Fundraising
Startup Funding
Capital raised by early-stage companies from angels, venture funds, accelerators, or other investors to build products, hire teams, and grow revenue.
Startup funding follows a typical progression: Bootstrapping → Pre-Seed → Seed → Series A → Series B → Series C → Growth/Late Stage → IPO or Acquisition.
Each stage carries different investor profiles, check sizes, valuation expectations, and milestone requirements. Pre-seed ($250K-$2M) funds team formation and prototype. Seed ($2M-$15M) funds product-market fit search. Series A ($15M-$50M) funds scaling a proven model. Later rounds fund rapid expansion.
Alternative funding paths include revenue-based financing, venture debt, strategic corporate investment, and equity crowdfunding.
In Practice
A typical SaaS startup path: $500K pre-seed from angels to build MVP → $3M seed from a micro-VC to hire engineers and find first customers → $15M Series A from Tier 1 VC after hitting $2M ARR → $60M Series B at $200M valuation after reaching $12M ARR with strong retention.
Why It Matters
Understanding startup funding stages helps founders know when they're ready to raise, who to approach, what metrics are expected, and what terms to anticipate. Raising too early or at the wrong stage wastes time and creates poor dilution outcomes.