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US Series A benchmarks for 2024

  • 1.  US Series A benchmarks for 2024

    Posted 15 days ago

    Founders raising Series A in 2025 - here's how your sector stacked up in 2024.

    Data covers 775 primary Series A rounds raised by US startups using Carta. No bridge/extension figures, no convertible notes or SAFEs.

    We split SaaS into AI and Non-AI because the medians are so distinct, but of course you can find AI startups in nearly every sector listed.

    So which sector did "best"? Depends on your metric of choice.

    ๐— ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—™๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—”๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†

    1) SaaS (AI and non-AI combined)
    2) Biotech
    3) Healthtech
    4) Fintech
    5) Renewables (first top 5 finish in a long time)

    ๐—›๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ฉ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€

    1) AI SaaS
    2) Transportation
    3) Media (on very few deals)
    4) Renewables
    5) Marketplaces

    ๐—›๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—–๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ต ๐—ฅ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฑ

    1) Renewables
    2) AI SaaS
    3) Cybersecurity
    4) Hardware
    5) Adtech

    Total Series A fundraises were down about 10% from 2023 (though the gap will shrink as the last bits of data come in for 2024). All in all, a tricky year to get from Seed to Series A as investors digested the shift in velocity for underlying performance metrics (or got swamped by AI hype, take your pick).

    Here's to the founders making it happen in 2025! Share with a founder friend ๐Ÿ™

    150+ slides of insights from Carta due out Dec 30th - subscribe at the link in graphic to reserve your copy of the data deck!



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    Peter Walker
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