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Welcome to our monthly wrap-up episode where we cover August’s most relevant content at the intersection of startups, VC, data & AI👇

MULTIPLES SNAPSHOT📸
Welcome back after your summer break! Hopefully you recovered well and recharged batteries for an exciting H2-2025.
Despite everyone talking about a “summer hole”, specifically in Europe where OOO messages seem the norm across August, my summer was actually surprisingly busy with 2 new term sheets issued and several follow-on rounds closing. The most ambitious founders don’t sleep!
Also the public markets didn’t pause. Here’s the quick August snapshot. Full episode with all tables and deep dives here.

Source: Multiples.vc

Source: Multiples.vc
INTERESTING RESEARCH & REPORTS📈
ARR Milestones for Series A Keep Rising

SVB’s latest State of the Markets report shows that ARR milestones for Series A doubled in the last four years. Here’s the key insights:
Top tier Series A: While the top quartile raises Series A at $7M ARR, the top decile has grown past $10M ARR already.
Median ARR nearly doubled: From $1.3M in 2021 to almost $3M in 2024 for US B2B software startups.
Low-quartile companies squeezed out: ARR values have increased more quickly at the lower quartile than the upper quartile, indicating that teams with mediocre traction do not make the cut anymore.
✈️ KEY TAKEAWAYS
ARR milestones keep increasing across stages. For Series A, they have roughly doubled in the last four years, making $3M the new $1M bar for the median company.
AI Founder Profiles Defy Stereotypes
Maggie Basta’s analysis of the past three years of AI unicorn founders shows no single demographic or credential reliably predicts success. While some trends exist—such as a concentration of MIT alumni and roughly one in four holding a technical PhD—the long tail of variation dominates.
Age and Geography: Founder ages at company inception range widely, with notable clusters in the late 20s to mid-30s but also representation from early 20s to late 40s. Over half were born outside the US, spanning regions from India to Sweden to Chile.
Education: Undergraduate backgrounds are diverse, with most founders coming from outside “top 10” schools. While MIT appears most often, the majority of institutions are represented only once.
Investor Origins: First lead investors vary significantly, from top-tier Silicon Valley firms to niche and international funds, with no dominant backer profile.
✈️ KEY TAKEAWAYS
Recent AI unicorn founders share few easily measurable traits, reinforcing that AI success remains an n-of-1 game. Surface-level pattern matching offers limited predictive value compared to deeper, case-by-case evaluation.