Startups: The Ecosystem and How They're Funded · Part 7 of 8
Where Startups Are Built
Where the funding goes by region, the places that lead in each, and the venture firms to know.
Startup activity has spread across the world as capital, talent, and remote work have become mobile, and companies get funded outside the traditional hubs. The dollars remain concentrated, as the funding table below shows.
Where the money goes
Funding is more concentrated than reputations suggest. In 2025 the United States took about 64.5% of the roughly $425 billion Crunchbase counted globally in its January 2026 data (up from 56% in 2024). Within the US the money clusters further: Crunchbase reported that California startups attracted more than $110 billion through July 2025, close to two-thirds of all US venture funding. Crunchbase's later reports put the full-year 2025 global total at $440 billion, so the table below is a January 2026 snapshot.
| Region | 2025 funding | Share of global | Leading locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $274.0B | 64.5% | San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, Boston |
| Europe (including the UK) | $58.0B | 13.6% | United Kingdom, France, Germany |
| Asia (including Israel) | $67.5B | 15.9% | China, India, Israel |
| Rest of world | $25.5B | 6.0% | Canada, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa |
| Global | $425.0B | 100.0% |
A founder in one region can raise from an investor on another continent, and remote teams have made location less decisive. Geography still shapes time zone overlap with investors, access to a talent pool, and the local regulatory environment.
The VC firms to know
Priced rounds are usually led by venture capital firms, though angels often still participate. Each firm has a reputation for certain stages or sectors, and the descriptions below are general orientation; every firm invests outside them at times. The ten firms below are well-known examples, not a ranking.
| Firm | Focus | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Sequoia Capital | Generalist | One of the most established firms, investing from seed through growth across a wide range of sectors |
| Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) | Generalist | A large, platform-driven model with dedicated teams across crypto, bio, and AI |
| Accel | Generalist | Long history in enterprise software and consumer, investing globally |
| Lightspeed | Generalist | Broad multi-stage investing, enterprise and consumer |
| General Catalyst | Generalist | Broad multi-stage investing spanning enterprise, consumer, and healthcare |
| Bessemer Venture Partners | Industry or segment | Deep roots in cloud and SaaS, with widely referenced public research on software metrics |
| Khosla Ventures | Industry or segment | Technically ambitious, higher-risk bets, including deep tech and climate |
| Founders Fund | Industry or segment | A contrarian, founder-friendly stance and a focus on hard technology bets |
| Flagship Pioneering | Industry or segment | Biotech and life sciences; a venture studio that originates companies in-house |
| Insight Partners | Industry or segment | Growth-stage software investing, often with a data-driven, operationally hands-on approach |
Firms cross these lines. A firm known for growth-stage software might also run a seed program, and a consumer-focused firm might have a team focused on infrastructure. Firm structures also change: Sequoia's China and India/Southeast Asia arms spun out in 2023 as HongShan and Peak XV.
Beyond the generalist firms, specialist investors focus on categories that demand domain expertise a generalist fund may lack, such as AI, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare, climate, deep tech, defense, and developer infrastructure. A well-known generalist firm and a specialist can both fit the same company: the generalist for brand and network, the specialist for technical judgment. A founder raising in a technical category benefits from asking who understands the product.