Failed Software Startups
622 venture-backed software startups have shut down after raising $20.8B combined — about 27% of the entire graveyard. The biggest cohort last raised in 2022, and the most common final round was Seed.
Software is the biggest bucket in the graveyard for the same reason it dominates venture funding: more software companies get started and funded than anything else. Most die exactly the way the base rate predicts — a seed round, no product-market fit, a quiet shutdown.
The Damage, by the Numbers
$4.7M
Median raised before shutdown
$33.4M
Average raised — the big flameouts drag it up
36
Died holding $100M+ in funding
2
Raised $1B+ and still closed
Class of the crash
Closed software startups by year of their final funding round
165
249
134
57
16
2021
$8.4B
2022
$5.9B
2023
$3.7B
2024
$2.2B
2025
$534.8M
How far they got
Last round raised before shutting down
Pre-Seed
90
Seed
215
Series A
86
Series B
36
Series C+
18
Post-IPO
5
Debt & Notes
37
Other
135
Based on the last five years of fundraising data tracked in the VCbacked database.
The Graveyard
Showing 100 of 622 closed startups
Company | Raised | Last Round | What They Did | Location | Founders | Site | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argo AI | $3.6B | Corporate | Argo AI builds software, hardware, maps, and cloud-support infrastructure for self-driving vehicles. | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States | Bryan Salesky | Reveal | |
Lacework | $1.9B | Venture | Lacework is a cloud security services provider that automates cloud security at scale so customers can innovate with speed and safety. | Mountain View, California, United States | Mike Speiser | Reveal | |
Olive | $856.3M | Series H | Olive is a developer of an artificial intelligence workforce, automated revenue cycle and claims management for the healthcare industry. | Columbus, Ohio, United States | Bradley Mascho | Reveal | |
Ampla Technologies | $839.5M | Debt | Ampla provides tech-enabled financial solutions to help emerging brands. | New York, New York, United States | Anthony Santomo | Reveal | |
Kyte | $549.0M | Debt | Kyte unlocks the freedom to go places. Kyte offers cars delivered to people's doorsteps. | San Francisco, California, United States | Francesco Wiedemann | Reveal | |
Builder.ai | $445.0M | Series D | Builder.ai offers a no-code AI-powered app development platform designed to build and operate software projects. | London, England, United Kingdom | Sachin Duggal | Reveal | |
Pear Therapeutics | $409.0M | Post-IPO | Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals. | Boston, Massachusetts, United States | Stephen Smith | Reveal | |
Tsū | $360.0M | Venture | Tsū is a social media platform that shares ad revenue as well as provides tools that inspire content creation. | Norwalk, Connecticut, United States | John Acunto | Reveal | |
Tempo Automation | $353.6M | Post-IPO | Tempo Automation is transforming the way companies innovate and bring new electronic products to market. | San Francisco, California, United States | Jeff McAlvay | Reveal | |
Embark Trucks | $317.1M | Post-IPO | Embark develops self-driving truck technology designed for freight and logistic services. | San Francisco, California, United States | Alex Rodrigues | Reveal | |
Enjoy | $310.5M | Post-IPO | Enjoy is a technology platform that provides personalized retail shopping. | Palo Alto, California, United States | Ron Johnson | Reveal | |
Stoa | $300.0M | PE | Stoa is a fintech firm that focuses on streamlining the process of purchasing, remodeling, and managing real estate investments. | Phoenix, Arizona, United States | Or Agassi | Reveal | |
Coda | $240.0M | Corporate | Coda is a document collaboration platform that brings data and teams together. | San Francisco, California, United States | Alexander DeNeui | Reveal | |
Enfabrica | $240.0M | Series C | Enfabrica is an AI networking chip startup that develops networking solutions for parallel and accelerated computing infrastructure. | Mountain View, California, United States | Rochan Sankar, Shrijeet Mukherjee | Reveal | |
Humane | $230.0M | Series C | Humane is a platform that creates and sells consumer hardware, software, and services. | San Francisco, California, United States | Bethany Bongiorno | Reveal | |
Ghost Autonomy | $217.0M | Series E | Ghost offers attention-free driving by developing a software solution with AI approaches. | Mountain View, California, United States | John Hayes | Reveal | |
Onfido, an Entrust company | $182.1M | Secondary | Onfido, an Entrust company is a provider of automated digital identity verification. | London, England, United Kingdom | Eamon Jubbawy | Reveal | |
Beekeeper | $181.5M | Venture | Beekeeper is a digital workplace platform designed to improve internal communication, collaboration, and operations for frontline workers. | Zúrich, Zurich, Switzerland | Andreas Slotosch, Cristian Grossmann, Daniel Sztutwojner, Flavio Pfaffhauser | Reveal | |
Fast Radius | $167.8M | Post-IPO | Fast Radius, Inc. is a cloud manufacturing and digital supply chain company. | Chicago, Illinois, United States | David Crowder | Reveal | |
Quo | $161.1M | Venture | Quo offers a phone app that lets users get a business phone number without a second phone or a second SIM card. | San Francisco, California, United States | Daryna Kulya, Mahyar Raissi | Reveal | |
Bitwise Industries | $158.3M | Series C | Bitwise Industries is an ecosystem that provides apprenticeships to students to learn tech skills and connects them to tech opportunities. | Fresno, California, United States | Irma Olguin | Reveal | |
Untether AI | $152.0M | Series B | Untether AI develops AI chips to enable new frontiers in AI applications. | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Darrick Wiebe | Reveal | |
Naetion | $150.7M | Seed | Marketplace, Digital Workplace, Mobile App, Web3 | Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark | Buddhika Perera | Reveal | |
Infogrid | $148.5M | Series B | Analyzes data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to help property managers and owners optimize the performance of their buildings. | London, England, United Kingdom | — | Reveal | |
Pluribus Networks | $137.0M | Venture | Pluribus Networks is a leader in open networking and next generation software defined networking (SDN) | Santa Clara, California, United States | C.K. Ken Yang | Reveal | |
OctoAI | $131.9M | Series C | OctoAI is an AI infrastructure platform designed to help developers run, tune, and scale generative AI models efficiently. | Seattle, Washington, United States | Jared Roesch | Reveal | |
Sisu | $128.7M | Series C | Sisu is a decision intelligence engine that delivers insights and monitors metrics for businesses to make the right business decisions. | San Francisco, California, United States | Peter Bailis | Reveal | |
Nuula | $120.0M | Debt | Nuula is an application that provides tools that makes critical business KPIs easier for small enterprises. | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Mark Ruddock | Reveal | |
ParkHub | $119.7M | PE | ParkHub’s fast, reliable, and easy-to-use parking management technology helps operators boost revenue, cut costs, and wow guests. | Dallas, Texas, United States | George Baker Sr. | Reveal | |
Rockset | $117.5M | Series B | Rockset is a real-time indexing database that enables companies to build data applications for the cloud. | San Mateo, California, United States | Dhruba Borthakur, Venkat Venkataramani | Reveal | |
Unlock Real Estate | $110.0M | Note | Unlock is the AI-powered real estate investment manager | New York, New York, United States | Matias Recchia | Reveal | |
Protect AI | $108.5M | Series B | Protect AI is a cybersecurity company that helps in managing security risks and defending against AI security threats. | Seattle, Washington, United States | Badar Ahmed, Daryan (D) Dehghanpisheh, Ian Swanson | Reveal | |
Superhuman | $108.0M | Series C | Superhuman is a software platform that weaves social insights into a workflow. | San Francisco, California, United States | Conrad Irwin | Reveal | |
Slync.io | $100.5M | Venture | Slync.io is an orchestration platform for global logistics that delivers productivity and efficiency through intelligent automation. | Dallas, Texas, United States | Raj Patel, Varun Dodla, XX XX | Reveal | |
Life House | $100.4M | Series C | Life House is a vertically integrated hotel software and management platform on the mission to make hotels operationally autonomous. | New York, New York, United States | Rami Zeidan | Reveal | |
SIMON | $100.0M | Corporate | SIMON develops an online distribution platform for financial professionals that focuses on structured investments. | New York, New York, United States | — | Reveal | |
Insightful Science | $95.0M | Undisclosed | Insightful Science provides software designed to support scientists with research and development procedures. | San Diego, California, United States | — | Reveal | |
Grabango | $93.8M | Note | Grabango is a checkout-free technology for existing, large-scale grocery, and convenience stores. | Berkeley, California, United States | Will Glaser | Reveal | |
Simplebet | $87.4M | Debt | Simplebet turns every moment of every sporting event into a betting opportunity. | New York, New York, United States | Chris Bevilacqua | Reveal | |
Phantom Auto | $86.0M | Corporate | Phantom Auto is a software company that offers teleoperation safety solutions and remote operations for logistics vehicles. | South San Francisco, California, United States | Elliot Katz | Reveal | |
Armory | $82.0M | Venture | Armory is an enterprise software company commercializing the open-source continuous delivery platform, Spinnaker. | San Mateo, California, United States | Ben Mappen | Reveal | |
Freechat | $82.0M | Series A | Super applications based on Web 3.0 social networks | Hong Kong, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong | Jack Long | Reveal | |
Carbon6 | $81.9M | Series A | Carbon6 provides a software suite to help online entrepreneurs streamline everyday operations and improve profitability. | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Beau Crabill | Reveal | |
Embed Financial Technologies | $80.0M | Debt | Embed develops securities execution, clearing, settlement, and custody APIs for the financial services industry. | Vancouver, Washington, United States | Michael Giles | Reveal | |
Sunverge Energy | $77.3M | Debt | Sunverge Energy provides integrated solar solutions for distributed generation and storage. | San Francisco, California, United States | Dean Sanders | Reveal | |
Oculii | $76.1M | Venture | Oculii develops AI Radar Perception Software that significantly enhances ADAS today and enables full autonomous driving in the future. | Dayton, Ohio, United States | Lang Hong | Reveal | |
Tome | $75.3M | Series B | Tome radically changes the way sales teams get deals done, with custom LLMs that assist reps throughout every stage of the sales process. | San Francisco, California, United States | Henri Liriani | Reveal | |
Tidelift | $73.5M | Series C | Tidelift makes open source software work better—for everyone. | Boston, Massachusetts, United States | Donald Fischer | Reveal | |
Waddle | $73.1M | Venture | Waddle is a proprietary technology that leverages analytics from accounting & bank data to provide automated revolving credit lines. | Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia | Leigh Dunsford | Reveal | |
Daedalean | $72.5M | Grant | Daedalean is building autonomous piloting software systems for civil aircraft of today and advanced aerial mobility of tomorrow. | Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland | Anna Chernova | Reveal | |
Mosaic.tech | $71.9M | Series C | Mosaic.tech is a finance platform that provides predictive reporting capabilities to assist with financial strategy and planning. | San Diego, California, United States | Bijan Moallemi | Reveal | |
Penta | $71.4M | Series B | Penta is a digital business bank platform designed to help startups and SMEs save time and money on banking. | Berlin, Berlin, Germany | Aleksandar Orlic | Reveal | |
Infoworks.io | $71.2M | Series D | Infoworks is an enterprise software company providing solutions that accelerate cloud migration & modernize cloud data operations. | Palo Alto, California, United States | Amar Arsikere | Reveal | |
Tibit Communications | $71.1M | Series C | TiBiT Communications offers a disruptive technology that will fundamentally change the way broadband access. | Petaluma, California, United States | Robin Lobo | Reveal | |
Clouddrop | $70.0M | Series A | CloudwerX create school management technologies which includes all tools to help schools and institutions run seamlessly. | Fort Myers, Florida, United States | Isabelle Beneton | Reveal | |
Arevo | $69.5M | Venture | Arevo develops technology to enable direct digital additive manufacturing of parts for end use applications in high volume. | Milpitas, California, United States | Hemant Bheda | Reveal | |
Prevedere | $67.3M | Note | Prevedere is a provider of predictive analytics technology and solutions based on econometric modeling. | Columbus, Ohio, United States | Rich Wagner | Reveal | |
Teampay | $65.0M | Debt | Teampay's expense management platform streamlines the purchase process across virtual and physical cards, invoices, and reimbursements. | New York, New York, United States | Andrew Hoag | Reveal | |
Skupos | $64.4M | Venture | Skupos is a data platform that uses technology to fuel the convenience retail industry. | Denver, Colorado, United States | Jake Bolling, Linh Nguyen, Michael Glassman | Reveal | |
LifeBrand | $64.2M | Venture | LifeBrand is creating a technology that empowers social media users to identify, detect, and remove potentially offensive posts. | West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States | Jemma Barbarise | Reveal | |
Golden | $59.5M | Series B | Golden is a developer of a self-constructing knowledge database used to accelerate discovery and education. | Claymont, Delaware, United States | Jude Gomila | Reveal | |
Bridge | $58.0M | Series A | Bridge is developer of an application programming interface for money movement within the financial technology sector. | San Antonio, Texas, United States | Sean Yu, Zach Abrams | Reveal | |
Picnic | $57.2M | Venture | Picnic is a developer of robotic food system designed to automate the pizza-making process. | Seattle, Washington, United States | Clayton Wood, Colton Anderson, Garett Ochs, Jeremy Diamond, Kyu Han, Michael Bridges | Reveal | |
Shoreline.io | $56.9M | Series B | Shoreline.io is a cloud reliability company focused on real-time automation and control for cloud operations teams. | Redwood City, California, United States | Anurag Gupta | Reveal | |
RECUR | $55.0M | Series A | RECUR designs and develops on-chain branded experiences for fans to buy, collect, and re-sell NFTs. | Miami, Florida, United States | Max Bruch | Reveal | |
Reveal | $54.3M | Series A | Reveal is the free platform for Partnership, Marketing, and Sales teams to generate revenue through their ecosystem. | Paris, Ile-de-France, France | Simon Bouchez | Reveal | |
Catalog | $54.3M | Series B | Catalog is a developer of a data conversion and storage platform used to offer the next generation of digital data archives. | Boston, Massachusetts, United States | Hyunjun Park | Reveal | |
Kaloom | $53.4M | Series B | Kaloom is a programmable data center networking software solution that will disrupt how cloud and data center networks are built. | Montréal, Quebec, Canada | Laurent Marchand | Reveal | |
Penten | $53.1M | PE | Penten helps the digital transformation of defence & government - creating, building & operating new cyber tech for the modern workforce. | Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia | Ben Whitham | Reveal | |
Deep 6 AI | $50.2M | Undisclosed | Deep 6 AI is a research software that connects all research stakeholders in an AI-powered, real-time ecosystem | Pasadena, California, United States | Wout Brusselaers | Reveal | |
Sealights | $49.6M | Series B | Sealights provides software testing, quality analytics, and assurance to it's business clients. | Arlington, Virginia, United States | Alon Eizenman | Reveal | |
ErisX | $47.5M | Venture | ErisX specializes in digital asset space that offers both spot and futures contracts on one platform. | Chicago, Illinois, United States | Joe Lubin | Reveal | |
Kyndi | $47.4M | Series B | Kyndi's Natural Language Search solution helps organizations find answers in unstructured, text-based data at unmatched speed and precision. | San Mateo, California, United States | Arun Majumdar | Reveal | |
Nautilus Labs | $47.0M | Series B | Nautilus Labs is a technology company that offers decarbonization of the ocean supply chain. | New York, New York, United States | Anthony DiMare | Reveal | |
Spectrum Labs | $45.0M | Series B | Spectrum Labs is a technology company that helps build a safer internet through AI content moderation. | San Francisco, California, United States | Jackson Moses | Reveal | |
Ostro | $45.0M | Corporate | Ostro is a health platform that personalized engagement solutions for life sciences. | Miami, Florida, United States | Ahmed Elsayyad | Reveal | |
Robust Intelligence | $44.0M | Series B | Robust Intelligence is a software firm that uses an automated approach to protect companies from AI security and safety vulnerabilities. | San Francisco, California, United States | Alexander Rilee | Reveal | |
Quiq | $44.0M | Series C | Quiq is the only enterprise agentic AI platform that IT, CX, and eCommerce leaders can agree on. | Bozeman, Montana, United States | Michael Myer | Reveal | |
TruEra | $42.3M | Series B | TruEra provides AI quality management solutions that test, optimize, and monitor machine learning models. | Redwood City, California, United States | Anupam Datta | Reveal | |
Ambassador | $42.2M | Venture | Ambassador accelerate API-led innovation with advanced tools for leading tech companies | Denver, Colorado, United States | Rafael Schloming | Reveal | |
SKAEL | $42.1M | Series A | SKAEL provides a hyper-automation platform used to help companies to automate and power digital employees. | San Francisco, California, United States | Baba Nadimpalli | Reveal | |
Neuro-ID | $42.0M | Series B | Neuro-ID provides behavioral analytics identity solutions for banks, fintech, and insurance industries. | Whitefish, Montana, United States | Joe Valacich | Reveal | |
Talespin | $40.6M | Series C | Talespin is a software company that develops and builds a virtual, augmented, and mixed reality platform. | Culver City, California, United States | Kyle Jackson | Reveal | |
SlashNext | $40.5M | Series B | SlashNext is a computer and network security company that specializes in cybersecurity, cyber-attack detection, and IT solutions. | Pleasanton, California, United States | Atif Mushtaq | Reveal | |
Airplane | $40.5M | Series B | Airplane is a software development company that offers a software platform for engineers to build internal tools. | San Francisco, California, United States | Joshua Ma | Reveal | |
Mad Street Den | $38.8M | Series C | Mad Street Den is a computer vision and artificial intelligence startup founded with a mission to make people all over the globe. | Redwood City, California, United States | Costa Colbert | Reveal | |
Joonko | $38.5M | Series B | Joonko offers a recruiting software that provides managers and employees with real-time insights and recommendations. | New York, New York, United States | Guy Grinwald | Reveal | |
Revelstoke | $38.0M | Series B | Revelstoke is a low-code, high-speed security orchestration, automation, and response platform. | San Jose, California, United States | Josh McCarthy | Reveal | |
Esme Learning Solutions | $37.5M | Venture | Esme Learning is transforming the world's workforce for the Fourth Industrial Revolution using AI. | Newton, Massachusetts, United States | Beth Porter | Reveal | |
MosaicML | $37.0M | Venture | MosaicML builds an efficient infrastructure for training language models. | San Francisco, California, United States | Naveen Rao | Reveal | |
Human API | $36.6M | Venture | Human API is a real-time health data network that gives consumers a simple way to view and share their health data from everywhere. | San Mateo, California, United States | Andrei Pop | Reveal | |
Aquicore | $36.4M | Note | Aquicore is an information technology company that offers a cloud-based software designed for asset operations platform for the CRE sector. | Washington, District of Columbia, United States | Logan Soya | Reveal | |
EDJX | $35.8M | Venture | EDJX is an edge computing platform powering real-time applications. | Raleigh, North Carolina, United States | James Thomason | Reveal | |
Memfault | $35.1M | Series B | Memfault is an IoT reliability platform giving developers a more scalable & sustainable process to transform the way they build & operate. | San Francisco, California, United States | Christopher Coleman, François Baldassari, Tyler Hoffman | Reveal | |
Orby AI | $34.9M | Venture | Orby AI is an AI platform designed to bring the auto-complete experience to everyday business users and automate all mundane tasks. | Mountain View, California, United States | Bella Liu, Will Lu | Reveal | |
JUCR | $34.1M | Debt | JUCR offers an EV charging app and hardware, giving electric vehicle drivers access to a network of charging points across Europe. | Berlin, Berlin, Germany | Lukas Puls | Reveal | |
Atrium | $33.5M | Series A | Atrium help sales managers with its data-driven management software that provides coaching insights and continuous monitoring. | San Francisco, California, United States | Jason Heidema | Reveal | |
InfinStor | $33.3M | Program | Infinstor is the MLOps Operating System. We offer an enterprise grade MLflow service. | San Jose, California, United States | Jagane Sundar | Reveal | |
Algolux | $32.8M | Series B | Algolux empowers vision systems with the most robust perception technology for all conditions. | Montréal, Quebec, Canada | Allan Benchetrit | Reveal | |
MakersPlace | $32.0M | Series A | MakersPlace is an authentic and unique digital creation platform powered by blockchain technology for digital creators. | San Francisco, California, United States | Yash Nelapati | Reveal |
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many software startups have failed?
The VCbacked Startup Graveyard currently tracks 622 venture-backed software startups that have shut down, collectively raising $20.8B before closing. That is roughly 27 percent of all closed companies in the database, which is based on the last five years of fundraising data.
What is the biggest software startup failure?
By total capital raised, the largest software failure in the database is Argo AI, which raised $3.6B before shutting down.
Why do software startups fail?
Software is the biggest bucket in the graveyard for the same reason it dominates venture funding: more software companies get started and funded than anything else. Most die exactly the way the base rate predicts — a seed round, no product-market fit, a quiet shutdown. Across the dataset, the most common last round before shutdown in software was Seed, and the largest cohort of failures last raised in 2022.
Can I contact founders of failed software startups?
Founder names are shown free on this page for every closed software company. VCbacked paid plans reveal verified founder contact details where available and unlock CSV export.