How Venture Capital Due Diligence Is Adapting to a Faster, AI-Heavy Deal Market
How Venture Capital Due Diligence Is Adapting to a Faster, AI-Heavy Deal Market By: Aman Agrawal August 24, 2026 Share: Global venture funding climbed to $425 billion in 2025, roughly 30 percent higher than 2024 and the third-largest year on record, even as the number of completed deals fell by close to 15 percent. Capital is concentrating in fewer, larger, faster-moving rounds, and AI-focused companies alone captured well over half of that total. Ten funding rounds attracted more than $2 billion each in just the first quarter of 2026. For a due diligence team, that combination is uncomfortable: less time per deal, bigger checks at stake, and a wave of fast-scaling companies that don’t fit the diligence playbooks built for slower-moving markets. Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe! Venture Capital Due Diligence: A 2026 Playbook Founders raising in this environment expect answers on a compressed timeline too, which puts additional p...