Investors aren't betting on marketing startups as much as they were before 2022, the year OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world.
Global venture funding to companies that focus on sales, marketing, and advertising spiked during the pandemic, according to data from Crunchbase.
Since 2023, however, annual investments have remained below $10 billion — a more than 70% decline from a recent peak of $36.6 billion in 2021.
Additional data shows the number of funding rounds has also shrunk.
At present, deal volume in the sales, marketing, and advertising space is on pace to fall for the fifth consecutive year as investors appear to pour money into fewer companies.
The category's largest funding recipient of 2026 so far is AppsFlyer, which raised more than $1 billion in June from digital advertising heavyweights Meta, Google, Unity, and Moloco, according to Axios.
The San Francisco-based company measures marketing effectiveness across multiple channels — something nearly everyone in the industry values.
"Both advertisers and publishers need fair, unbiased, and comprehensive measurement to understand what works and to improve it," Andrew Bocking, Meta's VP of ads, said in a statement. "We support AppsFlyer’s mission to deliver this to the ecosystem."
The decline in funding for sales, marketing, and advertising startups, of course, stands in contrast to the surge of investment in AI companies. Crunchbase reports that, as of October 2026, California-based startups have attracted a record $385 billion in investments, more than double last year’s total.
Two firms in particular — OpenAI and Anthropic — account for more than half of that sum.
