Ohio's Startup Funding Fell 85% in Q2 2026 while the Country Tripled

In the second quarter of 2026, startups across the country raised $155.67 billion — a little more than three times the $49.92 billion they raised in the same quarter a year ago. In Ohio founders across the state collectively raised $51.35 million. That amounts to 15 percent of what the state raised in Q2 2025, a year-over-year drop of 84.5 percent and the steepest decline of any Midwest state we track for this quarter.

How does a state lose five-sixths of its venture funding in a year when the national number nearly tripled? More importantly… does it actually even matter at all?

The national number is a story of concentration, and most Midwest states have not yet been part of it. Of that $155.67 billion, California alone took $122.78 billion — 79 percent of every venture dollar raised across the country. The surge this year is a California surge, with one company - Anthropic - receiving more than half of that. Ignoring the coasts and the picture inverts: every one of the six Midwest states we cover raised less than it did a year ago.

Within that regional contraction, Ohio's issue this quarter is specific. The state is not short on deals; closing 16 rounds in Q2 — more than Michigan (14), more than Indiana (13), more than Wisconsin (12). By deal count, Ohio ranks third in the region, behind only Illinois and Minnesota. 

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Activity, therefore is not a huge issue. But check size is. 

The average Ohio round this quarter was $3.21 million. A year earlier it was $8.50 million. Michigan, which raised $764 million on just 14 deals, averaged $54.6 million per round — seventeen times Ohio's average. Sixteen rounds at three million dollars apiece does not move a state's number, and in a neighboring (and rival) state one large round did.

The quarter-over-quarter figures tell a similar story.

Ohio raised $101.05 million in Q1 and $51.35 million in Q2, so funding roughly halved even as deal count ticked was basically the same with 15 last quarter and 16 this. The average check therefore also halved, from $6.74 million to $3.21 million between the two quarters. Whatever is happening in Ohio, it is not necessarily a shortage of founders or a shortage of closed deals. 

Looking at the entire first half of the year and the trend holds. Ohio startups raised $152.4 million in the first six months of 2026, against $422.2 million in the first half of 2025 — down about 64 percent. The state's full-year totals were $1.57 billion in 2024 and $1.29 billion in 2025. At the current rate over the first of the year, 2026 can match 2025; but that amount was the lowest annual total since 2019.

Of course none of this assessment is a verdict on the quality of Ohio's companies, and it should not be read as one. Founders kept forming companies and closing rounds. What Ohio did not have in Q2 was the one thing that defined the national quarter: large, late-stage round(s big enough to bend the aggregate. 

The deals are still getting done. The gap - as it has been for most of our existence - is at the top of the capital funnel. Those checks have always been more common on the coasts, but are now coalescing there. Whether Ohio's best companies can attract them without relocating is the question we’ll all keeping asking ourselves.

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Read the Q2 funding reports for the other states here:
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Michigan

Illinois

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Indiana

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