Venture
Post-Money Valuation
Post-money valuation is a company's value immediately after a funding round closes: pre-money valuation plus the amount of new capital raised. It is the figure most commonly reported in funding announcements.
Because post-money is pre-money plus new cash, a company can raise a large round without its underlying business having become more valuable in investors' eyes — the post-money figure just reflects the cash that was added, which is why comparing post-money valuations across companies without knowing round size can be misleading.
SAFEs priced with a "post-money valuation cap" (the now-standard YC SAFE format) fix the investor's ownership percentage directly, removing the ambiguity that pre-money-capped SAFEs created when multiple SAFEs were stacked before a priced round.
Example
A $25M post-money valuation on a round that raised $5M implies a $20M pre-money valuation and a 20% stake sold to new investors.