Every week I write about who raised money. This time I wanted to look at the other side: who wrote the checks.
Adamlead now reads the news coverage of the rounds it tracks and records who led each one and who joined. It's new, so this is the first month I can do this properly.
Here's how October looks so far.
How I counted
Between October 2 and 21, Adamlead researched 33 startup rounds.
For 24 of them, the coverage named a lead investor. For the other 9 (including Modal, Town, Greptile and Valon), it didn't, so they're not counted here. A few rounds had two co-leads, and I count both.
That gives 25 different lead investors for 24 rounds. Most led one round. Five led more than one.
The three that led three rounds each
Andreessen Horowitz
- TypeSafe AI · Series A, $870M · October 9
- Armadin · Series B, $255.5M · October 2 (co-led with Accel)
- Preference Model · Seed, $16M · October 7
a16z also joined three more rounds without leading: Arena, Stuut and Vesta. That's six October rounds in all, more than anyone else.
Two of the three it led are about AI models and the data that trains them. TypeSafe AI calls itself "the first (public) System One Model". Preference Model is a data research company. Armadin's line is "The attacker of the future is already here."
Sequoia Capital
- Whop · Series D, $205M · October 21 (co-led with Shopify Ventures)
- Blacksmith · Series C, $66M · October 21
- Mecka · Series B, $60M · October 8 (co-led with NVIDIA)
Sequoia also joined TypeSafe AI and Flapping Airplanes. Two of its three leads came on the same day, October 21.
These are later rounds: B, C and D. Sequoia led none of October's seed or Series A rounds that we know of.
FirstMark Capital
- Daytona · Series B, $60M · October 20
- Baba · Series A, $40M · October 20
- Fragment · Series A, $12M · October 14
All three are in New York. Two were announced on the same day. If you're a New York founder, FirstMark was the most active lead in your city this month.
Two that led twice
General Catalyst led Different (Seed, $48M, October 20) and co-led Melius (Series A, $25M, October 6) with CRV.
Index Ventures led Hone (Seed, $60M, October 9) and co-led Flapping Airplanes (Series A, $1B, October 21) with Lux Capital.
Both were behind big early rounds. A $48M seed and a $60M seed were Series A or B numbers not long ago.
The twenty that led once
- Accel: Armadin, Series B (co-lead)
- Atreides Management: Legora, Series E, $550M
- Base10 Partners: Causa Prima, Seed, $20M
- Conversion Capital: Vesta, Series B, $30M
- CRV: Melius, Series A (co-lead)
- Eclipse: Oxide Computer Company, Series D, $445M
- Headline: Scarlet, Series B, $50M
- Insight Partners: Stuut, Series B, $52.5M (co-lead)
- Jump Capital: Pluto Security, Series A, $42M (co-lead)
- Khosla Ventures: Arena, Series B, $200M (co-lead)
- Lightspeed Venture Partners: Arena (co-lead)
- Lux Capital: Flapping Airplanes (co-lead)
- M12 (Microsoft): Stuut (co-lead)
- NVIDIA: Mecka (co-lead)
- Paradigm: Nous Research, Series B, $90M (co-lead)
- PeakSpan Capital: North, Series B, $60M
- Robot Ventures: Nous Research (co-lead)
- Shopify Ventures: Whop (co-lead)
- TLV Partners: Pluto Security (co-lead)
- Union Square Ventures: Tolan, $30M
By stage
The 24 rounds with a named lead add up to $4.29B. Here's who led at each stage:
- Seed (4 rounds, $144M): Andreessen Horowitz (Preference Model), Index Ventures (Hone), General Catalyst (Different), Base10 Partners (Causa Prima).
- Series A (6 rounds, $1.99B): Andreessen Horowitz (TypeSafe AI), Index and Lux (Flapping Airplanes), FirstMark (Baba and Fragment), General Catalyst and CRV (Melius), Jump Capital and TLV Partners (Pluto Security).
- Series B (9 rounds, $858M): the busiest stage, with 14 different leads, from a16z and Accel on Armadin to PeakSpan on North.
- Series C to E (4 rounds, $1.27B): Sequoia (Blacksmith, and Whop with Shopify Ventures), Eclipse (Oxide) and Atreides (Legora).
- Other venture (1 round): Union Square Ventures (Tolan).
Two Series A rounds, TypeSafe AI and Flapping Airplanes, are $1.87B on their own. So the Series A line looks huge, but the typical A was still in the $12M to $42M range.
Who kept showing up without leading
Leading is one signal. Showing up again and again is another. These joined the most October rounds as participants:
- GV: 3 (Armadin, Flapping Airplanes, Blacksmith)
- Andreessen Horowitz: 3 (Arena, Stuut, Vesta)
- Kleiner Perkins: 2 (Armadin, Flapping Airplanes)
- NVIDIA: 2 (Nous Research, Flapping Airplanes), plus the Mecka round it co-led
- Menlo Ventures: 2 (Nous Research, Legora)
- Y Combinator: 2 (Nous Research, Blacksmith)
- M12 (Microsoft): 2 (Nous Research, Mecka), plus the Stuut round it co-led
- Sequoia Capital: 2 (TypeSafe AI, Flapping Airplanes)
What stood out
Big companies are leading rounds now.
NVIDIA co-led Mecka. Microsoft's M12 co-led Stuut. Shopify Ventures co-led Whop. And NVIDIA and M12 each joined two more rounds on top of that. Three corporate investors put their names first this month, next to the usual venture firms.
A few names cover a lot of ground.
a16z, Sequoia and FirstMark led 9 of the 24 rounds where we know the lead. Add General Catalyst and Index and it's 13 of 24. The rest of the money came from twenty firms that each led one.
Same-day deals.
FirstMark did two on October 20. Sequoia did two on October 21. If you're raising and talking to either of them, they're clearly writing checks right now.
Why this is useful
If you're raising: this is who's actively leading right now, and at which stage. Sequoia led only later rounds this month. Index and General Catalyst led big seeds. FirstMark led in New York. That tells you who to talk to first.
If you sell to startups: an investor's portfolio is a ready-made list. If one company a firm backed uses your product, that's a good line in an email to the others it backed.
Every investor above has a page on Adamlead with the rounds they led and joined, and every company has a page with its round and contacts where we have them. Start here: Startup investors on Adamlead. The three busiest leads: Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and FirstMark Capital.
This is the first month I've been able to count this, so I'll do it again for November and see what changes.
Which investor surprised you on this list?
Data as of October 24, 2026: rounds announced October 2 to 21. Lead and participating investors come from the news coverage Adamlead reads for each round; rounds where the coverage named no lead aren't counted. Company descriptions are each company's own.