Series D rounds close when you're past product-market fit and scaling fast. You'll raise $100M-$300M to extend runway, expand internationally, or delay IPO another 18-24 months. These investors expect $100M+ ARR with clear path to profitability or market dominance. They won't fund pivot stories or companies burning through growth equity.
Quick list
Tiger Global: Led Stripe's $600M Series D at $95B valuation in March 2025, one of the largest late-stage rounds that year.
General Catalyst: Backed Notion's $275M Series D in Q2 2025, focusing on AI-native companies with strong retention.
Insight Partners: Wrote $150M check for Databricks' growth round in early 2026, continuing their enterprise software focus.
Coatue: Led Canva's $200M Series D extension in late 2025 at $40B valuation, doubling down on design tools.
DST Global: Participated in Revolut's $500M Series D in mid-2025, their largest fintech investment that year.
Lightspeed Venture Partners: Led Affirm's pre-IPO growth round with $180M in Q4 2025, preparing for public markets.
Index Ventures: Backed Figma's $300M Series D in early 2026 after Adobe acquisition fell through, focusing on collaboration tools.
Accel: Led UiPath's $250M growth round in Q1 2026, their largest automation software bet to date.
Sequoia Capital: Participated in Plaid's $425M Series D in late 2025, maintaining their fintech infrastructure thesis.
Andreessen Horowitz: Wrote $175M check for Rippling's Series D in Q3 2025, backing enterprise SaaS with strong net retention.
GGV Capital: Led Grab's $220M Series D extension in mid-2025, focusing on Southeast Asian expansion.
Iconiq Capital: Backed Airtable's $185M growth round in Q4 2025, targeting no-code enterprise tools with high NRR.
Picking the right Series D investor
Check size: Most Series D investors write $100M-$300M checks and expect to own 5-15% of your company. Some growth funds go up to $500M for pre-IPO rounds. Smaller checks at this stage mean they're not serious about leading or you're overvalued.
Lead vs. follow: At Series D, your lead needs deep pockets for follow-on rounds through IPO. Growth equity firms typically lead, venture funds from earlier rounds follow with their reserves. A Series D lead that can't write $50M+ for your next round creates problems in 12-18 months.
Speed: Expect 12-24 weeks from first meeting to signed term sheet. Series D diligence covers 36+ months of financials, customer concentration risk, competitive position, and management depth. Firms promising 6-week closes are either desperate or don't do real diligence.
Follow-on reserves: Your Series D lead should reserve capital for pre-IPO rounds or bridge financing. Ask how much they've reserved for follow-on investments across their portfolio. Funds with <30% follow-on capacity will pressure you to go public before you're ready. Review best practices for sending strategic updates using investor update software.
Communication: Use Ellty to share your deck with trackable links. You'll see who actually opens your unit economics model versus just the executive summary. Series D investors spend time on your cohort retention and sales efficiency metrics - if they skip those pages, they're not serious.
Value beyond money: Most growth equity firms promise board support and recruiting help. Check their last 5 portfolio IPOs and ask founders whether partners actually helped with S-1 filing or just showed up for the roadshow. Generic "we're hands-on" claims don't mean much when you're filing for IPO.
How to approach Series D investors
Research stage fit: Look for firms that write $100M+ checks and have taken 3+ companies public in the last 24 months. Series D investors won't back companies with <$100M ARR or unclear path to $1B revenue. Your burn rate needs to make sense against your revenue scale.
Build your narrative: Your story is about market leadership and inevitable IPO or strategic exit. Series D investors don't care about your product vision - they want proof you'll be the category winner. Show net revenue retention above 120% and improving unit economics quarter over quarter.
Share your pitch deck: Upload to Ellty and send trackable links. Monitor which pages investors spend time on - Series D investors care about your go-to-market efficiency and competitive moat more than total addressable market. If they skip your cohort analysis slides, they're not doing real diligence.
Get warm introductions: Series D investors only take meetings through portfolio CEOs, board members, or other late-stage investors. Your Series B and C leads should make introductions. Direct LinkedIn outreach has <1% response rate at this stage.
Target the right partners: Find partners who've led 5+ Series D rounds in your category within the last 3 years. Junior partners can't approve $200M checks no matter how much they like your company. Email senior partners directly through warm intros - don't waste time with associates.
Time your outreach: Start talking to Series D investors 6-9 months before you actually need capital. Growth equity firms want to see 2-3 quarters of consistent performance before committing. Don't start fundraising when you have <12 months runway - it looks desperate.
Prepare your data room: Set up an Ellty data room with 36 months of financials, detailed cohort analysis, customer concentration data, and your last 8 board decks before first meetings. Series D investors will request access within 72 hours of a good initial conversation. Missing documents kill momentum.
Structure initial conversations: Lead with your path to $500M-$1B revenue and timeline to profitability or IPO. Series D investors have seen dozens of companies in your category. Focus on what makes your unit economics defensible and why you'll win the category, not why the market is big.
Why Series D funding matters in 2026
Series D rounds in 2026 are smaller than 2021 but larger than 2023. Most growth-stage companies are raising at flat or down valuations compared to Series C. The IPO market is slowly reopening but companies need 12-18 months of preparation and clean financials to go public.
Series D investors now expect clear path to profitability within 12-24 months or dominant market position that justifies continued growth investment. The "growth at all costs" era is over. Companies raising Series D in 2026 show Rule of 40 performance or better - revenue growth rate plus profit margin above 40%.
12 top Series D investors
1. Tiger Global
Tiger Global moves fast on late-stage deals and writes $100M-$500M checks for category leaders. They led 8 Series D rounds in 2025 and backed 3 companies through successful IPOs.
- Recent Deals: Stripe $600M Series D at $95B (March 2025), Databricks $400M growth round (June 2025), Checkout.com $250M Series D (October 2025)
- LinkedIn: Scott Shleifer, John Curtius
- Check Size: $100M-$500M
- Stage Focus: Series D, late-stage growth, pre-IPO
- Location: New York, USA
- Website: tigerglobal.com
2. General Catalyst
General Catalyst backs enterprise and consumer companies with strong retention metrics and international expansion potential. They reserve significant capital for follow-on rounds through IPO.
- Recent Deals: Notion $275M Series D (May 2025), Samsara $320M growth round (August 2025), Gusto $200M Series D (December 2025)
- LinkedIn: Hemant Taneja, Deep Nishar
- Check Size: $150M-$350M
- Stage Focus: Series C-D, growth equity
- Location: Cambridge, USA
- Website: generalcatalyst.com
3. Insight Partners
Insight Partners focuses on enterprise software with predictable revenue and high net retention. They've taken 12 portfolio companies public since 2023 and have $90B+ under management.
- Recent Deals: Databricks $150M participation (January 2026), Veeam $350M Series D (July 2025), Armis $300M growth round (September 2025)
- LinkedIn: Jeff Horing, Deven Parekh
- Check Size: $100M-$400M
- Stage Focus: Series D, late-stage SaaS, pre-IPO
- Location: New York, USA
- Website: insightpartners.com
4. Coatue
Coatue leads large late-stage rounds for consumer and enterprise tech companies with clear market leadership. They invest across public and private markets and help portfolio companies prepare for IPO.
- Recent Deals: Canva $200M Series D extension at $40B (November 2025), Instacart $280M pre-IPO round (March 2025), Chime $400M Series D (June 2025)
- LinkedIn: Philippe Laffont, Thomas Laffont
- Check Size: $150M-$500M
- Stage Focus: Series D, growth equity, pre-IPO
- Location: New York, USA
- Website: coatue.com
5. DST Global
DST Global backs high-growth consumer and fintech companies internationally. They write large checks and typically follow rather than lead rounds but move decisively on category winners.
- Recent Deals: Revolut $500M Series D (July 2025), Nubank $380M growth round (April 2025), Klarna $275M pre-IPO financing (October 2025)
- LinkedIn: Yuri Milner, John Lindfors
- Check Size: $200M-$600M
- Stage Focus: Series D, late-stage growth, pre-IPO
- Location: Hong Kong
- Website: dst-global.com
6. Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed leads Series D rounds for enterprise and consumer companies with international growth potential. They've backed portfolio companies through successful IPOs and maintain strong follow-on reserves.
- Recent Deals: Affirm $180M pre-IPO round (November 2025), Rubrik $290M Series D (May 2025), Faire $225M growth round (August 2025)
- LinkedIn: Ravi Mhatre, Gaurav Gupta
- Check Size: $100M-$350M
- Stage Focus: Series C-D, growth equity
- Location: Menlo Park, USA
- Website: lsvp.com
7. Index Ventures
Index Ventures backs European and US companies with strong product-market fit and international expansion stories. They lead Series D rounds and support companies through IPO process.
- Recent Deals: Figma $300M Series D (February 2026), Revolut participation (July 2025), Discord $280M growth round (September 2025)
- LinkedIn: Danny Rimer, Shardul Shah
- Check Size: $150M-$400M
- Stage Focus: Series D, late-stage, pre-IPO
- Location: London, UK / San Francisco, USA
- Website: indexventures.com
8. Accel
Accel leads large growth rounds for enterprise and infrastructure companies. They've backed 5 successful IPOs since 2024 and maintain significant follow-on reserves for late-stage companies.
- Recent Deals: UiPath $250M growth round (March 2026), Snyk $280M Series D (June 2025), Convoy $190M late-stage round (September 2025)
- LinkedIn: Sameer Gandhi, Ryan Sweeney
- Check Size: $100M-$300M
- Stage Focus: Series D, growth equity
- Location: Palo Alto, USA
- Website: accel.com
9. Sequoia Capital
Sequoia backs portfolio companies from seed through IPO and writes large checks for Series D rounds. They focus on category-defining companies with strong network effects and defensible moats.
- Recent Deals: Plaid $425M Series D (December 2025), ServiceTitan $365M pre-IPO round (August 2025), Deel $310M growth round (October 2025)
- LinkedIn: Roelof Botha, Alfred Lin
- Check Size: $150M-$500M
- Stage Focus: Series D, late-stage, pre-IPO
- Location: Menlo Park, USA
- Website: sequoiacap.com
10. Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz leads Series D rounds for enterprise software and fintech companies with strong gross margins. They provide extensive operational support and help companies navigate IPO preparation.
- Recent Deals: Rippling $175M Series D (August 2025), Databricks participation (January 2026), OpenSea $295M growth round (November 2025)
- LinkedIn: Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen
- Check Size: $100M-$400M
- Stage Focus: Series D, growth equity, pre-IPO
- Location: Menlo Park, USA
- Website: a16z.com
11. GGV Capital
GGV Capital backs cross-border companies expanding between US and Asia. They lead Series D rounds for marketplaces, fintech, and enterprise software with international growth potential.
- Recent Deals: Grab $220M Series D extension (June 2025), Airwallex $265M growth round (September 2025), Zomato $310M pre-IPO financing (December 2025)
- LinkedIn: Hans Tung, Jenny Lee
- Check Size: $100M-$350M
- Stage Focus: Series D, cross-border growth
- Location: Menlo Park, USA / Shanghai, China
- Website: ggvc.com
12. Iconiq Capital
Iconiq Capital focuses on enterprise SaaS companies with high net revenue retention and clear path to IPO. They work with a concentrated portfolio and write large checks for category leaders.
- Recent Deals: Airtable $185M growth round (November 2025), Snowflake participation in late-stage round (May 2025), Carta $240M Series D (August 2025)
- LinkedIn: Will Griffith, Divesh Makan
- Check Size: $150M-$400M
- Stage Focus: Series D, late-stage SaaS, pre-IPO
- Location: San Francisco, USA
- Website: iconiqcapital.com
Start tracking your Series D fundraise
These 12 Series D investors closed deals from 2025 to early 2026. Most will want 2-3 quarters of consistent financial performance before taking a first meeting. Your revenue scale matters more than growth rate at this stage.
Upload your deck to Ellty and create unique links for each investor. Series D investors typically spend 8-12 minutes reviewing your deck initially. You'll see exactly which slides they view and whether they skip your competitive analysis or unit economics breakdown. If they're not opening your cohort retention slides, they're not doing serious diligence.
When you get to detailed diligence, share an Ellty data room with 36 months of financials, customer concentration analysis, and your last year of board decks. It's faster than back-and-forth email requests and you'll know when partners actually review your S-1 draft or cap table details.
Common questions
What revenue do I need for Series D?
Most Series D investors want $100M+ ARR with clear path to $500M-$1B revenue. Some will consider $75M ARR if you're growing 80%+ annually with strong unit economics. Below $50M ARR you're still Series C stage.
How much dilution is normal at Series D?
Expect 10-20% dilution depending on your valuation and growth trajectory. If you're raising at a down round, dilution can hit 25-30%. Companies with strong revenue retention and improving margins get better terms.
Can my Series C investors lead my Series D?
Most Series C funds don't have enough capital to lead a $200M+ round. They'll participate with 30-50% of the round but you need a growth equity firm to lead. Your earlier investors should help with introductions to late-stage funds.
What's a typical Series D valuation in 2026?
Valuations dropped 40-60% from 2021 peaks. Most Series D rounds price at 15-25x ARR for high-growth SaaS companies. Profitability and strong unit economics get you closer to 25x. Negative margins and slowing growth push you toward 10-15x.
How long does Series D fundraising take?
Expect 4-6 months from first meetings to closed round. Diligence takes 2-3 months and involves detailed financial review, customer calls, and market analysis. Add another 4-8 weeks for legal documentation and closing conditions.
Should I go public instead of raising Series D?
If you have $200M+ revenue, strong gross margins, and clean financials, consider IPO instead. Series D makes sense if you need 12-18 more months to hit profitability or want to delay public market scrutiny. Talk to bankers and your Series C investors about readiness.
