These days, it’s a safe bet that whenever we talk about valuations in this newsletter, it’s probably bad news. And indeed, much of the venture landscape is facing uncertainty and a challenging environment at the moment. But not every type of company has been suffering—and in fact, certain startups have seen strong valuation growth.
Seed-stage startups, those in the earliest stages in the fundraising journey, actually saw record valuation growth in 2022. Per a new report from PitchBook, median pre-money seed valuations grew nearly 17% to $10.5 million in 2022, breaking the previous yearly record and hitting the highest valuations since 2012. Meanwhile, on an annual basis, the median seed step-up valuation, meaning the increase between a company’s current valuation and its previous one, climbed to 1.9x from 1.79x. Feast your eyes on the rare up-and-to-the-right chart below:
