Crunchbase

So far this year, investors have put about $7.8 billion into Boston-area startups, per Crunchbase data. That puts the region on track for a moderate annual gain and the strongest tally in about four years.

When investor trust is built through repeated in-person encounters, authentic conversations and thought leadership on meaningful problems, relationships and visibility matter more than aggressive fundraising outreach, argues guest author Alyx van der Vorm, whose startup raised $14 million as the result of personal interactions.

Reports of “SaaS being dead” are misguided, writes guest author Bob Morse, who contends that AI will enable software companies to move beyond selling productivity tools to deliver knowledge-work outcomes directly, unlocking massive unmet demand for services, ultimately growing the software industry.

Already this year, more than $14.6 billion in venture investment has gone into companies in Crunchbase’s military, national security and law enforcement categories, blowing past the sector's previous annual record of $9.6 billion raised in all of 2025.

All told, global venture funding reached $92 billion in May, marking the second-largest monthly total on record, just behind February, Crunchbase data shows. Of that, Anthropic raised $50 billion, or 54% of the month’s total funding.

All-in-one software ecosystem provider Scotch is a Denver-based AI-native operating system designed specifically for liquor store owners.

Overall, May’s active investor tallies painted a picture of a startup funding scene still dominated by familiar names.

Although defense-side legal AI remains underdeveloped despite a large market opportunity, writes guest author Patrick Ip, investors are increasingly watching whether startups can build scalable platforms around litigation intelligence, risk benchmarking and proprietary outcome data for corporate legal departments.

A grab bag of funded startups caught our attention this past month, from a previously bootstrapped custom metal manufacturer that got its first outside funding from big-name Silicon Valley backers, to a startup that aims to provide geothermal energy from underwater volcanoes to small island nations.

Want to keep track of the largest startup funding deals in 2026 with our curated list of $100 million-plus venture deals to U.S.-based companies? Check out The Crunchbase Megadeals Board. This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week’s biggest funding deal roundup here. Startup investors were in a spendy mood this week, backing more than a dozen rounds in the multiple hundreds of millions. Of those, the biggest one went to spend-management platform Ramp, which closed on $750 million, followed by three $500 million rounds for