Tiffany Luck, a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), focuses her investments on the AI application layer and B2B SaaS. With a background spanning early e-commerce at Amazon and tech M&A at Morgan Stanley, Luck now emphasizes the potential of vertical AI to solve specific, practical business challenges—particularly in the "last mile" of automation where general AI models fall short. She highlights how startups can build strong moats by delivering targeted solutions tailored to industries such as financial planning and legal due diligence, enhancing ROI by owning comprehensive workflows rather than just relying on model innovation. Luck also points to the evolving relationship between startups and major AI platforms, predicting a future where specialized tools integrate seamlessly within larger AI-driven operating systems. She stresses the critical importance of auditability, accuracy, and cybersecurity in regulated sectors and anticipates a transformative shift soon, where AI-enabled autonomous workflows will fundamentally change how businesses operate.

In Q1 2026, startups collectively raised a record-breaking $300 billion in venture capital, with four firms absorbing 65% of this total. While this concentration may seem discouraging for seed-stage founders, early-stage funding actually increased by 41% year-over-year. The key trend is a shift from horizontal SaaS, which is declining due to AI enabling native coordination, to vertical SaaS that leverages proprietary data and industry-specific workflows — sectors such as insurance, healthcare, financial services, and construction stand to benefit significantly.

As software adoption expands, AI is driving a substantial increase in software spending, potentially growing the addressable market from $0.5 trillion to over $6 trillion by automating knowledge-work processes once untouched by traditional software. Smart founders are advised to target vertical market niches with AI-native solutions focusing on industry workflows, building products that integrate with existing enterprise systems, and positioning themselves for acquisition, as IPOs remain scarce.

Ultimately, despite the headline-grabbing mega-rounds for infrastructure, the true opportunity lies in creating specialized, revenue-generating solutions for underserved verticals. This strategy meets the increasing capital concentration at the top with a broad open playing field below, where dedicated founders can solve real problems and attract strategic acquirers.

Eli Lilly announced its acquisition of Kelonia Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on cancer treatments, for up to $7 billion in cash. This marks the largest purchase of a venture-backed biotech startup in recent years, underscoring confidence in Kelonia’s promising genetic medicine pipeline, including a multiple myeloma treatment showing strong clinical results. Founded just four years ago with $50 million in initial funding, Kelonia has quickly advanced, partnering with Astellas Pharma’s subsidiary to develop immuno-oncology therapies. Its innovative platform offers a faster, simpler alternative to CAR T-cell therapies by reprogramming patients' T-cells internally to fight cancer. The deal includes $3.25 billion upfront and potential milestone payments up to $3.75 billion, surpassing recent high-value acquisitions of similar in vivo therapeutic startups by Lilly and others. This acquisition highlights a growing trend in the biotech sector valuing rapid innovation in gene and cell therapy development.

By Louis Blankemeier
In October 2024, my co-founders and I embarked on a mission to translate our Ph.D. research into tangible healthcare solutions. We developed AI models capable of interpreting medical images such as X-rays and CT scans across thousands of potential diagnoses, creating comprehensive radiology reports that mirror radiologists’ clinical reasoning. This represented a major leap at a time when AI in radiology only flagged a few specific conditions.

Less than a year later, we faced a critical decision: continue raising venture capital and advance independently or accept an acquisition from Radiology Partners, the largest radiology practice worldwide. Contrary to the tech norm emphasizing independence, we chose collaboration to significantly boost our chances of transforming healthcare access.

Clinical AI faces complex regulatory hurdles, long sales cycles, and challenging market dynamics that favor well-established players. Joining forces with a major industry player offered resources, extensive data, and clinical integration required to develop reliable, scalable models. Research-scale successes do not guarantee clinical readiness; real-world radiology demands massive, diverse datasets and continuous performance monitoring to handle complex, high-stakes cases.

Moreover, sustainable success in healthcare AI hinges on rigorous evidence from large-scale implementation across diverse populations and environments, not small pilots. Partnering with Radiology Partners provided the infrastructure and credibility essential for trust and adoption, accelerating our mission to expand access to high-quality healthcare worldwide.

Louis Blankemeier is CEO and co-founder of Cognita, part of Radiology Partners. His work bridges AI research and clinical application, driven to improve healthcare accessibility through technology.

European venture capital funding hit $17.6 billion in Q1 2026, marking a nearly 30% increase year over year and the second consecutive quarter of growth, according to Crunchbase data. The surge was predominantly fueled by AI companies, which for the first time accounted for over half of all venture funding in Europe that quarter. Despite this growth in capital, the number of deals fell sharply by 40%, with notable decreases in seed and early-stage funding rounds. The UK and France saw year-over-year funding growth, raising $7.4 billion and $2.9 billion respectively, while Germany's funding remained flat. Late-stage funding nearly doubled compared to the previous year, highlighting investor confidence in more mature startups across diverse sectors such as AI hardware, fintech, and energy. The largest rounds included billion-dollar investments in AI pioneers like Advanced Machine Intelligence and Nscale, underscoring Europe’s expanding leadership in AI frontier technologies.

In the first quarter of this year, Asia's startup funding surged to its highest point in over three years, largely propelled by a revival in Chinese venture capital. Investors allocated $27.4 billion across seed to growth-stage funding rounds, marking a 20% increase from the previous quarter and nearly doubling compared to last year. Most funding flowed into larger rounds, with deal counts remaining stable. China led the charge, receiving $16.5 billion, about 60% of the region's total, mainly fueled by AI-focused ventures. India followed with $3.8 billion, including a significant $600 million AI investment. Funding rose across all stages, especially later-stage rounds, with notable investments like Singapore's $2 billion Series C for DayOne. Early-stage investments also peaked at $11.2 billion, and seed funding climbed 85% year-over-year. AI startups attracted a record $11.2 billion, highlighting AI's prominence in the market. Overall, the quarter reflects growing momentum in China's and other Asian countries' startup ecosystems, signaling a positive outlook for innovation and investment in the region.

Venture capital investment in fintech startups rose by 5% year-over-year, totaling $12 billion across 751 deals in Q1 2026, according to Crunchbase data. This is a notable drop in deal count by 31.5% compared to Q1 2025, pointing to larger average investment sizes, especially in late-stage funding, which reached $6.9 billion, up 8% year-over-year. However, funding declined 33% from Q4 2025 levels. The U.S. continued leading global fintech funding with $6.3 billion, a 47% increase from the previous year’s quarter, while the UK and India followed with $1.2 billion and $900 million raised, respectively. Major funding rounds included Kalshi's $1 billion raise, doubling its valuation to $22 billion, and significant raises by Vestwell and Rain. Investors like QED and TTV Capital remain optimistic, focusing on AI applications within fintech amid broader economic and geopolitical challenges. Predictions suggest ongoing AI integration and potential IPO activity depending on market conditions.

In the first quarter of 2026, North American startups secured a historic $252.6 billion in funding across all stages, shattering previous records. The surge was overwhelmingly driven by artificial intelligence companies, which attracted $221 billion — about 87% of total investment. This quarter's funding dwarfs the prior record of $95.7 billion set in Q3 2021. Notable investments include OpenAI's unprecedented $122 billion raise, and major rounds for Anthropic, xAI, and Waymo. While late-stage and technology growth rounds made up 88% of the total investment, early-stage funding also saw a healthy increase. Seed-stage investment remained steady at $5.1 billion, though with fewer deals. Exit activity was modest, featuring IPOs like EquipmentShare and significant acquisitions such as Brex by Capital One. This quarter marks a paradigm shift indicating private markets now rival public ones in capital and valuation appetite, particularly for AI ventures.

Updated as of April 1, 2026, Crunchbase data reveals an unprecedented $300 billion invested in startups globally during Q1 2026, marking a surge driven by AI compute and frontier labs. This quarter’s funding eclipsed typical records, reaching over 150% growth quarter and year over year, and nearly matching 70% of all venture capital spent in 2025. Most funds focused on AI, with the top four biggest deals involving U.S.-based frontier labs like OpenAI ($122B) and Anthropic ($30B). AI investments totaled $242 billion, or 80% of total funding, with the U.S. commanding 83% of venture capital. Late-stage investments exploded to $246.6 billion, while early-stage and seed funding also increased significantly. Though IPOs slowed in the U.S., mergers and acquisitions were strong, totaling over $56 billion in exits. This wave of funding highlights the ongoing impact of AI across sectors including autonomous vehicles, robotics, and semiconductors, with growing pressure for IPO market revival.

Recent headlines in venture capital highlight a trend toward larger investment rounds amidst rising valuations and mega funds. Smaller and more modest seed rounds are becoming less common, as confirmed by Crunchbase data on U.S. seed funding. From 2024 to 2025, deal counts and total funding for smaller seed rounds from $200,000 to under $5 million declined by roughly 20%, while the largest seed deals of $10 million and above grew significantly.

This bifurcation splits the market between elite AI startups attracting substantial Series A funding from major firms, and other companies facing tougher competition. In response, some seed funds are altering strategies to preserve more capital for promising startups and to invest at earlier stages, sometimes prior to product-market fit.

The share of seed deals under $5 million dropped from 93% in 2018 to 75% in 2025, while those above $10 million rose from 2% to 9%. Total U.S. seed funding reached $19.4 billion in 2025, largely driven by large rounds, including a record $2 billion seed round by Thinking Machines Lab. Outlier rounds over $50 million surged over 300% in 2025, reflecting AI’s influence on early-stage investment dynamics.

Seed funding is not declining but evolving, with larger rounds becoming the norm for top-tier startups, while smaller funds continue to play a vital role in nurturing emerging companies in a tough market environment.