90% of founders raise the first $ for their startups using SAFEs.
Here’s are real benchmarks from 1,339 SAFE rounds raised in 2025.
Top 5 things to know:
1. Valuation caps rise as you raise more money. Kinda of a "duh" point, but underrated in my view since we talk about pre-seeds, etc as though they all raise the same amount of capital.
2. The gap between the median valuation cap and the top 10% is between 2-2.5x, generally speaking.
3. Median caps when you raised $1M hover around $10M post-money today. We'd call a raise of less than $2M a "pre-seed" and above $2M a "seed" but you're free to define those differently.
4. The major markets filter matters! Valuation caps in non-core venture states tend to be lower.
5. Some founders are fond of "tranche raising", where they raise a little money at one cap then a little more at a slightly higher cap, etc. This works if you are in high demand and can super backfire if you're not. Play carefully.
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