Current News in Startups and Venture Investments as of October 14, 2025: Mega Funds Return, Record AI Rounds, Mega Deals in Climate Tech, IPO Revival, and Market Consolidation
By mid-October 2025, the global venture market is showing robust growth following a prolonged downturn in recent years. Investors around the world are once again actively funding technology startups—record deals are being made, and IPO plans for tech companies are back in the spotlight. Major players are returning with substantial investments, while governments are enhancing support for innovation. As a result, private capital is gradually re-entering the startup ecosystem, signaling a new wave of development in the venture market.
The growth in investment activity is evident across all regions. The US is leading confidently (especially in the artificial intelligence segment), while venture investment in the Middle East has doubled over the year, and Germany has surpassed the UK for the first time in Europe in terms of the number of deals. India, Southeast Asia, and Gulf countries are attracting record amounts of capital amid a relative downturn in activity in China. The startup ecosystems in the CIS countries are also striving to keep pace, despite external restrictions. A global venture boom is forming at the early stages, although investors remain selective and cautious.
Below are key events and trends that are defining the venture market's agenda as of October 14, 2025:
- Return of Mega Funds and Large Investors. Leading venture firms are raising unprecedented large funds and sharply increasing their investments, saturating the market with capital and igniting a risk appetite.
- Record Rounds in AI and New "Unicorns." Extremely large investments are raising startup valuations to unseen heights, particularly in the artificial intelligence sector.
- Revival of the IPO Market. Successful exits for tech companies and new listing applications confirm that the long-awaited "window" for exits is once again open.
- Diversification of Sector Focus. Venture capital is being directed not only into AI but also into fintech, climate projects, biotech, defense technologies, and even crypto startups.
- Wave of Consolidation and M&A Deals. Major mergers, acquisitions, and strategic investments are reshaping the industry's landscape, creating new opportunities for exits and accelerated growth.
- Local Focus: Russia and the CIS. New funds and initiatives aimed at developing local startup ecosystems are being launched in the region, drawing in investor attention.
Return of Mega Funds: Big Money is Back in the Market
The largest investment players are triumphantly returning to the venture arena, indicating a new growth in risk appetite. For instance, the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is forming a new Vision Fund III with a volume of approximately $40 billion, focused on advanced technologies (AI, robotics, etc.). Sovereign funds from Gulf countries have also become active: they are pouring billions of dollars into technological projects and rolling out state mega-programs to support the startup sector, creating their own tech hubs in the Middle East. Meanwhile, dozens of new venture funds are emerging globally, attracting significant institutional capital to invest in high-tech sectors.
Notable Silicon Valley firms are also increasing their presence. In the American venture sector, funds have accumulated record reserves of uninvested capital ("dry powder")—hundreds of billions of dollars that are ready to be deployed as market confidence returns. The influx of this "big money" is filling the startup market with liquidity, providing resources for new rounds and supporting the growth of promising companies' valuations. The return of mega funds from large institutional investors not only intensifies competition for the best deals but also instills confidence in the industry regarding future capital inflows.
Record Investments in AI and a New Wave of "Unicorns"
The artificial intelligence sector is serving as the main engine of the current venture upturn, demonstrating record funding levels. Investors are eager to position themselves within the leaders of the AI sector, directing colossal funds toward the most promising projects. For instance, the startup xAI (Elon Musk) has raised approximately $10 billion in funding, while OpenAI received around $8–9 billion across several rounds at a valuation of about $300 billion—both cases were accompanied by substantial oversubscription, highlighting the frenzy around AI companies.
Interestingly, venture investments are directed not only towards end AI applications but also towards infrastructure for them. For instance, one data storage startup for AI is rumored to be negotiating a multi-billion round at a very high valuation—the market is ready to finance even the "shovels and picks" for the new AI ecosystem. As a result, the current investment boom is generating a wave of new "unicorns" (startups valued at over $1 billion). Although experts warn of the risk of overheating, investor appetite for AI startups remains unyielded: in the third quarter of 2025, AI accounted for about 46% of all global venture investments.
Topping the list of the largest rounds in recent months are companies related to generative AI. For instance, the Californian startup Anthropic raised a record $13 billion in funding, Elon Musk's project xAI attracted about $5 billion, and the French Mistral AI raised $2 billion. One-third of all venture investments worldwide in the third quarter were directed towards just 18 companies, each of which secured $500 million or more. This unprecedented capital concentration underscores how the race for AI leaders is driving valuations to new heights.
The IPO Market Revives: A Window of Opportunity for Exits
The global market for initial public offerings (IPOs) is emerging from a lull and gaining momentum. In Asia, Hong Kong has launched a new wave of listings: in recent weeks, several large tech companies have gone public, collectively raising billions of dollars. For example, the Chinese battery giant CATL successfully listed shares, raising approximately $5 billion, demonstrating investors' readiness in the region to actively participate in IPOs again.
In the US and Europe, the situation in the capital markets is also noticeably improving. The American fintech unicorn Chime recently made its stock market debut, and its shares surged approximately 30% on the first trading day. Shortly after, the design platform Figma conducted an IPO, raising about $1.2 billion at a valuation of around $15–20 billion; its shares also steadily climbed in the initial days. In the second half of 2025, several other well-known startups, including the payment service Stripe and a number of other highly valued companies, are preparing for public offerings.
Even the crypto industry is trying to capitalize on the revival: the fintech company Circle, involved in cryptocurrencies, successfully went public in the summer (its shares soared after the IPO), and the cryptocurrency exchange Bullish has filed for a listing in the US with a target valuation of around $4 billion. Overall, the global volume of funds raised through IPOs in the third quarter of 2025 increased by nearly 90% compared to the previous year. The resurgence of activity in the IPO market is of utmost importance for the venture ecosystem: successful public offerings allow funds to realize profitable exits and reinvest liberated capital into new projects.
Diversified Investments: Not Just AI
In 2025, venture investments are covering an increasingly broad range of sectors and are no longer limited to merely artificial intelligence. Following last year’s downturn, fintech is once again gaining momentum: significant funding rounds are taking place not only in the US but also in Europe and emerging markets, fueling new digital financial services. Simultaneously, interest in climate technologies, "green" energy, and agri-tech is growing—these areas are attracting record investments amid a global sustainability trend. In particular, several "climate tech" startups managed to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding in 2025, with large corporations creating special funds for investments in eco-friendly projects.
There’s also a resurgence of interest in biotechnology: the emergence of new promising drug developments and medtech platforms is once again attracting capital as the industry emerges from a period of declining valuations. Additionally, amid heightened attention to security, investors are more actively funding defense technology projects: in the first seven months of 2025, European startups in defense tech secured over €1.4 billion in investments—a record figure driven by geopolitical factors. A partial recovery of confidence in the cryptocurrency market has also allowed some blockchain startups to secure venture funding again. Consequently, this expansion of sector focus is making the entire startup ecosystem more resilient and reducing the risk of overheating in specific segments.
Consolidation and M&A Deals: Expanding Players
Elevated valuations of startups and fierce competition in the markets are driving the industry toward consolidation. Major mergers and acquisitions are once again taking center stage, redistributing power within the ecosystem. A notable example is the corporation Google reaching an agreement to acquire the Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz for approximately $32 billion, marking a record "exit" in the history of the Israeli tech sector. This deal also represents the largest acquisition in Google's history, signaling technology giants' eagerness to acquire key technologies and talent.
Such mega-deals demonstrate major corporations' readiness to aggressively expand by acquiring promising startups. Overall, the current high level of activity in the realm of acquisitions and significant venture deals indicates the market's maturation. Mature startups are either merging with one another or becoming acquisition targets for technology leaders. For venture funds, this finally opens the opportunity for long-awaited profitable exits after several years of stagnation.
Russia and the CIS: Local Initiatives Amid Global Trends
Despite external restrictions, startup activity in Russia and neighboring countries is witnessing a revival. Several new venture funds with a total volume of around 10–12 billion rubles aimed at supporting early-stage tech projects have been announced. Local startups are beginning to attract more serious capital: for example, the Krasnodar-based food tech project Qummy recently received around 440 million rubles in investment at a valuation of approximately 2.4 billion rubles. Furthermore, Russian authorities have once again allowed foreign investors to invest in local innovative companies, gradually rekindling interest from foreign capital in the market.
While the volume of venture investments in the region is still modest compared to global levels, it is growing steadily. At the beginning of October at the Moscow Startup Summit, funds and private investors announced approximately 1.6 billion rubles in investment proposals for Russian startups—this is over 20% of the total venture investment volume in Russia for the first half of 2025. Major corporations are also becoming active: for instance, the technological subsidiary of VK (VK Tech) publicly stated the possibility of an IPO in the near future if market conditions improve. New governmental support measures (including the establishment of university venture funds with a volume of 3.5 billion rubles for student projects) and corporate initiatives aim to provide additional momentum to the local startup ecosystem and integrate it into global trends.
Cautious Optimism and Quality Growth
By mid-autumn 2025, the venture market instills a sense of moderate optimism: successful IPOs and significant funding rounds have demonstrated that the downturn period is behind us. Yet, investors continue to act selectively, favoring startups with sustainable business models and real revenues. Significant capital inflows into AI and other sectors instill confidence, but funds are eager to diversify their investments and tighten risk controls, ensuring that the new upturn does not lead to overheating. Thus, the industry is entering a new phase of development focused on quality, balanced growth, where long-term sustainability and efficiency of startups will be the primary guiding principles.
