The Secrets of Top-Tier Media Coverage for Funding Announcements

You’ve successfully managed to raise funds in today’s uncertain VC landscape. Congratulations! No matter the market, closing a fresh round of capital is a significant milestone for any company and should be celebrated. Now that you’re ready to announce your achievement to the world, it's essential to understand what reporters look for in order to secure meaningful media coverage for your company. The right coverage can help attract potential customers, partners, and investors. Additionally, media coverage can boost your startup's credibility and visibility within the industry, attracting top talent and opening doors to new opportunities.

However, gone are the days when merely raising funds could guarantee media attention. Nowadays, journalists and publications are more discerning about the stories they cover. We know that securing a top-tier story is always the goal, but you need to understand where (realistically) your funding news will land and why. 

The changing media landscape for fundraising announcements

Over the past two years, the media's approach to covering funding rounds has evolved significantly. It's no longer enough that you’ve raised money; media outlets are looking for specific elements to make your story newsworthy.

With an abundance of startups raising money, journalists are selective when choosing which stories to feature. They look for the most “noteworthy” rounds and stories that they feel will resonate with their readers. Noteworthy funding stories always include:

• Financials: The size of the funding round matters. Larger funding rounds tend to attract more media attention, with $100 million+ being a benchmark for significant coverage in Tier-1 publications.
• Notable Investors: The involvement of prominent and celebrity investors can enhance the appeal of your funding announcement.
• Data: Providing concrete data that showcases your company's growth or product differentiation can make your story more compelling.
• Industry: Climate tech, AI, and health tech continue to dominate headlines. If you fall into one of these categories, the odds are that your funding will land with the media if the impact and differentiators are clear. 
• Customers: Media outlets are interested in how your product or service is impacting customers and the market. If they are notable customers, even better! 
• Timely Hook: Aligning your funding announcement with a current problem in the world, a specific industry, or a trending topic can increase the newsworthiness of your story.

Breaking down coverage: What makes a funding round announcement successful in the media

We analyzed funding news from seven major top-tier publications over the last six months. Detailed below, we break down the stories by publication and tell you what made the announcement newsworthy for that publication.

Bloomberg

• Stories focus on larger funding rounds of at least $100 million or more, with rare exceptions. 
• If the round isn’t big, it’s likely that the investors are notable and well-known; there is also a lot of coverage on celebrity-backed companies (see Tom Brady-Backed Hero Bread Raises $15 Million in Series B).
• Unsurprisingly, right now there is a major emphasis on companies playing a vital role in rapidly growing industries like AI (see Cloud Startup Fly.io Raises $70 Million in EQT-Led Round). 

Financial Times

• Funding coverage is limited. Funding-related stories are usually on rounds of $200 million+ or companies with valuations over $1 billion (see Chatbot Character.ai valued at $1B in Andreessen-led funding round | Financial Times).
• All funding rounds covered are focused on notable big-name investors, with the funding as just a piece of the larger story. 
• There must be a clear tie to timely news or industry developments (i.e. generative AI, crypto scandals, etc.).

Forbes

• Stories cover a wide range of funding rounds, starting at $10 million.
• Funding-centric features include data that showcases the company’s growth or product differentiation, customers, and notable investors. 
• Founder stories are typically highlighted within funding coverage. 
• Depending on the reporter, funding coverage may look like a funding mention within a broader feature story (see How Microorganisms Are Helping Farmers Capture Carbon). 

INSIDER

• The publication is known for publishing funding pitch deck stories that include rounds of all sizes. The funding deck is included in the piece to showcase how the company successfully raised the money (see Banking-as-a-service fintech Griffin just raised $13.5 million. Check out the 15-slide pitch deck it used to land the fresh funds).
• Any feature funding stories include a larger round with notable founders and investors (see Generative AI startup Runway taps Google to lead a $100 million funding round and sign a major cloud contract).
• Coverage is also tied to a major current event or broader industry trend. 

Wall Street Journal

• Funding stories are usually $100 million or more and include notable, big-name investors. Generally covers funding rounds of $100 million+ with rare exceptions (see Insurtech Unicorn Bolttech Raises $196 Million in Latest Funding Round). 
• In the last 6 months, most funding coverage has either been on Generative AI or major breakthrough technology if it’s in another industry (see Inflection AI Raises $1.3 Billion in a Booming Market for Generative AI). 

TechCrunch

• The publication covers a wide range of funding rounds from pre-seed and up. 
• The key is finding the right reporter and emphasizing why your funding story is timely and aligns with the reporter’s beat and area of interest (see How much does your company pollute? CarbonChain gets $10M Series A to help answer that). 
• There is a growing emphasis on trending industries right now including electric vehicles and AI-related stories. 

The New York Times

• Funding coverage is few and far between and when it is covered, it's either $100+ million or a major company (see Chatbot Start-Up Character.AI Valued at $1 Billion in New Funding Round). 
• All rounds covered include notable, big-name investors.
• There must be a clear tie to timely news or industry developments (i.e. generative AI, crypto scandals, etc.) (see Generative A.I. Start-Up Cohere Valued at About $2 Billion in Funding Round).
  
  

Where do you stack up?

So, where does your company’s funding stack up? If you’re still in the early funding stages (pre-seed through Series B) you can realistically target coverage in publications like Forbes, Insider, and TechCrunch unless you have the other key assets we outlined above. To secure media coverage in a major top-tier publication, founders must understand the evolving landscape of funding coverage and tailor their announcements accordingly.

By highlighting key elements such as funding amount, notable investors, data-driven success, and timely relevance, founders can increase their chances of getting media attention from top-tier publications.