Fresh Startup and Venture Investment News for Thursday, 20 November 2025: The Return of Mega Funds, Massive AI Rounds, Revitalization of IPOs, M&A Surge, Renewed Interest in Crypto Startups, and New Unicorns. A Detailed Review for Venture Investors and Funds.
By the end of November 2025, the global venture market exhibits a robust recovery following a downturn in recent years. According to industry analysis, the total volume of venture investments reached approximately $97 billion in the third quarter of 2025 – nearly 38% higher than the previous year, marking the best quarterly performance since 2021. The prolonged period of "venture winter" from 2022 to 2023 is now behind us, and the influx of private capital into tech startups is accelerating significantly. Major funding rounds and the launch of new mega funds signal a revival of risk appetite among investors, although they remain selective and cautious in their investments.
The growth in venture activity spans nearly all regions of the world. The U.S. maintains its leadership (especially in the rapidly evolving AI segment), while investments in the Middle East have nearly doubled year-on-year. For the first time in a decade, Germany has surpassed the U.K. in total venture capital in Europe. In Asia, the explosive growth in India and Southeast Asia is compensating for a relative downturn in China. Emerging tech hubs are also forming in Africa and Latin America. The startup ecosystems in Russia and the CIS countries are striving to keep pace despite external constraints. Overall, the global market is gaining strength, although investors continue to prefer the most promising and resilient projects.
- The Return of Mega Funds and Significant Capital. Leading venture players are forming record funds and once again injecting substantial resources into the market, reigniting risk appetite.
- Record Rounds in AI and a New Generation of Unicorns. Mega funding rounds in the field of artificial intelligence are inflating company valuations and giving rise to a wave of new "unicorns" – startups valued over $1 billion.
- The Revival of the IPO Market. Successful public offerings of tech companies and new listing applications confirm that the long-awaited "window" for exits is open once more.
- Diversification of Sector Focus. Venture capital is now directed not only at AI but also at fintech, climate projects, biotechnology, aerospace, and defense developments – expanding the investment horizon.
- A Wave of Consolidation and M&A. Major mergers and acquisitions are reshaping the industry landscape, creating new opportunities for profitable exits and accelerated growth of companies.
- A 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. New funds and programs to support local startups are being launched in Russia and neighboring countries, gradually attracting investor interest despite geopolitical constraints.
The Return of Mega Funds: Big Money Back in the Market
Major investment funds and institutional players are re-entering the venture arena, signaling a new wave of enthusiasm for riskier investments. Following a vc fundraising downturn in 2022–2024, leading firms are resuming capital raising and launching mega funds, demonstrating confidence in market prospects. For instance, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is forming its third Vision Fund, amounting to around $40 billion, with a focus on cutting-edge technologies (including artificial intelligence and robotics). In the U.S., Andreessen Horowitz is raising a record-sized venture fund of approximately $20 billion, focusing on late-stage AI startups. Sovereign funds from Gulf countries are also becoming active, pouring billions into high-tech projects and developing their own tech hubs.
Simultaneously, dozens of new venture funds are emerging in many regions, attracting significant institutional capital for investment in tech companies. The return of such large-scale "mega structures" signals that startups have greater opportunities to secure funding for growth, and 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 main driver of the current venture boom, showcasing record levels of funding. It is estimated that around half of all venture capital raised in 2025 will go to AI-focused companies. Global investments in artificial intelligence this year may exceed $200 billion – an unprecedented level for the industry. This excitement is fueled by the promise of AI technologies to dramatically enhance efficiency across numerous sectors – from industrial automation and transportation to personal digital assistants – opening up multi-trillion-dollar new markets. Despite concerns about market overheating, funds are continuing to ramp up their investments, fearing they might miss the next technological revolution.
Unprecedented inflows of capital are accompanied by its concentration among leaders. A significant portion of funding is directed toward a few companies capable of becoming defining players in the new AI era. For example, California-based startup OpenAI has raised approximately $13 billion, French company Mistral AI secured around $2 billion, and Jeff Bezos's new venture Project Prometheus is launching with a capital of $6.2 billion. Such mega rounds sharply inflate these companies' valuations, forming a new cohort of "super-unicorns." While these deals inflate valuations and fuel discussions of a bubble, they also concentrate vast resources on the most promising directions, laying the groundwork for future breakthroughs. In recent weeks, dozens of companies worldwide have announced significant funding rounds – including British platform Synthesia (which raised $200 million at a valuation of ~$4 billion for the development of AI-based video generation technology) and American cybersecurity developer Armis (which obtained $435 million in a pre-IPO round at a valuation of $6.1 billion).
The Revival of the IPO Market: An Exit Window is Open Again
Amid rising valuations and an influx of capital, tech companies are once again actively preparing to go public. After nearly two years of stagnation, there has been a surge in IPOs as a key mechanism for venture investor exits. A series of successful public offerings in 2025 has confirmed the opening of the "opportunity window" for exits. For example, in the U.S., the number of IPOs this year has already surpassed 300, which is tens of percent higher than in 2024, and shares of several debutants have shown steady growth. Positive signals are also emerging in developing markets: Indian educational unicorn PhysicsWallah went public in November with an impressive stock rise of over 30% on its first trading day, serving as an encouraging indicator for the entire edtech sector.
The success of recent offerings is restoring investor confidence that the market can absorb new tech issuers. Following the early "sparrows," several large private companies have announced IPO plans, eager to take advantage of favorable conditions. Even giants like OpenAI are considering a public offering in 2026 with a potential valuation in the hundreds of billions – if this occurs, it would be an unprecedented event for the venture sector. Overall, the revitalization of the IPO market expands exit horizons, facilitating capital recovery for venture funds and stimulating a new cycle of investments in startups.
Diversification of Sectors: Expanding Investment Horizons
In 2025, venture investments are covering a much broader range of sectors and are no longer limited to artificial intelligence alone. Following last year's downturn, the fintech sector has noticeably revived: new fintech startups are attracting substantial rounds, especially in payment systems and decentralized finance. Active growth is being observed in climate and "green" technologies in response to the global demand for sustainable development – investors are funding projects from renewable energy to carbon capture technologies.
Additionally, interest in biotechnology and medtech is returning: large funds, particularly in Europe, are forming specialized funds to support pharmaceutical and medical startups. Space technologies and defense projects are also gaining increased attention – geopolitical factors and breakthroughs in commercial space travel are stimulating investments in satellite groups, rocket manufacturing, unmanned systems, and defense AI solutions. Thus, the focus of venture capital investments has significantly expanded, enhancing market resilience – even if the hype surrounding AI diminishes slightly, other sectors are poised to take over the baton of innovations.
A Wave of Consolidation and M&A: The Industry is Being Recharted
High valuations of startups and intensifying competition are prompting companies to seek synergy through mergers and acquisitions. In 2025, a new wave of consolidation is emerging: large tech corporations are once again actively pursuing acquisitions, and mature startups are merging to strengthen their market positions. Such deals are reshaping the industry landscape, allowing for the creation of more resilient business models and providing investors with long-awaited exits.
In recent months, several notable M&A deals have caught the attention of the venture community. For instance, American IT giant Cisco announced the acquisition of a startup specializing in AI translation, integrating new technologies into its products. Other corporations are also keeping pace: strategic investors from the finance and industrial sectors are acquiring promising fintech and IoT companies in a bid to gain access to their developments and customer bases. Meanwhile, some unicorns prefer to merge with each other or sell to larger players to collectively overcome rising costs and accelerate scaling. For venture funds, this wave of consolidation opens new exit pathways – successful M&A transactions often yield significant profits and validate the viability of invested business models.
Renewed Interest in Crypto Startups: The Market Comes Alive After the "Crypto Winter"
Following a prolonged decline in interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects – the so-called "crypto winter" – the situation began to change in 2025. Venture investments in crypto startups have increased significantly: it is estimated that total funding for blockchain projects this year has 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.
Major Silicon Valley funds, and even conservative players, are returning to this segment. In recent weeks, several crypto and DeFi startups have secured funding rounds from prominent investors. For example, the venture arm of brokerage firm Robinhood and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund participated in the funding of promising blockchain platforms. By the end of the year, the volume of venture investments in cryptocurrency projects may approach a record $25 billion. This signals that the industry is undergoing a sort of renaissance: after purging speculation from the market, the focus has shifted to real use cases of blockchain, attracting "smart money". As a result, a number of crypto startups are once again vying for unicorn status, with some exchange and infrastructure projects already achieving billion-dollar valuations.
Local Focus: Russia and CIS Countries
Despite global 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 initiatives aimed at supporting early-stage tech projects. In particular, the authorities of St. Petersburg discussed the creation of a city venture fund in November to finance promising high-tech companies – similar to the initiative implemented in the Republic of Tatarstan with a capital fund of 15 billion rubles. Additionally, large corporations and banks in the region are increasingly stepping in as investors and mentors for startups, developing corporate accelerators and venture units.
Beyond governmental efforts, the entrepreneurial community is also noticeably revitalizing. International technology forums and summits (such as the recent Moscow AI Journey 2025) are being held to draw attention to local innovations and establish bridges between Russian developers and global investors. All this is taking place against a backdrop of a pursuit for technological sovereignty – local startups are adapting to new conditions and seeking niches where they can compete on a global level. Slowly but surely, investor interest in the region is returning: the first cases of successful funding rounds and exits are emerging even under current difficult conditions. Thus, the local market strives to keep pace with global trends, establishing a foundation for future growth and integration into the global startup ecosystem.
