The hottest place for startups to strike a deal? The F1 paddock

TechCrunch Desktop Logo TechCrunch Mobile Logo LatestStartupsVentureAppleSecurityAIAppsDisrupt 2026 EventsPodcastsNewsletters SearchSubmit Site Search Toggle Mega Menu Toggle Topics Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture More from TechCrunch Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Contact Us Image Credits:Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto / Media & Entertainment The hottest place for startups to strike a deal? The F1 paddock “It’s one of the densest concentrations of enterprise buyers anywhere.” Dominic-Madori Davis 8:13 AM PDT · May 10, 2026 Over cold drinks in the Florida heat, this TechCrunch reporter watched from the paddock as founders and investors — the rich and the richer — mingled in search of deals. Conversations barely paused, except for the occasional glance at the track where drivers, sealed inside multimillion-dollar machines, chased the checkered flag.

F1 weekend is a three-day affair, with the race as the finale. In between are kickoffs, soirées, cocktail parties, dinners, and nightclub takeovers — spaces where business and pleasure blur. Events like this, where wealth concentrates, have historically been places where business deals are struck.

But the popularity of the F1 paddock has grown in recent years, especially among the startup and venture crowd. This year, Chandler Malone, a founder, said he didn’t even attend the race; he only went to some of the side events. So many venture firms were hosting them and much more than usual, he said.

The F1 team liveries this season — plastered with AI, cloud computing, and enterprise company logos — is a literal sign pointing to where the money is. The past five years reflects the shift. In that time, Oracle became the title sponsor of Red Bull Racing team, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team struck a multi-year partnership with Microsoft, CoreWeave became Aston Martin Aramco’s official AI cloud partner, Anthropic began working with Williams Racing, Palantir and IBM partnered with Ferrari, AWS began providing data analytics to F1, and the audio app ElevenLabs and fintech Revolut have teamed up with Audi. var playerInstance_jwplayer_6a7c8a7632bd2 = jwplayer( "jwplayer_6a7c8a7632bd2" ); playerInstance_jwplayer_6a7c8a7632bd2.setup(); Some VC and PE firms also own stakes in F1 teams, including Dorilton Capital’s 2020 acquisition of Williams Racing and the 200-million-euro investment into Alpine by backers Otro Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, and Maximum Effort Investments.

Hannan Happi, founder of the climate startup Exowatt, credits the 2020 Netflix F1 show “Drive to Survive” as a catalyst for increasing audience interest. But the tech industry showing up in force is more recent, Happi said, “really the last three or four years.” He cited all the Big Tech companies that have moved into the sport, including crypto and AI brands. A concentration of enterprise buyers Image Credits:Chris Arjoon / Icon Sportswire / It’s no wonder, then, that TechCrunch ran into Lightspeed Venture Partners CMO Josh Machiz, who explained that founders and execs from many startups in its portfolio were also roaming the paddock.

The goal for them, he said, was to strike some enterprise deals with other startups and tech giants. Though TechCrunch ran into Machiz in the IBM Paddock, he said the firm actually has a formal program in place with the entity that owns Formula 1 for the three races in U.S. cities — Austin, Las Vegas, and Miami. As part of that program, he worked with Aston Martin Aramco and other F1 teams to help introduce Lightspeed founders to these entities and their enterprise clients.