Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2026

Annex B. Differences in the definitions of investment stages in venture capital and private equity

This Annex outlines the differences in the definitions of investment stages in venture capital and private equity, presented in Chapter 2. There is no international standard for breaking down venture capital by stage of development. The OECD has a comprehensive classification based on the purpose of the funding and company development stage.

Table A B.1. presents the different classifications of firm stages used by Pitchbook and Dealroom, which are the sources for the venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) statistics used in this chapter. The stage categorisation of these two data providers differs from that of the OECD, as they tend to classify stages based on company age and funding size.

Table A B.1. Differences in definitions between the sources used

	Stage	OECD	Pitchbook	Dealroom
Venture Capital	Pre-seed	Not explicitly defined as a separate stage.	Defined as financing for companies less than 2 years old with no prior institutional investor support. Angel deals may be included in this category based on criteria.	Typically very early funding, often before product development, with round sizes up to USD 1 million.
	Seed	Money raised by entrepreneurs to start developing a business product or idea and/or to launch a business.	Companies that do not have prior VC rounds, do not have VC board members, and the round amount ranges between USD/EUR 1–10 million. May include pre-Series A deals under certain conditions.	Seed rounds occur 0–2 years post-founding, with a typical round size of USD 1–4 million.
	Start-up and Other Early Stage	Targets businesses with tested prototypes, refined models, and business plans.	Companies less than 5 years old; includes Series A and B.	Series A and B: Series A (USD 4-15m) marks the beginning of scaling; Series B (USD 15–40M) is used to expand markets and revenue.
Private Equity	Late / Growth Stage	Supports expansion of businesses with functioning models and products.	Late-stage VC: Company ≥ 5 years old, or rounds labelled Series C or later. Venture Growth: Series E+, or based on age, investor profile, VC round count.	Series C (USD 40–100M) to fund major growth initiatives. Mega/Mega+ rounds (Series D–I) used for expansion, acquisitions, or IPO preparation.

Note: One major difference between Pitchbook and Dealroom is the data collection method. While Pitchbook collects data from Venture Capital Associations, which collect data from VC funds, Dealroom collects data from news and reports from the start-ups themselves. As such, Dealroom figures may be overestimated.

Source: (OECD, 2025[1]) (Pitchbook, 2025[2]) (Dealroom, 2025[3]).

References

[3] Dealroom (2025), Investment Round Types, https://knowledge.dealroom.co/knowledge/investment-round-types.

[1] OECD (2025), “Benchmarking government support for venture capital: A comparative analysis”, OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Papers, No. 71, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/81e53985-en.

[2] Pitchbook (2025), Pitchbook report methodologies, https://pitchbook.com/news/pitchbook-report-methodologies.