A humbling fundraising event in which a company is valued at significantly less than the inflated figure it bragged about on LinkedIn six months prior.
What they actually mean
We are no longer a unicorn, and the free avocados are cancelled.
Heard in the wild
We are viewing this downround as an opportunity to discipline our cost structure.
The imaginative mathematical formulas used to convince investors that losing four pounds on every transaction is actually a highly scalable business model.
"Our unit economics are looking highly favourable once we exclude the cost of acquiring customers, shipping the goods, and paying our staff."
Translation
We are haemorrhaging cash but we have a very pretty chart.
An emergency injection of capital secured from increasingly anxious investors to keep a loss-making enterprise afloat while it searches for a sustainable business model.
"We're raising a quick bridge round to give us enough oxygen to close our Series A."
Translation
"We have run out of money much faster than we admitted in our last pitch."
A euphemism for being drastically understaffed and poorly funded, successfully rebranded as an admirable display of agile discipline.
"We're running lean ahead of our Series A, so everyone is pitching in on customer support."
Translation
"We can't afford to pay you overtime, but we do have a ping-pong table."