Seed-to-Series A Graduation Falls to 16% for 2024 Cohort as Median Seed Hits $3 Million
Updated
Updated · Crunchbase News · May 26
Seed-to-Series A Graduation Falls to 16% for 2024 Cohort as Median Seed Hits $3 Million
1 articles · Updated · Crunchbase News · May 26
Only 16% of U.S. startups that raised initial seed rounds of $1 million or more in 2024 had progressed to later funding or exit, down from 24% for the 2023 cohort and 55%-plus through 2020.
More seed-funded startups are also taking over two years to reach Series A, as investors now often expect $2 million to $4 million in annual recurring revenue rather than the old $1 million benchmark.
Median U.S. seed rounds reached about $3 million in 2025—triple 2018 levels—with upper-quartile deals at $5.6 million and some rounds now stretching to $8 million-$10 million.
Series A rounds have grown too, with the median U.S. deal at $15 million last year and still rising in 2026, pushing seed investors to write larger checks and rethink ownership, reserves and portfolio risk.
Are today's massive AI seed rounds creating unicorns or just setting up the next spectacular market crash?
With 90% of venture capital now funding AI, are all other tech startups facing an inevitable extinction?
Seed-to-Series A Bottleneck: Navigating Sub-10% Graduation Rates in the 2024-2026 Venture Landscape
Overview
In 2024 and 2025, moving from seed funding to Series A has become much harder for startups, with the graduation rate dropping to less than 10%. This shift follows a period of easy capital and a surge of new investors in 2020 and 2021, which led to a market washout and ongoing recovery. While raising seed rounds remains relatively easy, the Series A market is now much tougher, creating a bottleneck for startups. The venture capital landscape has fundamentally changed, making it more challenging for founders to progress and requiring greater capital efficiency and stronger business fundamentals to succeed.