What a Series A and Series B Priced At in Q1 2026
The Q1 2026 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor puts median Series A deal size at $19.6 million on a $78.7 million median post-money valuation, and median Series B deal size at $40 million on a post-money valuation of $120 million to $160 million or more. Both figures describe the broader venture market rather than an AI-only slice, and both were reached through PitchBook’s own published summary of the report rather than a line-by-line read of the underlying data, worth noting for a headline figure like this one.
Why the Non-AI Figure Sits Below the Broader-Market Median
Non-AI Series A pre-money valuations run closer to $40 million to $42 million, per ValueAdd VC’s 2026 round-size analysis, a meaningfully lower number than the broader-market post-money figure above. The gap is explained by where the capital is going: US startups raised more than $400 billion in the first half of 2026 alone, surpassing every previous full-year total on record, with AI dealmaking named as the primary driver of that jump. A non-AI B2B SaaS company reading the broader-market medians should read them as pulled upward by AI-flavored rounds, not as a plain estimate of its own likely terms.
Sales spend runs a median 15% of ARR across private B2B SaaS companies, up from 13% a year earlier, per SaaS Capital’s 2026 survey, a useful bridge between a funding headline and where a fresh round actually gets deployed once it closes.
The Numbers
Median Series A deal size reached $19.6 million on a $78.7 million median post-money valuation in the first quarter of 2026, across the broader venture market rather than AI-only companies.
Median Series B deal size reached $40 million on a post-money valuation of $120 million to $160 million or more in the same quarter.
US startups raised more than $400 billion in the first half of 2026 alone, surpassing every previous full-year total on record, with AI dealmaking named as the primary driver of the jump in valuations.
Non-AI Series A pre-money valuations run closer to $40 million to $42 million, well below the broader-market post-money median that AI-flavored rounds pull upward.
Median sales spend across private B2B SaaS companies rose from 13% to 15% of ARR year over year, with equity-backed companies, the kind closing rounds like these, spending more than bootstrapped peers at a comparable stage.
SaaS Capital, 2026 Spending Benchmarks for Private B2B SaaS Companies
Sources
The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.
- PitchBook, Q1 2026 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor
- ValueAdd VC, Pre-Seed to Series B Round Sizes 2026
- SaaS Capital, 2026 Spending Benchmarks for Private B2B SaaS Companies