What 3,372 Pitch Decks Reveal About Finance Needs After the Round

The short answer

We have analysed our pitch deck database in full: 3,372 decks from 67 countries. From the perspective of the finance function, three findings matter. Seed is the most frequently named round at 34.4 per cent, with Series A next at 21.7 per cent – this is the stage at which companies need financial structures they do not yet have. A quarter of all rounds come in below $2.5 million, which leaves little room for an in-house finance department. And two thirds of the decks that state a business model are SaaS – a model whose revenue recognition is the single most common reason for bookkeeping and reporting drifting apart.

The full analysis, including methodology, sector breakdown and country data, is published as State of Startup Pitch Decks on derStartupCFO. This article reads the same data through the lens of the finance function: what does it imply for building finance after the round?

The data

The basis is 20,243 individually recorded slides, grouped by company. That yields 3,372 decks from 67 countries, as at 31 August 2026. The United States accounts for 44.5 per cent, Germany for 14.5 per cent (456 decks) and the United Kingdom for 13.1 per cent. Germany is deliberately over-represented relative to its actual market share: German decks are collected on purpose, because they are the relevant benchmark for German-speaking readers.

Seed and Series A: the stage where the finance function tips over

Seed is the most frequently named specific round (34.4 per cent of decks), with Series A next at 21.7 per cent. Pre-seed sits at 5.3 per cent, Series C at 5.7 per cent, and everything from Series E upwards at 1.7 per cent combined.

One methodological caveat belongs here, and it is important enough to repeat: the field allows multiple values, and 65.7 per cent of decks carry more than one. The shares therefore cannot be added up. Read them as the share of decks carrying that value at least once.

For the finance function, this is precisely the critical range. At pre-seed, sound bookkeeping and a financial plan that carries the assumptions of the business model are enough. With the seed round the requirement changes abruptly: there are investors who want to be kept informed, a capital base whose runway must be answerable at any moment, and usually the first hires in meaningful numbers. By Series A at the latest, reporting is added that has to withstand scrutiny, because it becomes the basis for the next valuation.

The usual mistake is not hiring a CFO too late. It is treating the question as a purely staffing one. Between "bookkeeping is enough" and "a full CFO position" lie several years and several intermediate stages: a fractional CFO for one day a week, an interim CFO for the duration of a fundraise, or CFO as a Service as a permanent part-time arrangement.

A quarter of rounds come in below $2.5 million

The distribution of amounts raised: 24.7 per cent of decks relate to rounds of up to $2.5 million, 18.2 per cent to $2.5 to 10 million, 22.8 per cent to $10 to 50 million and 14.0 per cent to $50 to 250 million. Above $250 million there remains 3.0 per cent. A fifth of decks expressly state "n.a." and are reported separately.

The lower half of that distribution is everyday life for most of the companies we work with. On a round of two million dollars and a target runway of 18 to 24 months, the entire finance function – bookkeeping, controlling, reporting, planning – has a budget that will not stretch to an experienced full-time hire, but that an inexperienced one will not carry either. That is the economic reason why part-time and outsourced models dominate in this size bracket, and not any lack of ambition.

In practice this means the question is not "CFO, yes or no", but what share of financial leadership a given budget can fund without the day-to-day bookkeeping suffering. Our article on the cost of an interim CFO offers a point of reference.

Two thirds SaaS – and therefore two thirds revenue recognition questions

Among the 2,706 decks that state a business model, SaaS clearly dominates at 66.4 per cent. Apps stand at 11.4 per cent, e-commerce at 11.2 and marketplaces at 6.7 per cent.

For the finance function this is the most consequential figure in the whole analysis. SaaS companies bill licences in advance, frequently on an annual basis. The money is in the bank before the service has been delivered. If revenue is not recognised across the contract term, the profit and loss account paints a picture that has little to do with the business – and deferred revenue is regularly the first line item an investor opens up in due diligence.

On top of that, the steering metrics of a SaaS business – recurring revenue, the breakdown of its movement into new business, expansion and churn, and retention within the installed base – do not arise in the bookkeeping. They come from linking contract data, the billing system and the general ledger. That link is exactly what is missing in most set-ups after the seed round. Establishing it is one of the most frequent tasks in our engagements, and the reason we maintain a dedicated service description for this segment.

For e-commerce and marketplaces, together around 18 per cent, the questions differ but the effect is the same: multi-level contribution margin accounting and returns provisions in retail, and the distinction between gross and net presentation on platforms.

Fintech leads the sectors – with consequences for the finance department

Fintech is the most common sector at 14.1 per cent (428 of 3,034 decks stating a sector), ahead of AI/ML/big data at 9.9 per cent and health tech at 8.0 per cent. In total, the decks spread across 58 categories.

Fintech companies typically face regulatory reporting obligations earlier than others, often with requirements to segregate client money from their own, and an audit that begins well before the first statutory year-end audit. Anyone founding in this field needs a robust finance function not from Series A, but from the first licence.

What the data does not say

A dataset is worth only as much as the disclosure of its limits. Four caveats apply to everything above:

The collection ends in 2023. For 2023 there are 154 decks on record, and 531 for 2022. The collection reflects a body of material weighted towards 2019 to 2022, not the current state of the market.
It is a curated collection, not a full survey of the market. The distributions also reflect which decks became publicly available at all.
The sector taxonomy overlaps. Categories such as software, internet and technology are blurred. The shares are orders of magnitude, not an exact market segmentation.
We deliberately say nothing about the B2B/B2C split. The field is empty for 77.4 per cent of decks. A figure could be calculated from the remainder, but none could be substantiated.

Frequently asked questions

At which funding round does a startup need a finance function?

In practice, from the seed round. The first institutional capital brings reporting obligations towards investors, a liquidity runway that must be answerable at any moment, and the first hires in meaningful numbers. At 34.4 per cent, seed is also the most common round in our database – the range in which most companies cross this threshold.

When is a dedicated CFO position worth it rather than an external model?

When the complexity permanently ties up full-time capacity: several legal entities, international structures, a larger finance team, or a transaction process running over months. On rounds below $2.5 million – roughly a quarter of all decks – that is usually not yet the case.

Why is revenue recognition so often a problem in SaaS?

Because billing happens in advance. Cash receipt and delivery of the service fall apart, in some cases by twelve months. Without clean recognition across the contract term, the profit and loss account diverges systematically from how the business is actually performing. Since two thirds of the decks analysed are SaaS models, this affects the majority of funded companies.

Do the figures translate to the German market?

Only to a limited extent. 44.5 per cent of the decks come from the United States and 14.5 per cent from Germany. The distribution of rounds and business models translates as a pattern; the absolute amounts only in part, since rounds in the German market are on average smaller at comparable stages.

Source

Pitch deck database of derStartupCFO, full survey as at 31 August 2026: 20,243 slides recorded and grouped by company into 3,372 decks from 67 countries. Percentages to one decimal place. In every analysis the reference base is the number of decks carrying at least one value in the field concerned. Full methodology and limitations in the original report. As at September 2026.