什么叫种子轮融资？ What is seed round financing?

种子轮融资，是指最早阶段进行的融资方式。虽然大多数初创企业都依靠创始人自己的或其直系亲属和朋友的资金，一些企业还是会寻求第三方的“种子融资”，这是一种最早期阶段进行的融资方式。

Seed financing refers to the financing method in the earliest stage. Although most start-ups rely on the founder's own funds or the funds of their immediate family and friends, some companies still seek third-party "seed financing", which is the earliest form of financing.

我们把最早期的融资叫“种子轮融资”，这之后是天使融资，再往后有A轮、B轮融资，甚至有DEF轮融资，一直到公司上市。

We call the earliest financing "seed round financing", then angel financing, and then there will be A rounds, B rounds of financing, and even DEF rounds of financing until the company goes public.

种子投资极具风险，大多数种子投资者明白70%的初创企业投资最终都会失败。但是，他们也明白，只需一个成功的初创企业，便可带来大量的财富。因此，种子投资者明白，在寻找成功企业的过程中，他们需要与企业“风险共担”。

Seed investment is extremely risky, and most seed investors understand that 70% of startup investments will eventually fail. However, they also understand that only a successful start-up can bring a lot of wealth. Therefore, seed investors understand that in the process of finding a successful company, they need to "share risks" with the company.

种子融资后，会对初创企业创始人进行早期的估值、收入和客户标准检查，并规定达成业绩的严格时限。如果初创企业过早进入种子融资，在接下来的轮次融资阶段，如A轮融资时，则会遇到严重的挑战。轮次融资通常更加重要和复杂，因此如不能满足标准，会给接下来的投资人带来强烈的负面信息。

After seed financing, early valuation, income and customer standards checks will be conducted on startup founders, and a strict time limit for achieving performance will be stipulated. If start-ups enter seed financing prematurely, they will encounter serious challenges in the next round of financing, such as the A round of financing. Round financing is usually more important and complicated, so if the standards are not met, it will bring strong negative information to the next investors.

种子轮融资的特点 Characteristics of seed round financing

1. 投资额度不高：种子轮融资每个人的投资额度并不高，有的是十万，有的是50万。最多的可能是一百万，如果再多的话，就可能是天使投资了。

The investment amount is not high: The investment amount of each person in the seed round financing is not high, some are 100,000, and some are 500,000. The most may be one million, and if it is more, it may be an angel investment.

2. 投资人人数比较多：一般可能3-4个人，也会出现到5-8个，甚至是10个人以上的情况。

The number of investors is relatively large: generally there may be 3-4 people, but there may be 5-8, or even more than 10 people.

3. 投资人占据股权比例不高：创始人为了留股权空间做外部融资，以及对核心员工做股权激励，所以对于种子轮不会释放过高比例的股权。

Investors do not occupy a high proportion of equity: In order to reserve equity space for external financing and provide equity incentives to core employees, the founders will not release an excessively high proportion of equity for the seed round.

种子轮融资的法律框架 The legal framework for seed financing

种子轮的股权融资，通常有3种实现形式：

The seed round of equity financing usually has three realization forms:

1. 工商登记直接持股

Direct shareholding in industrial and commercial registration

第一种实现方式，就是在工商注册的时候，直接把种子轮的股东登记为实名股东。但如果种子轮的股东人数比较多，这种方式就不太适用。

The first way to achieve this is to directly register the shareholders of the seed round as real-name shareholders during the industrial and commercial registration. But if the number of shareholders in the seed round is relatively large, this approach is not suitable.

毕竟我们还要考虑后续天使轮、A轮、B轮投资者的想法，如果一开始公司的股权架构就过于复杂和分散，后续的投资人是毕竟忌讳的。一个项目早期的工商注册股东太多时，就意味着具有很大的不确定性。

After all, we have to consider the ideas of investors in the subsequent angel round, A round, and B rounds. If the company's equity structure is too complicated and scattered at the beginning, subsequent investors will be taboo after all. When there are too many registered industrial and commercial shareholders in the early stage of a project, it means that there is great uncertainty.

2. 由大股东代持

Be held on behalf of major shareholders

第二种实现方式，就是种子轮股东的股权，通过创始大股东代持。

The second way to achieve this is to hold the equity of seed shareholders through the founding major shareholder.

具体实现形式，是创始股东跟多个种子轮股东签署一份《代持协议》，所有种子轮股东作为项目的隐名股东，并不在工商登记中显示。

The specific form of realization is that the founding shareholder signs a "representative holding agreement" with multiple seed-round shareholders. All seed-round shareholders are the silent shareholders of the project and are not shown in the industrial and commercial registration.

这种方式的优点是让公司的股权结构看起来比较简单清晰，对后续轮次的投资人进入提供便利。

The advantage of this approach is to make the company's shareholding structure look simpler and clearer, which facilitates the entry of investors in subsequent rounds.

一般来说，如果种子轮股东以代持的方式进入，意味着种子轮投资人与创业者之间，不仅存在投资关系，还存在比较好的信任关系。当然，也有另外一种情况就是种子投资人他的身份不方便，不方便以自己的名义在工商注册里面出现。

Generally speaking, if the seed round shareholders enter in the form of proxy holding, it means that there is not only an investment relationship between seed round investors and entrepreneurs, but also a relatively good trust relationship. Of course, there is another situation where the identity of the seed investor is not convenient, and it is not convenient to appear in the industrial and commercial registration in his own name.

3. 把种子投资人装进有限合伙企业

Put seed investors into limited partnerships

当种子投资人毕竟多时，比如说多于5个，那么我们就会建议成立一家有限合伙企业，然后把种子投资人都放进去。

When there are too many seed investors after all, for example, more than 5, then we will suggest setting up a limited partnership and then including all seed investors.

这种方式的好处是，创业者对这个合伙企业有比较好的控制力，由创业者作为GP去实际负责运营这个有限合伙企业，而其他种子投资人作为LP。那么这种情况下，即使有十个种子轮的投资人作为有限合伙人，也不会干扰到项目公司的正常运营。

The advantage of this approach is that the entrepreneur has better control over the partnership, and the entrepreneur acts as the GP to actually operate the limited partnership, while other seed investors act as LPs. In this case, even if there are ten seed round investors as limited partners, it will not interfere with the normal operation of the project company.

这种方式，也是我最为推崇的方式，因为在管理上毕竟系统，而且未来可以延伸更多的可能性。

This method is also the one I admire the most, because management is system after all, and more possibilities can be extended in the future.

最后总结一下，如果你作为一个创业项目，在进行早期的项目融资中还没有拿到天使投资，而是采取一个种子轮融资的方式，那么我们通常建议你设立一个有些合伙企业，让种子轮的投资人通过有限合伙企业的方式进行投资。

Finally, to summarize, if you, as an entrepreneurial project, did not get angel investment in the early project financing, but adopted a seed round of financing, then we usually recommend that you set up a partnership with some seed rounds. Investors invest through limited partnerships.

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