# VC Check Size by Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A

> Average VC check and median round size at pre-seed, seed and Series A in 2024 in the US, Singapore, Germany and Australia, from Crunchbase and Carta data.

*Originally published in [MondayVC Newsletter](/vc/mondayvc), [Edition 4](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-invest-pre-seed-seed-series-alex-samson-he1oc), May 6, 2024, on LinkedIn. Figures are as of 2024.*

**Key numbers:** in 2024 the average VC check in the US was about $200K at pre-seed, $800K at seed and $2.7M at Series A. Singapore and Australia were lower ($80–90K, $600–700K and $1.6–1.7M); Germany matched the US at seed and Series A and led at pre-seed with $430K.

**Update:** Read my next article to understand how check sizes vary between lead and follow investors in a round: [Lead & Follow Investors: Share and Check Sizes](/vc/lead-follow-investors).

VC check size is crucial for determining an investment strategy, whether for an angel, syndicate, or fund.

The target number of deals multiplied by the check size gives the target capital to raise. Alternatively, the target capital divided by the check size estimates the number of deals and operational requirements.

Emerging VCs focus primarily on pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages. These stages vary depending on the startup ecosystem, so I researched the United States as the market leader, Singapore as a representative of Southeast Asia, Australia as my neighbor with a US-like startup culture, and Germany as a representative of Europe.

## Average VC Check Size by Stage and Country

![Table of average VC check size in 2024. Pre-seed: United States $200,000, Singapore $80,000, Germany $430,000, Australia $90,000. Seed: $800,000, $600,000, $800,000, $700,000. Series A: $2,700,000, $1,700,000, $2,700,000, $1,600,000](https://saalse.com/_astro/average-check-size-2024.pgrJ0J24_2rRby3.webp)

*Average VC check size at pre-seed, seed and Series A in 2024. Data source: Crunchbase.*

To calculate average checks, I found the median round size per stage in each location and divided it by the average number of investors, which also varies by stage and location.

Given the known incompleteness of Crunchbase deal data, I assume that the list of investors per deal might be higher than in reality—let's say twice as high—making the average check less than half.

Numbers can grow year by year following bullish market trends and inflation indexation. They can also become less, making VC more accessible due to the [growth in angel investors](/vc/angels-syndicates).

## Median VC Round Size by Stage and Country

![Table of median VC round size in 2024. Pre-seed: United States $400,000, Singapore $150,000, Germany $1,250,000, Australia $150,000. Seed: $3,000,000, $3,000,000, $3,300,000, $2,000,000. Series A: $13,000,000, $6,300,000, $12,500,000, $5,500,000](https://saalse.com/_astro/median-round-size-2024.BEBzVsyU_ZPG4VG.webp)

*Median VC round size at pre-seed, seed and Series A in 2024. Data source: Crunchbase.*

I expected the US VC market to just show numbers 2–3 times bigger, but in fact, they are all different, raising many questions. My hypotheses:

- **Pre-seed rounds** in Singapore and Australia are $150K, predictably less than in the US, but surprisingly, Germany shows an unbelievably high round size of $1.25M for pre-seed. If this isn’t due to bad data, it could mean that German pre-seed startups prefer bootstrapping or non-public friends/family/angels, and only go for public deals when the idea requires much capital from the start.
- **Seed rounds** are around $2–3.3M across the board, which I think can be attributed to US rounds being organically higher, but for other locations, it means that seed startups are much more mature and require accordingly more capital, which equals round sizes comparable to the US market. As non-US VC funds usually have less capital, it suggests that such deals are more mature proportionally to the percentage of capital.
- **In Series A,** Germany shows that seed stage could be much longer in market validation before it raises Series A, which also requires more capital for a longer period, like Series B or C in the US. Series A rounds in Singapore and Australia are quite moderate, which might be related to smaller market sizes and competition, requiring less capital in the scaling phase.

I used data from [Startup Round Sizes Got Bigger at Most Stages in Q1 Report](https://carta.com/blog/round-sizes-q1-2024/), April 2024, Carta and [State of Pre-Seed: Q1 2024 Report](https://carta.com/blog/state-of-pre-seed-q1-2024/), April 2024, Carta for the US. Then, I obtained the same metrics from Crunchbase for the period from January 1 to May 5, 2024, which gave different numbers for pre-seed and Series A, but matched for the seed stage. For other locations, only Crunchbase data was used.

## Average Number of Investors per Round

![Table of the average number of investors in VC rounds in 2024. Pre-seed: United States 2.1, Singapore 1.9, Germany 2.9, Australia 1.7. Seed: 4.0, 4.6, 4.1, 2.7. Series A: 5.0, 3.7, 4.7, 3.5](https://saalse.com/_astro/investors-per-round-2024.959q_YW3_Z1ccAyH.webp)

*Average number of investors in pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds in 2024. Data source: Crunchbase.*

Given the incompleteness of Crunchbase deal data, I assume that the number of investors per round should be higher, so I used the average indicator rather than the median. However, even with the average, the actual number could be 1.5–2 times more. Let's look at this in comparison:

- The number of investors in **pre-seed rounds** is the same everywhere except Germany, which aligns with the much higher pre-seed round size there.
- In **seed** and **Series A rounds**, the number of investors reflects the round sizes for each location.

Looking at the number of investors in each deal reminds me of the importance of [building VC partnerships](/vc/vc-partnership).

## Conclusion

Focusing on pre-seed deals in emerging VC ecosystems, especially in fast-growing economies, can provide much more exposure by deploying international or US-based capital, but the startup market size could be a limitation.

*Previous in MondayVC Newsletter: [Edition 3, Angels & Syndicates](/vc/angels-syndicates).*

*Next in MondayVC Newsletter: [Edition 5, Lead & Follow Investors](/vc/lead-follow-investors).*