The Venture Pulse report provides insights around trends, opportunities, and challenges in the U.S. venture capital market.
A renewed sense of optimism began to take hold in the U.S. VC market during Q3’25, fueled by a pickup in IPO exits, rising valuations across stages, and an exceptionally active investment climate for a wide range of AI-driven solutions.
The U.S. remained the epicenter of AI investment in Q3’25, capturing the vast majority of the jurisdiction’s largest deals. AI system and LLM developers dominated the quarter, led by landmark raises from Anthropic ($13 billion) and xAI ($10 billion), along with a $1 billion round by Reflection AI, a fast-rising entrant in the space.
Beyond foundational model players, the broader AI ecosystem also secured substantial late-stage financing. Notable raises included Databricks ($1 billion) and Groq ($750 million), both key players in AI infrastructure, as well as Magic ($550 million), an emerging AI application company. Other major rounds included Perplexity AI ($600 million), which is redefining AI-powered search and Ramp ($514 million), leveraging AI to transform expense management in fintech, and Cognition AI ($500 million), advancing AI-driven coding solutions.
Together, these transactions reinforce the depth and breadth of capital flowing into AI, from infrastructure and core models to applied solutions across verticals — cementing the sector’s position as the defining growth driver of U.S. venture capital.
The cautious optimism we saw last quarter has shifted to genuine optimism. Companies that IPO’d earlier are performing well, and more recent listings have also delivered strong results. Overall, the outlook feels very positive. Sector-wise, little has changed — AI remains the hottest vertical, defensetech continues to attract strong interest, and fintech has had an excellent year, well beyond crypto. Looking ahead to Q4’25 and into 2025, all indicators point to continued strength.
Conor Moore
Global Head, KPMG Private Enterprise
After a cautiously optimistic Q2’25, the U.S. IPO market decisively reopened in Q3’25, marked by a string of high-profile and successful listings. The quarter began with the blockbuster debut of Figma, the collaborative design platform, which raised $1.2 billion in its July IPO. Shares soared 250% on the first day of trading, setting a bullish tone for subsequent listings.1
This was followed by the IPO of Bullish, the first digital asset exchange to list on the NYSE. The company raised $1.1 billion, with shares closing up 84% on Day One, signaling strong investor appetite for regulated digital asset platforms. Adding to the momentum, Sweden-based Klarna completed its long-anticipated offering, raising $1.4 billion2, with shares climbing 15% in initial trading.3
The spate of IPOs exits in Q3’25 suggests that the IPO market in the US has firmly reopened. Given the length of the protracted IPO drought, there are numerous mature startups well-positioned for an IPO exit in the US; should market conditions remain relatively stable, this could mean quite a significant march of IPO activity over the coming quarters.
M&A activity in the U.S. continued to build momentum in Q3’25, with annual exit value already reaching a four-year high — with a full quarter still remaining in the year. Supportive rulings from the Department of Justice have contributed to this resurgence, fueling a sense of cautious optimism that larger-scale transactions are once again viable.
Across industries, established players are increasingly aware of the need to accelerate technology adoption to keep pace with rapid advances and avoid competitive erosion. This urgency has translated into renewed M&A appetite, particularly for startups that can deliver immediate innovation and scalability.
At the same time, there has been a marked rise in acquihires, as corporates move to secure scarce technical talent. This trend is especially pronounced in the AI sector, where demand for highly skilled engineers and researchers far outstrips supply. Together, these dynamics suggest that M&A will remain a key strategic lever for growth and competitiveness in the quarters ahead.
Even as the IPO market in the US has started to open up, secondary VC transactions in the country have continued to be quite solid. While the number of secondaries could dip somewhat as IPO activity gains strength, there is not expected to be a dramatic shift given the number of private companies with little interest in going public in the near future; these companies will continue to be ripe for secondary — and tertiary — transactions.
Beyond the AI sector, U.S. venture capital investors continue to prioritize companies that not only demonstrate rapid growth but also exhibit strong business fundamentals and a clear, credible path to profitability. This has created some pressure at the early deal stages, making it more challenging for companies without a clear line of sight to profitability to attract funding.
Within the US, a growing number of fintechs have found it difficult to find a good market fit or achieve the scale needed to grow and have run out of capital. As a result, the fintech market is starting to see the long-predicted wave of consolidation as struggling firms have been swept up by their larger counterparts.
Heading into Q4’25, there is a real sense of optimism in the VC market. AI, defensetech, and spacetech are expected to continue to attract significant levels of VC investment, while fintech could continue to see a rise in exit activity given the successful exits of Chime in Q2’25 and Klarna in Q3’25. Should market conditions remain steady, IPO exit activity more broadly will likely also continue to gain momentum over the next quarter and into 2026 as mature startups look to take advantage of the market reopening to exit.
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1 https://techfundingnews.com/figma-68b-valuation-record-first-day-ipo-gains/
2 https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/10/klarnas-ipo-pops-raising-1-4b-with-sequoia-as-the-biggest-winner/
3 https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/10/klarna-klar-stock-soars-after-us-ipo.html
Venture Pulse Q3 2025
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