Minimum Valuation
The lowest pre-money valuation management would accept to close the current round — the valuation walk-away floor. Distinct from the precise NVCA-defined `pre_money_valuation` (the single negotiated point that actually prices the round): this is the bottom of the acceptable band the team set going in. Common pitfall: teams anchor only on a target valuation and have no pre-agreed floor, so in a soft market they negotiate against themselves with no board-sanctioned line. Pair with `fundraising.target_valuation` to give the board the band, and read both against stage-relative ranges from quarterly Carta / PitchBook reports. — Fundraising KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier)
No public third-party standard anchors this KPI yet, so I'mBoard authors and maintains the definition — transparently labeled as editorial tier. See the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system and the back-attribution workstream.
Rogue ID: fundraising.minimum_valuation
Type: Currency
Domain: Fundraising
Definition
The lowest pre-money valuation management would accept to close the current round — the valuation walk-away floor. Distinct from the precise NVCA-defined pre_money_valuation (the single negotiated point that actually prices the round): this is the bottom of the acceptable band the team set going in. Common pitfall: teams anchor only on a target valuation and have no pre-agreed floor, so in a soft market they negotiate against themselves with no board-sanctioned line. Pair with fundraising.target_valuation to give the board the band, and read both against stage-relative ranges from quarterly Carta / PitchBook reports.
Formula
Currency floor — set by management as the valuation walk-away line for the round. Distinct from `pre_money_valuation` (the single negotiated price) and `target_valuation` (the valuation being run to). Typically expressed as pre-money to match `pre_money_valuation`.Why it matters
Gives the board the worst-case price of the round before negotiations start — the line below which the team should pause, re-scope, or consider a bridge rather than accept a down-round-anchoring price. Without a pre-agreed floor, valuation discipline erodes in a soft market.
How to interpret
Read as the bottom of the valuation band alongside target_valuation. A minimum well below stage-median pre-money (per quarterly Carta / PitchBook reports) signals the team is bracing for a hard market; a minimum equal to target signals high conviction (or inflexibility). A breached floor (a term sheet below the minimum) is a board-decision event, not a management one.
Calculation policy
How an AI agent should compute this KPI from messy company data. Free-text rules consumed at reasoning time — not a deterministic DSL. The most common ways to get this wrong are listed under Common miscomputations.
Inclusion rules
- The lowest pre-money valuation management would accept to close the current round — the valuation walk-away FLOOR.
- The bottom anchor of the valuation band the team set going in; typically expressed as pre-money to match
pre_money_valuation.
Exclusion rules
- Not
pre_money_valuation(the single realized negotiated price) — this is the pre-agreed floor, not the outcome. - Not
target_valuation(the top of the band / the aim). - Not
minimum_close_amount— that is a capital floor, this is a price floor.
Required inputs
- The management- / board-agreed valuation floor for the round.
- The
target_valuationto express the full band.
Data-source priority
- The board-approved round plan (where the floor should be set before negotiations).
- Management's pricing model as a fallback — flag if no board-sanctioned floor exists.
Edge cases
- No pre-agreed floor: teams that anchor only on a target negotiate against themselves in a soft market — the absence of a floor is itself a finding.
- A term sheet below the minimum is a board-decision event, not a management one.
- Minimum equal to target signals high conviction (or inflexibility); a wide band signals the team is bracing for a soft market.
Validation checks
- minimum_valuation ≤ target_valuation.
- Read against stage-median pre-money (Carta / PitchBook) — a floor well below stage median signals defensive positioning.
Common miscomputations
- Confusing the valuation floor with the capital floor (
minimum_close_amount). - Reporting the floor as the realized
pre_money_valuation.
Related KPIs
fundraising.target_valuationfundraising.pre_money_valuationfundraising.post_money_valuationfundraising.minimum_close_amount
Source
I'mBoard editorial — authored and maintained by I'mBoard, first published 2026-04-01. No third-party standard is cited for this KPI; when one emerges, the definition is back-attributed and promoted to the published tier (a minor version bump). Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.
Stage relevance
| Company stage | Priority |
|---|---|
| Pre-Seed | Recommended |
| Seed | Recommended |
| Series A | Recommended |
| Series B | Recommended |
| Series C+ | Recommended |
Suggested for stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C+.
Default owning functions
- Finance
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/fundraising/minimum_valuation.json - All Fundraising KPIs:
/api/ontology/fundraising.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Minimum Close Amount
Floor — the smallest amount of committed capital required to legally close the round (often set in the subscription agreement) or the strategically smallest amount management would accept before re-pricing or pausing. Common pitfall: a `target_raise` of $10M and a `minimum_close_amount` of $4M tells a very different story than a target of $10M and a minimum of $9M — boards should always see both. Per common practice (NVCA Model Documents allow flexibility here), the minimum is typically 50–75% of target at seed, 70–90% at A+. — Fundraising KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).
Planned Close Date
Calendar date by which the round is expected to close (final wires received, definitive documents signed). Compared against `finance.runway_months` to detect a fundraising-against-the-clock situation. Common pitfall: planned close dates routinely slip 30–90 days in practice (collected founder postmortems on First Round Review) — boards should ask for both an "expected" and a "no-deal" date and watch the gap to actual runway exhaustion. — Fundraising KPI, I'mBoard-authored (editorial tier).