Market benchmarks
What companies are actually being valued at
Median pre-money valuations, round sizes, the AI premium, and exit conditions for the US venture market. Every figure below is transcribed from a labelled chart in the cited report, with its page number.
Benchmark
Median pre-money valuation, by series
The single most useful reference point for a founder pricing a round. Note how sharply the later stages have moved, and that the report does not publish a labelled seed figure, so we do not show one.
| Series | 2025 | 2026 YTD | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | Not published | Not published | n/a |
| Series A | $48.5M | $64M | +32% |
| Series B | $141.5M | $188.3M | +33% |
| Series C | $296M | $546M | +84% |
| Series D+ | $850M | $2.03B | +139% |
On the missing seed figure: the report plots seed on this chart but does not label a value for it. Rather than read a number off a pixel position, we leave it out. The median seed round size is published and appears in the next table.
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.10 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Benchmark
Median round size, by series
How much is actually being raised at each stage. Seed round sizes have edged down year over year even as later-stage rounds have grown sharply. This is the barbell the market keeps describing.
| Series | 2025 | 2026 YTD | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $3.5M | $3M | -14% |
| Series A | $14M | $19.4M | +39% |
| Series B | $30M | $40M | +33% |
| Series C | $50M | $74M | +48% |
| Series D+ | $100M | $150M | +50% |
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.10 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Benchmark
The AI premium is roughly 2×
Across every series the report breaks out, AI companies price at close to double their non-AI counterparts. This is the single largest distortion in the current market, and the reason a blended median can badly mislead.
| Series | AI | Non-AI | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series A | $83M | $44M | 1.9× |
| Series B | $267M | $134M | 2.0× |
| Series C | $648M | $397.6M | 1.6× |
| Series D+ | $4.25B | $644M | 6.6× |
Read this carefully before applying it. The premium attaches to companies genuinely building AI, not to those using it. Adding an AI feature to an existing product does not move a company from the right-hand column to the left.
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.14 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Benchmark
Where the money went
Headline totals conceal an extremely concentrated market. Both figures below are true at once, and the second is the one that matters if you are not raising a megaround.
$412.7B
Deal value, H1 2026
Already exceeds the 2025 full-year figure of $319.2B by nearly 30%.
9,646
Estimated deal count, H1 2026
Against 16,348 deals for full-year 2025.
86%
Share of H1 2026 deal value going to AI companies
$355.9B of the $412.7B deployed.
87.5%
Share of deal value from rounds of $100M or more
Rounds under $100M drew $51.4B. their share of value fell from 43.8% in 2024 to 33.1% in 2025 to 12.5% in 2026.
$51.4B
Deal value in rounds under $100M, H1 2026
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.8 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Benchmark
Exit conditions
2026 is a record year for exit value and an unremarkable one for exit count. If you are planning an exit, that gap is the whole story: value is concentrated in a handful of outcomes.
$2,187.6B
Exit value, H1 2026
A record, but highly concentrated. 2025 full-year exit value was $284.1B.
874
Estimated exit count, H1 2026
Against 1,578 exits for full-year 2025. Value is up sharply while count is not.
$1,828.8B
Q2 2026 exit value
SpaceX's $1.7T IPO alone generated more value than all exits in the previous decade combined.
$375.4B
Acquisition value, 2026 YTD
A decade high. Acquisitions, not listings, are the realistic exit for the overwhelming majority of companies.
$1,766.3B
Q2 2026 exit value via IPO
Of Q2's $1,828.8B total exit value, $1,766.3B came through public listing, almost all of it one company.
Landmark transactions
| Transaction | Type | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| SpaceX / xAILargest acquisition of a VC-backed company ever recorded. | acquisition | $250B | Q1 2026 |
| SpaceX / CursorSecond-largest acquisition of a VC-backed company. | all-stock acquisition | $60B | Q2 2026 |
| SpaceXRaised $75B; market capitalisation surged above $2T in early trading. | IPO | $1,700B | Q2 2026 |
| CerebrasCancelled a 2025 listing, then priced 5x higher than the year prior. | IPO | $34.3B | H1 2026 |
Worth remembering: Of the 10 largest US tech IPOs excluding Cerebras and SpaceX, just three posted positive performance in their first year.
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.29 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Benchmark
Who actually has money to deploy
Fund formation is a leading indicator: the capital raised by funds today is what gets invested over the next two to three years. Watch the median and the average move in opposite directions.
$72.4B
Capital raised by VC funds, H1 2026
Just below the full-year 2025 total of $74.9B, but across far fewer funds.
405
Funds closed, H1 2026
Against 907 for full-year 2025 and 1,817 at the 2022 peak. Fund formation is contracting sharply.
$10.8M
Median VC fund size, 2026
Down from $15.8M in 2025. The typical fund is getting smaller.
$188.1M
Average VC fund size, 2026
A record high, up from $98.1M in 2025. Median down while average up is concentration in one number.
$49.5B
Raised by funds of $1B or more, H1 2026
Across 16 vehicles, already well above the $27.5B those funds raised across 13 vehicles in all of 2025.
48.1%
Share of all H1 2026 VC raised by three firms
Andreessen Horowitz ($14.2B across seven funds), Thrive Capital ($10B across two) and Founders Fund ($10.6B across two) took $34.8B between them.
What this means if you are raising: Fewer, larger funds concentrated in a handful of established managers. For a founder that means less capital available at the small end, and it is a leading indicator: fund formation today sets how much capital exists to deploy in two to three years.
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.31 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Benchmark
The paper-value overhang
Unicorn creation has not slowed, but paper marks are not distributions. This gap is why late-stage investors are pressing for liquidity and why some companies are taking exits below their last round.
945
Active unicorns
+9.4%
Change since year-end 2025
$5.3T
Aggregate post-money value
Active unicorn count reached a record 945 in Q2 2026, up 9.4% from year-end 2025, with aggregate post-money value of $5.3 trillion. Paper value, not realised distributions.
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.30 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Benchmark
The largest private companies, and their odds of listing
Estimated valuations and modelled IPO probabilities for the top private companies. Useful as the ceiling reference when someone tells you a comparable is worth a certain multiple.
| Company | Est. Valuation | Last post-money | 1-yr IPO | 3-yr IPO | VC raised |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AnthropicIPOSan Francisco | $1,014.2B | $965B | 76.9% | 84.9% | $124.3B |
| OpenAIIPOSan Francisco | $905.2B | $852B | 89.2% | 93.3% | $181.9B |
| StripeSouth San Francisco | $168.9B | $159B | 44.5% | 87.3% | $8.7B |
| DatabricksSan Francisco | $146.9B | $134B | 5% | 39.3% | $22.4B |
| WaymoMountain View | $138.5B | $126B | 3.6% | 26.8% | $27.1B |
| Anduril IndustriesCosta Mesa | $63.9B | $61B | 3.6% | 18.5% | $11.9B |
| RippleSan Francisco | $46.3B | $40B | 8.3% | 40% | $0.8B |
| RampNew York | $45.2B | $44B | 5.9% | 36.1% | $3.5B |
| CognitionSan Francisco | $27B | $26B | 5.7% | 26.5% | $1.7B |
| RipplingSan Francisco | $21.6B | $16.8B | 14.6% | 75.2% | $1.9B |
| ClickHouseSan Francisco | $17.2B | $15B | 2.4% | 26% | $1B |
| DevotedWaltham | $14.5B | $13B | 6.7% | 22.9% | $2.7B |
| Shield AISan Diego | $13.9B | $12.7B | 6.8% | 33.8% | $2.8B |
| NotionSan Francisco | $12.1B | $11B | 4.1% | 19.5% | $0.3B |
| PolymarketNew York | $10.7B | $15B | 6.6% | 37.7% | $1.9B |
PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026, p.5 · As of June 30, 2026 · Source PDF
Methodology
How this page is built, and what we refuse to do
One source. Every figure comes from the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, published quarterly by PitchBook Data, Inc. And the National Venture Capital Association and available free and unauthenticated. We do not blend sources, because blended figures cannot be checked.
Transcribed, not scraped. The report's numbers live in chart data labels. We read the chart pages and transcribe the labelled values, recording the page number alongside each one so you can verify any figure yourself.
No estimates. If the report plots a series without labelling it, we render "Not published". We never read a value off a pixel position, and we never interpolate.
The same data drives the tool. These figures are passed to the valuation engine as anchors, so the number the tool gives you and the benchmarks on this page cannot contradict each other.
Scope. United States, venture-backed companies. Medians, not averages, because averages in this market are distorted beyond usefulness by a handful of megarounds.
Refresh. Updated each quarter when a new edition is published. Q3 2026 edition, expected October 2026.
These are market-wide medians for venture-backed companies. They are a reference point, not a valuation of your business. A company's own revenue, growth, margins and defensibility move it far from any median. Run the tool for a figure specific to yours.
Considering a transaction?
Whether you are years out or fielding inbound interest, a sell-side advisor at FIH.com can tell you what a real process would look like for a company like yours.
Confidential
Your details are never shared, listed, or published.
Success-basis
No retainer and no fee unless a transaction closes.
A person, not a form
A sell-side advisor replies within one business day.
Want an answer this week instead?
$495Book a 60-minute session with a senior advisor: what the company is worth, who would buy it, and what to fix first. Credited in full against our fee if you engage us.
Book an advisory session