Raising money
Pre-seed and seed round
A seed round is usually the first sizeable outside money a startup raises to find a repeatable way to win customers; a pre-seed round is the smaller money before it, often to build and test the first version.
Also called seed funding, seed stage, pre-seed funding, pre seed vs seed
Looking this up for a class, a job, or something you want to build? If it is the last one, nommi reads your idea before you spend months on it.
The labels are conventions, not legal categories, and investors draw the line between them differently. Both are often raised on a SAFE or a convertible note, and some seed rounds are priced rounds, where investors buy shares at an agreed price. Either way, you give up part of the company in exchange for the money.
This is not legal or tax advice, check with a lawyer or accountant.
At a glance
| Pre-seed | Seed | |
|---|---|---|
| What the money usually pays for | Building and testing a first version | Turning early demand into a repeatable way to win customers |
| How it is often raised | A SAFE or a convertible note | The same, or shares at an agreed price |
What recent Carta data says
On Carta, the median US seed round in the first nine months of 2025 was 4 million US dollars.
- Median US seed round, 2025 (January to September): 4.0 million US dollars. Source: Carta, State of Seed, Winter 2025.
- Median seed post-money valuation, 2025 (January to September): 20 million US dollars. Source: Carta, State of Seed, Winter 2025.
Companies and rounds on Carta, not the whole market. As of 5 November 2026.
When this shows up
Example, not a real founder: one investor calls your raise pre-seed and another calls it seed. You spend a week rewriting your deck around the label, when both were asking the same thing: what this money will prove.
What to do next
Write down what the money must prove before it runs out, and the date you will know. Use that, not the label, when you talk to investors.
Questions founders ask
What does a pre-seed round mean? The smaller outside money a startup raises before a seed round. It can come from angel investors, small funds or people who know the founders, and it usually pays to build and test a first version. The amounts and names vary by investor and market.