96%
Startups Accelerating
0
Decelerating
15
Sectors Positive
Key Finding: Universal Engineering Acceleration
In Q3 2026, 311 of 324 tracked startups (96%) showed positive engineering velocity acceleration. Not a single company in the dataset registered a negative change.
This is unprecedented in the history of the dataset.
+218%
Average acceleration
+459%
Highest sector (AgTech)
+442%
Second highest (HR Tech)
Sector Rankings by Average Velocity Change
| # | Sector | Startups | Accel | Avg Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AgTech | 11 | 11/11 | +459% |
| 2 | HR Tech | 11 | 11/11 | +442% |
| 3 | PropTech | 16 | 15/16 | +404% |
| 4 | E-commerce Infrastructure | 27 | 25/27 | +329% |
| 5 | Legal Tech | 13 | 12/13 | +288% |
| 6 | Supply Chain | 23 | 23/23 | +281% |
| 7 | Robotics | 17 | 17/17 | +224% |
| 8 | Social & Community | 19 | 19/19 | +213% |
| 9 | EdTech | 34 | 33/34 | +212% |
| 10 | Gaming | 17 | 16/17 | +159% |
| 11 | Enterprise SaaS | 21 | 21/21 | +149% |
| 12 | Healthcare | 24 | 23/24 | +135% |
| 13 | Web3 | 48 | 44/48 | +127% |
| 14 | Data Infrastructure | 25 | 23/25 | +113% |
| 15 | Space Tech | 18 | 18/18 | +111% |
Methodology
Data from the VC Deal Flow Signal dataset. Engineering velocity is calculated from public GitHub commit activity across tracked startup orgs. "Accelerating" means the 14-day commit velocity exceeded the previous period. Data refreshed weekly. Full methodology: SSRN 6606558.