- Is my SAFE cap fair?
- It depends on the round size more than anything. In Carta's Q2 2026 figures, the median US pre-seed SAFE raising under $250k had a $10M cap, one raising $1M to $2.5M had $18M, and one raising more had $35M. The checker compares your offer with rounds of the same size, and with what the company's traction and team support.
- Cap or valuation: what am I being offered?
- On a SAFE, a cap: the highest valuation at which your money converts into shares, measured post-money. In a priced round, a pre-money valuation. A $20M post-money cap on a $2M SAFE round is roughly an $18M pre-money valuation.
- What return does the price imply?
- Your stake today is your check divided by the post-money valuation. Later rounds dilute it: in the US, the median seed round sells about 19% of the company, Series A about 18% and Series B about 13%. The checker applies those to your stake and shows the exit the company needs to return 10× your check; the PDF adds 3× and 30×.
- Does an AI startup deserve a higher cap?
- Sometimes. At Series A the premium is real: the median US AI-native round was priced at $57.3M pre-money, against $46M for other companies. At seed it's small: $18.6M against $18.4M. If a seed-stage company asks for a much higher price because it uses AI, look at what it has built, not the label.