Less Than 10 Percent of Seed Rounds Sell 30 Percent or More

Founders - if investors are asking for 30% in your seed round, point them to this chart.

Less than 10% of software seed rounds raised in 2025 have sold 30% or more.

Data covers 5,118 primary priced rounds raised by US startups on Carta. And that "primary" piece is important - this excludes a lot of little bridge / extension financings.

Here's what the market is today:

𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱

• Median is 19.5% sold in this round

• Under 10% is more common than over 30%

• Doesn't include the conversions from SAFE financings (of which there are many)

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔

• Median is 18% sold in this round

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗕

• Median is 15% sold in this round

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗖

• Median is 10% sold in this round

So - why is there this clear trend of reduced dilution over time, even within the same round?

Some ideas:

1. At least in 2025, the valuations for AI-native companies have risen even faster than the amounts they raise. Higher val pace vs round size and you've got less % sold.

2. Some alignment nationwide. Definitely still the case that deals done in Dallas are different than those in Silicon Valley — but the general trend is towards alignment on standards.

3. Bad deal terms taking the place of headline dilution? Not really, at least not in early stages. Seed or Series A deals with bad liq prefs, participating preferred, etc are being chased out of the market (and good riddance).

Now, is this your only term sheet & do you absolutely need the cash? Then take the deal. Don't let an intense focus on dilution kill your company.

But "this is market" just doesn't cut it as a reason these days 😁

Caveat: hard tech businesses like biotech, hardware, etc see higher dilution per round still. But even that is coming down a bit. Biotech founders should expect 23-25% dilution on median in the early stages.

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