Seed-stage investors react to higher hurdles for Series A funding

The hurdle for Series A funding is a lot higher than it was a year ago — and investors in seed-stage companies are having to respond. They don’t have much choice if they want their startups to survive. When the market abruptly turned in the spring of 2022, late-stage companies were the first to feel the pain. But that downward financial pressure has more recently made its way to much newer outfits, which are getting lower valuations in their next round — 1.6x in the second quarter, the lowest value since the third quarter of 2013, per PitchBook data — and facing choosier Series A investors with plenty of options. There’s no shortage of ways that VCs are getting creative on this front. The European venture firm Breega touts its “scaling squad” to help support its many seed bets. Pear VC, a Bay Area-based seed-stage venture firm, is constantly rolling out new programming aimed at supporting and educating the nascent teams that it backs.