Venture fundraising on Carta rebounded sharply in 2025, with startups raising nearly $120 billion as investor appetite shifted back toward higher valuations and founder-friendly terms, while AI increasingly dictated where the biggest checks went, a Carta report showed.
Startups on Carta raised $119.5 billion in new funding in 2025, up 16.9% from 2024, extending a recovery that followed the market reset of 2022.
Momentum accelerated into year-end, with $36.1 billion raised in the fourth quarter alone, Carta’s strongest quarterly tally since the second quarter of 2022.
Signs of stress from the 2022 valuation correction also eased.
Down rounds accounted for less than 14% of new fundings in Q4, the lowest rate in the past three years, as companies either raised multiple rounds since the downturn or grew into higher valuations, in some cases helped by AI-driven productivity gains.
But the report said the market’s improvement has come with a growing split between winners and everyone else, as capital concentrates into fewer and often larger, AI-heavy financings.
Total round count fell to a six-year low of 4,859 rounds in 2025, down 41% from the 2021 peak, underscoring how investment dollars are being allocated to a smaller set of deals.
That concentration was most visible in late-stage fundraising. At Series D, AI startups captured 58% of all cash raised, the report said.
Median valuations rose at every stage, with the sharpest jump at the latest end of the market: Series E+ median valuations rose 667% year over year, reflecting the impact of large, premium-priced rounds.
Carta also pointed to a widening “AI premium” across stages.
From Series A onward, AI startups raised larger rounds and secured higher valuations than non-AI peers. At Series A, median AI valuations were 38% higher, while at Series E+ the premium reached 193%.
Despite stronger private fundraising, liquidity remained constrained. The report described a tough environment for IPOs and other exits, prompting more late-stage bridge financings and a pickup in tender offers.
Startups on Carta conducted 396 tenders in 2025, up 62% from 2024, with nearly 20% coming from companies at Series E or later.
Regionally, the U.S. Northeast gained share, accounting for 24.8% of cash raised on Carta in 2025 and 33.1% in Q4, though the West remained the leading fundraising region.