Almost none. A Series A, the first large venture round after seed funding, almost never closes before first revenue for ordinary software startups. Carta describes the stage as requiring product-market fit plus growing, reasonably predictable revenue. Its data puts median Series A annual recurring revenue at $2.5 million.
Table of Contents
- What does a Series A require?
- How much revenue is normal at Series A?
- Why has the revenue bar risen?
- When is pre-revenue Series A possible?
What does a Series A require?
Carta states Series A investors typically require product-market fit plus growing, reasonably predictable revenue rather than one-off deals, as explained in its Series A fundraising guide. That standard rules out most pre-revenue startups. The funnel is already narrow.
Mattermark data reported via Flybridge and TechCrunch found only about 30-32% of seed-funded U.S. software startups from 2009-2012 ever reached Series A. The pre-revenue subset that reaches Series A is necessarily much smaller.
How much revenue is normal at Series A?
Carta data shared by its partnerships lead puts median Series A annual recurring revenue at $2.5 million, detailed in Carta's ARR analysis shared on LinkedIn. The middle 50% falls between $1 million and $6.5 million, compared with $220,000 median ARR at seed.
The same Carta analysis notes many seeds close at $0 ARR. Series A rounds near $0 ARR do occur, but they are rare.
Why has the revenue bar risen?
Waveup's 2026 benchmarks put the B2B software Series A bar at a few million dollars ARR growing 2-3x yearly, described in Waveup's Series A benchmarks. Point Nine cites $1 million as the floor, while other seed investors cite $2 million or more in the AI era.
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, investors said about $1 million once closed a Series A quickly, but by late 2023 it took $2-3 million, reported in TechCrunch's Disrupt panel recap. TechCrunch reported in 2024 that startups often needed $1.5 million or more in ARR with well over 100% yearly growth, versus about $1 million before 2020-2021.
When is pre-revenue Series A possible?
The main exception is technical bets. Carta Q1 2026 data shows foundational-model AI Series A median valuation near $300 million, versus about $55 million for non-AI. That gap reflects team- and milestone-based funding.
These figures come mainly from Carta-tracked software and SaaS startups, according to Carta and Waveup. They do not measure biotech, hardware, or offline startups where pre-revenue Series A is more normal. Ordinary SaaS founders should plan differently, according to Waveup and TechCrunch: Treat $2 million in growing ARR as your working Series A target unless you have one of those exceptions.
- reach at least $1 million in ARR, now often $2 million or more, before pitching Series A
- show fast, repeatable growth rather than one-off deals
- pursue pre-revenue Series A only with breakthrough AI, deep-tech, or regulated milestones