Analysis of 1,140 early-stage funding rounds in developer tools, cybersecurity, and infrastructure from January 2025 through March 2026, totaling $13.5B. Six growth patterns emerge from ~130 company case studies: viral creation loops (Lovable, Bolt.new, Emergent), open source as sales force (CodeRabbit, LangChain, Unleash), channel multipliers (BlackWall, Cynomi), 'aha moment' demos (Adaptive Security, Endor Labs), founder credibility as distribution (Oxide Computer, Descope), and single architectural bets (Depot, GrowthBook). A key finding is an 'agentic flywheel' where AI coding agents are driving demand across every infrastructure layer—CI, deployment, sandboxes, memory, orchestration, and auth. The report also provides a detailed investor map by category with specific partner names, check sizes, lead rates, and thesis for cybersecurity specialists, AI infrastructure funds, devtools-focused VCs, open source specialists, super-node angels, accelerators, and corporate VCs.
Table of contents
The numbers: $13.5B in 15 monthsHow the funded companies actually grewThe agentic flywheel: why every layer of the stack is growing at onceWho should you talk to? The investor map by categoryOne more thingSort: