Economic Intelligence Brief No. 16 — 2026 Edition · Live data · Data as of July 10, 2026

Marked Up

How valuations grow when companies crowdfund again, and the paper markup that creates.

$1.67B — unrealized paper markup

Summary

713 companies have gone back to the crowd for at least two priced rounds. This brief follows each company's valuation across its own sequential raises and measures the unrealized paper markup sitting with early investors. Descriptive market pricing, not realized returns.

Key findings

• 79% of repeat raisers returned at a higher valuation cap; 12% flat, 9% down.
• Median first-to-latest multiple of 1.54x; the top decile exceeds 5.9x. Median valuation CAGR: 26%.
• Median first cap of $10.0M grew to a median latest cap of $19.8M, with a median 15 months between priced rounds.
• $0.97B invested in repeat raisers' earlier rounds marks to $2.64B at latest-round prices: $1.67B of unrealized paper markup (outlier-capped; $2.14B without).
• Paper, not proceeds: primary-round prices, no dilution adjustment, illiquid, survivorship bias stated.

Markups are unrealized and reflect primary-round valuation caps, not exits or secondary prices. Reg CF securities are illiquid and investors can lose their entire investment.

Frequently asked questions

What does this brief measure?

It follows 713 companies that have raised at least two priced Reg CF rounds and tracks how each company's valuation cap changed across its own sequential raises. It then marks the earlier-round dollars to the latest-round price to size the unrealized paper markup.

How large is the paper markup?

$0.97B invested in repeat raisers' earlier rounds marks to $2.64B at latest-round prices — $1.67B of unrealized paper markup on an outlier-capped basis ($2.14B without capping).

Is this a return figure?

No. These are primary-round valuation caps, not exits or secondary prices. Numbers are unrealized, undiluted, and reflect surviving repeat raisers only.

Audience

Institutional data buyers · academics · markets media

About this brief

Published by CCLEAR.ai. Anchored to public SEC EDGAR filings and hand-verified against a locked data snapshot. CCLEAR is a data publisher, not an investment adviser; figures describe market activity, not investment outcomes or advice.

Marked Up · CCLEAR Research Library · License the data · Commission research

More briefs in the CCLEAR Research Library

• Democratized Capital — Women & Minority Founders in Reg CF — How crowdfunding distributes capital to women- and minority-led companies.
• Funding America's Industrial Base — Crowdfunding capital flowing to U.S. manufacturing, energy, and clean tech.
• The Main Street Barometer — Retail investor sentiment and participation, tracked over a decade.
• A Market Comes of Age — A decade of valuation and capital-structure trends.
• What's Your Company Worth? — Valuation benchmarks by company age and revenue stage.
• Innovation Geography — How startup capital is decentralizing across the country.
• Built to Last — Survival rates of crowdfunded companies vs. national baselines.
• The $42.5 Billion Engine — The economic output generated by Reg CF companies.
• The First Two Weeks — How a campaign's first 14 days predict its final raise.
• The CrowdFinance Index — A daily, rules-based index of the crowdfunding market.
• The Crowdfunding Genome — America's top-30 startup-crowdfunding ecosystems, ranked.
• After the Raise — What happens to companies after they crowdfund.
• The Language of the Raise — NLP on 6,800 pitches — the words that move money.
• What Capital Costs — The cost and structure of crowdfunding capital by instrument.
• Regulation Crowdfunding by Congressional District: A Report Card — A rolling, district-by-district scorecard of Reg CF activity across all 435 U.S. House districts.
• The Exit File: Sales, Mergers & Public Listings of U.S. Regulation Crowdfunding Companies — Crowdfunded companies are exiting — $6.1B in sales, mergers and public listings in just fourteen months.
• The Intersection Penalty — Why Two Founder-Identity Advantages in Reg CF Do Not Combine — Two founder-identity advantages that are each real on their own do not add up.