China’s Largest Startup Deal Ever Lifts Global Venture Funding To $59B In October
Global venture funding in October totaled $59 billion, a 45% jump from a year earlier, per Crunchbase data, in large part due to a record-setting $15.9 billion funding round for China’s DeepSeek.
Global venture funding reached $59 billion in October, a 45% increase from the previous year, according to Crunchbase data. The impressive surge in funding was largely driven by a record-setting deal for China's DeepSeek, which secured a $15.9 billion funding round, marking the largest ever for a Chinese company. This deal positions DeepSeek among the top 10 most highly funded private companies globally, and the second most valuable Chinese company after ByteDance.
Additionally, two other frontier labs in October raised $1 billion or more in Series A rounds, further fueling the overall funding growth. The majority of the venture funding in October was invested in the leading startup markets, with U.S.-based companies receiving $28 billion and Chinese companies raising $20.6 billion. Over 66% of the global funding was in AI-driven companies, reflecting the increasing focus on artificial intelligence.
Seven companies accounted for more than 40% of the global funding in October, highlighting the concentration of investments. Meanwhile, the U.S. IPO market remained relatively quiet, anticipating Anthropic's upcoming IPO that could surpass previous records in terms of size.
Written by urgent.news from Crunchbase News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
