Series A Fundraising Is Scary Exciting and Confused in 2025

The current market for Series A fundraising is scary, exciting, and confused. Let’s jump in.

Here's what you need to know, from fundraising benchmarks to market commentary:

𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱

• $57.5M pre-money valuation 💥

• $15M median cash raised

• ~20% dilution

𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗡𝗼𝗻-𝗔𝗜 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱

• $41.2M pre-money valuation

• $10.3M median cash raised

• Also ~20% dilution

𝗛𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 (𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲)

• Hardware

• AI-native SaaS

• Cybersecurity

• Fintech

• Web3 (in valuations, not as many rounds)

𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀

• Food / Bev

• Personal Products

• Edtech

• Med Devices

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁

• Frenzy and FOMO dominate the market for AI-native companies, especially in San Francisco. This is just a sliver of the ecosystem but probably ~70% of the conversation.

• Median ARR for software businesses at Series A is now above $3M, up from $1.2M in 2021. 75th percentile is over $7M (per Silicon Valley Bank data). But as always, if someone gives you a specific ARR threshold and says "just get to that and you'll be able to raise", they are fibbing.

• Median valuation increases from seed are actually not that wild (typical step-up is about 2.5x from the seed round post-money valuation). SAFEs complicate this picture, however.

• Founders are annoyed in VC meetings as investors are seemingly only excited by the most outlier of growth metrics. This is 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 and 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱. When a new set of companies sets a new bar for velocity, VCs update their internal thresholds and the transition period is messy. Your right VCs are out there!

• Will market participants start taking real cash out of the flywheel before this bubble deflates? Ask anyone who was investing in 2021 and they'll tell you "I wish we had sold more then"...who's selling now?

2.5 months of frenzy left in 2025, let's get it.

#startups #founders #fundraising #SeriesA