If you’re a start-up that’s just received seed or VC funding, this may include a certain allocation for marketing expenses, which means that obviously, you should allocate some of that towards branding, right?

Well, it really depends on what your idea of branding is. While it could be important for a start-up, it may not be the most important thing — at least not in terms of how it’s usually defined. It depends, really, on where you are in your start-up journey.
What is branding, anyway?
Typically, branding is associated with logos, typography, colour palettes… those nice-to-look-at bits.