Startup & VC Jargon · Managing Director level

"Down round"

"Down round" means a funding round where a company raises money at a lower valuation than its previous round, signaling the company is worth less than before.

Say this instead: lower-valuation raise

Got "Down round" in an email? Buzzkill translates it right inside Gmail.

Add to Chrome, free

How "Down round" shows up at work

The phrase carries a quiet stigma in startup circles, since it means investors who came in earlier are now sitting on a paper loss. Press releases that announce down rounds tend to be heavy on strategic framing and light on numbers.

Buzzword

The company closed a down round at a valuation well below its 2022 peak.

Plain English

The company raised new funding at a valuation well below its 2022 peak.

Corporate Rank: Managing Director · Category: Startup & VC Jargon

Stop sounding like the buzzword.

Buzzkill highlights "Down round" and 637 other buzzwords in Gmail and LinkedIn, and rewrites them to plain English in one click. Free to try, 100% local.

Add to Chrome, free

More Startup & VC Jargon: 10x · 996 · Acquihire · Activation · Agentic · Aha moment

All Startup & VC Jargon · The full library · What's your Corporate Rank?