Crunchbase Finds Sales and Marketing Funding Concentrating Around AI

Sales, marketing and CRM startups are still raising billions, but the field is narrowing. Crunchbase found that the sector raised $7.5 billion across 830 global funding rounds in 2026 so far, with deal volume on track for a fourth straight annual decline.

The immediate consequence is a market where the total amount of capital can look resilient even as the number of financing opportunities falls. Crunchbase’s projection of another annual decline in deal volume points to investors putting money into fewer companies, rather than spreading it across as many startups as before.

Capital remains below recent highs

Crunchbase projects that, at the current pace, the sector could finish near the $9.3 billion raised in each of 2023 and 2024. That would remain below 2025’s $11.1 billion total. The year-end figure is a projection, not a completed result, but it places the current funding pace closer to those recent years than to a new expansion peak.

AI is taking a larger share

The allocation shift is not simply toward a smaller group of companies. Crunchbase says AI-focused startups have captured a larger share of sales, marketing and CRM funding than they did during the sector’s prior peak. Most investment in the sector is now going to companies in Crunchbase AI-related categories.

That finding is a measure of investor allocation, not a verdict on commercial results. Crunchbase’s AI grouping is based on its own categories, and the snapshot does not establish whether the companies receiving funding will ultimately build durable businesses. It does establish a changed financing environment: investment is concentrating in fewer companies while AI-related businesses receive most of the sector’s capital.