The State of Angel Investing (2025–2026)
The median disclosed startup funding round has risen 83% across the 19 months of this window — from $3M in January 2025 to $5.5M in July 2026. July 2026 is still filling in; the last complete month, June 2026, closed at $6.3M — 111% above the January 2025 baseline. This report is built from AngelBacked’s own dataset: 28,057 funding rounds, 80,056 companies, 58,337 investors, and 53,345 SEC Form D filings. It is refreshed daily, and every figure below is stated with the window and caveats it came from.
Median round size by stage
Medians across the 15,881 rounds in this window that carry both a stage label and a disclosed amount. Medians, not averages — a handful of mega-rounds would drag a mean well above what a typical founder raises.
| Stage | Median round | Exact median | Rounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Seed | $742K | $741,819 | 3,099 |
| Seed | $2.8M | $2,811,959 | 7,736 |
| Series A | $13M | $13,000,000 | 3,075 |
| Series B | $30.5M | $30,510,302 | 1,246 |
| Series C | $56M | $56,000,000 | 501 |
| Series D | $93M | $93,000,000 | 224 |
The step from seed to Series A remains the steepest on the ladder: a 4.6× jump in median size, against 3,075 Series A rounds for 7,736 seed rounds.
Round sizes, month by month
Median disclosed round size for every month in the window, with the number of rounds behind each figure. Bars are scaled to the largest month ($6.3M).
* Jul 2026 is still filling in as rounds are announced and recorded. It is shown for completeness and excluded from trend claims that require a complete month.
Angel participation
4,564 of the 28,057 tracked rounds — 16.3% — list at least one backer who also appears in the AngelBacked investor database. 6,450 distinct angels appear across those rounds, out of 58,337 investors tracked overall.
Read this as a floor, not a market-wide angel participation rate. It measures overlap between two things we can observe — the backers listed on a round, and the investors already in our database — so rounds backed by angels we do not yet track are not counted. See the most active angels for the individuals driving the counted deals.
Where the rounds are
The 10 most common sectors since January 2025. Each round is counted once, under its first-listed sector; these ten cover 12,227 of the 26,960 rounds that carry a sector tag, spread across 568 distinct sectors in all.
Fund formation: what SEC Form D actually shows
Form D filings in this dataset are overwhelmingly investment funds raising from limited partners, not operating startups raising a round. The 4 largest filer categories — listed below — account for 37,213 of 53,345 filings. Treat this section as a read on fund formation, and the funding-round sections above as the read on startup rounds.
| Filer-declared fund type | Filings | Median stated offering |
|---|---|---|
| Hedge Fund | 10,228 | $40M |
| Venture Capital Fund | 9,394 | $545K |
| Other Investment Fund | 8,815 | $7.3M |
| Private Equity Fund | 8,776 | $10.8M |
Between April 2025 and August 2026, 9,394 filings came from entities self-identifying as a venture capital fund. Median stated offering is the amount declared on the filing, which for many funds reflects a first close or an open-ended raise rather than a final fund size — it is a filing-level median, not a measure of how much capital these funds ultimately closed.
Filings by state
State here is the filing entity’s stated state, not where the fund’s team or portfolio sits. Delaware is inflated by incorporation: funds domiciled there file from there regardless of where they operate.
Methodology and limitations
- Window. Funding rounds cover January 2025 through July 2026. SEC Form D filings cover a different window: April 2025 through August 2026. The two are not directly comparable period-for-period.
- Disclosed amounts only. 25,171 of 28,057 rounds (89.7%) have a disclosed amount. Every median on this page is a median of disclosed rounds. Undisclosed rounds are excluded entirely; if they skew smaller than disclosed ones, as is commonly assumed, the true medians would sit below these figures.
- The latest month is partial. July 2026 is still filling in as rounds are announced and recorded. It is flagged everywhere it appears and excluded from any claim that requires a complete month; the last complete month is June 2026.
- “Angel-backed” is a floor. A round counts as angel-backed when at least one investor listed among its backers matches an investor in the AngelBacked database. It is a measure of observed overlap, not a market-wide angel participation rate, and it undercounts rounds backed by angels we do not yet track.
- Stage coverage. The six-stage ladder covers 15,881 of 28,057 rounds. The remainder carry no stage label or fall outside the priced-equity ladder (grants, debt, secondaries, and unlabeled rounds), so stage counts do not sum to the total.
- Sectors use the first tag. Rounds often carry several sector tags. Each round is counted once, under the first tag listed for it, so the table is a breakdown rather than a frequency count — but a round tagged “AI, Health Care” lands only in AI. The ten shown cover 12,227 of the 26,960 rounds carrying any sector tag, out of 568 distinct first-listed sectors.
- Form D is fund formation. Filings are self-classified by the filer; “Venture Capital Fund” means the filer selected that category. Because filers are mostly funds, Form D counts must not be read as startup funding rounds.
- Refresh. All figures rebuild daily from the underlying funding and filings tables. This page was last updated August 2026. Numbers cited from an earlier snapshot may differ.
Frequently asked questions
What is the median startup funding round size in 2026?
Across rounds with a disclosed amount in AngelBacked’s dataset, the median round size was $5.5M in July 2026 (a month still filling in). The last complete month, June 2026, had a median of $6.3M. Both are up sharply from $3M in January 2025.
What is the median seed round size?
The median seed round in this dataset is $2.8M ($2,811,959), across 7,736 seed rounds recorded between January 2025 and July 2026.
How big is a typical pre-seed round?
The median pre-seed round is $742K ($741,819) across 3,099 rounds — roughly a quarter the size of the median seed round.
What share of startup funding rounds include an angel investor?
4,564 of the 28,057 rounds tracked here — 16.3% — list at least one investor who also appears in the AngelBacked database. 6,450 distinct angels appear across those rounds. This is a floor on angel participation, not a market-wide rate: it only counts investors we already track.
Which sectors raise the most funding rounds?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) leads by a wide margin with 5,489 rounds since January 2025, followed by Biotechnology (1,640) and Health Care (1,320). Each round is counted once, under its first-listed sector.
How many new venture capital funds are being formed?
9,394 SEC Form D filings between April 2025 and August 2026 came from entities that self-identify as a venture capital fund. Form D filers in this dataset are overwhelmingly funds raising from limited partners, not operating startups raising a round.
Cite this page
This report is free to cite and quote with attribution and a link back.
AngelBacked, “The State of Angel Investing (2025–2026),” AngelBacked market data, updated August 2026. https://www.angelbacked.co/state-of-angel-investing
Data as of August 2026. Figures rebuild daily — quote the update date alongside any number.
Go from the numbers to the names
Every round behind this report is browsable, and every angel in it has a profile with sectors, stage, and contact details.