How Much Does Fundraising Advisory Cost? Fees 2026 (France & Switzerland)

Introduction: how much does fundraising advisory really cost in 2026?

A fundraising engagement carries advisor fees that most often combine a success fee of 1 to 5% of the amount raised depending on the file, and a retainer or monthly fee of 2,000 to 6,000 (CHF or EUR), sometimes supplemented with advisory warrants when the company's cash position is tight (Hectelion's 2026 practice). The right budget depends on the stage of maturity, the amount sought, and the structure chosen.

Fundraising is the process by which a company opens its capital to new investors, business angels, venture capital funds, family offices, or growth-equity funds, in exchange for an equity stake, in order to finance its growth without relying on traditional debt. Bpifrance Création details the mechanics and steps for founders and SME leaders.

"The general meeting decides on the ordinary increase of share capital.", Swiss Code of Obligations, Article 650, paragraph 1.

Three factors converge in 2026 to make this budget particularly topical.

First, the market is rebounding sharply but unevenly: French startups raised EUR 4.58 billion in the first half of 2026, up 65% year on year according to the EY barometer, while Switzerland saw fundraising rebound to CHF 2.95 billion in 2025 according to the Swiss Venture Capital Report; this rebound, often driven by a handful of AI mega-rounds, makes pricing benchmarks all the more useful for a typical round.

Second, fundraising advisor compensation often blends success fee, retainer, and sometimes advisory warrants, a structure poorly understood by founders who frequently negotiate their first round with no reference point.

Third, the increase of the prospectus exemption threshold from EUR 8 to 12 million starting in June 2026 in the European Union widens the scope of transactions that can be carried out as a private placement, without exempting anyone from checking who may legally collect a success fee on a securities placement.

This article gives fees at a glance, details what drives the bill, presents mandate structures from a pure success fee to advisory warrants, explains the success fee mechanics, describes the process and timeline of a raise, compares provider types, explains how to reduce cost without weakening your terms, covers 2026 trends, lists the five mistakes that cost the most, illustrates all of this with two priced case studies, one Swiss, one French, before answering the ten most frequent questions.

Fundraising advisory fees at a glance: 2026 ranges by stage

Stage of the round	Amount sought	Success fee	Retainer or monthly fee (CHF/EUR)
Seed	Up to 2 million (CHF or EUR)	3 to 5%, sometimes a flat rate	2,000 to 6,000 per month
Series A	2 to 10 million (CHF or EUR)	2 to 4%, tiered down or a flat rate	2,000 to 6,000 per month
Series B or growth equity	10 to 50 million (CHF or EUR)	1 to 3%, tiered down or a flat rate	2,000 to 6,000 per month
Mixed financing (debt and equity)	Any size	1 to 2% on the debt tranche, 2 to 4% on the equity tranche	2,000 to 6,000 per month

Ranges based on Hectelion's market practice in France and Switzerland, 2026, excluding tax and disbursements. The success fee is calculated on amounts actually raised through the advisor's involvement; existing shareholders who reinvest without intermediation are generally excluded.

The tiered structure follows the same logic as an M&A sale mandate: placing a 30 million round is not ten times the effort of a 3 million round, so smaller rounds sit at the top of the range and larger rounds at the bottom. The stage of the round, more than the amount alone, also shapes the investor profile targeted and therefore the advisor's workload.

In every case, the success fee sits between 1% and 5% of the amount raised: it can follow a tiered, degressive logic by bracket, as in the ranges above, or be set at a single flat rate applied to the entire amount, for example 3% or 1%, depending on the file, a choice often driven by the founder's preference for billing simplicity rather than by the amount raised itself.

Scope your fundraising budget before you commit

Thirty minutes is enough to scope the stage, the amount sought, and the fee structure suited to your project. Book a free, confidential conversation with our team: we review your file, your expected valuation, and the timeline, before you make any commitment.

Acontos: get a free online estimate of your company's value

Before going into detail, know that Hectelion has developed Acontos, an online audit, due diligence, and business valuation tool, powered by Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5 artificial intelligence and calibrated on Hectelion's methodology. From your accounts, it produces a first estimate of your shares' value within minutes, free of charge and without retaining any document.

Launch the valuation simulator to get an order of magnitude for your pre-money value, then keep reading to understand what an advised fundraising round costs, and what it covers.

What drives the fee: amount, stage, structuring, investor tension

First, the amount sought and the stage of maturity, the primary driver of the percentage, as shown in the table above. A company at the seed stage requires more persuasion work per franc or euro raised than an already profitable growth company.

Second, the complexity of the round's structuring. A round in plain ordinary shares requires less legal and financial work than a round combining preferred shares, warrants, and specific clauses in the shareholders' agreement, anti-dilution, liquidation preference, ratchets. See our dedicated financial structuring service.

Third, the quality of preparation. A recent business plan, a data room already in place, and a pre-money figure already substantiated significantly reduce the time spent on the preparation phase, the most work-intensive part of the mandate.

Fourth, the tension between investors that the advisor manages to create. A file that draws several competing term sheets negotiates better, on price as well as governance clauses, than a file handled in a bilateral negotiation with a single investor.

Fifth, the France-Switzerland dimension of the transaction. Addressing both the French and Swiss investor pools, each with its own practices and sometimes its own tax vehicles, requires coverage that few advisors genuinely provide on both sides of the border.

Finally, the advisor's standing and network. A firm with direct, documented access to the targeted funds prices differently than an intermediary who must first build its prospect list, a point worth checking before signing.

Mandate structures: five possible fee models

A fundraising advisor can structure fees according to five distinct models, each suited to a different situation:

Mandate type	Typical use	2026 observed levels
Full retainer	Scoping, valuation, and upfront structuring, without a placement mandate or any success obligation on closing	Fixed fees of 5,000 to 20,000 CHF or EUR in total, paid in installments as work progresses
Full success fee	Seed or Series A rounds on an already attractive file, with no need to fund the preparation phase	1 to 5% depending on the size of the round, tiered by bracket or a flat rate depending on the file, no fixed fee upfront
Retainer and success fee (mixed)	Reference structure for most rounds	Success fee 1 to 5%; retainer of 2,000 to 6,000 per month, creditable against the success fee at closing
Time-based (régie)	One-off structuring work, a scope still uncertain at the outset, or support without a formal placement mandate	Hourly rate of 150 to 800 CHF or EUR depending on seniority, generally capped by a projected budget
Flat monthly fee without success fee	Continuous support throughout the process, regardless of the final outcome, notably when the advisor cannot or does not wish to be paid on success	2,000 to 6,000 CHF or EUR per month depending on the needs of the engagement, regardless of the size of the round, with no other compensation tied to closing

Hectelion's market observations, France and Switzerland, 2026. Excluding tax.

The mixed retainer-and-success-fee mandate remains the most common structure: the retainer funds the preparation phase, the most time-consuming, and is credited against the success fee at closing, exactly as with an M&A sale mandate. The full retainer differs from the flat monthly fee without success fee in its logic: the former compensates time-bound structuring work paid in installments, the latter compensates continuous support throughout the process, regardless of its outcome.

Whatever structure is chosen, one variant remains available when the company's cash position is tight: reducing the cash success fee by 1 to 2 points in exchange for advisory warrants, typically representing 0.5 to 2% of post-money capital, which aligns the advisor's compensation with the company's future valuation rather than with the closing of the current round alone.

The success fee mechanics: base, tiers, and new money

The base is the most disputed clause, and the least read before signing. The success fee in principle applies to the amount actually raised from investors introduced or approached by the advisor, what is known as new money. Existing shareholders who reinvest in the same round, or an amount brought in by an investor the founder was already in discussions with before the mandate, are generally excluded, provided the engagement letter lists these exceptions by name before the process begins.

The tiered structure is most often organized in brackets, a higher percentage on the first portion of the amount raised, decreasing thereafter, mirroring the scales used in business sale mandates. When the round closes in several tranches, a first closing followed by a second one a few weeks later, the success fee is generally paid tranche by tranche, on the funds actually received by the company.

The treatment of advisory warrants deserves particular attention: their strike price, term, and treatment in the event of an exit or a subsequent round must be written into the engagement letter with the same precision as a pricing clause, or risk a dispute once they gain value. Their fair value at issuance, generally estimated using an option pricing model, follows the same discipline as our financial instrument valuation offering.

Process and timeline: from preparation to closing

An advised fundraising round unfolds in six steps, over a total duration of four to nine months depending on the stage. The scoping phase, signing the mandate, defining the amount sought, and a first documented pre-money valuation, takes two to four weeks. Next comes preparing the documentation, teaser, information memorandum, pitch deck, business plan, virtual data room, and template term sheet, the most work-intensive phase, over four to eight weeks.

Approaching targeted investors and managing confidentiality agreements then takes four to ten weeks, until the first expressions of interest are received. Receiving and negotiating the term sheet runs in parallel with due diligence carried out by prospective investors, over a further four to eight weeks. Next comes negotiating the definitive documents, shareholders' agreement and subscription documentation, before the legal closing, capital increase at a general meeting and signing of the shareholders' agreement, which is completed in two to four weeks once conditions precedent are satisfied.

A seed round is often wrapped up in four to six months, while a Series B or growth-equity round frequently exceeds eight to nine months.

Comparing providers: investment banks, boutique firms, online platforms, and direct networks

Investment banks and growth-equity desks at large networks handle large rounds, from several tens of millions upward, with sizeable teams and fee minimums that make their model poorly suited to smaller rounds. Independent fundraising boutiques, such as Hectelion, cover the core of the seed-to-Series-B market, with a valuation methodology aligned with IVSC standards and total independence from traditional financial intermediaries.

Online matchmaking platforms and investor clubs suit smaller amounts, with lower fixed fees but limited support on structuring and negotiation. Direct networks of business angels or family offices, without a paid intermediary, lighten the bill but shift the entire negotiation, from valuation to governance, onto the founder alone, a choice that exposes the company more to poorly anticipated dilution.

Hectelion acts as fundraising advisor on transactions of 2 to 500 million (CHF or EUR), in France and Switzerland, with one methodological particularity: valuation documented upfront, before approaching investors, so that negotiating both dilution and fees rests on an objectified basis.

Why Choose Hectelion for Your Fundraising

Eight concrete points set Hectelion apart from other providers:

• Founder experience: Aristide Ruot has personally founded, run, and raised funds for his own companies, and managed their cash-flow pressures; this direct experience of entrepreneurial risk, more than a theoretical reading of the file, explains why most founders choose Hectelion today.
• Calibrated pricing: the retainer is indexed to the actual size of your round, seed, Series A, or Series B, rather than the uniform scale an investment bank applies regardless of the amount sought.
• Method: the dual valuation and financial structuring expertise applied to every file is handled personally by Aristide Ruot, Ph.D., not delegated to a junior associate.
• A single point of contact: fundraising, valuation, due diligence, and financial instrument structuring stay in the hands of one team, without splitting the file across several firms.
• Investment-bank rigor: the same level of diligence on the memorandum and valuation as a large network, without its mobilization delays or its fee minimums.
• France-Switzerland footprint: native coverage of both investor pools and both legal frameworks, without local subcontracting on either side of the border.
• Independence from investors: no compensation, direct or indirect, is received from the funds approached; only the mandating founder pays for the engagement.
• Timeline set from scoping: a first order-of-magnitude valuation obtained in minutes via Acontos, then a process timeline held from scoping through to closing.

Point of caution: whenever an advisor collects part of its fees, in cash or in warrants, directly from the investors it solicits, its ability to defend the founder's valuation and terms without reservation is weakened. Hectelion bills exclusively the mandating company and receives no compensation, in any form, from the funds approached during the process.

The role of the term sheet in negotiating advisor fees

The term sheet does not only set the valuation and governance clauses of the round; it often contains an exclusivity clause, or no-shop, that bars the founder from approaching other investors for a set period once the document is signed, typically four to eight weeks.

This clause protects the prospective investor, but it also ties up the advisor's work with a single counterparty, which is why some mandates include a break fee mechanism, compensation owed to the advisor if the founder walks away from a signed term sheet without legitimate cause after the advisor has surfaced the offer.

Conversely, a term sheet renegotiated downward by the investor between signing and closing, a practice known as re-trading, exposes the advisor to a disagreement with its client over whether the mandate genuinely succeeded and whether the success fee is triggered: this point deserves to be settled explicitly in the engagement letter, before the situation arises in practice.

How to reduce the cost of your fundraising without weakening your terms

• Have a documented valuation prepared before approaching investors rather than advancing a figure defended by instinct: this avoids pre-money renegotiations that lengthen the process and weaken the founder's position.
• Scope precisely the amount sought and the target investor profile before mandating, to avoid a loosely defined mandate billed on a time basis rather than a fixed fee.
• Group the round's legal structuring work, shareholders' agreement, warrants, convertible notes, with a limited number of coordinated providers rather than multiplying parties who duplicate part of the analysis.
• Negotiate crediting the retainer against the success fee and staggering its payment by milestone, teaser distributed, term sheet signed, rather than a fixed schedule disconnected from the process's actual progress.
• When cash is tight, consider a reduced success fee supplemented with advisory warrants rather than forgoing professional support altogether, the costliest mistake over the long run in the case of poorly negotiated dilution.

Four additional levers, specific to fundraising, take this further:

1. Prepare the information memorandum and key metrics upfront, to reduce the time billed during the preparation phase.
2. Use Acontos to scope a first valuation before even signing the mandate, rather than discovering a disputed pre-money figure mid-process.
3. Target a tight list of investors genuinely relevant to the stage and sector, rather than a broad distribution that dilutes the advisor's effort without improving the odds of closing.
4. Mandate a single firm for a France-Switzerland round, rather than multiplying local intermediaries who duplicate part of the structuring work.

These levers do not reduce the rigor of the file presented to investors; they reduce the time billed to produce it.

2026 trends: market rebound, AI pressure, rising regulatory thresholds

Three dynamics shape the fundraising market in 2026. The first is the sharp rebound in amounts raised: EUR 4.58 billion in the first half of 2026 in France according to the EY venture capital barometer, after EUR 7.39 billion for the whole of 2025, and a Swiss rebound to CHF 2.95 billion in 2025 according to the Swiss Venture Capital Report. This rebound remains concentrated in a handful of AI-linked mega-rounds, which pull up market averages without reflecting the conditions of typical seed and Series A rounds.

The second dynamic is the downward pressure artificial intelligence places on time-billed components, pitch deck preparation, initial investor research, standard structuring, mirroring what is already observed on M&A sale mandates. The success fee holds up better, since it stays indexed to genuine access to the right investors and to the ability to create tension between several term sheets.

The third dynamic is regulatory: the increase of the prospectus exemption threshold from EUR 8 to 12 million starting in June 2026 widens the scope of raises that can be carried out as a private placement without a public offering document, which lowers ancillary legal costs for a growing number of Series A and B rounds, without exempting anyone from checking the regulatory status of the intermediary collecting a success fee on the securities placement.

Lead investor vs. follow-on investors: who negotiates, who pays

On a round bringing together several investors, the lead investor negotiates valuation, governance clauses, and the board seat alone, while follow-on investors generally subscribe to the terms already agreed, without renegotiating the term sheet.

This division of roles has a direct consequence on the success fee base, often poorly anticipated by founders: when a follow-on investor is brought into the round by the lead investor itself, rather than by the advisor, whether it should be included in the calculation base must be settled before the mandate is signed, exactly as for an investor already in discussions with the founder.

Conversely, an advisor who structures the syndication itself, recruiting several follow-on investors to fill out the lead investor's ticket, fully justifies applying the success fee to the round thus completed. Having the engagement letter specify whether the advisor or the lead investor is deemed to have introduced each follow-on investor avoids a frequent disagreement at closing.

The 5 mistakes that cost the most

Mistake 1: Signing a success fee without defining new money

A success fee applied to the entire round, including shareholders already on the cap table or investors already in discussion before the mandate, inflates the bill without justification. Have the excluded investors listed by name in an appendix to the engagement letter.

Mistake 2: Negotiating only cash fees while ignoring dilution

A success fee point saved rarely amounts to more than a few tens of thousands of francs or euros; a point of poorly negotiated dilution on the pre-money valuation runs into hundreds of thousands on the cap table. The real issue is a defensible pre-money figure, not the advisor's percentage.

Mistake 3: Accepting a long exclusivity period without milestones

Fundraising depends heavily on market conditions at the time: an exclusivity period of several months with no verifiable milestones, teaser distributed, first expressions of interest received, ties up the project if the advisor does not make progress.

Mistake 4: Confusing a generalist advisor with a specialist in the stage and sector

An intermediary used to selling industrial SMEs does not necessarily have the venture capital network relevant to a technology Series A round, and vice versa. Check the list of investors genuinely approached on files comparable to yours.

Mistake 5: Overlooking the advisor's regulatory status

On a transaction involving foreign investors or a broader placement, the intermediary's status, licensed or not by FINMA or the AMF depending on the jurisdiction, conditions the very validity of the compensation received. A quote that is unusually low and does not clarify this point deserves verification before signing.

Case 1: Series A round for a Swiss SaaS scale-up at CHF 6 million

Case built for illustrative purposes based on observed market practice.

Company E SA, a B2B software publisher based in French-speaking Switzerland, raises CHF 6 million in a Series A round from two venture capital funds. Pre-money valuation CHF 24 million, post-money CHF 30 million, a 20% dilution for the founders and the team already holding BSPCE warrants.

The mandate chosen is mixed retainer and success fee: a retainer of CHF 6,000 per month over six months, totaling CHF 36,000, and a success fee of 4% of the amount raised, totaling CHF 240,000. With the retainer creditable, the net amount paid at closing comes to CHF 204,000. The seven-month mandate surfaced three competing term sheets, two of them with notably different governance terms, before the final lead investor was selected.

Case 2: seed round for a French deeptech at EUR 1.2 million

Case built for illustrative purposes based on observed market practice.

Company F SAS, a medtech at the seed stage, raises EUR 1.2 million from a seed fund and two business angels. Pre-money valuation EUR 3.6 million, post-money EUR 4.8 million, 25% dilution. The company's cash position, at this stage, cannot absorb a full cash success fee within the usual 3 to 5% seed range.

The advisor agrees to a mixed structure: a preparation fee of EUR 5,000, a reduced success fee of 2% of the amount raised, totaling EUR 24,000, supplemented with advisory warrants representing 1% of post-money capital, exercisable over five years at the round's price. Immediate cash cost to the company: EUR 29,000, versus EUR 36,000 to 60,000 in full cash fees at the standard seed rate, with the balance of the compensation deferred to the company's future valuation.

A word from our founder

"The founder negotiating their first round almost always focuses on the advisor's percentage, and almost never on the success fee base or on the dilution the chosen pre-money valuation will produce. Yet that is where the real stakes lie."

"Advisory warrants are not a gift to the advisor, they are an alignment mechanism: they are only worth something if the company succeeds. I always prefer this structure to a full cash success fee on cash that is already tight at the seed stage."

"Before signing a fundraising mandate, have a documented valuation prepared. Not to fix the price, the market will do that, but to enter negotiations with a defensible figure rather than a hope."

Aristide Ruot, Ph.D.
Founder | CEO, Hectelion SA

FAQ: the 10 essential questions about fundraising advisory fees

Introduction: what to remember before the questions

Success fee of 1 to 5% depending on the file, retainer or fee of 2,000 to 6,000 (CHF or EUR) per month, sometimes supplemented with advisory warrants: the ranges are set. The following ten questions are those most often asked by founders and finance leaders in France and Switzerland.

Q1: How much does fundraising advisory cost?

Between 1 and 5% of the amount raised in success fee depending on the file, supplemented with a retainer or monthly fee of 2,000 to 6,000 (CHF or EUR) (Hectelion's 2026 practice), with the rate either tiering down by bracket or set at a single flat rate depending on the file.

Q2: Does the success fee apply to the entire round?

No, in principle. It applies to new money, meaning amounts brought in by investors introduced or approached by the advisor. Existing shareholders who reinvest, or investors already in discussion before the mandate, should be listed by name and excluded from the base.

Q3: What are advisory warrants and why do some advisors accept them?

An advisory warrant is a share subscription instrument granted to the advisor in addition to, or as a partial substitute for, its cash success fee. It aligns the advisor's compensation with the company's future success rather than with the closing of the current round alone, a structure common when post-raise cash remains tight.

Q4: Are fundraising advisor fees negotiable?

The structure is more negotiable than the percentage alone: crediting of the retainer, payment milestones, tiering thresholds, cash versus warrant split. An unusually low rate should raise questions just as much as a high one.

Q5: Who pays the advisor's fees, the company or the founders?

The company raising funds pays the mandate, out of available cash or a portion of the amount raised at closing. Founders bear the cost indirectly, through the additional dilution this charge represents on the valuation.

Q6: Is the retainer creditable against the success fee?

This is the most common and balanced practice, as with an M&A sale mandate: the retainer funds preparation and is then deducted from the success fee due at closing, so the company never pays twice for the same work.

Q7: Are fundraising advisory fees tax-deductible?

The accounting and tax treatment depends on the nature of the expense, costs tied to a capital increase versus an operating expense, and on the jurisdiction. This falls under tax advice, to be confirmed with your accountant or fiduciary before the engagement.

Q8: Does a fundraising round require the advisor to hold a FINMA or AMF license?

A round structured as a private placement to qualified investors generally falls outside the prospectus requirement, but acting professionally as a securities broker may require a license depending on the jurisdiction. Hectelion is not FINMA-licensed and does not act as a securities broker; the firm supports structuring, valuation, and negotiation, in coordination with lawyers and licensed financial intermediaries when the placement requires it.

Q9: How long does a fundraising round take and when are fees due?

From four to nine months depending on the stage. The retainer is paid as work progresses from the preparation stage, the success fee is due at closing, on funds actually received by the company, tranche by tranche if the round closes in several installments.

Q10: How do you compare two fundraising advisors beyond the percentage?

Three criteria matter more than the headline rate: who will actually work the file, what documented access to investors relevant to your stage and sector, and how honest the initial scoping is, a serious advisor will also say when a hoped-for valuation is not defensible as is.

Estimate your company's value with Acontos, Hectelion's online simulator

To take this further with a concrete figure, Hectelion offers Acontos, its online audit, due diligence, and business valuation tool. Powered by Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5 artificial intelligence and calibrated on Hectelion's methodology, it reads your accounts, normalizes EBITDA, applies real sector multiples, and reconstructs a net debt bridge to estimate the value of your shares within minutes.

Launch the valuation simulator free of charge: both dilution and your advisor's success fee are calculated on this value, so it is worth knowing the order of magnitude before signing a mandate.

Conclusion: the cost of a raise is read in the dilution, not just the advisor's percentage

The cost of an advised fundraising round is not just a success fee percentage: it is the combination of a retainer or preparation fee, a success fee of 1 to 5% depending on the file, tiered or a flat rate, sometimes supplemented with advisory warrants, and above all the dilution produced by the chosen pre-money valuation.

For a founder, comparing advisors means comparing identical success fee bases and equally defensible valuations, not just percentages, exactly as with any business valuation.

Article summary

An advised fundraising round costs between 1 and 5% of the amount raised in success fee depending on the file, seed, Series A, or Series B, tiered by bracket or a flat rate, supplemented with a retainer or monthly fee of 2,000 to 6,000 (CHF or EUR), sometimes partly replaced with advisory warrants when cash is tight. These ranges come from Hectelion's market observations in France and Switzerland, 2026.

Fees vary with the amount sought, the stage of maturity, the complexity of the round's structuring, the tension created between investors, the France-Switzerland dimension, and the advisor's actual network. The two priced cases illustrate this: CHF 240,000 in success fee on a Swiss Series A round of CHF 6 million that surfaced three term sheets, EUR 24,000 in reduced success fee supplemented with warrants on a French seed round of EUR 1.2 million with tight cash.

The success fee mechanics, new-money base, tiered brackets, retainer crediting, matter more than the headline rate. Hectelion supports fundraising rounds of 2 to 500 million (CHF or EUR) in France and Switzerland, with a documented valuation upfront to make both dilution and the fee discussion objective.

Sources

• Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), securities offerings by private placement
• Bpifrance Création, finding investors to fund your business project
• Share subscription warrants (BSA): definition, valuation, and structuring in fundraising and LBO transactions
• Swiss Confederation, Code of Obligations, Article 650, ordinary increase of share capital
• EXPERTsuisse, professional standards for accounting and valuation in Switzerland
• EY, venture capital barometer in France
• France Invest, private equity activity in France in 2025
• Startupticker.ch and SECA, Swiss Venture Capital Report

Author

Aristide Ruot, Ph.D.
Founder | CEO, Hectelion SA