Seed funding: what a seed round is, with 2026 numbers

Seed funding pays for the awkward middle stretch, the push to product-market fit: you’ve got a product a few customers love, and you need a business that sells the same way, month after month. Picture a Turin software company with 40 paying clients raising €2 million from a seed fund and a handful of angels.

We’ll follow that company through its round, euro by euro, after a look at what seed rounds actually raised in Italy, Europe and the US in 2026. If the round names are new to you, our map from zero to a first round is the place to start.

How much seed funding do startups raise in 2026?

In Italy, a few million euro. Growth Capital and Italian Tech Alliance, working from PitchBook data, counted 39 seed rounds worth €135 million in the first half of 2026. That’s about €3.5 million each, but one deal skews it: Niulinx raised a €38 million seed in the second quarter. Take it out and the average falls to about €2.6 million (our arithmetic).

A real case helps. Talentware, an HR software company founded in July 2023 and selling since June 2024, had more than 45 clients and 30 employees when it raised a €3.3 million seed in July 2026. CDP Venture Capital and 360 Capital co-led. The money goes to hiring, the platform and expansion in Europe.

PitchBook doesn’t split pre-seed from seed in its European numbers. Taken together, the median deal in the first quarter of 2026 was €2.0 million, at a €6.0 million pre-money valuation (the company’s value before the new money). American rounds run bigger. In Carta’s data, the median seed in Q1 2026 came with a $21.6 million post-money valuation, and roughly 19% of the company went to the new investors. Carta’s July benchmark, built on more than 1,000 software rounds, had the median seed raising $4.1 million (we’ve gathered more benchmarks like these in how much equity to give away at pre-seed and seed).

Then there’s time. Lawyers at Gianni & Origoni say a round with new anchor investors typically takes three to six months, so if you start meeting funds in January, you might sign somewhere between April and July.

How does a seed round work in Italy? An example in euro

Back to Turin. Say the company is an SRL with €10,000 of share capital, 85% of it held by the two founders and 15% by the angels who backed them at pre-seed. A seed fund now offers to lead €2 million at a €6 million pre-money valuation. Once the cash is in, the company’s worth €8 million post-money, and €2 million out of €8 million is a quarter: the new investors get 25%.

	Before the seed	After the seed
Founders	85%	63.75%
Pre-seed angels	15%	11.25%
Seed investors	0%	25%
Company value	€6M pre-money	€8M post-money
Nominal share capital	€10,000	€13,333.33

Look how little of the €2 million is actually share capital. To give the fund its 25%, the SRL issues €3,333.33 of new nominal capital. The other €1,996,666.67 is share premium (sovrapprezzo), booked as a reserve. The shareholders’ meeting approves the increase, and a notary writes the minutes, as Article 2480 of the Civil Code requires. Our guide to how a round closes in an Italian SRL covers each step.

Not every seed is priced, though. Many close on SAFEs, which Gianni & Origoni call ‘particularly popular for seed-stage investments’ in Italy, and the price waits for the next round. Either way, someone has to set the terms. That’s the lead investor, and here’s how to find a lead investor for your seed round.

Seed vs Series A: what changes?

The Series A is the next priced round, and the bar moves from ‘it works’ to ‘it grows on purpose’.

	Seed	Series A
What the money is for	Reaching product-market fit: a product people keep using and a way of selling it that repeats	Scaling what already works: sales team, new markets, new products
Italy, first half of 2026	39 rounds, €135M in total	16 rounds, €276M in total
Europe, median (PitchBook, Q1 2026)	€2.0M deal, €6.0M pre-money (pre-seed and seed together)	€17.0M deal, €44.2M pre-money (Series A and B together)
US, median (Carta, Q1 2026)	$21.6M post-money, about 19% sold	$63M post-money, about 18% sold
Usual instrument in Italy	Priced capital increase or SAFE	Priced capital increase with a negotiated term sheet
What investors check	Early revenue or usage, retention, a team that ships	For B2B SaaS, $2M to $5M of ARR and net revenue retention of at least 100% (CRV)
Time to the next round (US median)	Two years to Series A	2.1 years to Series B

One European figure is worth keeping in your head. Dealroom followed 3,075 European companies that raised a seed round between 2016 and 2018. Within 36 months, 27% of them had raised a Series A. Give it 48 months and the share only climbs to 31%, so four years on, most still hadn’t raised one.

What do investors expect at seed?

Traction they can check, first. Not page views or downloads: revenue, usage, how many customers are still there after three months. Our list of startup metrics investors want at pre-seed and seed goes through them one by one.

Second, a way of selling that doesn’t depend on you. The venture firm CRV writes that ‘the most common gap we see in pre Series A companies is founder-dependent sales and distribution’. If you still have to be in the room for every deal, you’re looking at exactly the gap CRV describes, so it’s better to show it in the deck yourself, along with what the new money will do about it.

Third, you’ll need a lead investor, because the others in the round wait for one of them to set the price and the terms before they commit. If you’d rather prepare with someone across the table, our Fundraising Sprint gets the deck, the numbers, an investor-fit list and the data room ready in 14 days.

Related terms

• Not there yet? Pre-seed funding is the smaller round before this one, for building the product and finding first users.
• If a seed investor asks for one thing first, it’s traction, the evidence that demand is real.
• Product-market fit, the goal all this seed money is meant to reach.
• Our startup glossary has the rest, Series A, lead investor and term sheet included.

This page is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules and market terms change: check the official source or ask a professional before you sign.