Pre-seed, seed and Series A valuations 2026
Updated 2026-10-27
A European pre-seed or seed round in 2026 is typically priced at about €5 million before the money comes in, and sells around a quarter of the company. US rounds at the same stage are priced three to four times higher. This page collects the latest medians by stage and the factors that move a valuation, so you can sanity-check a term sheet or set your own price. All figures are dated; we update the page after each quarterly report.
Median valuations by stage
| Stage | Europe | US | Share sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed | ~$3.3M pre | $12M pre | ~18% |
| Seed | €4.8M pre, €2M round | $24.3M post, $4.1M round | 18–25% |
| Series A | ~$28M pre, $9M round | $80M post, $14.4M round | ~18% |
Sources and notes: Europe pre-seed from Equidam (H1 2026). Europe seed from PitchBook, which reports pre-seed and seed together (H1 2026); European seed rounds sell about 25%, US ones 18%. US pre-seed from PitchBook (2026); US seed and Series A from Carta (H1 2026). Europe Series A is an estimate from thinner data (ValueAdd VC, 2026).
Medians hide a wide spread. In the US, the 95th-percentile seed valuation reached $200 million in Q2 2026, up from $72 million a year earlier (Carta). A handful of AI labs raised seed rounds of $1 billion or more, which says nothing about a typical software company.
What changed in 2026
- European early-stage prices slipped. The pre-seed and seed median fell 4.7% in the first half of 2026 to €4.8 million, after €6.0 million in Q1. It was the only stage where European valuations fell, even as rounds got larger (PitchBook European VC Valuations, Q2 2026).
- US pre-seed tripled. The median US pre-seed pre-money rose from $4 million in 2020 to $12 million in 2026 (PitchBook). Investors now court founders before a company exists.
- Experience pays. In Europe, repeat founders raised a median €4.3 million at €17.2 million post-money, against €2.5 million at €9.4 million for first-time founders (PitchBook, 2026).
- Big funds moved earlier. Multistage funds took a record 38.9% of US Series A deal value in 2026, which pushes the price of the strongest Series A rounds up (PitchBook).
What moves your valuation
- Revenue and growth. Seed rounds close at anything from zero to $3.6 million of annual revenue in the US, so revenue alone does not set the price. It sets the bar for the next round: the median US SaaS company had $2.8 million of annual revenue at Series A in 2025 (Carta). In Europe, investors usually look for about €30k of monthly revenue at seed and about €2 million a year at Series A.
- The team. Repeat founders and founders from strong technical teams raise more at higher prices, as the numbers above show.
- AI. Estimates of the AI premium at seed range from almost nothing to over 40% (PitchBook-NVCA, CB Insights). At Series A it is clearer, at 30–38% (Carta).
- Competition for the round. Two term sheets move the price more than any metric. With one interested investor, expect the median or below.
- Geography of the lead. A US lead investing in a European company usually prices closer to US levels.
To turn your own revenue and growth into a suggested round, use the burn rate calculator, which proposes a round size and valuation from European medians. The dilution calculator shows what a round does to your ownership, including SAFEs and the option pool.
From seed to Series A
Fewer seed companies reach Series A than before. Among US companies that raised a seed round of $1 million or more, over 55% raised a Series A through 2020. For the 2023 cohort it was 24%, and for 2024 about 16% so far, though these younger cohorts still have time (Carta). The median gap between seed and Series A is 1.9 years.
Two practical consequences:
- Raise for at least two years of runway. With 1.9 years as the median gap, an 18-month seed round leaves little room for a slow quarter.
- Price the seed so that a Series A can step up. A seed round priced far above its revenue needs a large jump before the next round. Down rounds are rare at early stages, but flat rounds and extensions are not.
Sources
PitchBook European VC Valuations reports (Q1 and Q2 2026); PitchBook US pre-seed data (October 2026); PitchBook analyst note on multistage funds in early-stage VC (September 2026); Carta data on 1,133 US software rounds (H1 2026), Series A revenue (2025), graduation rates and time between rounds; Equidam valuation data (H1 2026); ValueAdd VC on European Series A pricing; CB Insights and PitchBook-NVCA on the AI premium. Some figures come from summaries of these reports in industry newsletters.
Raising pre-seed or seed in Europe?
AVA Ventures invests $100k–500k in pre-seed and seed software companies in Europe, usually from about €5k to €100k of monthly revenue. We reply to every deck within two days.