These Industries Have Seen A Spike In Series A Funding Rounds

When businesses want to expand into different markets or accelerate the development of projects, they can look for  investors willing to invest capital into their new or growing business in exchange for equity. Companies do this through fundraising rounds known as Series A, B, and C, after seed capital. The Series A funding round refers to a company’s first round of venture capital financing, and over the last two years, we have seen several completed across different industries. In particular, Series A funding has become popular in the gaming, technology, and finance industries.

Gaming

In April 2021, Multiverse, Inc. raised over $17 million in its Series A funding round, followed by PortalOne, which raised around $60 million, in January 2022. Both gaming companies directed this money into expanding their product offerings and continuing to develop their respective hybrid gaming platforms. Multiverse, Inc., for instance, has created a gaming platform that merges tabletop games with video games. Anthos Capital led the company’s series A funding round.

Technology

Investors are pouring money into the technology industry, because these products and services are in such high demand. Months after Multiverse raised $17 million, technology company SIMBA Chain raised $25 million in its own Series A funding round in September 2021. SIMBA Chain is a technology startup that started at the University of Notre Dame and provides simple methods for blockchain app development. Valley Capital Partners led the funding round. SIMBA Chain plans to use the additional funding to scale marketing, development, and sales.

Finance

The same month SIMBA Chain closed its Series A funding round, financial services company Yubi closed its own, raising $90 million. Yubi is building different types of infrastructure to power debt markets, and the company plans to use the funding from this round to expand its product capabilities. Sequoia Capital India led the Series A funding round.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Series A Funding

Acquiring capital to grow a business is an important milestone. Series A funding has several advantages. Companies gain access to large sums of capital with Series A, which they can use to grow. They also get access to expetise and networking opportunities through their investors. However, there are some disadvantages of Series A funding. For example, founders have less control in their company as investors gain an ownership stake, and there’s a lot of pressure on the company to grow rapidly.

Fundraising rounds are also time-consuming. That said, the industry surrounding them is changing. Like most areas, technology has significantly simplified the process of obtaining funding, making it easier for start-ups. For example, there’s a lot of back and forth between companies and investors. When companies raise Series A funding, they need to negotiate deal terms with their investors and there are a lot of wordy legal documents involved in the process. There are Term Sheets, Disclosure Letters and documents based on BVCA model agreements. For many founders, these documents are complex and time-consuming.

Because of this, start-ups that raise Series A funding can now use innovative online services to simplify the process. Companies like SeedLegals aim to optimise and streamline the task of raising Series A funding. The founders, Anthony Rose and Laurent Laffy, had grown tired of costly legal fees and long periods of waiting around for months as funding rounds were negotiated and closed. So they formed an alternative solution: an online platform where investors and founders can generate the necessary legal documents in a few clicks, share and collect signatues instantly and secrely store legal documents with cloud-based technology. This fast and user-friendly process saves founders and investors both time and money.

Evidently, it’s easier than ever before to raise Series A funding. So despite the difficulties of fundraising and volatile markets that founders may face in 2022, many startups can successfully raise the series A funding they need – especially those in the technology, finance and gaming industries.