Pre-seed founders: use our data map to guide your SAFE fundraise.
Pre-seed, for the purposes of this post, means "companies raising less than $1 million on SAFEs who have not raised any priced equity".
Is that a perfect definition? ...yes, it is, thanks for asking 😇
But even if you disagree, it's important to segment the SAFE market right now since so many founders are raising major SAFE rounds. Seed on SAFEs is common, heck some of these rounds would have been Series A-level 3 years ago.
So back to the pre-seed. Quick breakdown of terms not in the chart:
80% of pre-seed fundraising happens on SAFEs
80% of that is post-money SAFEs (the YC default has become everyone's default)
90% come with a valuation cap of some kind, about 40% also have a discount
Some lucky/skilled negotiators get uncapped, un-discounted, just MFN (most-favored-nation) SAFEs. But very few.
To the bubble data:
1. Median post-money valuation cap is currently $7M 2. If you're raising less than $250K, median cap is $4M. Raising $500K? It's $6M. 3. Median raise is $191K (remember, only rounds under $1M included here)
Industry tidbits:
Growing interest in cybersecurity (high median vals and more of these pre-seed rounds than the prior 6 months).
Still 17 pre-seed raises for Web3! Perhaps we are no far enough away from the hype cycle that hope can spring eternal.
If you combine the fundraising for Healthtech, Biotech, and Medical Devices, the broad "Health" category took in 138 rounds over this timeframe, second to only General SaaS.
You can see various industries defaulting to median valuation caps from $5M through $8M. The step up has more to do with investor appetite in my view than any real forecasting about eventual return.
Lots of founders will get this initial capital in, build/grow, and then return to the SAFE pool to raise a "seed" in 12 months or so. Those median valuation caps are more like $13M-$14M (more on that in future posts).
Please share with your favorite new founder (or angel investor) - and if you want to create, issue, and fund SAFEs in under 10 clicks, it's completely free on Carta. We even eliminate wire fees if your investors use our platform to transfer funds.
Have a SAFE and happy pre-seed round!
#cartadata #SAFEs #valuationcap #preseed #founders #startups
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