Real Startup Dilution Per Round From 17000 Primary Rounds

Real dilution by venture round - data from 17,000 primary rounds since 2020.

The primary round note is important, as there are lots of bridge rounds, extensions, and all sorts of creative financing going on.

But in the standard venture alphabet round, here's how much founders are selling to investors:

𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱

• 20.6% median in 2023

• Nudging down from 2020, but flat from 2022

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔

• 20.1% median in 2023

• Consistently notched downward over the past 4 years

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗕

• 17.6% median in 2023

• Bumped up from 17.1% in 2022

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗖

• 13.4% median in 2023

• Essentially flat from 2022

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗗

• 11.5% median in 2023

• Sizable rise from the 10.4% median in 2022

If you're looking for how much founders are selling through SAFEs and Convertible Notes, we covered that yesterday in a separate graphic. You can add in ~18% for a major SAFE round (over $2M) and 8-10% for a more minor SAFE round.

So - that's a lot of pie being handed out! Not to mention the employee option pool, which starts around 10% and grows to 20% or so by the time a Series D is in play.

Important to note that no company really takes the median dilution in every round. Each fundraising journey is peculiar - founders may sell 30% in a Series A, 5% in a Series B, and everywhere in between. No "right" way to do this.

But these benchmarks make the dead equity point very salient. If you've gone through a founder divorce at seed-stage, and that person left with 15-20% of the company fully vested, it makes the future slices of pie difficult for venture funds to get excited about.

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