PitchBook Analyst Note: Introducing the Pre-Seed Dataset

Introducing pre-seed to PitchBook datasets

Global pre-seed dealmaking has grown rapidly over the past decade. However, there is a lack of consensus on how pre-seed is interpreted among investors, despite the term's popular use. In “Introducing the Pre-Seed Dataset,” we define this stage as “a collection of startups with a shared set of characteristics associated with a very early development stage”—whether they are young startups getting their first check from a VC investor or companies raising a round considered as "pre-seed" by the founder and investor.

To better capture pre-seed deals, we have launched a dataset methodology that incorporates company age and current backing status while factoring in market variances across different geographical locations to allow investors to more thoroughly evaluate pre-seed investment opportunities.