This list covers fintech startups that closed a disclosed round between June and October 2026, at Series C or earlier, and published at least one traction figure. Seven companies qualified, from an AI accounting platform valued at $1 billion to a Riyadh-based SME lender.

The capital behind them is concentrated. Fintech startups raised $28.6 billion worldwide in the first half of 2026, up 22.7% year over year, while deal count fell 25.7% to 1,605 rounds, according to Crunchbase.

Fintech startups funding in 2026: totals and deal counts

Crunchbase counted $28.6 billion in fintech venture funding in H1 2026. That was 17.3% below the $34.6 billion raised in H2 2025, the sector’s strongest half-year since late 2022.

Fewer, larger rounds drove the annual gain. Spread across 1,605 deals, the H1 2026 total works out to about $17.8 million per round. The same data implies about $23.3 billion across 2,161 deals in H1 2025, or about $10.8 million per round. Average check size rose 65%.

US companies took $15 billion, more than 52% of the global total. The UK followed with $2.7 billion.

The US raised 5.6 times as much as the UK, which took 9.4% of H1 funding. That left about $10.9 billion, or 38.1%, for every other country combined.

FinTech Global publishes quarterly totals that run higher than Crunchbase’s, because its tracker counts a wider set of deals that includes insurtech and cybersecurity companies. Its figures below should not be compared with the Crunchbase totals above. Average deal size is calculated from its totals.

Q3 2026 funding fell 11% from the Q2 peak but rose 35% from Q3 2025, while deal volume dropped 6% year over year. The average Q3 deal grew from $21.2 million to $30.7 million, a 45% increase.

The first three quarters of 2026 add up to $78.2 billion across 2,665 deals. For the AI side of the same peak quarter, see our ranking of the biggest AI funding rounds of Q2 2026.

Selection rules and round sizes

Each company needed a round announced in the past 18 months and confirmed by a company statement or trade publication. Rounds are capped at Series C, so Series D raises such as Valon’s $150 million fall outside the list. Each company also had to publish a traction figure: customers, clients or assets.

The list is grouped by what each startup sells. One group builds software for corporate finance teams. A second sells software to banks and lenders. The third runs credit or cash products on its own books.

The six USD rounds total $404.5 million, with a median of $71.25 million. Taktile, Rillet and Spiko account for $300 million, or 74.2% of that sum. Cleavr’s €8 million seed is left off the chart because it was announced in euros.

Fintech startups building finance operations software

Rillet’s Series C valued the company at $1 billion, so the $100 million raise equals 10% of that valuation. New ARR doubled in the three months before the deal, and total funding now exceeds $200 million.

All three sell AI-based products, so they also compare with our ranking of the top AI startups by funding. Short gaps between rounds link them. Stuut closed its Series B ten months after its Series A. Cleavr raised its seed seven months after launch and already operates in five markets beyond France.

Software for banks and mortgage lenders

Taktile’s Series C is about double the $54 million Series B it raised 15 months earlier, in March 2025. Crunchbase listed the round among the largest fintech deals of Q2 2026. One insurer on the platform projects more than $90 million in claims-processing savings, according to the company.

Vesta’s $30 million is 35% of the $85 million it has raised since 2020. Its customer base grew by more than 50% over the past year, and mortgage lenders Pennymac and New American Funding joined the round as investors.

Credit and cash management fintech companies

Spiko grew assets under management from about $400 million in July 2025 to more than $2.7 billion, a 6.75-fold increase. Client numbers rose tenfold, from 1,000 to 10,000, over the same period, and Bloomberg put its valuation at $800 million.

erad has financed at least six times the size of its new round, and its Saudi operations grew eightfold in a year.

Funding in the sector moves weekly, alongside the AI rounds logged in our weekly AI funding report for October 7 to 12. This list will change when Crunchbase publishes its Q3 2026 fintech count and when any company here raises a Series D.

FAQ

Sources

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]

The 11 gaming startups below raised at least $666.85 million in their latest disclosed rounds between October 2025 and October 2026. Each one has a verified round from that window and a public traction figure, and was still operating at the time of writing.

The capital arrived during a recovery quarter. Private investment in gaming reached $3.1 billion across 108 deals in Q2 2026, roughly six times the year-earlier figure [1].

Most promising gaming startups of 2026 by latest round

The two largest rounds, General Intuition and Nex, account for $370 million, or 55% of the group’s $666.85 million total. The median round across all 11 startups is $40 million.

Three of the 11 rounds came in under $10 million: Kohort, Spill Games and Airoclip. All three build mobile games or tools for mobile studios.

How the gaming startups on this list were selected

Each startup needed a disclosed equity round between October 2025 and October 2026. That round had to be confirmed by a company release or trade publication. Companies acquired or shut down by October 2026 were excluded, as were Web3-dependent studios.

Gaming startup funding in Q2 2026 by deal type

AppsFlyer’s roughly $1 billion round and the combined $930 million-plus raised by General Intuition, Odyssey and Decart led the private total [1]. Together, these four gaming-adjacent companies took at least 62% of Q2 private capital.

Pure-play studios and game platforms raised far less. Across 27 disclosed rounds from August 2025 to July 2026, these companies raised $366.64 million, with a median round of $5.0 million [2].

Three rounds on this list (Ares Interactive, Grand Games and Astrocade) add up to $196 million. That is 53.5% of the pure-play total for that 12-month period.

AI gaming startups: General Intuition, Astrocade and Kohort

General Intuition’s valuation rose from $2.3 billion after its $320 million June round to $6.2 billion in late September [3]. That is a 2.7x increase in about three months.

The company trains its models on clips from sister platform Medal, where players have uploaded 2 billion clips since June 2022 [3]. The round also appeared in our weekly AI funding roundup for September 28 to October 5.

Astrocade records 140 million game plays a month and hosts over 75,000 creator-built games from 80 countries [4]. Nvidia joined the round, one of several Nvidia startup investments in 2026.

Kohort sells AI agents that run user acquisition and revenue forecasting for mobile game studios [2].

Mobile gaming startups: Grand Games, Ares Interactive and Spill Games

Grand Games recorded 5x year-over-year revenue growth and has raised $103 million in total, with a team of about 75 people [5]. It closed its Series B a little over 12 months after its Series A, its third round in two years.

Ares Interactive had 50 employees at the time of its raise. Its advisory board includes former App Store head Matt Fischer, and its next title is Baseball Hits 26 [6].

Spill Games plans to test over 20 prototypes in 18 months [10]. Airoclip uses AI in its puzzle games, and BITKRAFT Ventures backed its seed round [2].

Gaming platform startups: Nex, ZBD, Gardens Interactive and Neon

Nex’s subscriber base grew sevenfold in 18 months and is nearing 1 million. JPMorgan provided a credit facility alongside the equity, and the console enters Germany later this year [7].

ZBD builds real-money payment and rewards infrastructure for games and apps [2].

Gardens Interactive has not revealed its debut title. Sequoia, Index Ventures and Accel joined the Lightspeed-led round [8].

Neon raised a pre-seed round in 2023 and a seed round in 2024 before its 2026 Series A, with Krafton joining as a strategic partner [9].

Investors behind the most promising gaming startups

Balderton led both of Grand Games’ venture rounds, and General Catalyst led the Ares Interactive Series A. Sequoia appears on two cap tables: it led Astrocade’s Series B and joined Gardens Interactive’s round.

Four of the 11 startups (General Intuition, Astrocade, Kohort and Airoclip) put AI at the center of their product. For larger AI rounds outside gaming, see our ranking of the top 50 AI startups.

FAQ

Sources

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]