
Fortune recently published this ridiculous headline:
"$100M+ funding rounds used to be incredibly rare. Now, 40% of seed and Series A rounds are clearing that bar".
...um, no they aren't? Not even close?
Data below on how much is raised in seed and Series A rounds over the last year.
0.7% of seed rounds cleared $100M. A whopping 2.5% of Series A rounds hit that number.
Now maaaybe what Fortune actually meant was "40% of the money invested into these stages is flowing through rounds of $100M+". That is still not correct based on our data but it's slightly closer to reality.
No wonder founders have a skewed view of what today's market really looks like.
Massive capital raises at early stages are happening and more than they used to. But they remain a tiny percentage of the venture-backed market. Ignore the headlines 😁
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