Our 2025 Startup Fundraising Strategy.

The investment world has not been kind to startups in 2023 and 2024. VC Fundraising in 2024 is less than every single year since 2017, according to Pitchbook’s 2024 Global Private Market Report. Startups need a startup fundraising strategy to navigate through these challenges. 

• Investors are slowing down investments. 
• The market fluctuates based on tons of variables. 
• Founders are confused.

So, as an investment preparation agency in Switzerland, we started working on the proper fundraising strategy for our clients and startups.

Section A – Preparation.

A startup needs to understand multiple elements before fundraising. In our experience, fundraising is never a must. In fact, according to our internal data, we advise approximately 30% of our clients to not raise funds at their stage. 

Here are the signs to look for that we’d advise you to rethink whether it’s time to raise:

1. You do not have traction – In our current market environment, investors are worried. The lack of traction puts your startup on the bottom of the “food chain”.
2. You are not in a “hot” industry – Vertical AI startups (the ones using AI properly) have been on the rise in 2023 and 2024. This is what investors were looking for. 2025 will be slightly different as the results of those investments will start to pour in. In a nutshell, if you’re not operating in HealthTech, FinTech, Cybersecurity, or AI and you do not have any traction, we advise you to rethink it.
   • That doesn’t mean you won’t land an investment. But it means you might getter a better investment with more traction or if your industry was in one of those sectors.
3. You are a first-time founder* – From our experience, you have good chances of raising if you are a first-time founder. But in this market conditions, you don’t have the same odds as a founder with an exit for example. Yet, this is the weakest of our three pointers and shouldn’t be a stopping factor.

2024 Was Not Good For Startups – But There Were 49 US Unicorns.

It’s how you look at it. When you’re seeking a startup fundraising strategy, you could choose to look at the pessimistic market aspect (which is all over the place) or the optimistic one.

Good smart founders raise, not matter what the environment is dictating.

Startup Fundraising Strategy For 2025

Our strategy on how to aid startups in this relies in this process:

1. Patience: This is before any step you take in fundraising. The timeframe of raising investments from agreements to actually banking and utilising the cashflow is increasing over time. Startups go for a SAFE fundraising type because it’s way less complex and quicker.
2. Assess your needs properly, investments are only needed for companies that need to burn through funds to achieve growth. There are startups like Midjourney who reached millions of revenue with no outside investments.
3. If you’re ready, start your VC approach, preferably a warm introduction if you know someone who knows someone. LinkedIn is the place to be in this sense. Prepare your documents, and rest assured that due diligence will dig deep into each number you mention.
4. Expect to approach over 100 parties, even if you have traction. It’s not you, it’s the market.

Hence, to put it into actionable points:

1. Assess whether you need to fundraise.
2. Prepare your documents: mainly the pitch deck and financial model.
3. Expand your LinkedIn network.
4. Send resend your deck. 

Smart startups raise when it’s needed, no matter what the market is saying.