Raiseward Ventures finds startup path to Series A is taking longer in 2025

Startups in a Raiseward Ventures study took 5.9% longer on median to move from seed to Series A in 2025, with the biggest slowdown among companies already facing the longest waits. The findings suggest founders and investors should plan for wider funding timelines and more capital between rounds.

Why it matters: - Startups that take longer to reach Series A need to finance product work, hiring and operating costs for more months before new capital arrives. - A longer gap can force founders to raise more bridge funding or run tighter on cash. - Investors may need to model a wider range of follow-on financing needs across portfolio companies.

What happened: - Raiseward Ventures analyzed 188 companies that reached Series A in 2024 or 2025 and had a prior seed round recorded in the public Global Startup Funding Rounds 2019–2026 dataset. - The median time from seed to Series A rose from 22.3 months for the 2024 cohort to 23.7 months for the 2025 cohort. - The increase was 5.9% year over year. - The study was based on 89 companies in the 2024 cohort and 99 companies in the 2025 cohort. - Companies were grouped by the year of their Series A round.

The details: - The third quartile increased from 30.2 months to 38.8 months, showing a larger rise among startups at the slower end of the distribution. - The middle half of startups widened from a 13.6-to-30.2-month range to a 12.8-to-38.8-month range. - Some startups reached Series A in less than a year. - Others took more than three years. - Among U.S. startups in the sample, the median time to Series A shortened by 1.35 months. - Among companies outside the United States, the median time increased by 2.02 months. - In Fintech, the median interval fell from 23.9 months to 20.4 months, even as the number of fintech companies in the sample increased. - In High Tech, the median interval rose from 24.1 months to 26.2 months. - Enterprise Applications recorded a decline of 5.8 months. - Enterprise Infrastructure saw an increase of approximately four months. - Raiseward Ventures says an extra 1.3 months before Series A would require about $130,000 more in funding for a company burning $100,000 a month. - At a monthly net cash burn of $200,000, the extra funding need would be about $260,000. - The funding example assumes the burn rate stays unchanged.

Between the lines: - The overall increase is uneven, with the biggest pressure showing up at the upper end of the wait time distribution rather than across every startup. - The country and sector splits suggest that fundraising timelines are being shaped by more than one market force. - The study notes that a longer transition does not necessarily signal trouble; some startups may be using the added time to improve the product, grow revenue or seek better terms. - The sample is too narrow to describe the entire startup market, so the results should be read as directional rather than universal.

What's next: - Founders are likely to use these timelines to test whether current capital can support growth if Series A takes longer than planned. - Venture funds may use multiple funding scenarios when estimating portfolio needs and planning follow-on investments. - Capital efficiency, revenue growth and business-model resilience will remain key inputs when judging how much runway a startup needs before the next round. - The study suggests that planning for a single expected fundraising date is less useful than preparing for a range of outcomes.

The bottom line: - Seed-to-Series A timelines stretched in 2025, and the longest-waiting startups saw the sharpest change.