Seed-stage startups: what the stage means and who raised a seed round recently

What makes a startup seed stage, how seed differs from pre-seed and Series A, and the seed-stage startups that announced a round in the last 90 days, with every amount linked to its source, by industry and accelerator.

A seed-stage startup is a company that has raised, or is raising, its first priced or institutional round: the money meant to take it from a product and early users to the traction a Series A investor expects. On September 29, 2026, Recent Funding listed 1163 seed-stage companies and 433 at pre-seed, and for 340 of the seed companies the latest round has an amount linked to its source.

Pre-seed, seed and Series A

• Pre-seed is the first money in, often from the founders, angels or an accelerator, sometimes before there is a product.
• Seed funds the first real version of the business: hiring the first team, finding product-market fit, and early revenue. It is usually led by a seed fund or an angel syndicate, and increasingly by larger funds too.
• Series A comes once there is repeatable traction, and is priced on it.

The labels are not strict. Seed rounds in 2026 range from well under a million dollars to rounds larger than many Series As, so Recent Funding records the stage the announcement uses rather than inferring it from the amount.

Seed rounds announced in the last 90 days

These are the seed-stage startups whose latest round was announced since July 1, 2026, newest first. 83 have a linked amount. Each amount links to the announcement it came from.

For the largest seed rounds of the year, see the largest seed and pre-seed rounds. Very large seed amounts are worth checking at the source before quoting: an announcement sometimes gives a total raised across rounds, or a valuation, where a round size would be expected.

What seed-stage startups are building

By industry, across all seed-stage companies on Recent Funding:

And the seed rounds with an amount, by industry:

Seed-stage startups from accelerators

Many seed-stage companies came through an accelerator first. This counts the seed-stage companies on Recent Funding by program:

Seed vs pre-seed at a glance

Get this data

• The Recent Funding app filters every company by stage: choose SEED under STAGE.
• The API returns them directly: /api/v1/companies?stage=seed, and seed rounds with /api/v1/rounds?stage=seed. See the API docs.
• Founders lists the founders of seed-stage companies alongside everyone else, searchable by company.