This report provides an overview of new venture capital funds, CVCs and accelerators that have announced new capital to invest in early-stage startups during June 2026.

Monthly Report

June 2026 saw a robust activity in early-stage funding, with a total of 91 new funds identified raised $14.1B.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure continues to dominate investment interest, followed by generative AI and climate technology. The United States remains the leading hub for these investments, though the United Kingdom and several Asian and European countries also show significant activity. Several large funds, including Sky Factory and Menlo Ventures XVII, have made substantial commitments, indicating continued confidence in the early-stage ecosystem.

Full details of all funds and people live at RAISE.FUSION-42

SECTORS

AI-related sectors, particularly AI Infrastructure and Generative AI, are at the forefront of early-stage investments, reflecting the ongoing technological advancements and market demand in artificial intelligence. Climate Tech and Clean Energy also feature prominently, highlighting a growing focus on sustainable solutions. Traditional sectors like Agtech, Enterprise Software, and Digital Health continue to attract significant capital, indicating sustained innovation across diverse industries.

GEO

The United States overwhelmingly leads in the number of new early-stage funds, reinforcing its position as a global innovation hub. The United Kingdom is a strong second, with notable activity in supporting emerging fund managers and specific tech sectors. Countries like China, Japan, and Israel are also significant players, particularly in advanced technology and AI-focused investments.

Notable Large Fund Launches

Several funds with substantial capital commitments were launched in June 2026. Notably, Sky Factory by Dreame Technology and Menlo Ventures XVII stand out with multi-billion dollar funds, indicating a strong appetite for significant investments in promising early-stage ventures. These large funds are poised to make a considerable impact on the growth and development of startups in their respective focus areas.

June 2026 demonstrates a vibrant and dynamic early-stage investment landscape, heavily influenced by advancements in AI and a growing commitment to climate technology. While the United States continues to be a dominant force, global participation is robust, with significant contributions from the UK, China, Japan, and other nations. The launch of numerous large funds underscores a healthy capital environment for innovative startups, particularly those addressing critical technological and environmental challenges.

For the ❤️ of startups

✌🏼 & 💙
Derek


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This metric tells you how much recurring revenue you’re keeping from your existing customers—without counting any upsells, expansions, or new customer wins. It’s a pure measure of your product’s core value.

It focuses solely on:

• ✅ Renewals

• ⚠️ Downgrades

• ❌ Cancellations (aka churn)

🔢 How to Calculate It

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Building the right foundations early is much easier than fixing overlooked basics later. Covering ten key pillars of any successful business, this checklist will help you avoid common mistakes, spot gaps, and stay on track to create a sustainable, backable business.

Index of Key Business Pillars

1. Product or Service

   1. Clear definition of the business's offerings.

   2. Address real customer needs, backed by solid market research and competitive insights.

2. Sales & Marketing

   1. Strategies for acquiring and retaining customers.

   2. Develop accurate customer personas and align sales strategies to these personas.

3. Customer Relationships & Retention

   1. Enhancing the overall customer experience.

   2. Implement loyalty programs and feedback systems to boost retention.

4. Operations

   1. Setting up effective operational workflows.

   2. Ensure processes and supply chains are scalable and well-documented.

      ---

      READ » What is Marketing in the Context of a Startup?

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      What is Marketing in the Context of a Startup?

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      ---

5. Technology Stack

   1. Building a robust and scalable technological infrastructure.

   2. Support growth through secure, scalable tech solutions and automation.

6. Financial Management

   1. Establishing solid financial frameworks.

   2. Develop clear revenue models, perform budgeting, forecasting, and monitor financial health metrics.

7. Legal & Compliance

   1. Ensuring the business adheres to legal standards.

   2. Choose the right legal structure and maintain compliance with laws and regulations.

8. Human Resources & Team

   1. Cultivating a strong organizational team and culture.

   2. Align team and culture with strategic goals and maintain effective leadership structures.

9. Growth & Innovation

   1. Scalability and ongoing innovation.

   2. Plan for business expansion and stay updated with industry trends for continuous improvement.

10. ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance)

    1. Integrating sustainability and ethical practices.

    2. Implement and monitor sustainable business practices and ethical governance.

Quick Checklist 👇 Glossary of Key Terms 👇

But first... The Founder's Truth, Your Identity and Core Values.

Getting to grips with your role as a founder is uber important on this wild ride. Recognising your unique entrepreneurial style is not just about personal insight—it directly influences how you shape your business’s goals and align them with desired and practical outcomes:

➡️ Innovators break new ground with solutions that aspire to change everyday life.

➡️ Hustlers are the dynamos, pushing the business forward with sheer grit and relentless execution.

➡️ Imitators smartly adapt successful models with a twist, rejuvenating what already exists.

➡️ Researchers wield deep insights and academic depth to develop cutting-edge offerings.

➡️ Buyers think big, driving growth through strategic acquisitions.

But knowing your entrepreneurial flair and understanding your customer and capital needs is just the start. Pinning down your core company values is absolutely critical. Adhering faithfully to your core values, the DNA of your culture, is crucial for realising your vision. Straying from these principles for short-term gains can derail long-term goals and can compromise integrity. Your founder type doesn’t just influence strategy but also embeds the core values that are your guiding light to achieve your long-term vision.

Innovators value creativity

Hustlers emphasise resilience

Imitators focus on adaptability

Researchers prioritise innovation

Buyers underscore scalability

A successful team requires a mix of different types, but the core values must always be respected. Without this, the company’s direction can slowly shift, often leading to toxicity. Iterating or pivoting must always align with these fundamental principles—they must always hold the one true line.

💎 Living your core values is crucial.

Here's how to make them active elements of your business operations:

Clear Communication: Keep it simple. Make sure everyone not only knows the core values but sees them in action every day.

Lead by Example: Set the bar with your actions. Lead the way, and others will follow.

Continuous Reflection: Keep asking, "Are we on track?" Regular check-ins keep us true to our values as we grow.

Your values define your company's heart and soul. It ensures a cohesion that truly reflects you and why the hell you are doing this.

1. Product or Service

Core Offering

🚀 ☐ Have you clearly defined what your business offers (product, service, or both)? 🚀 ☐ Does your offering actually solve a real problem for your target audience?

Market Research & Competitive Analysis

🔥 ☐ Have you tested your product/service with real customers and done your market research?

🔥 ☐ Do you understand the size of your market, your customers’ needs, and where your product fits?

🔥 ☐ Do you understand what products people use to solve the problem currently?

🔥 ☐ Have you checked out the competition? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

🔥 ☐ Are you staying on top of market changes and customer behaviour?

🔥 ☐ Do you have a clear idea of how your product stands out in the market?

🔥 ☐ Are people getting excited about it?

Innovation

⚙ ☐ Are you constantly tweaking or improving your product/service inline with your user feedback loops?

⚙️ ☐ Are you keeping an eye on innovation trends in your industry to stay ahead of competitors?

Intellectual Property

⚙️ ☐ Have you identified any IP and how to protect it?

💡Priority Tip: Start by validating your product and getting to know your market inside out. Once you're confident, keep innovating to stay one step ahead.

Join us today!

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Real Metrics (Indicators of Strong Traction)

1. Revenue – Monthly / Annual Recurring Revenue (MRR / ARR) (Both B2B and B2C):
Paying customers generating recurring revenue.
B2B: Multi-year contracts, ARR growth, and strong retention from enterprise clients.
B2C: Subscription growth, average revenue per user (ARPU), and improving cohort retention.

2. Contracted ARR (B2B):
Signed agreements for recurring revenue that haven’t yet been realised.
Clear activation timelines and revenue schedules.
Strong conversion rates from pipeline to contracts.

3. Paid Proof of Concepts (PoCs) (B2B):
Short-term, paid trials with potential customers.
High conversion rates from PoCs to long-term contracts.
Evidence of ROI or efficiency gains reported by customers.

4. Trials with Engagement Metrics (Both):
Active product usage that shows genuine interest and potential value.
B2B: Number of users or seats actively testing the product, and the adoption of key features.
B2C: Trial-to-paid conversion rates, along with strong daily or weekly active usage.

5. Letters of Intent (LOIs) with Credibility (B2B):
Non-binding agreements that indicate serious interest from prospective customers.

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🌟 Why Does This Slide Matter?

The competition slide is the space in your deck to illuminate the overlooked gaps in the market. This slide should crystallise your competitive edge and be firmly tied with your entire story, your solution, your GTM, your roadmap. Again, this is to amplify your Value prop. and not just some adhoc list that says little to nothing.
Some of the most interesting things I see when pointed to a list of competitors are how much better they are at messaging their VP… and that is why this is such a key slide to get right.



🤷🏼‍♂️ What the pro templates say!

These are so convoluted 🤯 and have led to this…

Which can just be ripped up because this format it is so weak and litrally useless.

Writing a compelling competitive landscape slide is a perennial challenge. It's not just another slide; it's a bit of a litmus test that can make your pitch. Standard visual aids, like quadrant diagrams or tick-and-cross feature lists, have become so cliché that they often fail to engage investors in any meaningful way. They usually come off as self-serving, leaving investors to roll their eyes at yet another founder who thinks they've "disrupted" something.

So, what are investors really looking for? In essence, they need clarity on three key aspects:

• Differentiation

• Unique value proposition

• Defensibility

It's not merely about demonstrating that you understand your market and competition; it's about showcasing why your solution is 10x better, faster, cheaper. Investors need to see that you're not just better but different in a way that matters. This is where your 'unfair advantage' comes in, whether that's proprietary technology, an innovative go-to-market strategy, or an unparalleled understanding of customer needs. And it has to be easy to grasp—no mental gymnastics allowed.

Your competitive landscape slide should tell a cohesive story that integrates these elements, tying them back to your overall business model and market strategy. It's your opportunity to provide a 360-degree view that's reinforced with hard data and market insights, solidifying the notion that you're bringing a special solution to an untapped market.

Investors are in it to make money, plain and simple. In a venture landscape where many startups fail, your competition slide needs to do more than just impress; it has to convince. It needs to de-risk the investment by showing your startup is designed for both scale and long-term sustainability.

To sum up, your competitive landscape slide is far more than just a box to check off. It's a strategic tool for validating your startup's potential. When put together thoughtfully, this slide does more than capture attention; it earns you credibility and potentially opens the doors to investment. Use it wisely.

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🔄⚙️ How it works

Lets take a look at what the experts say:

Describe the User Experience: Detail the user's interaction with the product in a clear and straightforward manner.

Explain the Technology: Offer insight into the technology behind the product, focusing on user-relevant aspects.

Illustrate in Steps: Break down the product functionality or user experience into clear, logical steps that are easy to follow.

Highlight the Unique Element: Clearly convey what makes your product unique ('the underlying magic' or 'secret sauce').

Utilise Visuals: Use diagrams, schematics, and flowcharts to visually communicate how the product works, which can often be more effective and engaging than text.

No wonder so many get it so wrong

🤷🏼‍♂️ What the templates say!

🧐 The Misconception

The common misconception about the 'How it Works' slide is founders often think it is a place to talk about how clever what they have built is, sometimes going into the technicalities of an algorithm and engineering. Or showing 20 screenshots or a 5 minute demo video of the user journey. These are focusing on totally the wrong things that the purpose of a pitch deck needs to achieve, outcomes. All of the above will only become relevant if you manage to get to the next meeting and into diligence, and that is the only objective of a Pitch deck.

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🔄 A Shift in VC Trends.

The 2023 PitchBook report states a 38% decrease in active VC investors. This is measured as existing funds that made less than 2 investments in 2023 and goes on to start talking about Zombie funds, all pretty negative.

🌧️ Beyond the Downturn.

The decline in VC activity isn't necessarily a crisis. The report's data doesn't give a clear reason as to the underlying status of the 38% of funds?

➡️ VCs are being cautious, absolutely.

➡️ ️ Waiting for better times to invest due to market uncertainties, bloody right.

➡️ Some have pretty much been wiped out…. Mmm yes, if they have marked their books correctly.

🤔 But 38%, as we are led to believe are gone? no, not at all.

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🕰️ A Quick Historical Snapshot.

VC trends reflect broader economic cycles. The late 1990s dot-com boom saw VC investments peak at $100 billion in the U.S. by 2000 (NVCA). Post-bubble, figures plummeted to $19 billion by 2003. The 2008 financial crisis further impacted VC, with investments falling from $30.8 billion in 2008 to $20.6 billion in 2009 (PwC & NVCA). The 2010s, however, witnessed a resurgence, driven by tech advancements, with VC funding exceeding $130 billion by 2018 (NVCA).

This history underlines VC's adaptability, with the current 38% decrease in active investors in 2023 (PitchBook) seen as part of ongoing cycles. Such insights are vital for navigating the VC domain.

🎯 Strategic Investment.

This shift shows it is less about quick investments, with more consideration to careful planning. This indicates a phase of strategic patience rather than a downturn, focusing on startups with clear profitability paths.

🚀 Founders' Approach:

For founders, it's crucial to identify active investors, for the top of the funnel focus on those recently announced, as they are in their harvest period and deploying to new opportunities.

What do you think, what is the right strat for finding and reaching investors ?

Leave a comment

Thank you for reading. If you liked it, share it with your friends, colleagues and everyone interested in the startup Investor ecosystem.

If you've got suggestions, an article, research, your tech stack, or a job listing you want featured, just let me know! I'm keen to include it in the upcoming edition.

Please let me know what you think of it, love a feedback loop 🙏🏼

• ❤️ Love it, keep them coming!

• 👍 Great, always a good read.

• 😊 Enjoyable, but let’s see some variety.

• 👎 Okay, seen better.

• 🛑 Get a different job.
  
  Subscribe below and follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter to never miss an update. 

Subscribe now

For the ❤️ of startups

✌🏼 & 💙
Derek