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The Great Funding Consolidation: 2025’s Shocking Stats
This year, the venture capital world has officially entered the era of “winner takes all.” In 2025, 41% of all U.S. venture capital dollars have gone to just 10 companies—and a whopping 8 out of those 10 are artificial intelligence firms. That’s a 75% jump in concentration compared to last year, and the highest share awarded to the top 10 companies in the past decade.
Need some context for how dramatic that is? In previous years, the top 10 barely crossed a quarter of all funding. Now, the giants are simply hoovering up cash, while most startups are fighting for scraps.
Mega-Rounds: OpenAI’s Historic Haul & The AI Gold Rush
Let’s talk magnitude for a second. OpenAI alone hauled in $40 billion this year—the largest single financing event in VC history. Not to be outdone, xAI and Anthropic collectively raised $20 billion. The next tier down, you’ll find names like Scale AI snapping up $14.3 billion, and Figure AI raking in $1.5 billion.
This isn’t just a trend; it’s a structural shift. Recent data shows that global venture funding hit $115B in Q2 2025, but the number of deals actually dropped by nearly a third from Q1. The few companies still in the running are gobbling up ever-larger checks, pushing the average deal size to over $19M.
Danger Zone for Investors: Concentration Isn’t Diversification
These monster deals aren’t just interesting trivia—they come with sharp risks for both investors and the ecosystem as a whole.
Traditionally, VCs have aimed for portfolio concentration within a diverse spread. Now, many are betting everything on late-stage household names, essentially turning megafunds into one-way bets on a handful of players. If you’re chasing FOMO at increasingly stratospheric valuations, that’s a dangerous game. Consider: with OpenAI already tagged at a $500 billion valuation, are late stage investors really poised for the 10x returns venture capitalists seek? The odds aren’t great.
And in the private secondary market, the same trend is playing out. Massive pools of capital are hunting giants, but smaller, sub–$10 million companies are left on the sidelines, locked out of opportunities to trade shares or raise secondary rounds.
The Forgotten Middle: What This Means for Founders
Here’s the other side of the coin: This “all-in-on-the-big-guys” story spells trouble for up-and-coming founders and the next generation of innovation. The next cohort of great companies—those with a stellar team, an early product, and real traction—are finding the funding ladder pulled up before they can reach it. If everything’s going to just a handful of players, the rest are increasingly forced to bootstrap, delay hiring, and stretch every dime.
When VCs put all their eggs in one basket, the innovation ecosystem shrinks. And that’s where Rockies Venture Club (RVC) and similar groups come into play.
How Rockies Venture Club Fills the Gap
At RVC, we see things differently. Our sweet spot is the “missing middle”—those sub $10 million raises that fly under the radar of the megafunds chasing billion-dollar unicorns. By leveraging our syndicate model, and strong connections through the Angel Capital Association, we create opportunities for promising startups to get the capital they need to accelerate, not just survive.
Our process is hands-on, rigorous, and designed to back real innovation across all sectors—not just the ones trending on social media this week. RVC deploys capital to a diverse portfolio of companies, many of which are solving real-world problems and creating outsized impact (and returns) for our community of angels. If you’re an entrepreneur raising your first big round, the odds are far better with a trusted syndicate like RVC than with the current mega-fund environment.
Why Angels—and Savvy Investors—Should Pay Attention
There’s good reason for optimism for angels willing to look beyond the hype. By focusing on earlier-stage investments, where valuations are still reasonable and there is genuine upside, RVC investors position themselves for outsized returns without competing head-to-head for a sliver of an overpriced behemoth.
Remember: most unicorns got their real returns from seed-stage believers, not from the latecomers. In today’s VC landscape, big funds are increasingly playing a zero-sum game, and small investors can get locked out—or worse, left holding the bag. RVC’s more distributed approach, careful diligence, and community of active angels means we’re actually mitigating risk, not increasing it.
Final Thoughts
The concentration of capital in today’s venture landscape is historic, but it’s not inevitable. At Rockies Venture Club, we believe America’s best startups aren’t just hiding in plain sight—they’re thriving just out of view of the mega-check writers. As the rest of VC piles into the usual suspects, there’s never been a better time for angels and early-stage backers to fuel the next wave of innovation—the entrepreneurs building companies just outside the glare of the unicorn spotlight.
If you’re curious about how to get involved—either as a founder or an investor—check out our membership page, browse our upcoming events, or reach out and pitch to our community. The opportunity in early-stage innovation has never been brighter.
Want to learn more about how RVC is building the future? See our portfolio companies and discover how real diversification and early-stage investing can unlock value beyond the AI hype.
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