Series A
The first major institutional venture capital round, typically raised after a startup has demonstrated product-market fit and early traction.
What is Series A?
Series A is the first priced equity round from institutional venture capital firms. It typically ranges from $5M to $20M and comes after a startup has validated its product, acquired initial customers, and shown early signs of scalable growth.
Series A investors want to see evidence that the business model works, recurring revenue, low churn, improving unit economics, and a credible plan for how the capital will accelerate growth.
The round is called "Series A" because the investors receive Series A Preferred Stock, which comes with specific rights like liquidation preferences, board seats, and anti-dilution provisions.
Why it matters
Series A is often the make-or-break fundraise. Many startups that raise seed funding never make it to Series A, the gap between them is sometimes called the "Series A crunch." Having clear metrics and a strong financial story is essential.
The runway from your seed round needs to be long enough to reach Series A milestones. If you burn through your seed without hitting the traction benchmarks VCs expect, you'll struggle to raise, or raise at a down valuation.
Example
A startup with $2M ARR and 15% month-over-month growth raises a $10M Series A at a $40M pre-money valuation. The investors get 20% of the company ($10M / $50M post-money). The $10M adds approximately 18 months of runway at the planned post-raise burn rate of $550K/month.
How RunwayCal helps
RunwayCal helps founders plan the bridge from seed to Series A by modeling different growth scenarios and their runway implications. See exactly what traction you need to hit before your seed runway runs out.
Common mistakes
- 1Waiting too long to start the Series A process (fundraising typically takes 3-6 months)
- 2Not having clear metrics that demonstrate product-market fit (MRR, retention, growth rate)
- 3Raising more than needed and accepting excessive dilution to get a bigger number
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