Business

‘We’ve never had a fundraising deck’: Here’s where venture capital stands now and where it’s going next

Published

3 months ago

September 10, 2025

If you want a pulse check on where the venture capital industry is at, consider the software supply chain security startup Chainguard, which has raised $500 million across two rounds in less than a year.

“We’ve never had a fundraising deck,” Ryan Carlson, president of Chainguard, said yesterday on the Future of Venture Capital insight exchange at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Utah. He added later: “We’re not going to create a deck next time either.”

For some companies, deals can’t get done fast enough. OpenAI is reportedly worth some $500 billion these days and raised $40 billion in funding earlier this year. Autonomous weapons startup Anduril notched a $30.5 billion valuation earlier this year, less than a year after its last multi-billion funding round. If you are looking at companies in the cybersecurity, generative AI, and defense tech space, deals are hot. But it’s not everyone.

“Some companies, no matter what you’re doing, you’re not getting any term sheets,” says Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures. “And the ones that are getting interest are getting, like, 12, 15—I mean, they’re double digits. And I’ve been in this business for 20 years, and I’m trying to remember the last time when there were double-digit term sheets for the hot companies.”

Investors disagreed about whether we have entered an AI bubble, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested at a small dinner with reporters last month—or even an era akin to the dot-com boom, in which investors poured capital into any company related to the internet only for many of those companies to end up going under.

The economics for AI companies, in particular, are different. As Sapphire Ventures’ Cathy Gao pointed out, companies are growing to $100 million in ARR faster than ever—and with fewer people. But they are also not as efficient as software companies once were, as they have to spend exorbitant fees on things like compute.

“People are betting on the fact that compute costs will continue to decline, and over time, it’ll be a much more profitable company. So we’ll see if that plays out,” Gao said.

Where will things play out? Adam Zeplain of mark vc had some thoughts on that one. “Here’s what I know—that none of us know shit,” he said. “Two years from now, we’ll all be sitting here, and the competition will be very different, and there’s a lot of humility, and there’s a lot of excitement in that.”

More from Brainstorm Tech… We are out here in Park City, Utah, chatting about self-driving cars, fertility benefits, and ŌURA rings. This week, DoorDash Tony Xu talked about how the path to autonomous deliveries has been filled with “lots of pain and suffering.” Lyft CEO David Risher said that the company would save some $200 million from reduced insurance costs after the union deal it struck with California lawmakers. Jeffrey Katzenberg said legislation to protect children from online harm is unlikely. The Walmart U.S. CEO says staffing levels will remain steady even as A.I. becomes a bigger part of work.

See you tomorrow,

Jessica Mathews
X: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com

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Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter. Subscribe here.

VENTURE DEALS

– Strive Health, a Denver, Colo.-based Kidney Care company, raised $300 million in Series D funding. New Enterprise Associates led the Series A and was joined by CVS Health Ventures, CapitalG, Echo Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, Redpoint, and others.

– Harbor Health, an Austin, Texas-based primary and specialty care clinic group and health insurance company, raised $130 million in funding. General Catalyst, 8VC, and Alta Partners led the round and were joined by DFO Management and others.

– Aven, a San Francisco-based home equity-backed credit card company, raised $110 million in Series E funding. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors General Catalyst, Caffeinated Capital, GIC, Electric Capital, and Founders Fund.

– DataCrunch, a Helsinki, Finland-based AI infrastructure company, raised €55 million ($64.4 million) in Series A funding. byFounders, Skaala, Varma PensionFund, and Tesi and were joined by J12 Ventures and angel investors.

– Scientil Photonics, a Grenoble, France-based developer of Heterogeneous Integrated Photonics for AI infrastructure, raised $58 million in Series B funding. Yotta Capital Partners and NGP Capital led the round and was joined by Nvidia.

– Fyxer.ai, a London, U.K.-based AI program for emails and meetings, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Madrona led the round and was joined by Lakestar Capital.

– Teton.ai, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based developer of predictive intelligence technology for health care, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Plural led the round and was joined by Bertelsmann Investments, Antler Elevate, Nebular, and PSV Tech.

– Lightspun, a Boston-based AI-powered dental insurance administration platform, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Brewer Lane led the round and was joined by Virtue, Cambrian, and Industry Ventures.

– Runware, a San Francisco-based performance & price-focused AI-as-a-Service provider, raised $13 million in funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by existing investors a16z Speedrun, Begin Capital, and Zero Prime.

– Nuclearn, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based AI platform designed for nuclear professionals and critical infrastructure operators, raised $10.5 million in Series A funding. Blue Bear Capital led the round and was joined by SJF Ventures and existing investors AZ-VC and Nucleation Capital.

– Sphinx, a New York City-based developer of AI software designed for data scientists, raised $9.5 million in seed funding. Lightspeed led the round and was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Box Group, K5, Impatient VC, and others.

– wehandle, a São Paulo, Brazil-based SaaS platform for third-party workforce management, raised $6 million in funding. Canary led the round and was joined by ONEVC, Valutia, Blustone, and Quartzo.

– Candid Intelligence, a San Francisco, Calif.-based developer of AI agents for engineering, procurement, and construction projects, raised $5.5 million in pre-seed funding. Quiet Capital led the round and was joined by MIT’s E14 Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Flexcap Ventures, Yann LeCun, and others.

– Dig Energy, a Manchester, N.H.-based developer of geothermal-specific drilling technology, raised $5 million in seed funding. Azolla Ventures and Avila VC led the round and was joined by Drew Scott.

– Metal, a New York City-based AI-powered research platform for private market investors, raised $5 million in funding from Base10 Partners.

– Pathwork, a San Francisco-based AI-powered life and health insurance distribution platform, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Costanoa led the round and was joined by Logos Fund, American Family Ventures, Meridian Ventures, and angel investors.

– OpenHealth, a Berlin, Germany-based lab data company, raised $3 million in seed funding. GoHub Ventures, xdeck ventures, Edenbase, and Exceptional Ventures led the round and were joined by YZR Capital, Octopus Ventures, and calm/Storm Ventures.

– Marloo, a London, U.K. and Auckland, Australia-based AI assistant designed for financial advisers, raised $2.7 million in ore-seed funding. Blackbird led the round and was joined by angel investors.

– Aurva, a Sunnyvale, Calif. and Bengaluru, India-based AI-powered data security program, raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Nexus Venture Partners led the round and was joined by DeVC and angel investors.

PRIVATE EQUITY

– Vitruvian Partners invested $637 million in DeepIntent, a New York City-based health care demand-side platform.

– Polycorp, a portfolio company of Arsenal Capital Partners, acquired Burke Industries, a San Jose, Calif.-based custom elastomeric product supplier. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Shenandoah, backed by GenNx360 Capital Partners, acquired Nu-Pipe LLC, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based pipe rehabilitation company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– TMA Systems, a portfolio company of Silversmith Capital Partners, acquired Facil-it, a Williston, N.Y.-based facilities maintenance platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

EXITS

– Ariel Alternatives acquired Groome Industrial Service Group, a Denville, N.J.-based specialty maintenance services company, from Argosy Private Equity. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Bansk Group agreed to acquire a majority stake in BYOMA, a New York City-based skin health brand, from Yellow Wood Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Chamberlain Group, backed by Blackstone, acquired Arrow Tru-Line, a Archbold, Ohio-based manufacturer of garage door hardware components, from MiddleGround Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Minute Media acquired VideoVerse, a San Francisco and Los Angeles-based video editing platform, from Bluestone Equity Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.

PEOPLE

– Percheron Capital, a San Francisco and New York City-based private equity firm, hired Manish Goyal as a managing director and head of the firm’s portfolio support group. He was formerly with Berkshire Partners.

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Business

Binance has been proudly nomadic for years. A new announcement suggests it’s chosen an HQ

Published

1 hour ago

December 7, 2025

Jace Porter

For years, Binance has dodged questions about where it plans to establish a corporate headquarters. On Monday, the world’s largest crypto exchange made an announcement that indicates it has chosen a location: Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

In its announcement, Binance reported that it has secured three global financial licenses within Abu Dhabi Global Market, a special economic zone inside the Emirati city. The licenses regulate three different prongs of the exchange’s business: its exchange, clearinghouse, and broker dealer services. The three regulated entities are named Nest Exchange Limited, Nest Clearing and Custody Limited, and Nest Trading Limited, respectively.

Richard Teng, the co-CEO of Binance, declined to say whether Abu Dhabi is now Binance’s global headquarters. “But for all intents and purposes, if you look at the regulatory sphere, I think the global regulators are more concerned of where we are regulated on a global basis,” he said, adding that Abu Dhabi Global Market is where his crypto exchange’s “global platform” will be governed.

A company spokesperson declined to add more to Teng’s comments, but did not deny Fortune’s assertion that Binance appears to have chosen Abu Dhabai as its headquarters.

Corporate governance

The Abu Dhabi announcement suggests that Binance, which has for years taken pride in branding itself as a company with no fixed location, is bowing to the practical considerations that go with being a major financial firm—and the corporate governance obligations that entails.

When Changpeng Zhao, the cofounder and former CEO of Binance, launched the company in 2017, he initially established the exchange in Hong Kong. But, weeks after he registered Binance in the city, China banned cryptocurrency trading, and Zhao moved his nascent trading platform. Binance has since been itinerant. “Wherever I sit is going to be the Binance office,” Zhao said in 2020.

The location of a company’s headquarters impacts its tax obligations and what regulations it needs to follow. In 2023, after Binance reached a landmark $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Zhao stepped down as CEO and pleaded guilty to failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program.

Teng took over and promised to implement the corporate structures—like a board of directors—that are the norm for companies of Binance’s size. Teng, who now shares the CEO role with the newly appointed Yi He, oversaw the appointment of Binance’s first board in April 2024. And he’s repeatedly telegraphed that his crypto exchange is focused on regulatory compliance.

Binance already has a strong footprint in the Emirates. It has a crypto license in Dubai, received a $2 billion investment from an Emirati venture fund in March, and, that same month, said it employed 1,000 employees in the country.

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Business

Leaders in Congress outperform rank-and-file lawmakers on stock trades by up to 47% a year

Published

3 hours ago

December 7, 2025

Jace Porter

Stocks held by members of Congress have been beating the S&P 500 lately, but there’s a subset of lawmakers who crush their peers: leadership.

According to a recent working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, congressional leaders outperform back benchers by up to 47% a year.

Shang-Jin Wei from Columbia University and Columbia Business School along with Yifan Zhou from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University looked at lawmakers who ascended to leadership posts, such as Speaker of the House as well as House and Senate floor leaders, whips, and conference/caucus chairs.

Between 1995 and 2021, there were 20 such leaders who made stock trades before and after rising to their posts. Wei and Zhou observed that lawmakers underperformed benchmarks before becoming leaders, then everything suddenly changed.

“Importantly, whilst we observe a huge improvement in leaders’ trading performance as they ascend to leadership roles, the matched ‘regular’ members’ stock trading performance does not improve much,” they wrote.

Leadership’s stock market edge stems in part from their ability to set the regulatory or legislation agenda, such as deciding if and when a particular bill will be put to a vote. Setting the agenda also gives leaders advanced knowledge of when certain actions will take place.

In fact, Wei and Zhou found that leaders demonstrate much better returns on stock trades that are made when their party controls their chamber.

In addition, being a leader also increases access to non-public information. The researchers said that while companies are reluctant to share such insider knowledge, they may prioritize revealing it to leaders over rank-and-file lawmakers.

Leaders earn higher returns on companies that contribute to their campaigns or are headquartered in their states, which Wei and Zhou said could be attributable to “privileged access to firm-specific information.”

The upper echelon also influences how other members of Congress vote, and the paper found that a leader’s party is much more likely to vote for bills that help firms whose stocks the leader held, or vote against bills that harmed them. And stocks owned by leadership tend to see increases in federal contract awards, especially sole-source contracts, over the following one to two years.

“These results suggest that congressional leaders may not only trade on privileged knowledge, but also shape policy outcomes to enrich themselves,” Wei and Zhou wrote.

Stock trades by congressional leaders are even predictive, forecasting higher occurrences of positive or negative corporate news over the following year, they added. In particular, stock sales predict the number of hearings and regulatory actions over the coming year, though purchases don’t.

Investors have long suspected that Washington has a special advantage on Wall Street. That’s given rise to more ETFs with political themes, including funds that track portfolios belonging to Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

And Paul Pelosi, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, even has a cult following among some investors who mimic his stock moves.

Congress has tried to crack down on members’ stock holdings. The STOCK Act of 2012 requires more timely disclosures, but some lawmakers want to ban trading completely.

A bipartisan group of House members is pushing legislation that would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, dependent children, and trustees from trading individual stocks, commodities, or futures.

And this past week, a discharge petition was put forth that would force a vote in the House if it gets enough signatures.

“If leadership wants to put forward a bill that would actually do that and end the corruption, we’re all for it,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., on social media on Tuesday. “But we’re tired of the partisan games. This is the most bipartisan bipartisan thing in U.S. history, and it’s time that the House of Representatives listens to the American people.”

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Business

Macron warns EU may hit China with tariffs over trade surplus

Published

4 hours ago

December 7, 2025

Jace Porter

French President Emmanuel Macron warned that the European Union may be forced to take “strong measures” against China, including potential tariffs, if Beijing fails to address its widening trade imbalance with the bloc.

“I’m trying to explain to the Chinese that their trade surplus isn’t sustainable because they’re killing their own clients, notably by importing hardly anything from us any more,” Macron told Les Echos newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

“If they don’t react, in the coming months we Europeans will be obliged to take strong measures and decouple, like the US, like for example tariffs on Chinese products,” he said, adding that he had discussed the matter with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Macron has just returned from a three-day state visit in China, where he pressed for more investment as Paris seeks to recalibrate its relationship with the world’s second-largest economy. France’s goods trade deficit with China reached around €47 billion ($54.7 billion) last year, according to the French Treasury. Meanwhile, China’s goods trade surplus with the EU swelled to almost $143 billion in the first half of 2025, a record for any six-month period, according to data released by China earlier this year.

Tensions between France and China escalated last year after Paris backed the EU’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Beijing retaliated by imposing minimum price requirements on French cognac, sparking fears among pork and dairy producers that they could be targeted next.

‘Life or Death’

Macron said the US approach to China was “inappropriate” and had worsened Europe’s position by diverting Chinese goods toward the EU market.

“Today, we’re stuck between the two, and it’s a question of life or death for European industry,” Macron said, while noting that Germany — Europe’s biggest economy — doesn’t entirely share France’s stance.

In addition to Europe needing to become more competitive, the European Central Bank too has a role to play in strengthening the EU’s single market, Macron said, arguing that monetary policy should take growth and jobs into account, not just inflation, he said.

He also said the ECB’s decision to continue selling the government bonds it holds risks pushing up long-term interest rates and weighing on economic activity.

“Europe must — and wants to — remain a zone of monetary stability and credible investment,” Macron said.

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