Series A post-money benchmarks

Cap-table mechanics at this stage

The 2026 dominant story is AI bifurcation, but the Series A broad-cohort premium is more modest than the headline suggests: Carta reports roughly +30% (2024) rising to about +38% (2025), so the +38% used here is the more recent 2025 figure. The premium compresses hardest at the seed-to-Series-A transition, because Series A companies must show metrics. The far larger gaps you hear about are within AI: foundational-model ('model') companies command roughly 3x the valuation of application-layer ('app') companies at Series A. Either way the premium distorts any blended headline median, so if the calculator user is at an AI startup the band shifts right.

Typical post-money breakdown

For a series a round at the cohort median ($64M post-money, average check 15.0M, 12% option pool refresh): new investor takes roughly 23.4% of post-money. Option pool refresh of 10-12% of post-money consumes additional founder + existing-investor allocation. Existing holders absorb the dilution proportionally.

AI-labelled series a rounds price about +38% above non-AI on Carta's broad AI cohort. AI Series A post-money median: approximately $88M. Within AI the gap is larger still — foundational-model companies command multiples of application-layer peers. The cap-table implication: AI rounds have higher absolute valuations but similar dilution percentages, so the absolute dollar value of the new investor's stake is materially higher.

Source

Source: PitchBook-NVCA Q1 2026 ($19.6M median deal) + Carta Q4 2025 ($78.7M post-money) · Verified 2026-08-31.