Median time from seed to Series A increased by 1.3 months in 2025
A study of 188 startups that reached Series A in 2024–2025 and had a prior seed round recorded in a public funding database found that the median interval increased from 22.3 to 23.7 months. The most pronounced changes were among companies with longer gaps between rounds.
Nearly two years: that was the median time startups in the Raiseward Ventures study took to progress from seed funding to their next major round. In 2025, the interval grew to 23.7 months, up from 22.3 months a year earlier.
For a founder, an additional 1.3 months is more than a funding statistic. It is another stretch of time during which the company must pay salaries, develop its product, acquire customers and cover operating costs before new capital arrives.
The headline figure, however, masks a more nuanced picture. The most pronounced change occurred at the upper end of the distribution: the third quartile rose from 30.2 to 38.8 months, an increase of almost nine months. Meanwhile, some startups still moved from seed to Series A in less than a year.
Raiseward Ventures analyzed 188 companies that reached Series A in 2024–2025, matched those rounds to their preceding seed rounds and compared the composition of the two cohorts. The study examines how funding timelines changed, why trends differed across geographic and industry groups, and what the findings mean for startup financial planning.
Methodology
The study draws on Global Startup Funding Rounds 2019–2026, a public dataset containing 20,227 funding events. Companies with a Series A round between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2025, were selected from this dataset. The initial database contained 616 such companies: 338 in 2024 and 278 in 2025. Each company was then checked for a preceding seed round. A seed–Series A pair could be identified for 188 companies.
For each company, the interval was calculated between its most recent recorded seed round before Series A and the date of its Series A round. The duration was measured in calendar days and converted to months using the same conversion factor for all observations. Companies were grouped by the year of their Series A round, regardless of when they raised seed funding. For example, a startup that raised a seed round in 2022 and announced Series A in 2025 was included in the 2025 cohort.
The median interval between rounds was the primary measure. Means, first and third quartiles, and interquartile ranges were also calculated. The geographic and industry composition of the cohorts was compared to assess differences among companies.
The median time to Series A rose and timelines became more dispersed
Raiseward Ventures’ primary calculation put the median interval between seed and Series A at 22.34 months for the 2024 cohort and 23.66 months for the 2025 cohort. The difference was 1.32 months, or approximately 5.9%.
The median captures the midpoint of the time between rounds without being unduly influenced by individual companies with exceptionally short or long intervals. Comparing medians, however, reveals only part of the change.
In 2024, the middle 50% of companies took approximately 13.6–30.2 months to move from seed to Series A. In 2025, that range widened to 12.8–38.8 months.
The interquartile range increased by 9.49 months. This means the middle half of observations in the 2025 cohort covered a substantially wider range of timelines. The change was particularly pronounced in the third quartile, the threshold below which 75% of observations fall. It rose from 30.16 months in 2024 to 38.83 months in 2025, a difference of 8.67 months. The first quartile, by contrast, changed little and actually declined slightly, from 13.60 to 12.78 months.
The study therefore does not show a uniform increase in the time to Series A across all startups in the sample. The changes were more pronounced at the upper end of the distribution, among companies with longer intervals between rounds.
When planning the next funding round, it is useful to consider both the median timeline and a scenario in which reaching Series A takes substantially longer.
The United States and other markets followed different trends
The time between rounds may depend on the market in which a company operates. Venture ecosystems differ in the availability of capital, the number of investors, typical round sizes and the requirements startups face at Series A. Raiseward Ventures therefore compared the geographic composition of the two cohorts separately.
U.S. startups accounted for almost half of the 2024 cohort. In 2025, their share fell by eight percentage points to 41.4%. Over the same period, the number of Indian companies increased from seven to 14, while the number of U.K. companies rose from four to 13.
The two samples therefore differ in their geographic composition. This matters when interpreting the overall median, which combines companies operating under different fundraising conditions.
An additional calculation also revealed differences in the timelines themselves. Among U.S. companies, the median interval between seed and Series A was approximately 1.35 months shorter in 2025 than in 2024. Among startups outside the United States, it increased by approximately 2.02 months.
These findings show that the overall trend was not shared by every geographic group. For founders preparing for Series A, they suggest looking at companies in comparable markets alongside the international median. For funds, geographic differences matter when assessing portfolio companies’ capital needs and planning follow-on investments.
Fintech gained share in the sample while its median interval shortened
Alongside geography, Raiseward Ventures compared the industry composition of the two cohorts. Companies in different technology sectors vary in their product development cycles, customer acquisition timelines, capital intensity and investor requirements. It is therefore useful to examine both the number of startups in each sector and the time between their funding rounds.
The most pronounced shift was in Fintech: the number of companies increased from seven to 17, and the sector’s share of the analytical sample rose from approximately 7.9% to 17.2%. High Tech was also more strongly represented, increasing from 10 to 15 companies. Meanwhile, the number of Enterprise Infrastructure startups fell from 11 to six.
A change in the number of companies does not necessarily coincide with a similar change in the time between rounds. To examine this distinction, we calculated median intervals separately for the main industry groups.
The results show that trends varied by industry. In Fintech, the median interval shortened by approximately 3.45 months, from 23.89 to 20.44 months, even as the number of fintech companies in the sample increased. In High Tech, the median rose from 24.08 to 26.22 months. Enterprise Applications recorded a decline of approximately 5.81 months, while Enterprise Infrastructure saw an increase of roughly four months. The difference was particularly large in Consumer, but each annual group contained fewer than 10 companies. It would therefore be premature to infer a sector-wide trend from these figures.
The main finding of the industry comparison is that there was no uniform trend across sectors. Even within the same international sample, some groups of companies recorded shorter intervals while others recorded longer ones.
This also means that the increase in the overall median cannot be attributed solely to the greater representation of Fintech or High Tech. Both the composition of the sample and the distribution of timelines within individual industry groups changed.
For practical planning, comparing a startup with companies that have similar business models and are at a similar stage of development is more useful than relying solely on the overall international median.
Three paths to Series A
Behind the medians and quartiles are individual companies, each with its own path between funding stages. Three examples from the Raiseward Ventures analytical dataset illustrate the range of observations.
Series A — November 14, 2024
This example illustrates a relatively rapid progression between rounds. It shows that even with an overall median of around two years, some companies can reach Series A less than a year after seed funding.
Series A — September 12, 2024
The interval was almost identical to the median for the 2024 cohort. This example illustrates a path close to the midpoint of the sample studied.
Series A — December 8, 2025
This is an example of a substantially longer gap between rounds. It helps illustrate why the upper end of the timeline distribution in the 2025 cohort warrants closer attention.
These three cases illustrate the range of observations, from less than a year to more than three and a half years. The intervals alone, however, do not explain why a particular company raised its next round sooner or later. Drawing such conclusions would require a separate examination of its business performance and financing circumstances.
How sample composition affects the overall median
As an additional check, Raiseward Ventures compared results using different company selection criteria. Specifically, it examined U.S. startups, companies outside the United States, and a sample excluding the shortest and longest intervals.
After observations with intervals shorter than three months or longer than 60 months were excluded, the difference between the 2024 and 2025 medians narrowed to 0.26 months. This shows that the overall result depends on which companies and which range of timelines are included. The original median nevertheless remains a valid description of the full 188-company sample.
When applying the findings, it is important to consider the distribution of timelines, geography and the startup’s industry characteristics alongside the headline measure.
An additional 1.3 months could mean another $130,000 in costs
For a founder, the time between seed and Series A is primarily a question of whether the company has enough capital. After raising seed funding, a company must fund product development, its team and sales while achieving the milestones required for the next round.
All of these activities require financing. If the next round closes later than originally planned, the startup must cover operating costs for the additional period.
A company has raised seed funding and plans for 24 months of runway before Series A. Its monthly net cash burn is $100,000.
A longer interval does not necessarily mean losses or weaker business performance. A company may use the extra time to improve its product, increase revenue or build a stronger investment case. With insufficient financial reserves, however, a longer wait for Series A may force a startup to revise its hiring plans, marketing budget or pace of product development.
It is therefore useful to consider several scenarios when planning the next round:
Why a faster transition does not always mean greater success
Although the time between seed and Series A matters for financial planning, it is not a universal measure of startup quality. A faster transition may indicate rapid growth, strong demand for the product and investor willingness to fund expansion. It may also reflect market conditions or the company’s financing strategy.
Likewise, a longer interval does not necessarily signal problems. A startup may deliberately postpone Series A if it has sufficient capital, is growing steadily and expects to raise its next round on more favorable terms.
For companies developing complex technologies, a longer interval may also reflect the time required for product development, certification or commercialization.
Conclusion
The Raiseward Ventures study found that the median time from seed to Series A in the sample increased from 22.3 months in 2024 to 23.7 months in 2025, a rise of 1.3 months, or 5.9%.
The analysis also found greater dispersion in the time between rounds and differing trends across geographic and industry groups. These findings highlight the need to account for the specific market and business model when estimating fundraising timelines.
The findings underscore the value of scenario-based financial planning.
Founders need to allow for sufficient capital to last until the next round, while venture funds need to account for potential differences in the time to Series A when planning follow-on financing for portfolio companies.
- 01 Global Startup Funding Rounds 2019–2026A public database of funding events used to assemble the sample and calculate intervals between seed and Series A.
- 02 Carta – State of Private Markets: Q4 and 2024 in ReviewA review of the venture market in 2024, including data on the time between funding rounds.
- 03 Carta – The New State of Series A Fundraising (2025)An analysis of Series A activity, the time since seed funding and changes in fundraising conditions in 2025.
- 04 Carta – The Typical Time Between VC Rounds Is Shrinking in SaaS and Rising in FintechA study of differences in the time between rounds across funding stages and technology sectors.
- 05 PitchBook–NVCA Venture Monitor, Q4 2024A review of the U.S. venture market in 2024, including investment activity and startup financing conditions.
- 06 PitchBook–NVCA Venture Monitor, 2025 Annual ReviewA review of U.S. venture financing in 2025, including investor activity, deal counts and capital trends by stage.
- 07 Upheal — reports on seed and Series A fundingReports on the company’s funding rounds in February and November 2024.
- 08 Howbout — reports on seed and Series A funding in 2022 and 2024Announcements of the company’s funding rounds.
- 09 Melt&Marble — official announcements of seed and Series A funding in 2022 and 2025The company’s funding announcements.
- 10 Carta – State of Private Markets: 2025 in ReviewA review of the venture market in 2025, including trends in investment activity and capital raised.