Average seed round size by year
Published 2 November 2026
The average seed round in 2026 so far is $6.29 million. The median is $2.31 million. In 2024 the two numbers were $3.09 million and $1.64 million. So the typical seed round grew by about 40% in two years, and the average doubled.
The gap between the two is the story of 2026. Crunchbase records 38 seed rounds of $100 million or more this year, against 6 in all of 2025 and 5 in 2024. Those 38 rounds add up to $8.25 billion, 24% of all seed money in 2026. Leave them out and the 2026 average is $4.79 million.
Seed round size by year
Seed rounds with a disclosed amount, grouped by the year of the round. Source: FundingWatcher, November 2026.
| Year | Rounds | Average | Median | 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,008 | $0.84M | $0.32M | $0.97M |
| 2016 | 1,776 | $0.88M | $0.38M | $1.00M |
| 2017 | 1,859 | $1.13M | $0.48M | $1.17M |
| 2018 | 1,979 | $1.19M | $0.50M | $1.46M |
| 2019 | 1,873 | $1.45M | $0.66M | $1.65M |
| 2020 | 2,150 | $1.60M | $0.76M | $2.00M |
| 2021 | 3,608 | $2.42M | $1.40M | $3.00M |
| 2022 | 6,365 | $2.80M | $1.50M | $3.51M |
| 2023 | 5,291 | $2.76M | $1.40M | $3.26M |
| 2024 | 5,351 | $3.09M | $1.64M | $3.90M |
| 2025 | 6,039 | $3.93M | $2.00M | $4.54M |
| 2026 to Oct 26 | 5,398 | $6.29M | $2.31M | $5.50M |
The jump from 2020 to 2021 is the biggest in the table: the median nearly doubled, from $0.76 million to $1.40 million, and then stayed flat for three years. 2023 was the only year the median went down.
Seed rounds of $10 million or more
| Year | Rounds of $10M+ | Share of rounds | Rounds of $100M+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 26 | 1.2% | 0 |
| 2021 | 102 | 2.8% | 3 |
| 2022 | 271 | 4.3% | 5 |
| 2023 | 227 | 4.3% | 4 |
| 2024 | 262 | 4.9% | 5 |
| 2025 | 459 | 7.6% | 6 |
| 2026 to Oct 26 | 744 | 13.8% | 38 |
One seed round in seven in 2026 was $10 million or more. Two were over $1 billion: Ineffable Intelligence in London raised $1.1 billion in April, and Advanced Machine Intelligence in France raised $1.03 billion in March.
We expected the $100 million seed rounds to be mostly American AI labs. 13 of the 38 are in the United States. 17 are in China, and 9 of those build robots or fusion reactors: Bulage at $220 million, Nova Fusion at $179 million, Xingyuanzhi Robotics and Futuring Robot at $148 million each.
AI seed rounds
In 2026 the median seed round for a company Crunchbase files under artificial intelligence is $3.4 million, across 1,932 rounds. For the other 3,466 rounds it is $2.0 million. In 2021 the two medians were $1.6 million and $1.39 million.
How we counted
The data is our November 2, 2026 export of Crunchbase: 166,747 companies whose most recent round is a named stage. For each company it holds the latest round only, with its type, date and amount in US dollars. A seed round here is a round Crunchbase types as seed; pre-seed and angel rounds are left out. 2,117 seed rounds dated 2026 have no disclosed amount and are not in the averages.
Because each company appears with its latest round, a company that raised a seed round in 2017 and a Series A in 2019 counts under Series A, not under 2017 seed. Companies that raised again tend to be the ones with bigger seed rounds, so the older rows in the table run low. The rows for 2024 to 2026 are the closest to complete, since few of those companies have raised again yet.
Download: seed rounds by year, seed rounds of $100M+ in 2025 and 2026.