Pre-seed startup fundraising. Q1 2023. Let's dig in.
Points to know about this data before jumping to the chart:
1. Only looks at Carta companies raising on post-money SAFEs (some companies at this stage use pre-money SAFEs, some use convertible notes, they aren't shown)
2. Only U.S. startups.
3. Industry had to have at least 10 companies raise in Q1 in order to be visualized.
4. Climate tech and AI are not "industries" per se and are not visualized. But they are not forgotten! More on them soon.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄
The median pre-seed startup is raising about $680,000 these days.
The median valuation cap is $10M. But the average cap has declined about 15% or so - meaning there are fewer massive pre-seed financings.
Still some enthusiasm for Web3 startups in terms of cash raised and valuation caps, though only 14 companies.
About 32% of companies in this sample set have raised more than 1 SAFE "round" (denoted by raising on SAFEs of different valuation caps).
Are pre-seed SAFE financings of over $1 million actually seed rounds? Some say yes! Some say the threshold should be $2 million. To keep things simple, we only consider the first priced equity round to be "seed", but not dogmatic about it.
If this data sparks more questions, join us in 1 hour for a virtual event all about SAFEs, Convertible Notes, and hiring your first employees.
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#cartadata #pre-seed #angelinvesting #startups #fundraising #founders #SAFEs
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