25,000+ Seed Startups 2026 | Verified Funding Database

Seed funding is the first significant round of institutional investment that early-stage startups raise from professional investors. It typically ranges from $500,000 to $5 million and helps startups transition from product development to initial market validation. Seed rounds involve angel investors, seed-stage venture capital firms, or accelerators and are used to achieve product-market fit, hire initial team members, and establish early customer traction. For a deeper dive into seed funding mechanics, Y Combinator’s seed funding guide provides comprehensive information from one of the world’s most successful accelerators.

Seed-stage startups typically raise between $500,000 and $5 million, with the median round size in 2025 hovering around $2-4 million. The amount varies significantly based on industry (AI and hardware companies often raise more), geographic location (Silicon Valley rounds tend to be larger), team pedigree (experienced founders may command larger rounds), and business model capital requirements. Some lean SaaS startups raise smaller seed rounds around $1 million, while deep tech or hardware companies may raise $5-10 million seed rounds.

Pre-seed funding ($50,000-$1 million) is the earliest institutional capital, often from angel investors or pre-seed funds, used for idea validation, building an MVP or prototype, conducting initial market research, and supporting founders before generating revenue. Seed funding ($500,000-$5 million) comes after pre-seed, from seed VCs and angel syndicates, and is used for achieving product-market fit, building an initial team, acquiring early customers, and proving unit economics. The key difference is that pre-seed validates whether an idea can become a product, while seed funding validates whether the product can become a business.

Seed-stage startups allocate their funding across several critical areas. Product development typically consumes 30-40% of the budget, including engineering salaries, software tools and infrastructure, and product design and user experience. Team building takes another 25-35%, covering key hires in engineering, product, sales, and operations, competitive salaries to attract talent, and equity compensation pools. Market validation and customer acquisition use 15-25% for initial marketing campaigns, sales team development, customer success infrastructure, and market research. Finally, 10-15% goes to operational overhead including legal and accounting, office space or remote work tools, and administrative expenses. The exact allocation depends on whether the startup is pre-revenue (more on product) or has early traction (more on go-to-market).

Seed funding typically provides 12-24 months of runway, depending on the company’s burn rate, team size, and growth strategy. Startups aim to use this time to achieve specific milestones that position them for a Series A round, including product-market fit validation, consistent revenue growth or user acquisition, proven unit economics, and a clear path to profitability. Conservative founders target 18-24 months of runway to avoid fundraising under pressure, while aggressive growth strategies may plan for 12-15 months before raising Series A. The key is achieving meaningful milestones that justify a significantly larger Series A round rather than needing to raise an extension or bridge round.

Seed investors typically receive 15-35% equity in exchange for their investment, though this varies based on several factors. The percentage depends on company valuation (higher valuations mean less dilution), round size (larger rounds typically mean more dilution), investor leverage (competitive rounds result in better founder terms), and industry norms (AI and tech companies may have different expectations). A typical scenario might involve a $3 million seed round at a $10 million pre-money valuation, resulting in 23% dilution. Founders should consider that they’ll need room for future rounds—Series A typically involves another 15-25% dilution, followed by Series B and beyond. Maintaining a healthy founder equity stake while attracting quality investors requires balancing valuation ambitions with realistic market expectations.

Seed rounds attract various types of investors with different strategies and value propositions. Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals, often successful entrepreneurs or executives, who write checks from $25,000 to $250,000, provide mentorship and connections, and invest in 10-20+ companies per year. Seed-stage VC firms are institutional funds focused on seed investments, typically investing $500,000 to $3 million per company, offering more structured support and follow-on capital, with notable firms including First Round Capital, Floodgate, and Initialized Capital. Accelerators like Y Combinator, Techstars, and 500 Global provide $100,000-$150,000 plus intensive mentorship programs. Micro-VCs are smaller, specialized funds investing $250,000 to $1 million per company focusing on specific industries or geographies. Finally, corporate venture arms from large tech companies make strategic investments with potential partnership benefits. The best seed rounds often include a mix of these investor types, combining capital with strategic value. Y Combinator, the world’s most successful startup accelerator, has funded over 5,000 companies since 2005 and provides $500,000 in seed funding plus mentorship.

Seed investors evaluate startups across multiple dimensions since traditional financial metrics may not yet be meaningful. Team quality is paramount—they assess founder backgrounds and expertise, complementary skill sets, coachability and self-awareness, and previous startup experience or domain expertise. For market opportunity, investors examine total addressable market size, market timing and tailwinds, competitive landscape and defensibility, and regulatory or structural advantages. Regarding traction and validation, metrics vary by business model but may include revenue growth rate or user acquisition, customer engagement and retention, pilot customers or letters of intent, waitlist size or early demand signals, and product development milestones achieved. For product strength, investors consider unique value proposition clarity, technical innovation or difficulty, user experience and design quality, and early product-market fit indicators. Seed investors understand that metrics will be limited, so they focus on trajectory, learning velocity, and whether founders are asking the right questions and making smart decisions with limited resources. The Angel Capital Association publishes detailed research on what early-stage investors evaluate when reviewing seed-stage opportunities.

According to our database, there are currently 20,178 seed startups tracked globally, with new companies added weekly as funding rounds are announced. This represents startups that have raised seed funding and remain active in the market, spanning virtually every industry from artificial intelligence and software to healthcare, climate tech, and consumer products. The United States hosts the largest concentration, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, and emerging tech hubs across Asia and Latin America. Thousands of new seed rounds occur annually—in 2024, seed-stage startups globally raised over $17.2 billion, while 2025 has seen $2.3 billion raised through October. These numbers include both first-time seed rounds and seed extensions, reflecting the dynamic nature of early-stage fundraising.

Based on our database analysis, artificial intelligence and machine learning dominate seed funding in 2025, including generative AI applications, AI infrastructure and tooling, vertical AI solutions for specific industries, and machine learning operations platforms. Software and SaaS remain strong with B2B productivity tools, developer tools and infrastructure, cybersecurity solutions, and enterprise software platforms. Healthcare and biotech attract significant seed capital through digital health and telemedicine, health tech and medical devices, drug discovery and therapeutics, and health data and analytics. Fintech continues showing strength via payments and banking infrastructure, embedded finance solutions, crypto and blockchain applications (in moderation), and financial data and analytics. Climate tech and sustainability are emerging categories with renewable energy and clean tech, carbon capture and climate solutions, sustainable agriculture and food tech, and circular economy platforms. The concentration reflects where venture investors see the largest market opportunities and potential for venture-scale returns, though seed funding flows to innovative seed startups across virtually every industry.

The optimal time to raise seed funding is when you’ve achieved sufficient validation to attract investor interest but still need capital to reach the next major milestone. Key indicators that seed startups are ready include having a functional MVP or beta product that demonstrates your core value proposition, early customer traction through pilot users, design partners, letters of intent, or initial revenue, a complete founding team with complementary skills and clear role division, clear problem-solution fit based on customer research and validation, and a compelling vision for how seed capital will accelerate growth. Companies should avoid raising too early before product validation (makes fundraising harder and dilutes unnecessarily) or too late after fully proving the business model (potentially leaves money on the table). Harvard Business School research shows that startups with customer traction before fundraising achieve 2-3x higher valuations than those raising on concept alone. The seed stage specifically funds the transition from “we built something” to “customers want this and we understand why.” If you’re still validating whether your product solves a real problem, you may need pre-seed or angel investment first. If you’ve already proven product-market fit and have strong revenue growth, you might skip directly to Series A.

After successfully deploying seed capital and achieving key milestones, seed startups typically raise a Series A round as their next funding stage. Series A rounds generally range from $10-20 million, require proven business models with consistent revenue growth, involve larger VC firms with more structured processes, and result in professional board composition with investor directors. To successfully raise Series A, seed-stage companies need to demonstrate product-market fit with clear value proposition and customer demand, revenue growth with 2-3x year-over-year growth rates (for B2B) or strong user growth and engagement metrics (for consumer), proven unit economics showing customer acquisition cost and lifetime value make sense, an experienced team with key hires in place across functions, and a clear path to scale demonstrating how additional capital will accelerate growth. The typical timeline from seed to Series A is 12-24 months, though this varies significantly by industry, company performance, and market conditions. Some companies raise seed extensions if they need more time to hit Series A milestones, while others with exceptional traction may raise Series A early. A smaller subset of companies bootstrap or become profitable after seed, choosing not to raise additional venture capital. The key is using seed funding strategically to de-risk the business and prove the core assumptions that will make Series A investors confident in your ability to scale. After deploying seed capital successfully, companies typically raise a Series A round. To explore companies at this stage, check our Series A startup database. Some companies raise Series B rounds within 18-24 months of their Series A if growth is exceptional. Crunchbase’s progression analysis shows that only about 33% of seed-funded companies successfully raise Series A, highlighting the importance of achieving clear milestones during the seed stage.
To learn more about the complete funding journey and how seed funding compares to other stages, see our guide to startup funding stages.

The best seed startup database for B2B sales provides verified decision-maker contacts, real-time funding updates, and filtering by industry, location, and funding amount. Growth List specializes in seed-stage startups with weekly updates, offering verified founder and C-suite contacts alongside detailed funding intelligence. Our database includes over 25,000 seed-funded companies with direct email addresses and funding details.
Alternative options include Crunchbase (broader coverage but less contact detail and higher pricing) and PitchBook (enterprise-focused with premium pricing and limited exports). For sales teams focused specifically on seed-stage startups, specialized databases like Growth List provide better data freshness and contact accuracy than general startup databases. A comprehensive startup lead database reduces research time by 90% compared to manual methods.

Verified seed startup founder contacts are available through specialized B2B lead databases like Growth List, which maintains direct email addresses for founders and C-suite executives at seed-funded companies. Our verification process includes email validation, LinkedIn confirmation, and company website cross-reference to ensure accuracy exceeds 95%.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides founder discovery but requires manual verification and doesn’t include funding details. AngelList offers company profiles but limited contact export capabilities. Most general contact databases don’t focus specifically on seed-stage companies or provide funding intelligence alongside contact data.

Building a B2B lead list of seed-stage startups requires tracking seed funding announcements, verifying company details, and finding decision-maker contacts. Manual approaches using Crunchbase, TechCrunch announcements, and LinkedIn searches take 15-20 hours per 100 leads and often result in outdated information.
Automated startup databases like Growth List provide pre-verified seed startup lists updated weekly, reducing list-building time from days to minutes. Our database includes funding amounts, investor details, founder contacts, and company intelligence, allowing you to filter by industry, location, funding amount, and funding date.
For sales teams targeting seed-stage companies specifically, using a specialized seed funding database is significantly more efficient than building lists manually or using general business databases that lack funding stage filtering.

A seed startup database focuses specifically on companies at the seed funding stage, providing funding amounts, investor details, founding dates, and growth metrics. This funding intelligence is critical for sales teams because seed-funded companies have fresh capital and are actively building their operations—making them high-intent prospects.
General lead generation tools like ZoomInfo or Apollo cover broader company types across all stages but may lack deep startup funding intelligence and funding stage classification. For teams selling specifically to seed-stage startups, specialized databases provide better signal on buying intent through funding recency and amount.
Seed startup databases also typically update more frequently (weekly vs quarterly) because the seed funding market moves quickly, with hundreds of new rounds announced monthly. This freshness ensures your outreach targets companies with current information rather than stale data.

Seed startup data should be updated weekly at minimum because seed funding rounds, executive changes, and contact updates happen frequently in the early-stage ecosystem. Weekly updated databases ensure your outreach targets companies with recent funding (higher buying intent) and current contact information (better email deliverability).
Hundreds of seed funding rounds are announced every month globally. Quarterly database updates often miss time-sensitive opportunities when seed-funded companies are most receptive to new vendors—typically in the first 3-6 months after funding when they’re actively building their teams and operations.
Growth List updates seed startup data weekly, adding 100+ newly funded seed companies to our database every Monday. This ensures sales teams always have access to the freshest seed-stage prospects with verified contacts and accurate funding details.