1624 ET - Venture firms that invest in seed-stage startups need much more capital to compete in the current market, said Benjamin Sun, partner and co-chief investment officer at Primary Venture Partners. Primary, for example, raised $625 million across two new funds, almost 50% more than in its prior fundraising in 2023. "We need to make sure we can show up and compete not only with small seed funds but with the big multistage and megafunds, as well," Sun said. Venture firms put more than $20 billion into seed-stage startups in the U.S. last year, compared to about $5 billion a decade ago, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report. Sun said valuations and deal sizes, as well as the size of ultimate exits have grown. "Seed is just a lot bigger now and more competitive and founders have more choice," Sun said. (yuliya.chernova@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2026 16:24 ET (21:24 GMT)

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