Atomic Reached a $12.5 Million Series A in 17 Months, While Only 16% of the 2024 Seed Class Has Moved Past Seed
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Atomic Reached a $12.5 Million Series A in 17 Months, While Only 16% of the 2024 Seed Class Has Moved Past Seed
Crunchbase News data show US Series A rounds down 28% in the third quarter, and the winners of that squeeze look like Atomic: AI, revenue growing fivefold and a repeat lead.
Atomic, a Boston supply-chain planning company, announced a $12.5 million Series A on Sept. 29, led by Klass Capital and Madrona, per TechCrunch. According to Crunchbase News, it came about 17 months after a $3 million seed from April 2025, which is far faster than the market now allows.
The pace is the point. A Crunchbase News analysis by Marc Schröder, managing partner and co-founder of MGV, says seed-to-Series A timing now exceeds two years, and the author's own firm invests at that stage.
What the squeeze looks like in numbers
In the third quarter, US Series A rounds numbered 272, down about 28% from 377 a year earlier, per Crunchbase News. Seed rounds fell less, to 984 from 1,059, a drop of about 7%.
| US rounds, Q3 | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Series A | 272 | 377 |
| Seed | 984 | 1,059 |
The survival rate tells the same story from the other side. Of companies that raised a seed of $1 million or more in 2023, 24% have moved past seed. For the 2024 cohort it is 16%, against 55% or higher through 2020.
- Cohorts through 2020 (at least)55 %
- 2023 seed cohort24 %
- 2024 seed cohort16 %
Source: Crunchbase News, accessed 2026-10-31
The bar to clear has also risen. Crunchbase cites Uncork Capital for a Series A threshold of $2 million to $3 million in annual recurring revenue, sometimes $4 million. The median US seed round in 2025 was about $3 million, roughly three times its 2018 level.
Where the money went instead
The dollars did not leave. Crunchbase News reports at least 114 Series A rounds of $100 million or more so far in 2026, over 70% of them to AI companies. A second Crunchbase analysis puts US Series B funding at about $48 billion in 2026, the highest in years, while round counts are on track for a multiyear low.
Rounds under $30 million were less than a third of Series B deals in 2026, against about half from 2021 to 2025. Prometheus, reported to have raised $12 billion, is the largest round of 2026.
The pattern is a barbell: a few very large cheques at the top, and a seed class waiting longer for a second one. It is also why Crosby, which has raised $85 million and is bidding for a law firm's name, can look like the norm when it is closer to the tail.
Why Atomic got through
Atomic fits the profile that is still getting funded. TechCrunch reports its annual recurring revenue has quintupled since the start of 2026, according to Jon McNeill, the former Tesla president who founded DVx Ventures and sits on Atomic's board. No absolute revenue figure is given, so the $2 million to $3 million bar cannot be checked against it.
McNeill also said DoorDash runs about 90% of its purchasing across hundreds of sites on Atomic's software, and HelloFresh is a named customer. Total funding is just over $15 million, which matches the $3 million seed plus the new round.
TechCrunch does not mention a seed round, only that Atomic was incubated at DVx. The $3 million figure and the April 2025 date come from Crunchbase News alone, so treat the 17-month interval as single-sourced.
The founders are Michael Rossiter, chief executive, Neal Suidan, chief product officer, and Jeff Goodrich, chief technology officer and formerly Tesla's planning director. An early version of the system was built during the 2018 Model 3 ramp.
The failure side
The other end of the funnel is visible too. Ollie shut down nine weeks after a $7.5 million Khosla seed, a reminder that a large seed does not guarantee the second cheque.
The next data point is the fourth-quarter Crunchbase count of US Series A rounds, which will show whether the 272 of the third quarter is a floor or still falling.
Sources
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