Venture capital news

In plain words: How much money is moving and at what prices: the mood of the market.

It’s an insecure world out there, and investors are responding by scaling up their cybersecurity spending. For the third quarter of 2026, global cybersecurity- and privacy-focused startups pulled in a total of $6.8 billion, per Crunchbase data. That’s up about 50% from the prior quarter and tied for the highest quarterly tally in years, as charted below. The funding bump was due to larger rounds, not more of them. Round counts actually declined sequentially across all stages last quarter, Crunchbase data shows. Biggest cybersecurity fundraisers AI startups accounted for the overwhelming majority of cybersecurity funding, with a particular focus on identity security. Overall, at least 18 companies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity closed rounds of $100 million or more this past quarter. Of those, the largest funding recipient by far was enterprise identity security provider Keyfactor , which picked up $1 billion in a July growth round led by Summit Partners . Founded in 2001, the Ohio company isn’t exactly a startup, but it has attracted the bulk of its venture funding in the past 10 years and its pivot to AI is also of a more recent vintage. Dallas-based Island tied for second place with a $400 million September Series F led by Evolution Equity Partners .

Read the full story at Crunchbase News (opens in a new tab)Published 15 Oct 2026. This is the publisher’s own feed excerpt.

In plain words: A startup raised money. It shows which kinds of company investors are backing right now.

While helping another founder build an app that collected information about class-action settlements, Zim Hang came to learn how challenging it can be for consumers to seek compensation from companies they believe wronged them. He also discovered mass arbitration, a way to pursue individual claims when companies’ contracts prevent customers from joining class actions. At the same time, he also realized that relatively few law firms were set up to manage thousands of those claims at once. Zim Hang, founder and CEO of Chariot Claims. (Courtesy photo) That gap became the basis for Chariot Claims , which has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Silverton Partners to help consumers pursue claims over alleged privacy violations, hidden fees and subscriptions that are difficult to cancel. Indicator Ventures , Lightbank , Neon Fund , ZVC , Rosecliff Ventures , Alumni Ventures , FJ Labs , Graph Ventures and Vermilion Ventures also participated in the financing. The New York-based startup works with law firms to identify potential cases, find affected consumers and gather information needed to pursue compensation. The round brings its total funding to $15.7 million, which includes a $3.6 million seed investment in April 2025 and an earlier pre-seed round. Chariot’s latest round comes amid a surge in investment across legal tech.

Read the full story at Crunchbase News (opens in a new tab)Published 15 Oct 2026. This is the publisher’s own feed excerpt.

In plain words: A startup raised money. It shows which kinds of company investors are backing right now.

Jessica Herrin was pregnant with her first child and working at Dell when she began testing jewelry trunk shows in Austin on nights and weekends. The venture became Stella & Dot , a business that sold more than $2 billion in products through a network of independent sellers. Two decades later, Herrin is building a business around the marketing problems she encountered along the way. She started Marklo in 2025 to help consumer brands decide which products to promote and prepare their campaigns. The startup has now raised $5 million in seed funding, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively. Jessica Herrin, CEO and founder of Marklo AI. (Courtesy photo) Forerunner led the round, joined by Freestyle Capital and angel investors including former Klaviyo and current Shopify leaders. Marklo helps consumer brands plan marketing campaigns using their sales, inventory and past marketing data. Its software shows which promotions drove sales, suggests what products to promote next and uses AI to draft campaign briefs and organize tasks. While Marklo is still pre-revenue, more than 100 brands are already using its software in a pilot, according to Herrin. Those brands include Away , Clare V. , Monica + Andy , Maya Brenner and Latico Leathers . The Burlingame, California-based company is now opening its software to the public ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Read the full story at Crunchbase News (opens in a new tab)Published 14 Oct 2026. This is the publisher’s own feed excerpt.

In plain words: How much money is moving and at what prices: the mood of the market.

By Daniel Kjellén A first venture usually follows a well-worn playbook: a gap in the market, obsessive refinement of concept and pitch, eventual conviction that the solution is as bulletproof as it is revolutionary. Then, the dreaded phase of product-market fit. Instead of building the future of an entire industry, you find yourself forced to focus on a narrow use case and spend the first invaluable years proving that your idea can make money and scale. The grand vision gets put on pause. For most founders, this journey is the only one available. After all, investors are betting on someone who has never built a company before, so a small check and a narrow product limit what everyone stands to lose. But some ambitions need total commitment from the start, and having built a company before helps when taking them on. Lessons from the front line Daniel Kjellén, CEO and co-founder of Freda. After selling my first venture, Tink , to Visa for €1.8 billion (about $1.9 billion USD) in 2022, I found myself in a new position — and it wasn’t horizontal on a sun lounger. My co-founder Fredrik Hedberg and I had a real war chest of our own, and a brand-new entrepreneurial bug. For the first time in our lives, we had the experience and the resources to undertake something truly world-changing. Compliance is a gauntlet that any founder will be painfully familiar with.

Read the full story at Crunchbase News (opens in a new tab)Published 14 Oct 2026. This is the publisher’s own feed excerpt.