landscape

There is no question that 2023 was a tough year for the venture and tech ecosystem. Seed valuations have remained steady through 2022 and 2023, yet achieving the necessary traction for these rounds has become more challenging, which can create misaligned expectations for founders. In 2020–2021, it was relatively common for $3 million to $5 million seed rounds to get done with very little, if any, traction, and they were typically getting done at $12 million to $25 million valuations, depending on the space and the founders’ background. The bar is much higher to raise an institutional seed round, and a founder/company often needs to prove a lot more in today’s market than they used to. This dynamic means that many founders have to first raise a pre-seed round to get to those milestones and therefore raise multiple rounds to get to a Series A.