Iconiq is one of the leading growth investors in B2B leaders and it has one of its latest reports out here on Efficiency & Growth in 2025.
Two data are perhaps most helpful for founders.
First, what’s the bar for top quartile growth among venture-backed B2B start-ups?
At $25m ARR, the answer is:
- 100% growth
- 110% NRR
- 0.9x Net Magic Number (pretty efficient)
- $230,000 in revenue per employee (again pretty efficient)
Second, in the age of AI, how much faster are start-ups saying they are going to grow? About 35% faster (!) this year:
Finally, and you knew this, the “average” AI-first B2B startups at $100m+ ARR are projecting 51% Growth Vs. 30% for “Traditional” SaaS
This ties to what I’m seeing as well.
The full report here:
