Venture capital news headlines these days are dominated by stories of size: capital concentration into the highest-growth companies, surging valuations, seed rounds totaling tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, and megafunds raising tens of billions in new capital.
Smaller funds and more modest seed rounds are seemingly out of favor.
Seed trends bifurcate
Crunchbase’s U.S. seed funding numbers confirm that perception.
Deal counts and amounts are down roughly 20% year over year for the pre-seed and regular seed funding range bands that include deals of $200,000 to under $5 million. (As always, that proportion will improve a bit over time as smaller seed rounds are added to Crunchbase.)
The mid-tier band, from $5 million to under $10 million, was on par year over year.
Among U.S. seed funding deals, it’s only the upper bands of larger and outlier seed rounds — those $10 million and above — that grew in 2025, Crunchbase data shows.
It’s a bifurcated market, according to Katie Stanton, founder of seed fund Moxxie Ventures. “You’re either an AI elite team that is growing really fast and you’re going to raise a ton of capital at Series A from one of the big firms — or you’re everybody else,” she said.
In reaction to the market changing, her fund has shifted its strategy, saving a greater proportion — 60% to 70% for primary capital — compared to 50% in prior funds. “We would rather have more shots on goal,” she said.
The second shift has been to find founders even earlier, often not even waiting for product-market fit.
Seed deal counts
The majority of seed-stage deal counts still occur for rounds $5 million and under. But that percentage has trended down over time, from 93% in 2018 to 75% of deals in 2025.
Meanwhile, larger and outlier seed rounds of $10 million and above have climbed from 2% to 9% over that time. That means roughly 1 in 10 seed deals over $200,000 in 2025 were in deals $10 million and over, numbering around 360.
Seed amounts
U.S. seed funding totaled $19.4 billion in 2025, per Crunchbase data.
Large deals drove that increase — 51% in seed deals $10 million and over, compared to a third in 2024. The largest seed round in 2025 was $2 billion for Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab.
Between 2018 and 2025, seed rounds of $200,000 to $5 million fell, from 70% of all seed funding amounts to 26%.
At the same time, seed rounds of $5 million and above have gained ground since 2021, and remained elevated in contrast to 2020 and earlier.
In 2025, the biggest jump in amounts were the outlier seed rounds — those deals $50 million and above — which increased more than 300%. Even those larger seed rounds of $10 million to $50 million gained 20%.
Seed reshaped
Crunchbase data shows seed funding has by no means stalled.
Instead, AI is reshaping seed investment, with multistage venture and mid-tier funds backing hot companies earlier and at higher values due to founder pedigree or company traction.
As a result, larger seed rounds increased in 2025 with more than 20 outlier deals of $50 million-plus and over 300 in the $10 million to $50 million range.
Seed fund managers are shifting strategies based on a changing funding market.
“It has never been so easy to build a product, and it’s never been so hard to build a business,” said Stanton.
A small seed round can lead to the next breakthrough company. “There’s still a need for the smaller companies to emerge, and the smaller VCs to emerge to serve those different constituencies,” she said.
Related Crunchbase queries:
Related reading:
Illustration: Dom Guzman
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the
Crunchbase Daily.
