Supersize Me: Seed Round Edition 🍟

Seed rounds appear aptly named. Where Series A & B rounds are more firmly planted in reality, and IPOs are the ultimate harvest, seeds are just ideas waiting to be planted (built) and fertilized (funded). These days, while the market correction delays IPOs and valuations get reconsidered, seed rounds are getting supersized.

Already in 2022, 90 seed fundings have surpassed the $10MM mark in capital raised, compared to 64 in all of 2020. Even with the high risk that comes with a seed-stage round (remember, 90% of early-stage startups fail), investment at every level in recent years has been way up, with investors competing aggressively to get in early to promising young startups.
 

Yuga Labs has raised the largest seed round of 2022 at $450MM. Yuga is the NFT group behind Bored Ape Yacht Club. Binance, a crypto exchange based out of San Francisco, raised $200MM at a $4.7BN valuation earlier this month.

It’s not all crypto-craziness, however. Chestnut is a carbon offset startup. The company raised $200MM at a $600MM valuation in March. Collectibles trading platform Collectors raised $100MM last month, inspiring more people to break out those garage boxes of baseball cards. Chicago-based Avaneer Health raised $50MM at the top of the year for its solution to fragmented health records and security.

For more super-sized seed rounds, check out our funding search and filter for 'seed.'