Series A

Series A is the first institutional funding round a startup raises after seed capital, typically once the product shows evidence of product-market fit and a repeatable way to acquire customers. It is named for the class of preferred shares issued to investors, who receive rights that common shareholders do not, including liquidation preference and usually a board seat. The money is meant to scale what already works rather than to search for it: hiring a sales team, expanding engineering, and pushing into adjacent segments. Investors at this stage look for traction they can extrapolate, which for SaaS usually means annual recurring revenue with a credible growth rate and retention that does not leak. Firms such as Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and Accel lead these rounds internationally, with Korean funds like Altos Ventures and Softbank Ventures Asia active locally. The pitfall is raising a large Series A on thin evidence, because the round sets a valuation the company must grow into before Series B, and a flat or down round later is far more damaging than a smaller raise earlier. Between seed and Series A sits the seed extension, a common signal that traction has not yet cleared the bar.