Dealmaking Remained Steady in Q3 Despite Declining Funding

During the third quarter, active startup investors largely maintained or accelerated their dealmaking frequency, even though overall venture funding dropped due to a lack of fresh, record-breaking megarounds for artificial intelligence leaders.

Figures from Crunchbase reveal that a majority of the most prolific venture investors completed more transactions in Q3 than they did in the preceding quarter. This trend includes traditionally busy firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners, and Sequoia Capital.

Leading venture investors similarly stepped up their activity over the past quarter, despite the highest-spending firms appearing to deploy smaller amounts of total capital. Meanwhile, top seed-stage dealmakers largely maintained their positions.

A closer examination of these trends is detailed below through rankings across multiple categories, including overall venture dealmakers, heavy spenders, lead backers, and seed investors.

Most active venture investors

Focusing on post-seed rounds, Y Combinator led all firms by participating in 45 deals. The well-known accelerator frequently places high on this list because it joins follow-on financing rounds for the startups it initially incubates.

Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Partners, and Sequoia Capital followed on the list. In total, as shown below, at least 22 distinct investors took part in 10 or more known venture rounds during the quarter.

Busiest lead investors

Among firms acting as lead investors in venture rounds, Insight, Andreessen, and Khosla Ventures secured the top spots with 18, 16, and 12 rounds respectively.

Three additional firms — Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia, and Atreides Management — each managed 10 lead deals during Q3.

Spendiest lead investors

To determine which lead investors deployed the most capital in Q3, rankings were calculated by examining investors whose led rounds featured the highest combined aggregate value.1

Valor and Atreides shared the No. 1 position under this metric, recording $7.7 billion in led or co-led transactions for the quarter. The two firms shared several overlapping investments, appearing together as lead investors in at least six rounds. These transactions included Crusoe’s $3.9 billion Series F and Positron’s $375 million Series C.

Andreessen Horowitz and Nvidia followed closely in the rankings with $6.5 billion and $6.3 billion in led or co-led Q3 deals, respectively. Andreessen’s totals were primarily driven by a $2 billion round for Cognition and a $1.7 billion financing for Atoms, while Nvidia’s standout transaction was a $5 billion round for Safe Superintelligence.

Seed investors

Seed-stage investors also remained active through Q3. Y Combinator was by far the most active participant, engaging in at least 221 known seed rounds throughout the quarter according to Crunchbase data.

Antler also secured a prominent position with 31 reported seed deals, followed by LvlUp Ventures and Rebel Fund, which completed 24 and 23 reported transactions, respectively.

Overall, another busy, AI-driven quarter

Ultimately, these active investor rankings highlight another robust quarter for startup financing, with artificial intelligence driving the vast majority of deal activity.

While familiar institutions continue to dominate most categories, certain firms are noticeably expanding their investment footprints, with Atreides and Valor notably elevating their participation levels recently.

Related Crunchbase query:

• Global Venture Funding In 2026

Related reading:

• North America’s Startup Funding Falls In Q3 As AI Giants Eye The Public Markets
• Crunchbase Data: Q3 2026 Posted A Record Count Of Billion-Dollar Rounds As The Global AI Race Heats Up

Illustration: Dom Guzman