Pre-seed, Seed, Seed Bridge, Series A, B, C, D, E... What even is this!?

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Ever looked at a startup funding announcement and wondered what the hell Pre-Seed or Series E means? The alphabet soup of venture capital can be a little… mysterious. So let’s demystify it. From the messy beginnings of a napkin idea all the way to near-IPO territory, here’s our guide to venture backed startup funding lifecycles. Let’s go:

Pre-Seed: The “We have an idea (sort of)” phase

This is the very beginning and usually a company's first institutional funding after raising from friends and family and angel investors. Oftentimes the startup might not even have a product yet, just a problem they’re obsessed with solving and a pitch deck. The money raised here is used to build a prototype, test initial hypotheses, and ideally, get some early customers.

• Money raised: €500K - €2M

• Valuation range: €2M - €5M

• Instrument used: SAFE

• Target milestone: Get something live and in the hands of customers, ideally paying.

Seed: The “Prove people want it” round

Now there’s a product, maybe even a few users. The Seed round is all about validation. Does the product work? Do the unit economics work? Will users come back? Is there real traction with enterprise customers? This is where most early-stage VCs enter the picture, even though many will tell you they do Pre-Seed too. They don’t.

• Money raised: €1M - €5M

• Valuation range: €5M - €15M

• Instrument used: Usually equity, sometimes SAFE

• Target milestone: Prove product-market fit is possible (even if it’s not nailed yet).

Seed Bridge (or Pre-Series A): The “Almost there, but not quite” money

Sometimes a company doesn’t hit all its milestones in time for a Series A. So they raise a “bridge” to buy more time. Think of it as a runway extension. It can be viewed as a red flag, but many great companies raise bridge rounds, it’s a brutal world out there, especially right now.

• Money raised: €1M - €3M

• Valuation range: €5M - €15M

• Instrument used: SAFE

• Target milestone: Show traction is real and scalable.

Series A: The “Let’s scale this thing” round

At this point, the company has clear signs of product-market fit. Now it’s time to pour some fuel on the fire. That means hiring, marketing, and getting serious about growth. More specialised VCs start writing bigger cheques, and expect sharp growth curves in return. Unlike Pre-Seed and Seed, securing Series A funding is based more on actual financial performance over storytelling.

• Money raised: €5M - €15M

• Valuation range: €15M - €50M

• Instrument used: Equity

• Target milestone: Prove unit economics and find scalable growth channels.

Series B–E: The “Grow or die” phase

Each subsequent round is about bigger scale, deeper market penetration, international expansion, or even prepping for IPO or acquisition. The further up the alphabet, the more mature (and expensive) the company becomes. But the stakes also rise, every round you raise needs to show a 3–5x valuation jump to keep everyone happy.

• Series B raise: €10M - €25M at €40M - €100M valuation

• Series C-E raise: €25M+ with €100M+ valuations

• Milestones: Explosive revenue growth, profitability (or a clear path to it), market leadership.

Whether you’re investing via Shuttle or just curious, knowing the stages helps you understand the risks, returns, and signals of startup progress. Pre-seed? Maximum risk, but maximum upside. Series E? Much safer bet, but almost all of the upside has already been priced in.

Startups don’t move in straight lines. They loop, stall, leap, and sometimes crash. But behind every funding round is a story of growth, grit, pain and ambition. Understanding these stages helps you back companies at the right time, with the right expectations.

And now, when someone drops “We’re raising a Seed Bridge,” you’ll know exactly what that means (and whether to run away… or double down 😉).

What we’ve been working on at Shuttle

• Finalising our investment pipeline for Drop no.3 🤩

• Updates to Shuttle account dashboards based on customer feedback 🏗️

• Started laying the groundwork for our UK FCA application process 📑

• Interviewing candidates for our Head of Compliance role 🛡️

• Spent more time than we’d like communicating with regulators 😅 (That Head of Compliance can’t come quick enough!)

The Unsophisticated Investor is brought to you by Scott & Rob, the founders of Shuttle. We’re both sick of private markets being a playground exclusive to the ultra-wealthy so we started a company to challenge the status-quo. Shuttle’s singular focus is to unlock private markets for Millennial and Gen Z tech professionals and help them build wealth through the highest performing private market opportunities.

Scott & Rob
Shuttle Co-Founders