How much annual revenue do you need to raise a seed round?
The answer is, of course, $0 Or $220,000 Or $3.6 million
Turns out there is no perfect revenue number to raise any round. Rounds will be completed for companies with 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗹𝘆 different revenues at time of raise.
Very cool data from our friends at Silicon Valley Bank in their State of Markets Report, H1 2026.
As always, comparison is the thief of joy.
Other Points
- Looks like a solid percentage of seed rounds are going to companies with marginal or no revenue. Almost certainly connected AI founders.
- However many companies would want to go from a median seed number to a top quartile Series A number. Which is...a lot. The "point of acceleration" is earlier than ever for many AI-native companies which makes catching up a greater challenge round over round.
- The methodology says US tech companies on this particular chart so I'm not sure if it excludes industries where revenue is not expected like Biotech. That could change the findings.
- The data is from raises in 2024 and 2025. I'm sure the pace has increased in 2026.
- We often read about companies that have revenues above, and sometimes way above, the 90th percentiles in this chart. Why do we read so much about them? Because they are significant outliers and outliers garner more attention.
But they are not the market.
Happy fundraising, my friends. Shouts to SVB for the report, will link in the comments.
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