AI Startup Funding Statistics
Updated 2026-09-11 · Source: AI Market Watch — free to cite with a link back to this page (CC BY 4.0).
These figures describe the curated set of AI startups AI Market Watch tracks — a sample, not a global census — so country and category counts are best read as coverage, not total market size. The most robust signals here are structural: funding concentration and stage mix, which track with broader venture data.
Headline numbers
- • AI Market Watch curates a tracked set of 5,340 AI startups.
- • Combined disclosed funding: $1259.5B across 4,646 companies with disclosed amounts.
- • Median total raise per funded company: $19.0M.
- • 1,027 companies have raised $100M or more.
- • 760 were founded in the last two years.
Largest categories in our tracked set
- AI Agents — 770 companies
- AI Infrastructure — 657 companies
- AI in Healthcare — 502 companies
- AI in Fintech — 469 companies
- Robotics / Embodied AI — 308 companies
- AI in Cybersecurity — 279 companies
- AI in Marketing — 241 companies
- AI Developer Tools — 193 companies
Where the tracked companies are based
- US — 2,527 companies
- IN — 437 companies
- KR — 332 companies
- GB — 302 companies
- CN — 238 companies
- IL — 161 companies
- JP — 159 companies
- DE — 128 companies
Methodology & citation
Figures are aggregated daily from the curated set of AI startups AI Market Watch tracks, combining public funding disclosures, company data, and editorial verification. This is a sample, not a global census, so absolute counts and country rankings are best read as coverage rather than total market size. Structural signals — funding concentration and stage mix — are more robust because they track with broader venture data. Funding totals cover disclosed amounts only, in USD.
Cite as: "AI Market Watch, AI Startup Funding Statistics, ai-market-watch.com/stats". For deeper analysis see our data reports, the interactive market analytics, or download the open dataset on GitHub (CC BY 4.0).