There’s a growing gap between companies raising seed rounds and those that go on to raise series A.

A lot has been written in recent weeks about the so-called “Series A Crunch” — the idea that many of the companies raising seed-rounds won’t be able to attract that ever-so-important next round of capital. Now, here’s a chart from Pitchbook which shows what is occurring.

As you’ll see above, the number of seed-stage/angel deals has nearly quadrupled in the past four years. Meanwhile, series A financing rounds haven’t budged much. Pitchbook notes that the ratio beween seed stage and series A now stands at 3.3 to 1. In 2008, that ratio stood at just 1.9 to 1.

I spoke to one entrepreneur last week who is stuck in this netherworld — struggling to raise a series A financing deal. It doesn’t sound pretty.

In fact, CB Insights released a report last month which indicated that more than 1,000 seed-stage companies could be “orphaned” — meaning they won’t be able to raise their next round of cash. That will lead to more than $1 billion in investment capital being “incinerated,” which CB Insights noted was part of the natural selection that goes along with startups.

Pitchbook offers a few more details on what’s going on:

“Some people fear that the growing size of VC funds and late stage financings could create a scarcity of capital for companies in early stage rounds. This fear is compounded by the fact that VC capital invested has outpaced fundraising for four consecutive years now. Others say that this is just a natural VC cycle, and we will see follow-on early-stage rounds pickup now thanks to the increasing number of companies receiving angel/seed funding.”

The report also notes that not all seed-stage companies go on to raise a series A, with some entrepreneurs returning to their angel backers for multiple rounds. Let us know what you are experiencing on the fundraising trail? Good times? Tough times?

Previously on GeekWireVC investments double in Washington state on strength of big deals for Zulily, Meteor

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