Post-money valuation, the math right.
Pre-money + investment = post-money. That's the obvious bit. The interesting bit: SAFE conversion math, option pool shuffle (pre vs post inclusion), AI-bifurcated 2026 benchmarks. Sister site to premoneyvaluation.com for the founder lens. No VC affiliate revenue.
Where the medians sit today
Q1 2026 medians from PitchBook-NVCA + Carta Q4 2025, re-verified August 2026 against the Q2 2026 Venture Monitor (valuations have risen further, so these remain conservative). The 2026 dominant story: AI bifurcation. Carta's broad-cohort AI premium runs about +46% at seed, compresses to roughly +30-38% at Series A, then widens again to about +50% at Series B and as much as +193% at Series E+. Within AI the gap is far larger still: foundational-model companies command roughly 3x application-layer companies at Series A.
| Stage | Pre-money median | Post-money median | P25-P75 post | Check size | Option pool | AI premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed | $6M | $9M | $4-$15M | $0.25-$2.5M | 10-15% | +40% est. |
| Seed | $15M | $24M | $14-$35M | $1-$6M | 10-15% | +46% |
| Series A | $48M | $64M | $32-$110M | $5-$25M | 10-12% | +38% |
| Series B | $150M | $200M | $100-$380M | $15-$50M | 5-10% | +50% |
| Series C+ | $400M | $500M | $220-$1200M | $30-$200M | 3-8% | +90% est. |
Medians verified 2026-08-31. Pre-money medians from PitchBook; post-money medians from Carta (via named secondary writeups). AI premium re-anchored 2026-09-15 to Carta's broad-cohort cuts; rows marked est. are stages Carta does not publish a clean priced AI split for (pre-seed, Series C+).
Standard methods, sourced
VC Method
Berkus Method
Scorecard / Bill Payne
Risk Factor Summation
DCF (early-stage adapted)
Comparables (market multiples)
Broad-based weighted average is in 95% of deals
Broad-based weighted average is the market standard in 95% of 2026 deals. Full-ratchet anti-dilution is much harsher to founders and rarely accepted in current term sheets. Narrow-based weighted average is less common than broad-based but more founder-friendly than full-ratchet.
New Conversion Price = Old Price × (Outstanding + Money_Raised_at_Old_Price) / (Outstanding + Money_Raised_at_New_Price)Old conversion $10, down round at $5, 10M fully-diluted shares outstanding, $10M raised at $5. New conversion price = $9.17 (down from $10). Modest dilution adjustment versus the harsh full-ratchet alternative.
Most calculators just do pre + investment = post
That math is right but it's also the easy bit. The bits that actually matter to a founder signing a term sheet are: the option pool shuffle (which calculator treats it as coming out of the pre-money? — almost none do this correctly), SAFE conversion math at the priced round (most calculators ignore SAFEs entirely), and anti-dilution provisions on existing preferred stock (most calculators don't model them at all).
postmoneyvaluation.com handles all three. The calculator above shows the pool shuffle effect explicitly with a toggle. SAFE conversion is integrated. Anti-dilution math is documented. Sister site premoneyvaluation.com covers the founder lens — same data, different framing.
This is not legal or tax advice. Consult counsel before signing any term sheet. Methodology.
AI startups price above non-AI at every stage
Across Carta's 2025-26 reporting, AI startups price above non-AI peers at every stage. At seed the median AI pre-money runs about $19M against roughly $13Mfor non-AI (a ~46% premium). The broad-cohort premium then compresses to roughly 30-38% at Series A, where companies have to show metrics, before widening again to about 50% at Series B and as much as 193% at Series E+. The eye-watering multiples you read about are within AI: foundational-model companies command roughly 3x application-layer peers at Series A. On any cut it distorts a blended headline median. The calculator's "AI / ML company" toggle applies the broad-cohort premium per stage.
Practical reading:if you're raising as a non-AI startup in 2026, the "market median" in any aggregated dataset is likely AI-inflated. Pull the AI premium out before benchmarking your valuation against published medians.