A seed round is a startup's first substantial round of outside investment. It is raised to turn a working product into early traction and to reach signs of product-market fit, typically following pre-seed capital and preceding a Series A. It's the round where the company transitions from "we're building something" to "we're building something people want," and where the bar for the next round (Series A) gets established.
The 2025 benchmarks (Carta and PitchBook):
| Metric | 2025 typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Round size | $2.5M-$5M | Hot AI/deep-tech can be $6M-$10M |
| Post-money valuation | $20M-$30M (median ~$24M) | All-time high in 2025; up from ~$18M in 2024 |
| Pre-money valuation | $18M-$25M | Subject to pool refresh placement |
| Founder dilution | ...