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US startup funding surged 75.6% in the first half of 2025, thanks to the continued AI boom, putting it on track for its second-best year ever, even as venture capital firms struggled to raise money, a report from PitchBook on Tuesday showed.
Startup funding in the first six months of 2025 jumped to $162.8 billion, marking the strongest performance since the same period in 2021 – the historic peak for venture capital activity.
That previous surge came during the era of the Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP), when central banks slashed rates to stimulate…
