Post-Money Valuation
Category: Valuation & Cap Table · Level: Entry · Also called: Post-money, Post money
TL;DR
The company's value immediately after a new investment closes, equal to pre-money valuation plus the new investment amount.
Post-money valuation reflects the company's worth after the round closes and the new investors' shares are issued. It's the basis for calculating new-investor ownership: investor's percentage = investment ÷ post-money.
Post-money is more useful than pre-money for understanding the actual dilution math and for comparing rounds. A $10M raise at $50M pre-money is identical to a $10M raise at $60M post-money, but the framing emphasizes different things.
Formula
Post-Money Valuation = Pre-Money Valuation + Investment Amount
- Pre-Money Valuation — Agreed company value immediately before the new investment closes
- Investment Amount — Dollars raised in the priced round
Post-money is the basis for investor ownership: Investor % = Investment ÷ Post-Money.
Worked example
Pre-money $30M + $10M raise → post-money $40M. Lead investor wrote $7M of the $10M → owns $7M ÷ $40M = 17.5%. The remaining $3M came from the existing-investor pro rata pool.
Common pitfalls
- Comparing pre-money to post-money valuations as if they were equivalent.
- Calculating ownership before factoring in the option-pool top-up.
- Ignoring how convertibles (SAFEs/notes) convert into the post-money math.
When this shows up in a pitch deck
Surfaces in negotiation, term sheets, and diligence rather than the deck.
See Post-Money Valuation in context
Post-Money Valuation shows up most often in these scoring rubrics and investor profiles — jump straight to who cares about it and how to pitch them.
For investor types
- Family Office — Risk & Returns
Related terms
- Pre-Money Valuation — The agreed-upon value of the company immediately before a new investment round closes — pre-money + new money = post-money.
- Dilution — The reduction in an existing shareholder's ownership percentage caused by issuing new shares in a financing or an option grant.
- Option Pool — Equity reserved for future employee, advisor, and contractor grants, usually sized as 10–20% of fully diluted shares.
- Post-Money SAFE — The 2018 YC SAFE variant where the valuation cap is computed on a post-money basis, making the investor's ownership share predictable.
- Term Sheet — A non-binding document outlining the principal terms of a proposed financing, used to align investor and founder before legal documents are drafted.
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