The 2025 Venture Capital Term Sheet Guide, our third in this annual series, aims to empower founders with an objective view of deal information so that they can negotiate the market with confidence.
2025 Term Sheet analysis
Explore the insights from this year's report
Key survey stats
- 588 (532 UK HQ companies) anonymised equity term sheets.
- Represents 1/3 of all UK venture capital equity deals that occurred in 2024 above £0.5m as per Pitchbook.
- Data was sourced from 27 law firms who operate in this specialised space.
What is the Venture Capital Term Sheet Guide?
This report will help you to:
- Get a better, more independent understanding of the market standard for term sheets based on a large sample size of deals. You’ll also gain some transparency and insight designed to help level the playing field for both founders and investors.
- Gain understanding of term sheet terms. Legal jargon can be confusing, especially for first time founders, so we aim to demystify it.
- Understand some key commercial and practical take aways, including top tips for negotiation, to ensure founders get a fair and good deal.
The Seed stage is the prime opportunity to set deal terms for the best terms in the future. I hope this report, as well as encouraging founders to get a good lawyer, will help founders set up for future success.
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Survey size
Thank you to all participating law firms
Key findings
Seed investment has surged
Sophisticated and international investors are increasingly engaging at the early stage. That’s driving a highly competitive market characterised by less structure and more founder-friendly terms.
Investor risk appetite is rising at the later stage
These more structured deals are being executed on average at lower valuations, with more investor friendly terms with enhanced downside protection and safeguards against down rounds.
The “scale up gap” remains
While 70% of Seed and 59% of Series A investments were led by UK-based investors, c. 80% of late stage (Series C+, £30m) deals into UK HQ companies came from international investors – up from 51% in 2023.
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