If a VC Asks for 30 Percent at Seed Leave the Meeting

Founders - if you run into a VC demanding 30% of your company in an early-stage round, you should probably leave the Zoom 😁

Below we show the median dilution in both primary and bridge rounds across the early rounds for VC-backed companies. All data is from US companies who've raised their round since January 2023.

Splitting this into primary and bridge rounds is essential because:

• There are a lot more bridge rounds happening these days (this data is for priced bridges or extensions, but many are happening on SAFEs or convertible notes as well)

• The dilution in bridge rounds is about typically about half as much as in a new primary round - which makes sense given they are usually smaller and designed to get founders to the next major milestone

So - what's the current equity percentage sold in these fundraises?

𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱

• Primary = 20.7% sold in 2024

• Bridge = 13.2% in 2024

• Not much change but so many companies are now raising multiple seed rounds as breaking through to Series A is becoming more difficult.

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔

• Primary = 20.0%

• Bridge = 10%

• Nice round figures!

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗕

• Primary = 15.9%

• Bridge = 8.1%

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗖

• Primary = 12.9%

• Bridge 4.8%

Obviously you won't do a bridge round at each stage - and you may skip rounds altogether. There's no one way to make it through to a billion dollar valuation!

Share with a founder whose out fundraising right now 🙏

#cartadata #fundraising #dilution #startups #founders