by Darryl Sparey, co-founder
Last year, $425 billion was invested in more than 24,000 private companies by venture capital and growth investors. That’s a 30% increase in funding year on year, up from $328 billion in 2024 and hundreds of funding announcements every week.
So - why are funding rounds so hard to pitch?
Here are the three biggest challenges when pitching funding rounds:
They are extremely competitive
Funding rounds are probably one of the most common stories in business and tech media, and all of them look the same: “Company raises $X to support growth”.
The story is often underdeveloped
Fundraising announcements are obviously huge milestones, for founders and businesses. But what makes it news for the media is often other considerations, such as what it means for the wider industry or sector.
Funding rounds are definitely something that creates buzz internally. But from a media perspective, the challenge is often giving journalists enough to work with beyond the headline figure. If the core elements aren’t strong enough, the burden shifts to the story- which is where many funding announcements fall down.
Expectations are heightened
Top tier outlets aren’t selecting stories based on how important they are to the company - they’re selecting based on relevance to their audience. That means the strongest media strategies look beyond the announcement itself and identify the wider story around it. The key question to ask is: what gives this funding round a reason to be covered?
What actually makes a funding round newsworthy?
We’ve spoken a lot about why funding rounds can be tricky to pitch, and not a lot about what actually makes them newsworthy. The size of a raise and the profile of its investors will always influence media interest, but they are only part of the story.
Strong funding PR is about identifying the wider reasons why the announcement matters and giving journalists something compelling to say about the business beyond the amount raised.
That could mean showing what the investment will enable, linking the business to a bigger market trend, demonstrating strong commercial momentum or explaining why the company is doing something genuinely different. The key question is therefore not simply “how much have we raised?”, but “what is the most interesting story this funding allows us to tell?”
The mistake most people make is treating the amount as the story. But the story is the strongest signal within it. That means:
The final tip - don’t try and sell in a funding announcement in a couple of weeks. I know time often isn’t on our side, I know time often isn’t on your side, but one of the easiest mistakes to make is treating the announcement as the final step in the fundraising process.
Bringing your PR team as early as possible and using that time to really identify the story and find the journalists who will be most interested, will make all the difference.
Funding rounds only make the news when they're framed around the right story. The difference between a raise that gets noticed and one that gets ignored is almost always the narrative behind it – and that's entirely within your control.
At Hard Numbers, we've secured coverage for countless funding announcements because we know what journalists are looking for and how to position a raise for maximum impact. Our team also includes people who’ve helped raise both venture capital and private equity finance for businesses, so we have direct experience of fundraising in-house, and understand the opportunities and the pressures that come with this.
If you're a business raising capital and aren't sure where to start with your comms strategy, get in touch at darryl@hardnumbers.co.uk.
