Browsing: funding

AI capital funding has dominated the venture capital landscape for the first half of the year, taking the lion’s share of deals. Q1 2026 VC deal volume surpassed an all-time high of $267.2 billion, with 88% attributed to AI and machine-learning companies. Into the second half of 2026, AI capital funneling has selectively scaled.

Africa’s early-stage startups are facing a new funding squeeze as venture capital firms increasingly prioritize backing proven companies over riskier young ventures in a bid to deliver returns to investors.

AI startups are heavily influencing the venture capital landscape, comprising 80% of the funding for Forbes’ latest list. These startups are also creating a new wave of competitors nearing unicorn status. The emphasis on AI reflects its widespread application in both enterprise and emerging technologies.

Livestream shopping platform Whatnotis in talks to raise fresh capital at a roughly $20 billion valuation, a deal that would nearly double the company’s last private valuation.

European technology startups raised €44.1 billion (approximately $50.6 billion USD) in the first half of 2026 — a 27% rebound from the prior year — but the number of companies actually receiving investment fell to its lowest point in six years, according to the Tech.eu H1 2026 European Tech Ecosystem Report published today. Beneath the…

Physical badges used to be all you needed for identity management at a company. But with humans now working alongside machines and AI agents in digital environments, even the identity tools built for the cloud era are proving inadequate.

U.S. venture capital deal value hit $412.7 billion in the first half of 2026, nearly 30% more than investors put to work in all of last year — and a small cluster of giant artificial intelligence rounds accounted for almost the entire jump.