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China’s venture capital (VC) activity showed a strong growth during January-April 2026, marked by a sharp rise in deal volume and a significant surge in invested capital. 

According to GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform, the total number of VC deals announced in the country increased by 60% during the period compared to the same period in 2025, while the total funding value registered a 206% year-on-year (YoY) jump.

“China’s VC market is showing a synchronised rebound – more deals and a much larger value, indicating improving investor sentiment,” noted Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData. “This signals a decisive improvement in risk appetite and investor capacity compared with the same period last year.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that China is the world’s second-largest market for VC funding by transaction count and value. It accounted for a 24% share of the total number of VC deals announced globally between January and April 2026. In value terms, China accounted for 7% of global VC funding, indicating that while activity has scaled quickly, overall capital concentration remains materially lower than in the US.

Bose added: “Even so, China’s value growth outpaced the 151% YoY expansion recorded globally, underlining that the country was among the key drivers of the global recovery in invested capital.”

A closer comparison with peer markets highlights China’s standout performance on deal momentum. The US recorded only a 1% YoY rise in deal volume during January-April 2026, while the UK and India experienced YoY declines of 2% and 7%, respectively, over the same period. Against this backdrop, China’s 60% rise in deal volume suggests a broader-based acceleration across the funding pipeline.

On the funding value side, China’s YoY expansion exceeded the UK’s 114% increase and India’s 22.2% growth, and was also higher than the US's 178% YoY growth. However, China’s share of global value remains far below the US share of 80%, emphasising an ongoing divergence in average ticket sizes and the prevalence of mega-rounds. This indicates China’s resurgence, while rapid, is still operating within a more moderate value scale relative to the global capital centre.

“The combination of rapidly rising deal volume and a more-than-tripling of funding value points to two simultaneous trends: widening participation across a larger set of startups and sectors, and an increasing willingness to invest big in high-conviction themes. While global value concentration still favours the US, China’s pace of acceleration in early 2026 suggests it is reasserting itself as a significant growth engine for VC funding activity outside the US,” Bose concluded.

GlobalData warns that historical data may change when some deals are added to previous months due to delays in information disclosure in the public domain.