2025 Seed Fundraising Market AI and Semiconductors Lead

2025 Seed Fundraising Market AI and Semiconductors Lead

Author

Peter Walker

|

Read time: 

1 minute

Published date: 

January 30, 2026

From 1,263 seed rounds: AI software commands higher valuations, semiconductors are the hottest sector at seed, with lots of clustering around median valuations.

LinkedIn: 2025 Seed Fundraising Market AI and Semiconductors Lead

Founders - here's your market for seed stage fundraising.

  • Data: 1,263 seed rounds raised last year by US startups on Carta

  • Includes priced rounds (primary only, no bridges)

  • Includes SAFE rounds that raised between $2M-$6M total

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀

1) AI software gets higher vals and higher round sizes (...surprise!)

2) Semiconductors are the hottest startup type at seed

3) Lots of clustering around the median. Most seed deals for software companies are kinda fungible

4) Deep tech (Hardware, Bio, Transport, etc) tends to have slightly higher round sizes and slightly lower valuations but it's not consistent

5) The bubbles float along an invisible line which is...20% dilution. That's still the expectation for many startups at seed.

Data for the people 🙏

Peter Walker
Author: Peter Walker
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.

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