Data Desk · Summary

Seed to Series A now takes 2.1 years: takeaways from Carta's seed data

The median seed round is about $4 million, and the road to Series A has grown longer since 2019.

Summarized by Rubicon Research · 3 min read

Carta's seed-stage data, summarized by SaaStr in December 2025, describes a seed market that is healthy but split between AI and everyone else, with a longer path to the next round.

Key figures

  • The median seed raise is about $4 million.
  • The median seed post-money valuation is about $20 million, with the 25th percentile at $13.8 million and the 95th at $80.5 million.
  • The median time from seed to Series A is 2.1 years, up from 1.5 years in 2019. For AI startups it is 1.9 years.
  • About half of seed companies reach Series A within four years of their seed round.

What it means

A longer gap between rounds means seed capital has to last longer, and more happens to a company between one diligence process and the next. Registrations lapse, early contracts change and entities get added or dissolved.

It also means a Series A investor is looking at two or more years of history that the seed investors may not have checked since.

Rubicon's take

The longer the gap between rounds, the more worth it is to run the external record on yourself before you raise again. Our guide to funding stages covers what investors look for at each step.

Source

Carta seed data, as summarized by SaaStr (December 12, 2025). This post summarizes the source in our own words; figures are as reported there. Read the original for full methodology.