Data Report · Fund Formation by State · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026
Venture Fund Formation in California: 1,046 Funds Filed (Sep 2025 to Aug 2026)
1,046 venture funds filed a Form D from a California address in the twelve months to August 2026, 11.41% of every US venture fund filing in that window. Every figure here is computed from the filings themselves.
Written by Michael Kaufman · Reviewed against our editorial standards · Updated
Quick Answer
Between September 2025 and August 2026, 1,046 venture capital funds filed a first Form D from a California address, out of 2,636 pooled-fund filings from the state and 9,169 venture filings nationwide. That is 11.41% of US venture fund formation and ranks California 3rd among the states. The 607 filings that named a dollar target are seeking $64.01B combined, with a median target of $17.3M and a largest single target of $6.02B; 439 filings declared an indefinite or undisclosed target and are excluded from both figures. 1,034 of the filings (98.9%) came from issuers with no earlier filing anywhere in the warehouse. Busiest month: Aug 2026 with 115 filings; quietest: Nov 2025 with 63. Figures as of September 15, 2026.
Key Takeaways
- 1.California recorded 1,046 venture fund filings in the window, 3rd nationally and 11.41% of the 9,169 filed across the country.
- 2.Venture funds were 39.7% of all 2,636 pooled-fund filings from California, against 42.6% nationally.
- 3.The 607 filings naming a target are seeking $64.01B combined; the median is $17.3M and 439 filings named no amount at all.
- 4.1,034 filings (98.9%) came from first-time vehicles, and 11.8% of the state's venture filings carry series-vehicle names, against 65.6% nationally.
- 5.San Francisco accounts for 28.9% of the state's venture filings (302 of 1,046).
1,046
venture fund filings from California addresses
3rd nationally, 11.41% of the 9,169 filed nationwide
$64.01B
combined disclosed target offering
across the 607 of 1,046 filings that named a dollar target
$17.3M
median disclosed target
largest single target $6.02B
1,034
first-time fund vehicles
98.9% of the state's venture filings came from an issuer with no earlier filing on record
Month by Month: Venture Fund Filings from California
Filings are counted by SEC filing date. Peak month Aug 2026 at 115, low month Nov 2025 at 63.
- Sep 202576 venture
- Oct 202568 venture
- Nov 202563 venture
- Dec 202583 venture
- Jan 202674 venture
- Feb 202676 venture
- Mar 202693 venture
- Apr 202689 venture
- May 2026101 venture
- Jun 202695 venture
- Jul 2026113 venture
- Aug 2026115 venture
The data does not explain why any month moved the way it did. Form D records that a filing happened, its target and its address. A month-to-month change in these counts is a change in filing behaviour, and nothing in this dataset attributes it to a cause.
The Largest Venture Targets Filed from California
Ranked by disclosed target offering, across the whole window. “Sold at filing” is the amount reported sold as of the Form D date: a fund showing $0 has not reported sales yet, it has not failed to raise.
| # | Fund | Target | Sold at filing | City | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Founders Fund Growth IV, LP | $6.02B | $6.02B | San Francisco | Mar 23, 2026 |
| 2 | Accel Leaders 5 L.P. | $4B | $0 | Palo Alto | Dec 18, 2025 |
| 3 | Cosmic - Bet 5, L.P. | $2.7B | $0 | West Hollywood | Aug 24, 2026 |
| 4 | Cosmic - Bet 4, L.P. | $2B | $2B | West Hollywood | Sep 24, 2025 |
| 5 | Kleiner Perkins Select Fund IV, LLC | $1.92B | $1.92B | Menlo Park | Apr 7, 2026 |
How California Compares
California holds 11.41% of US venture fund filings, which is 3rd of the 26 states with enough filings to publish. An even split across those states would be 3.85% each, and the median state in this series filed 13 venture funds against California’s 1,046, a factor of 80.5.
Inside the state, venture funds were 39.7% of the 2,636 pooled-fund filings recorded, against 42.6% nationally. The median disclosed target was $17.3M, against $520K across all US venture filings in the same window.
Read the count with the address in mind. San Francisco carries 28.9% of the state’s venture filings (302 of 1,046), and 11.8% of those filings carry series-vehicle names of the “a series of” or “Series 12” form, against 65.6% nationally. Form D reports the issuer’s principal-place-of-business address, which for a fund is often a legal, administrative or platform address rather than where the manager sits. A high concentration in one town, paired with a high series share, means the count is measuring deal vehicles filed through a platform rather than distinct firms raising funds.
Methodology
Source. Public SEC EDGAR Form D filings, collected by VC Beast’s daily automated ingest into our Form D warehouse (coverage 2024-07-01 through 2026-09-15). Figures on this page are as of September 15, 2026.
Scope. Industry group 'Pooled Investment Fund', original filings only (amendments excluded). Venture filings are those whose Form D investmentFundType is 'Venture Capital Fund'. The window is the twelve full months from 2025-09-01 to 2026-08-31, and filings are bucketed by SEC filing date.
Form D reports the issuer's principal-place-of-business state, which for a fund is often a legal or administrative address rather than where the manager sits. Delaware's count in particular reflects vehicles administered at their Delaware domicile address.
Form D discloses a target offering amount (frequently 'Indefinite') and the amount sold as of the filing date. Neither equals final closed fund size, and they are reported separately here.
First-time vehicles are issuers (by SEC CIK) with no earlier filing anywhere in the warehouse (coverage begins 2024-07-01). Each fund vehicle files under its own CIK, so this measures first-time vehicles, not first-time management firms.
Filings are bucketed by SEC filing date, not by fund close or first sale.
Which states get a page. A state gets a page only when it recorded at least 12 venture fund filings in the window — roughly one a month. Below that the monthly series is mostly zeroes and the medians rest on a handful of filings, so the state is excluded from both the route params and the sitemap rather than published thin. 26 states and territories cleared it; 25 did not and have no page.
Reproducible. Every figure on this page is regenerated by node scripts/reports/generate-state-fund-formation.mjs, and the California count is cross-checked against a direct count query on each run. Corrections: our corrections page.
Work the numbers
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The same data, month by month
This page is the twelve-month view for one state. The monthly VC Filings Report covers every state at once, with the largest raises and the first-time managers behind them.
Cite this report
Free to quote, chart and all. An attribution link is all we ask.
VC Beast, Venture Fund Formation in California, Sep 2025 to Aug 2026, from SEC Form D filings, published September 15, 2026, https://vcbeast.com/reports/fund-formation/california
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Sources & References
- 1.SEC Form D filings via VC Beast's daily EDGAR ingest(Primary data source: original Form D filings from SEC EDGAR)