How long after a seed round do companies raise a Series A?

According to Carta, the US equity management platform, the median startup that raised a Series A in the fourth quarter of 2024 had waited 774 days since its previous primary round, about two years and one month. The wait has been getting longer, not shorter.

This is a reference page. It sets out the published intervals between funding rounds, says exactly what each one counts, and stops there. The figures come from Carta, an equity management platform based in the US, whose data covers equity rounds raised in dollars by companies based in the United States. There is no equally large published series for Europe, which is the first thing to know before using any of these numbers in a plan.

Sources:
Carta (US), State of Private Markets: Q4 and 2024 in review
Carta (US), State of Private Markets: Q2 2025

What each figure counts

Carta, the US platform, measures the gap between primary rounds. A primary round is the first equity round in a given series, so the first Series A, the first Series B, and so on. Anything raised after that within the same series is counted separately as a bridge round, and does not reset the clock. That definition matters more than it looks: a company that raised a seed extension and then a Series A is still measured from its original seed round.

The figures are medians, not averages, so half the companies took longer. They are also snapshots of the companies that actually closed a round in that quarter. Companies that never raised again are not in the sample at all, which is the single biggest limit on reading these numbers as a forecast.

Source: Carta (US), State of Private Markets: Q4 and 2024 in review, methodology

The published intervals

Carta, the US platform, calls the Series A and Series C figures for that quarter the longest intervals between funding events it had recorded so far this decade. It also notes that the median interval at those stages was roughly where the 75th percentile sat two years earlier, which is another way of saying that the slow case became the normal case.

Sources:
Carta (US), State of Private Markets: Q4 and 2024 in review
Carta (US), Compared to a year ago, more VC cash is going to bridge rounds

Why the gap grew

Two published trends run alongside each other. Rounds between rounds became more common: Carta, the US platform, reported that about 40% of all rounds raised by seed-stage companies in 2024 were bridge rounds rather than new priced rounds. And the median interval between primary rounds rose over the same period, reaching 696 days across all stages in the second quarter of 2025, up 5% from a year earlier.

A bridge round extends the runway without starting a new series, so it lengthens the measured gap rather than shortening it. What a bridge round actually is, and why deal counts and dollar shares give different answers, is in what a bridge round is.

Sources:
Carta (US), State of Private Markets: Q4 and 2024 in review
Carta (US), Compared to a year ago, more VC cash is going to bridge rounds

What this does not tell you about a European round

It does not tell you how long your own round will take, and it does not describe Europe. The sample is American, the currency is dollars, and the companies are on one platform. A European round for a company with a parent outside Europe adds steps that no American dataset measures: setting up the European company, getting the shareholders' register and the intellectual property arrangements in order, and answering the questions in what European investors check in due diligence.

The one thing the numbers do support is planning cash for a long gap rather than a short one. Money that does not cost shares is often what covers that gap, and in the Netherlands the most widely used source of it is the research and development tax credit described in what WBSO is and what it is worth. Why that kind of money usually comes before a round is in Equity-free money first.

Sources

1. Carta (US), State of Private Markets: Q4 and 2024 in review, checked 22 September 2026
2. Carta (US), State of Private Markets: Q2 2025, checked 22 September 2026
3. Carta (US), Compared to a year ago, more VC cash is going to bridge rounds, checked 22 September 2026

Checked on 22 September 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules change: check the official source, or ask an adviser, before you act on it.