Original research on where venture capital is actually flowing in 2026.
This report is built from our own investor database — 75,897 active check-writers, 17,824 recent portfolio deals across 10,938 funded companies, spanning 91 industries and 1,195 cities. Rather than repeat aggregate NVCA numbers you can read anywhere, we surface what our data uniquely shows: where the concentration actually sits, which industries dominate deal flow, and which cities still matter after the geographic reshuffle of the last three years.
Ten industries account for the majority of tracked venture activity in our dataset. SaaS remains the clear #1 with 1,725 recent deals, followed by AI Infrastructure (1,332), Fintech (1,131), Healthtech (995), and Biotech (775). The long tail — 81 additional industries — collectively holds meaningful volume but no single vertical challenges the top 5.
The ranked list below reflects real deal counts, not marketing sentiment. AI Infrastructure moving to #2 is the most notable shift versus the 2023 baseline; three years ago it would have been outside the top 10.
1. SaaS — 1,725 deals 2. AI Infrastructure — 1,332 deals 3. Fintech — 1,131 deals 4. Healthtech — 995 deals 5. Biotech — 775 deals 6. Climate — 726 deals 7. Cybersecurity — 571 deals 8. E-commerce — 520 deals 9. Developer Tools — 345 deals 10. Robotics — 337 deals
Combined: 8,457 deals (47% of the 17,824-deal sample). The remaining 53% distributes across 81 industries — a long tail worth exploring for underpriced verticals with less investor competition.
San Francisco alone accounts for 1,441 recent deals in our sample — nearly 5× the #3 city. Palo Alto adds another 242, meaning the greater Bay Area represents roughly 1 in 4 tracked deals. New York (1,003) remains the durable #2. London (294) is the strongest ex-US hub by deal volume.
The narrative that capital "left San Francisco" doesn't match the data. What did change: more investors will now take a first meeting with a founder based anywhere, but the concentration of subsequent rounds still tilts sharply toward the Bay.
1. San Francisco — 1,441 deals 2. New York — 1,003 deals 3. London — 294 deals 4. Palo Alto — 242 deals 5. Boston — 237 deals 6. Los Angeles — 209 deals 7. Austin — 203 deals 8. Seattle — 151 deals 9. Chicago — 128 deals 10. Tel Aviv — 121 deals
The top 10 cities represent 4,029 deals (23% of the sample). Everywhere else combined represents the remaining 77% — heavily fragmented, meaning per-city investor networks matter more than aggregate global rankings when you're actually raising.
The most active individual check-writer in our dataset closed 135 tracked deals over the sample window. The rest of the top 15 sit in the 36–47 deal range — a much flatter distribution than the industry or geography leaderboards.
Practical read: there is no small set of individuals who see every deal. Building a list of 40–80 relevant investors for your specific stage, sector, and geography will still comfortably cover the addressable market. Chasing "the top VCs" as a shorthand for who matters is analytically wrong at seed and Series A.
Aggregate deal counts don't reveal check size, ownership taken, or terms. They also don't capture bridge rounds, insider extensions, or the meaningful volume of angel and family-office capital that flows without press coverage. Any founder using this report to plan should combine industry/geography signal here with primary research on individual firms' recent behavior in your specific stage.
We publish this snapshot quarterly. If you'd like a specific slice (e.g. "Series A biotech investors in Boston") pulled from the underlying dataset, use the investor database directly.
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