Ohio startups raised $1.11 billion across 17 venture rounds in the third quarter of 2026, according to preliminary Dealroom data we've tracked up toOctober 9.
It is the largest quarter for the state since StartMidwest began in 2025, ahead of the $424 million Ohio posted in Q2 2025, and it means that the state is first among the six Midwest states we cover on dollars and second on deal count, behind only Illinois' 27 rounds this quarter.
A note of caution, however: ninety percent of the figure is from one transaction.
Keyfactor, the machine-identity and trust-infrastructure company based in Independence, a suburb of Cleveland, announced a $1 billion-plus strategic growth investment led by Summit Partners on July 6. Existing investors Insight Partners and Sixth Street Growth retained significant stakes, according to the company's announcement. The company describes itself as providing "trust infrastructure for the AI and quantum era," and the round alone is 49% of the entire $2.06 billion raised across the Midwest in Q3.
Without Keyfactor, Ohio raised $109.7 million across 16 rounds. That is more than double the $51.35 million the state posted in Q2 2026, on the same number of deals. The average disclosed round outside Keyfactor was $9.97 million, up from $3.21 million in Q2 and above the $8.50 million average of Q2 2025.
Nationally, Crunchbase put global venture funding at $159 billion for the quarter, with $91 billion going to startups in this country via its preliminary count. Twenty-seven companies raised a billion dollars or more, a record for a single quarter, led by OpenAI's $30 billion and $5 billion apiece for Databricks and Safe Superintelligence, all on the West Coast. Against the $91 billion American figure, Ohio's $1.11 billion is a 1.2% share of the national quarter, and the state's 16 other rounds amount to 0.12%.
Beneath Keyfactor: 16 rounds and $109.7 million
Of the 16 remaining rounds, Stack Health's $21 million seed in Columbus was the largest, followed by $15 million seed and early-stage rounds for 1872 AI and Sonic Fire Tech.
Four Series A rounds followed, totaling $45 million: Healia ($14 million) and RWX ($12 million), both in Columbus, Harmoni ($10 million) and Payload ($9 million). Below them, Ravee Optics raised a $6 million seed, Auxilium Health $3.4 million and BrandRank AI $3 million, both seed, and Battleface added $1.3 million in a late-stage round.
Five Ohio companies raised undisclosed amounts: 3dB Labs (growth equity), Aeroseal and Erebor (both late-stage), Endera Motors (early-stage) and Secure Prompt (seed).
Seed rounds were six of the 17, worth $48.4 million where disclosed.
The quarter was also front-loaded. Nine of the 17 rounds closed in July, worth $1.04 billion when including Keyfactor. August brought six rounds and $37.3 million, and September's two rounds were $31 million, with Stack Health and Harmoni the only Ohio deals in Dealroom records for the month.
What the Q3 2026 does not include in Ohio
The largest Ohio capital announcement of the summer is not in the total. Resilience, the biopharmaceutical manufacturer that recently relocated its headquarters from California to Blue Ash, said on July 30 that Eli Lilly would invest $750 million in manufacturing capacity in West Chester and Blue Ash, in the Cincinnati area, with at least 400 new jobs and full operations expected in early 2027. Dealroom lists it as a $750 million growth equity round. It is a capital investment in facilities, part-funded by a customer, rather than an equity raise by the company, and StartMidwest has excluded it from the venture total, as it did in the regional report. Counted, Ohio's quarter would be $1.86 billion.
The quarterly figure also differs from what StartMidwest's weekly funding roundups reported for Ohio between the weeks ending July 17 and September 25: $105.05 million across 11 deals. The gap is almost entirely Keyfactor, which was announced on July 6, before we had begun our weekly series. Set it aside and the two counts agree on the state to within $5 million. The weeklies include grants and non-dilutive awards that Dealroom's venture definition leaves out, and Dealroom carries undisclosed seed and early-stage rounds that the weekly desk does not always catch. Dealroom's figures for prior quarters have also moved since the earlier reports were published, which is why the comparisons above are made to its current numbers as well as to what we ran at the time. The $1.11 billion should be read as a preliminary indication rather than a final figure, and our full methodology is set out in the Midwest Q3 2026 report linked above.
Ohio startup funding in 2026 so far
On the figures StartMidwest has published for each quarter, Ohio startups have raised $1.26 billion in the first nine months of 2026: $101.05 million in Q1, $51.35 million in Q2 and $1.11 billion in Q3. The state's full-year total was $1.29 billion in 2025, its lowest since 2019, and $1.57 billion in 2024.
Deal count tells a steadier story: 15 rounds in Q1, 16 in Q2 and 17 in Q3, each above the 12 Dealroom records for Q2 on its venture basis and below the 22 it records for Q3 2025.
The companies and investors named here can be found in Start Midwest's startups and investors database.
