What KPIs do venture firms care about across stages?

Revenue, cash-on-hand, burn rate, and other metrics are well known and commonly requested by venture firms as they monitor portfolio companies. But how do these metrics change as companies mature through stages? Do KPIs and reporting standards evolve as companies near an IPO or other exit? Which metrics are critical and which are nice-to-have?

For this deep dive, we’ve aggregated over 10,000 data points across portfolio companies of all stages. This data, sourced from Aumni’s VC customers, is collected through our customizable KPI solutions. We’ve taken steps to aggregate and anonymize confidential data to create a consolidated view of the trends we see with requested performance metrics.

Top 10 most requested metrics by series

While the table of top ten metrics confirms many widely-held beliefs, it also reveals some insightful findings. As expected, revenue (not just ARR) is the most frequently requested metric across stages. Net burn rate, FT headcount, and gross margin are also common requests across all stages.

Despite concentration in the top 5 metrics, the 6-10 positions on our list change in composition and order for each series. For example, customer count appears in seed stage but drops from the top ten list as portfolio companies graduate to Series A and beyond. Where in the top ten list a metric falls is critical to understanding what is most representative of PortCo  performance and more likely to be provided by the PortCo. In our sample, the average venture firm asks for 6-9 metrics from their PortCos every quarter to optimize for response rate and to best align with performance for that stage. See the chart below for a breakout of the number of metrics collected by stage.

Cash is king, until it isn't

The two cash metrics in the top ten list (cash-on-hand and cash runway) are requested far less often across stages. Both metrics fell from an average combined ranking of 3.5 out of 10  in seed stage to scarcely staying in the top ten by Series D+.

We believe this is likely a natural trend as portfolio companies mature and liquidity and operating runway becomes less of an ongoing concern. Audits and more in-depth financial reporting requirements at later stages provide additional insights to cash management as well, thus decreasing the criticality and frequency of cash metric requests.

So what metrics are more important as companies enter later stage rounds?

Operational efficiency metrics rise in later stages

As expected, metrics that focus on operational efficiency are requested more frequently later in the startup lifecycle. 50% of our top ten list in Series D+ are operational metrics compared to an average of 20% in Seed and Series A. Gross margin, total OpEx, EBIT, bookings, and debt balance all become a frequently requested metric as companies enter growth and exit stages. The trend for robust late-stage operational efficiency metrics and reporting will likely continue especially as average check sizes for Series D+ companies have fallen significantly and late-stage exit events face higher hurdles. 

Wrap up 

Analyzing over 10,000 data points to generate a top ten list of KPI metrics provides a few key insights: 

• Revenue, net burn rate, FT headcount, and gross margin are frequently requested 
• Most venture firms request 6-9 metrics per quarter from each PortCo 
• Cash ranks high in early stages but becomes less critical in later stages
• Operational metrics take up 50% of the top ten list at Series D+

‍Data Footnote: N=10,128 unique data points representing the fiscal years 2020-2024. Data includes quarterly collection/extraction only and includes completed and non-completed portfolio company responses.

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