Ask HN: What's the typical range of equity a VC will request for seed funding?

7 pointsashamedlion2 comments

I'm just curious, for seed money, how much equity do VCs usually ask for? I know YCombinator is 2-10%, but is this typical in the industry?

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20-30% fully diluted is typical if you are taking money from a VC in a seed or A round. There are always exceptions (i.e. you are a "hot" company). In fact, a lot of VCs care less about valuations and are more focused on their percentage ownership after the financing.

Fully diluted means after they carve out an option pool from your pre-money. Venture Hacks has a great post about the Option Pool Shuffle that you should read if you're not familiar with it.

VCs generally look for a 10x return on investment and will take whatever percentage of equity they think will get them that return.

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