Why It Takes Longer Than Ever to Close a VC Round

The startup world is supposed to move fast. Yet in 2025, raising a VC round feels slower than ever. Even with AI tools, pitch platforms, and instant connectivity, deals are dragging out. Here's why it's happening, what's at stake, and how we can fix it. ⏳ 1. The Timeline Is Expanding In Q2 2025, the median time between funding rounds across all stages hit 696 days (~23 months) — up from 21 months just one quarter earlier (Carta). Meanwhile, nearly 80% of all new VC funding in 2025 is flowing into companies with an AI component (Crunchbase News). For everyone else, capital feels even further out of reach. 🔍 2. The Causes Behind the Slowdown a) Noise Overload & Poor Matching Startups blast out hundreds of cold decks. VCs sift through misaligned pitches. Many never even reach the right decision-makers. 👉 A study of 17,500 pitch decks showed most lacked clarity, structure, or relevant metrics (Crunchbase News). Even in curated settings, investors report 50–80% of their time is wasted on misaligned pitches. b) Capital Caution & Harsher Due Diligence Investors are more selective, demanding proof on unit economics, defensibility, margins, and retention. That means more back-and-forth, more data requests, and slower closes. c) LPs Are Pulling Back Many limited partners (LPs) are moving money into safer bets like private credit and infrastructure, leaving fewer dollars to flow into new VC funds. That trickles down — fewer active funds means tighter purse strings for startups. 🚀 3. What Needs to Change — And How PocketVC Fits In We don't need more noise. We need smarter matching, filtering, and friction reduction. At PocketVC, we're building around that: Deeper AI understanding — we won't give away the full secret sauce, but it goes far beyond keyword matching or pitch parsing. Think of it as modeling the DNA of a startup. Curated deals, not mass lists — smaller, higher-quality matches for investors. Less waste, more time — founders spend less time chasing; VCs spend less time rejecting. Iterative learning — every match, rejection, and conversation tightens our engine. Because if innovation demands speed, the fundraising infrastructure has to catch up.