CB Insights has reportedly analyzed over 1,350 early-stage deals in October 2025 in order to identify the most promising or high-potential firms, major investors, as well as emerging categories to watch closely (all this was said to have been based on CB Insights predictive intelligence).
As stated in the research report, early-stage activity points to what’s next in tech, from the fast maturing stablecoin infrastructure to the specialized data providers emerging as vital AI infrastructure enablers.
In October, private firms internationally secured 1,350+ early-stage rounds globally (noting this total figure will most likely rise as more deals are released retroactively).
As noted in the report from CB Insights, blockchain startups raised more than 80 deals in October (out of 1,394 total early-stage deals), in line or consistent with September’s activity.
As mentioned in the research report, the deals accounted for $1.1B in funding, representing “13% of total early-stage dollars invested in the month and a major jump from prior months, thanks to Tempo’s $500M round.”
Overall, institutional investor activity (20 blockchain deals had CVC backers) and a “median deal size of $6M (vs. $2.5M across the venture landscape) indicates investor conviction in a maturing blockchain landscape.”
Stablecoin infrastructure emerged as “a leading theme, with 15+ companies raising capital in October.”
The build-out is happening across several different layers.
At the protocol level, Tempo (744 Mosaic), a Layer-1 blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm for stablecoin transactions and payments, “raised the largest round of the month — a $500M Series A at a $5B valuation.”
Activity extends to the middleware layer, with Tesser (618 Mosaic, $4.5M seed) and Cybrid (705 Mosaic, $10M Series A) building API infrastructure “that lets traditional banks integrate stablecoin capabilities.”
As indicated in the report, “geographic diversification” is notable as well.
Lumx (596 Mosaic, $3.4M seed) focuses on stablecoin payments infrastructure in Latin America, while Standard Economics (671 Mosaic, $9M) “is targeting developing markets with cross-border payment solutions.”
The activity signals the potential of stablecoin rails to “become core financial infrastructure.”
As stated in the report, AI agents make inroads “across semiconductor design, healthcare, payments.”
Companies targeting AI agent appls and infrastructure “raised over 70 deals in October.”
Smart Money investors — “the top 25 VCs identified by CB Insights — backed 16 AI agent startups (22%) in the month.”
Here are some other highlights:
- Browser automation & web agent infrastructure (5 deals): Most business-critical workflows “still live in web UIs that require manual navigation rather than APIs.” Companies like Kernel (646 Mosaic, $22M Series A) provide browsers-as-a-service infrastructure “that enables agents to interact with websites.”
- Semiconductor & hardware design (5 deals): Hardware engineering, from semiconductor chips to mechanical CAD, involves complex, time-intensive design and verification tasks. ChipAgents (710 Mosaic, $21M Series A) automates chip design workflows, while Adam (576 Mosaic, $4.1M) provides AI-powered CAD tools for mechanical engineering and 3D design.
- Voice agents for healthcare (4 deals): Healthcare providers face labor shortages and 24/7 patient communication demands. Attuned Intelligence (669 Mosaic, $13M seed), Remedy (474 Mosaic, $0.5M YC note), and OutcomesAI ($10M seed) deploy voice agents that handle appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and patient triage autonomously.
- Payments & transaction infrastructure (4 deals): To enable agents to initiate transactions, companies like Kite AI (702 Mosaic, Series A) are building specialized payment infrastructure. Others in this category such as Pagentic (562 Mosaic, $2M pre-seed) are focused on building payments and billing infrastructure for monetizing AI agents’ activities.
October early-stage activity (6 deals) highlights specialized data providers emerging as “important infrastructure for AI development, particularly for reasoning, coding, and physical-world applications.”
This research report now includes equity early-stage financings (convertible note, angel, pre-seed, seed, Series A) to private companies in October of this year.
CB Insights clarified that they have excluded firms that are considered to be later-stage that secured an angel round or convertible note in the month.
As stated in the research update, categorization based mainly on company descriptions.