♞ The Reality Check on Round Sizes

Forget the headlines. What does the market actually look like right now?

If you scroll through TechCrunch or Twitter, you might think every founder is walking out of their first investor meeting with $10M+ in seed money. Unless you’re a former AI engineer at OpenAI/Meta/Google or other recognized individual in that field, that’s not reality. What you should be asking is: what can you realistically expect to raise at each stage, and how do you prepare for it?

Here’s where the market stands:

Seed - On average you should expect $3.5M, about 25% of these rounds are over $5M so realistically that should be your cap! If you’re aiming for $5M+ here, you’re setting yourself up for frustration.

Series A - These rounds range from $10M-$20M but on average come in at $11M. If you see companies raising $50M+ at this stage they are pretty much on the path to being a unicorn. At this stage you need to have traction and scalability, those are the keys that investors are looking for!

Series B - These rounds range from $10M-$60M (average of $20M) it’s really a crazy round to raise given that Series B can look very different for companies depending on industry and trajectory. This is really where you need to nail down your story from now till exit, are you going to go for a “measured growth” story where you will continue to scale or are you “shooting for the stars” and trying to get to $1B+ valuation as soon as possible.

Series C - This round gets “skipped” by most of the “shooting for the stars” companies, who either make it or fail after Series B. On average, you are going to raise $35M here, but $50M+ rounds are common. If you’ve made it here, the question becomes: do you need to keep raising, or can you sustain growth with less dilution?

What does this mean for you?

• Run your race. Chasing outlier headlines can create stress and lead to poor strategy.

• If you’re raising a small seed (or pre-seed), consider SAFEs instead of priced equity. They’re faster and cheaper — but stacking too many can make your Series A messy.

• Remember that fundraising isn’t a scoreboard. Some companies only ever need a seed round. Others will need massive cash infusions every couple of years. Both can build enduring businesses.

Are you looking to grow your business? Here is how I can help:

📱 Book a Strategy Call to get 1:1 feedback on your pitch, pitch deck and/or fundraising strategy. (If you need general startup advice, then reply to this email, and I’ll let you know if/how I can help.)

Onwards and Upwards,

Liam Gill