The State of Seed 2025: Benchmarks for the new era of building

The rules of startup growth are starting to shift. Early-stage companies are running on leaner teams and longer fundraising timelines, while the  gap between median and top-tier valuations continues to widen—especially in the AI sector.

After our friends at a16z speedrun asked us for trends on today’s seed stage market, the Carta insights team analyzed thousands of startups raising now to give you the data you need to fundraise with confidence.

Download our free State of Seed report for:

  • Equity and dilution benchmarks in pre-seed and seed

  • The AI premium in company valuations and equity packages

  • Fundraising realities—why 92% of pre-seed rounds now use SAFEs

  • Sector and geography breakdowns

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