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Benchmark · Q3 2026
Contributor count and 6-week growth rate are the second-strongest fundraise-precursor signal after commit velocity. A hiring burst (3+ new organizational committers in a 14-day window) frequently precedes a round announcement.
TL;DR
Real benchmark data from ~400 venture-backed startups across 20 sectors. Refreshed weekly every Monday. Data from Q3 2026. Free under CC BY 4.0.
| Sector | Median contributors | Top quartile |
|---|---|---|
| Space Tech | 37 | 58 |
| Data Infrastructure | 29 | 50 |
| Healthcare | 25 | 55 |
| Robotics | 25 | 82 |
| EdTech | 22 | 59 |
| Social & Community | 22 | 55 |
| E-commerce Infrastructure | 21 | 55 |
| Web3 | 21 | 100 |
| Enterprise SaaS | 16 | 50 |
| HR Tech | 16 | 47 |
| AgTech | 13 | 49 |
| PropTech | 12 | 35 |
| Gaming | 12 | 31 |
| Supply Chain | 11 | 24 |
| Legal Tech | 6 | 8 |
Sorted by Median contributors. Data from Q3 2026. Source: public GitHub data, CC BY 4.0.
A distinct GitHub user who has committed to any public repository in the startup's organization within the current tracking period.
A hiring burst signal fires when 3 or more new organizational committers (with @company.com emails) appear in a 14-day window — distinct from external drive-by contributors.
Our SSRN research found that startups showing sustained contributor growth above the sector median for 6+ weeks are 3.2× more likely to announce a round within 90 days.
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