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Fundraising for the global venture capital industry hit an eight-year low in 2025, with about a thousand funds raising a combined $80.1 billion, according to exclusive research by Venture Capital Journal.
Last year’s fundraising haul was 38 percent smaller than the $128.7 billion raised by 1,176 funds in 2024.
The previous fundraising low for a single year was $67.7 billion raised by 840 funds in 2017, our research shows.
The best year for fundraising was 2022, when 1,609 funds closed on a combined $208.7 billion.
Smaller average
Along with the overall fundraising decline, the average fund size plummeted from $155 million in 2024 to just $116.7 million in 2025. The average fundraising amount has declined in each of the last three years after hitting a high of $170.2 million in 2022.
Long haul
The average amount of time fundraisers spent marketing their funds in 2025 was 18.6 months, an improvement from a high of 22.1 months in 2024. It is still significantly more time than firms needed five years ago, when the average time on the road was almost 13 months.
North America leads
Funds focused on North America were the most popular, accounting for $45.3 billion. Their share of the fundraising total grew from 52 percent in 2024 to 57 percent in 2025. Due to ongoing political headwinds, Asia-Pacific funds experienced the biggest decline, going from 15 percent two years ago to just 9 percent last year. Multi-regional funds continued to hold onto second place, collecting $15.1 billion (19 percent). European funds were in third place, with $9.9 billion (12 percent). Rounding out the total were Middle East/North Africa (2 percent), Latin America (1 percent) and Sub-Saharan Africa (less than 1 percent).
Still hopeful
Despite the poor showing in 2025, fundraisers remain hopeful. As a group, they are in market seeking to raise $266 billion. The majority ($148.1 billion) is targeting North America. Funds focused on Asia-Pacific are seeking $42.7 billion, followed by multi-regional funds ($40.9 billion) and Europe-focused funds ($26 billion). Funds focused on MENA, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa are seeking $3.6 billion, $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion respectively.
Top 10
Just five funds raised $1 billion or more last year, down from 17 in 2024. The 10 largest funds on our list raised a combined $12.9 billion, down from $19.2 billion for the top 10 of 2024. At number one was Founders Fund, which collected $4.6 billion for Founders Fund Growth III. In second place was Recognize, which raised $1.7 billion for Recognize Partners II. At number three was Cathay Capital, which closed on $1.1 billion for Cathay Innovation Fund III. Only two other funds made the billion-dollar club: Emergence Capital Partners VII and Pearl Energy Investments IV.
Check out our interactive fundraising report above for the full breakdown of fundraising activity in 2025.
Click here to download the data
