Trying to raise pre-seed funding for your startup? Our data can help.
I've mapped 21 startup industries by median cash raised in a pre-seed fundraise (y-axis) and median valuation caps for the SAFEs (x-axis). Bigger bubble = more companies. Covers H1 2023.
US companies, min of 10 companies in an industry raising on Carta, post-money SAFEs only.
Note that only fundraises up to $1 million USD are included so we can stay focused on those true pre-seed founders.
And yes - B2B SaaS is a business model / industry / something and should be further divided. Working on it!
So what can we learn from this data?
1. Angel / pre-seed investors are funding the most companies in B2B SaaS (many with an AI flavor), Healthtech, and Fintech. But strong showings for Marketplaces, Data Analytics, and Biotech as well.
2. Certain industries, like Logistics and Medical Devices, seem to require higher cash raises even at this early stage, while sectors like Edtech receive comparatively smaller rounds.
3. Valuation caps for these nascent startups clearly cluster around a few points. The median was $8 million, but there are a number of industries that default to $10M (Transportation, Fintech, Renewables, etc). Good illustration that valuation cap is somewhat arbitrary at times.
4. This doesn't represent all pre-seed! There are many companies who raise on other kinds of SAFEs as well as Convertible Notes. Will try to build graphics for those companies soon.
5. Median check size in this range was $25,000. Lots and lots of checks for $5K and $10K - don't spurn those small investors :)
Going to be wrapping up everything we know about the pre-seed in a Pre-Seed Data Report very soon. If you'd like it hand-delivered to your preferred email inbox, sign up at the link in graphic!
#cartadata #pre-seed #startups #SAFEs #fundraising #valuationcap
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