Optimization: Chamber, Cumulus Labs, Compresr, Voxel Energy, and Condor Energy.

Data & Knowledge Infrastructure: Orthogonal, ARC Prize Foundation, Shofo, Human Archive, and VOYGR.

All of the startups secured $0.5 million at the Pre-Seed stage. Notably, two startups at the Seed stage, Poetiq and  Inferact raised a substantial funding for this round:

Inferact: $150 million (Optimizing the inference phase with advanced AI infrastructure (base on vLLM), for deploying high-performance models at scale. The company targets AI application developers, infrastructure teams, and enterprises seeking to run diverse workloads efficiently across hardware).

Poetiq: $45.8 million (Developed a new technology for recursive self-improvement in AI via task-specific reasoning strategies. This approach requires minimal data points and remains compatible with existing LLMs. The company targets enterprises and AI product teams seeking to solve complex business problems that standard language models struggle to handle.)

AI Industries

The “Industries” category became the largest by the number of funded projects…….., featuring applied solutions for a wide range of sectors. Notably, with the exception of only three startups, all projects in this category utilize AI technologies.

 The most popular subcategories among investors were:

Engineering, Technical & Robotics: 8 projects

Manufacturing: 6 projects

Energy: 5 projects

Agriculture and Logistics & Supply Chain: 4 projects each

Interestingly, a significant portion of these projects is targeted at international markets rather than being limited to the US. In January, significant number of startups across these industries were funded at the Pre-Seed stage. This likely confirms a steady investor interest in new applied ideas and technologies, as most industrial sectors have not yet exhausted the potential for AI integration.

By the end of January, three projects had achieved unicorn status:

In subcategory-Engineering & Technical & Robots Skild AI (backed by SoftBank Group) Developing a general-purpose AI brain for robots that uses massive scaling to enable autonomous physical movement across diverse hardware.

Target customers include robotics manufacturers and industrial firms seeking to automate complex physical tasks in varied environments.

In Hospitality & Services Mews (backed by EQT Growth Zipline). Platform to automate operations and personalize guest experiences. Their target customers are modern hoteliers, including hotel chains, boutique hotels, hostels, and alternative accommodation providers.

In Logistics & Supply Chain Zipline (backed by Fidelity Management & Research Company) the autonomous drone delivery service that utilizes AI and machine learning to navigate complex environments and drop packages. Their primary customers include healthcare providers, government agencies, and retail brands such as Walmart, Sweetgreen, and GNC.

Media & Advertisement

This project category consistently attracts investors, with more than half of the funded projects currently at the Pre-Seed stage.

Following the results of January, Higsfield—which received funding at the Early Stage—has reached unicorn status (backed by Accel,GFT Ventures, and Menlo Ventures)with a  video generation tool designed toempower creators with advanced mobile editing and animation targeted to socialmedia creators, marketers, and individuals looking to produceprofessional-grade video content with ease.

Interestingly, three separate projects focused on analyzing how AI perceives brands received funding in January: Sitefire, Limy AI and Unusual.

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The detailed data on the rounds is presented in the full report.

‍DISCLAIMER: This report analyzes market trends and is not a source of definitive or complete data. Due to the dynamic nature of the market, it's impossible to provide 100% accurate, allencompassing data. Our research is based on the information we have gathered through different public sources, and it may be corrected as new data becomes available. Investing in startups is inherently challenging and carries significant risks. This report should not be construed as investment, tax, or legal advice. We are not making any recommendations. If you are considering starting a business or making venture investments, you should consult with qualified professionals, who can provide personalized and competent advice.‍

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