Authors: Michael Grantmyre and Ryan Unruch
Valuation and investment intelligence: preferred share financings
Valuation for financings, by year
This graph illustrates the breakdown of valuation direction for financings included in the Deal Points Report, categorized as up rounds, down rounds and flat rounds. In 2025, a healthier valuation environment prevailed as compared to the more difficult market through 2023 and 2024. The proportion of up rounds increased to 76.3% (from 73.4% in 2024), while down rounds declined to 11.3% — approaching 2022 levels (7.1%) and down from their peak in 2023 (26.1%). This shift toward a higher proportion of up rounds reflects continued strength in Canadian venture valuations. The U.S. saw a similar pattern, with down rounds representing approximately 13% to 15% of the market (returning to 2022 levels), alongside an increase in flat rounds (to ~13%).
At the industry level, AI companies experienced up rounds at nearly double the rate of any other sector, while representing only 11.1% of down rounds — further underscoring that AI companies in 2025 were operating in a fundamentally different valuation environment than VC-backed companies in other industries. Investors in 2025 were willing to pay a premium for AI, while other sectors faced greater scrutiny. Another outlier was consumer/retail, which represented only 4.9% of the up rounds, but a disproportionate 22.2% of down rounds. Fintech showed a similar pattern, accounting for 16.4% of the up rounds versus 22.2% of the down rounds, reflecting ongoing challenges from higher interest rates and tighter credit conditions.
Flat rounds have become a more established feature of the market, holding steady at approximately 12% since 2024. Before 2023, flat rounds were significantly less common, suggesting a structural shift toward valuation stability rather than downward resets. Cleantech companies accounted for 30% of all flat rounds, three times their share of up rounds — an indication that investors are maintaining positions without marking up valuations.
Analysis of the data based on financing stage revealed a recovery trend in later-stage financings, where both Series C and Series D financings saw a surge in the percentage of up rounds compared to 2024 levels (increasing by 45.5% and 57.3% respectively), as later stage valuations began to normalize. Despite this, Series D and beyond financings still had the highest incidence of down rounds (23.1%). Early-stage financings showed a different pattern: while there were no down rounds in Series Seed, 26.7% of Series Seed rounds were flat, indicating a recalibration at entry valuations. Series B emerged as the primary pressure point in 2025, where companies that may have raised at higher valuations at the peak of the market in 2021–2022 are now facing valuation corrections in 2025, resulting in the highest increase in down rounds of any series (up 67% compared to the 2024 levels; representing 16.7% of Series B financings).
*chart shows 2025 data only
Total investment amount, by series (in millions of USD)
This chart illustrates the total investment amount in U.S. dollars (including initial closings and follow-on investments for the same transaction), broken down by series, for financings completed from 2021 to 2025. Consistent with data reported by the CVCA, late-stage financings (i.e., Series C and beyond) accounted for approximately 74.9% of dollars invested in 2025 (yet only 17.1% of rounds).
The total investment amount for 2025 covered by the Deal Points Report was US$4.5 billion, the highest annual investment amount of any year covered by the report. In 2025, 74.1% of all capital was concentrated in two sectors — AI (US$2.4 billion; representing more than half of all dollars raised) and fintech (US$0.9 billion), and 74.9% of all capital was invested in late-stage deals (Series C — US$1.4 billion and Series D — US$1.9 billion). The increase in investment in AI companies between 2024 and 2025 (US$1.4 billion, a 45.7% increase) exceeded the total capital raised by any other sector, further demonstrating that AI companies are raising larger rounds at higher valuations and operating in a fundamentally different environment.
Average and median investment amount, by series (in millions of USD), by year
As illustrated below, in 2025, the average investment amount by series was: Seed (US$3.1 million), Series A (US$12.9 million), Series B (US$23.0 million), Series C (US$140.4 million) and Series D and beyond (US$140.1 million). The most notable dynamic in 2025 is at Series C, where the large gap between the average round size (US$140 million) and the median (US$52.4 million) shows that a small number of outlier mega-rounds are driving the total dollars raised. This is consistent with the AI concentration; a handful of AI companies at the Series C stage pulled up the average, while the median reflects more typical growth-stage raises. Combined with the earlier finding that in 2025, 80% of all Series C rounds were up rounds, Series C was a key inflection point for both founders and investors in 2025 — with investors deploying larger amounts of capital per round, on more favourable terms.
As illustrated below, median investment amounts in 2025 ranged from US$2.4 million at Seed through US$10.1 million (Series A) and US$15.0 million (Series B) to US$52.4 million at Series C, with Series D and beyond at US$38.5 million. The gap between average and median investment amounts indicates that a small number of later-stage companies are raising outsized rounds relative to their peers.
As a point of comparison, Carta reports median cash raised by companies at each stage of financing. The Canadian medians are lower than their U.S. counterparts reported by Carta for all rounds other than Series C, where the median investment amounts reported by Carta were Seed (US$4.5 million), Series A (US$13.5 million), Series B (US$24.5 million), Series C (US$42.6 million) and Series D (US$50 million). Comparing Canadian data to U.S. medians reveals that early-stage deal sizes have largely converged between the two markets. At Seed, Canadian rounds remain modestly smaller at approximately 70% of U.S. median levels; however, by Series A and B, Canadian levels reach near parity with U.S. medians, suggesting that growth-stage companies north of the border are raising rounds that are competitive with their American counterparts.
The picture shifts at later stages. In 2025, Canadian average deal sizes at Series C and D and beyond exceeded U.S. medians, but the underlying data tell a more nuanced story. At Series C, even Canadian medians (US$52.4 million) surpass U.S. medians (US$42.6 million), highlighting that in 2025 a handful of later-stage marquee raises, including Waabi’s record-breaking US$750 million Series C financing, moved the averages up materially for later-stage financings.
Average and median pre-money valuation, by series (in USD)
For 2025, the chart below shows both the average and median pre-money valuations across financing stages for companies included in the Deal Points Report dataset. The most striking feature is the significant gap between the average and median Series C valuations in 2025. The average increased sharply to US$1.25 billion (up ~713% from 2024), while the median increased to US$286 million (up ~185%). This divergence is explained by a small number of outlier Series C mega-deals dramatically skewing the average.
Average and median post-money valuations, by series (in USD)
This chart shows both the average and median post-money valuations for those companies covered by the Deal Points Report that raised a financing round in 2025. As a point of comparison, Carta reports on the U.S. median post-money valuation at each stage of financing. Other than Series B and Series C financings, U.S. median post-money valuations reported by Carta were higher than post-money valuations for financings covered by the Deal Points Report.
When reviewing the post-money valuation data on an industry level, AI companies continued to command premium valuations across all financing rounds in 2025, reflecting the strong investor appetite for AI-focused opportunities. This premium was particularly pronounced at later stages (i.e., Series C and beyond), where median AI valuations significantly exceeded the broader market (with median AI post-money valuations at Series C at 3.3x those of information technology companies, and 3.6x at Series D and beyond).
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This chart illustrates both the average and median dilution incurred by those companies covered by the Deal Points Report that closed a financing round in 2025, with a comparison to available data from Carta on median dilution incurred by companies in U.S. financings.
As indicated in prior charts on valuation, 2025 saw mixed results regarding pre-money valuations compared to 2024, with average and median values by series increasing in some cases and decreasing in others. Despite this, as indicated below, 2025 saw a reduction in dilution at each stage of financing. Delving further into the data, the trend that emerges is that dilution went down at each series of financing that saw a reduction in pre-money valuation mainly on account of companies at this stage raising less capital, particularly in the case of Seed, Series B, and Series D and beyond financings, where average investment amounts generally decreased. In other instances, like Series A and Series C, dilution fell on account of companies raising capital at much larger valuations in 2025, relative to dollars invested.
Reviewing the data on an industry level, aside from Series C, AI companies experienced lower median dilution at each round as compared to the median for all other industries. In earlier-stage financings (Seed/Series A), health/life sciences companies incurred the highest median dilution, at approximately 3%–5% above the median for all other industries.
