Top Seed Valuations Hit Record Highs in Q2 2026
Top Seed Valuations Hit Record Highs in Q2 2026
Author:
Peter Walker
|
Read time:
1 minute
Published date:
July 8, 2026
The 95th percentile seed valuation reached $200M in Q2 2026, up from $72.2M a year prior—the fastest climb in a decade.
Top seed valuations are rising faster than at any point in the last decade.
95th percentile seed vals in Q2 of each year:
- Q2 2017: $25.8M
- Q2 2018: $29.6M
- Q2 2019: $29.9M
- Q2 2020: $26.0M
- Q2 2021: $49.9M
- Q2 2022: $57.8M
- Q2 2023: $56.7M
- Q2 2024: $56.5M
- Q2 2025: $72.2M
- Q2 2026: $200.4M
In the frenzy from 2020 to 2021, these upper end seed valuations grew 92% in 12 months.
Over the last year, they're up 177%.
Some (a few?) of these companies will be worth the massive entry price increase.
Most will not.
No, these numbers don't adjust for inflation, but the main point is the comparison to the prior year rather than the absolute value (although in absolute terms, they're still pretty wild). And in case you're wondering, the rate of change over the past year is fastest for the 90th, 75th, and 50th percentile benchmarks as well.
Fewer companies getting funded at seemingly ridiculous valuations. What could go wrong?
Author: Peter Walker
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.