Fifty venture firms, in one place.

States that over 80 percent of its investments are the first check into a company, and that many start on a whiteboard. Greylock 17 is a $1 billion fund intentionally focused on pre-seed, seed, and Series A.

Criteria: AI-first companies across cybersecurity, infrastructure, SaaS, consumer, marketplaces and commerce, fintech and crypto. Greylock Edge, a three month programme for pre-idea, pre-seed and seed founders, takes rolling open applications; Greylock states Edge companies are not required to take Greylock capital, that financing may be a priced round, an uncapped SAFE, or none at all, and includes over $500,000 in cloud credits.

What this means for your pitchFor a technical founder who is pre-company, Edge is among the best value doors in venture: an open application, no obligation to take their money, and real compute credits. It costs an afternoon rather than a network.

Greylock EdgeChecked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

States it invests in transformative early-stage technology companies and that it is all in on AI. Runs three named stages: Inception for pre-seed, Venture for Series A and B, and Inflection for early growth.

Criteria: The Menlo Anthology Fund, a $100 million fund created with Anthropic, invests at pre-seed, seed and Series A as lead or participating investor, with investments starting at $100,000. Applications are open and rolling, and Menlo states applicants can expect a response within two weeks. Includes infrastructure credits and workspace. Menlo states that leading a round is a seven to ten year commitment.

What this means for your pitchFor an AI-native founder without a network this is the most accessible serious door in the directory. Know which of the three stages you are before you write, because you are pitching a different team in each.

Menlo Anthology FundChecked 16 August 2026

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States it has invested before product market fit, before traction, and in some cases before a single line of code, and that early-stage founders receive the same support as later-stage companies with no tiered access.

Criteria: States that 62 percent of its investments are pre-revenue at the time of initial investment, footnoted as of 30 September 2025. Publishes sector roadmaps across AI, biotech, cloud, consumer, cybersecurity, crypto, data, deep tech and defence, developer tools, fintech, healthcare, marketplaces and vertical software, plus its actual Series A investment memos for Auth0, Pinterest, Shopify, Fiverr and Rocket Lab, and the Twilio seed memo. Bessemer Beam, a pre-incubator for academics moving from research to AI startups, states it takes no equity and is open by application. Founders Garage is by partner nomination only.

What this means for your pitchRead the roadmap for your sector, then the published memo closest to your company. You will learn the exact benchmarks and objections the partnership uses internally, which almost no other firm makes available.

Bessemer, early stageChecked 16 August 2026

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States it seeks exceptional founders with a unique insight in a market poised for large growth, and that it is more interested in what might be possible than in a working product or existing customers. Partnered with Stripe before it processed a transaction.

Criteria: Clarity of thought, category creation, gigantic markets, and a view on both how and why now. States it typically does not take board seats at seed, works with SAFEs and convertible notes, and tends to avoid party rounds that lack a real lead. States that since 2010 about 75 percent of Sequoia-backed seed companies went on to raise a Series A, which it describes as two to three times the peer average.

What this means for your pitchApproach a year before you need money. They document multi-year courtships, meeting Thumbtack's founders three years and Square's eighteen months before investing, and passing at seed on DoorDash and Instacart before backing them later. A first meeting is not a pitch, it is the opening of a file.

Sequoia and seed investingChecked 16 August 2026

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Runs seed, early and growth funds with a single investing team across all three. Publishes the clearest stage-by-stage criteria of any firm in this directory.

Criteria: Black swan ideas or a significantly better mousetrap, high impact innovation with significant upside, big markets and short innovation cycles. At seed: crazy ideas addressing well articulated problems, plus an unfair advantage, defined as science, intellectual property, business model innovation, or a partnership. At later stages: the problem identifiable in one sentence, market size established by bottom-up analysis, and a clear go-to-market strategy. Sectors include AI, climate, enterprise, consumer, fintech, digital health, medtech, therapeutics and frontier technology.

What this means for your pitchUse their stage ladder as a self-test whoever you approach. If you cannot yet state the problem in one sentence and size the market from the bottom up, you are a seed story rather than a Series B story.

Khosla VenturesChecked 16 August 2026

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Thesis-driven, and unusual in publishing its thesis in numbered versions, including a public account of which past thesis stopped working.

Criteria: Thesis 3.0: trusted brands that broaden access to knowledge, capital, and well-being by leveraging networks, platforms, and protocols. USV defines knowledge as education and learning plus data-driven insight; capital as financial services innovation including crypto, plus human capital and infrastructure; and well-being as health and wellness plus entertainment, connection and community. States that all business plan submissions must include a clear description of operations and current progress. Also states that the success of earlier network businesses has made new broad consumer networks extremely hard to launch, and that this remains true.

What this means for your pitchAnswer in one sentence which of knowledge, capital or well-being you broaden access to, and for whom. If you cannot, no introduction will fix it. And when you write, lead with operations and progress, because they ask for exactly that.

USV Thesis 3.0Checked 16 August 2026

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States it manages over $100 billion and was founded on the conviction that software would eat the world. Claims the largest team of operators in venture.

Criteria: Invests across AI, bio and healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, infrastructure and American Dynamism. States plainly that it does not win by arbitrarily overpaying and that its strategy is to invest in the best companies, not to get the best bargains. Publishes full theses that become funds. States it routes companies internally by go-to-market function: if your primary customer is consumers or the Fortune 100, you belong with the AI apps team rather than American Dynamism.

What this means for your pitchAddress the specific practice, not the firm, using the vocabulary of its published thesis. And do not try to win them with a cheap round, because they have stated in public that price is not how they compete.

a16z, aboutChecked 16 August 2026

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States it invests in companies building revolutionary technologies. Its published manifesto functions as its screening philosophy in public form.

Criteria: Smart people solving difficult problems, often difficult scientific or engineering problems, across aerospace and transportation, biotechnology, advanced machines and software including artificial intelligence, energy and the internet. Argues for transformational rather than merely alternative approaches. States that a characteristic of promising companies is that they are not popular, on the reasoning that popular investments are priced expensively.

What this means for your pitchContrarianism is a screening criterion here, not a personality trait. Be ready to say what you believe that the consensus rejects and why you are right. If your positioning is the X for Y, or your category is crowded with well funded entrants, their own published reasoning argues against you.

What Happened to the Future?Checked 16 August 2026

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Runs separate vehicles by geography and stage: an early-stage US fund, an early-stage Europe and Israel fund, a global growth fund, and a later-stage Leaders fund.

Criteria: A partner has stated on record that Accel still writes $500,000 to $1 million seed checks and expects roughly 20 to 30 companies per fund, with growth fund investments averaging $50 million to $75 million. Reporting notes Accel is frequently referred to companies by its own portfolio founders, and that more often than not the companies it backs are bootstrapped and located outside Silicon Valley.

What this means for your pitchIdentify the correct fund and geography before approaching. If you are bootstrapped and outside the Bay Area, you fit a documented pattern here rather than fighting one.

Fund announcements and partner statements on record. Firm's own criteria language not yet read directly. Checked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

States it has partnered with visionary founders since 1999, backing over 578 companies including Snowflake, Twilio, Stripe, HashiCorp and Ramp.

Criteria: Invests across seed, early and growth phases, with a pronounced cloud and infrastructure software practice. Publishes the annual InfraRed Report and the InfraRed 100 list, plus a cloud infrastructure index built with Nasdaq. Their published analysis states that median free cash flow margin across the infrastructure software cohort is 20 percent, a record high, that all InfraRed companies are multi-product, and that Series B and C AI deals run about 40 percent more expensive than non-AI ones. Stated guidance: maximise your addressable market, expect the first product to be modest but build toward a platform, and converge toward roughly 40 on the rule of 40 by IPO.

What this means for your pitchIf you build infrastructure or developer software, the InfraRed Report is effectively their published diligence framework. Note their own warning too: a premium AI valuation today sets the growth bar you must clear tomorrow.

2025 InfraRed ReportChecked 16 August 2026

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One of the oldest firms in venture, reported to have backed over 750 startups with 80 going public. Led DoorDash's seed and the Series A rounds for Mercury and Vercel.

Criteria: Asked what share of deals are seed and Series A versus later, a general partner answered: almost all is seed and A. Focus areas are enterprise and infrastructure software, developer tools and consumer, with a bioengineering practice. Notably, CRV returned capital to its investors and deliberately downsized its fund, with a partner stating they could have closed on more but wanted to remain small and focused, and to preserve the ability to see an impact from smaller checks.

What this means for your pitchA firm that shrinks its fund on purpose is telling you something useful: smaller funds need smaller exits to succeed, so a good but not astronomical outcome can still matter to them. For a company with a real but bounded ceiling, that alignment beats a famous name.

Partner statements on record in trade press. Checked 16 August 2026

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A global software investor running Insight Onsite, an in-house operating team. Known for analyst-driven outbound sourcing at industrial scale.

Criteria: Publishes five criteria for early-stage evaluation: team (experience, vision, ability to attract talent), product (uniqueness, defensibility, product market fit), market (size, timing, urgency), traction (early usage, customer feedback, revenue), and momentum (speed of iteration, team velocity, market buzz). For later-stage companies it names four growth levers: product, mergers and acquisitions, efficiency, and geographic expansion.

What this means for your pitchMomentum being a stated criterion is the useful part: it is demonstrated in a second meeting by showing what changed since the first. If an Insight analyst contacts you, that is their sourcing machine rather than investment interest.

No verified check size; we state none.

Insight, early-stage FAQChecked 16 August 2026

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Describes itself as a multi-stage firm backing bold founders from seed to Series F and beyond, pursuing opportunities regardless of where the founder resides.

Criteria: Publishes conviction language rather than screening criteria; there is no roadmap or thesis document to prepare against. One structural fact matters more than any stated criterion: Lightspeed is not a single entity. Its own pages state repeatedly that Lightspeed Management Company (US, Europe, Israel), Lightspeed India Partners, and Faction Ventures are distinct investment advisory entities that are not a unitary enterprise and operate independently of one another.

What this means for your pitchA relationship with a US Lightspeed partner does not carry to Lightspeed India, and an introduction on one side of the house does not travel to the other. Approach the entity covering your geography directly.

Lightspeed, aboutChecked 16 August 2026

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One of the founding firms of the industry. Its own publishing announced a return of focus to early stage investing, with a separate Select vehicle for follow-on and growth-stage opportunities.

Criteria: Publishes notably less criteria language than its peers. Structurally, the first check and the scaling capital come from different vehicles, which is worth understanding before modelling later rounds.

What this means for your pitchExpect a partner-driven, decisive process rather than a slow committee, which means the quality of one partner relationship matters more than breadth of coverage across the firm.

Recent 2026 fund figures reported secondhand and unverified; deliberately omitted.

Firm publishing and fund announcements. Checked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

Maintains a deliberately minimal public presence, with no published thesis, roadmap, criteria page or application route. This entry exists because knowing that is worth as much as any criteria list.

Criteria: None published. Consistently reported, though not stated by the firm: an equal partnership of a handful of general partners sharing fees and carry equally regardless of tenure or who sourced the deal, deliberately capped fund sizes historically around $425 million, no junior investment staff and no platform team, a board seat on investments, and very few new investments per partner each year.

What this means for your pitchYou cannot research your way in. Access is referral driven and the partnership is tiny, so the realistic path is an introduction from a founder they have backed. Because they take a board seat and concentrate heavily, you should want a hands-on partner; if you want a passive check, this is the wrong firm.

A June 2026 report of roughly $2 billion raised across two funds, including a first growth vehicle, is unverified.

Secondary reporting only; the firm publishes no criteria. Checked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

Reported to operate a low-profile, attribution-free team model, meaning individual partners are not promoted as deal owners.

Criteria: Publishes little. The one point every source agrees on is a deliberately concentrated strategy: far fewer and far larger bets than peers, on the logic that concentration allows deeper founder relationships and real operational support, deployed from early stage through multi-billion-dollar growth rounds on the same platform.

What this means for your pitchA firm making few very large bets is not a realistic first stop for a typical seed company. With no published thesis to align with, preparation time is better spent on firms that publish criteria and open doors.

Assets under management were reported as $9 billion, $15.57 billion and over $25 billion by three different sources. We state none of them.

Secondary reporting only. Checked 16 August 2026

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Exclusively early stage, investing before product market fit. Runs an unusually strong operating and community platform, including the widely read First Round Review.

Criteria: Consistent across sources: a compelling and often contrarian insight into how the world works, alongside the strength of the founding team. Of the firms in this directory, First Round's published material weights a founder's distinctive view of the world most heavily.

What this means for your pitchLead with the insight rather than the traction, and read the First Round Review archive, which is the clearest available guide to how they think about company building.

Check size and ownership figures conflicted across four sources, from $500,000 to $10 million. We omit them rather than guess.

Third party profiles pending direct verification. Checked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

Describes itself as people-first, investing in founders rather than deals. Portfolio includes Figma, Revolut, Notion, Datadog, Wiz, Adyen and Wise. Reported in July 2026 to have announced roughly $3.5 billion in investing capacity following the sale of Wiz to Alphabet.

Criteria: AI and infrastructure, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare, productivity and enterprise software, and consumer. Runs a dedicated seed vehicle alongside venture and growth funds. Accepts inbound through the contact form on its site, though warm introductions are preferred.

What this means for your pitchA natural first call for European founders who want a transatlantic investor, and for category-creating companies with global ambition from the outset.

Check size figures available only from aggregators and not stated here. Full criteria pass not yet complete.

Firm site and fund announcement reporting. Checked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

Describes itself as an investment and transformation company rather than a traditional fund. Portfolio includes Stripe, Airbnb, Snapchat, Instacart, Livongo and Gusto.

Criteria: Named strategies covering early stage, growth, health assurance and company creation. Sectors: applied AI, healthcare and health assurance, fintech, defence, climate, industrials and enterprise. Publishes an explicit responsible AI practice.

What this means for your pitchUnusually strong fit for regulated-industry founders, especially in healthcare, where the health assurance thesis and health system relationships are a specific advantage. Align to the named strategy that fits you.

Check size figures available only from aggregators and not stated here.

Firm site. Checked 16 August 2026

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Alphabet is the sole limited partner, but GV operates independently and invests for financial return rather than strategic alignment with Google. Deep technical bench including dedicated life sciences partners. Originated the Design Sprint methodology.

Criteria: Enterprise software and developer tools, AI applications, life sciences and therapeutics, consumer, and frontier technology. Partner-led by sector, with warm introductions preferred.

What this means for your pitchCorrect one assumption before the meeting: GV backing does not imply Google distribution, integration or preferential treatment. If your pitch leans on that, remove it.

Assets under management reported between $7 billion and $13 billion; we state no figure.

Firm site. Checked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

Runs two genuine practices, technology and healthcare, under one roof, with capital from seed through public markets. States more than 270 portfolio company IPOs and more than 450 mergers and acquisitions, over $25 billion in committed capital, and approximately $6.2 billion closed across two funds in January 2023, one for early stage and one for venture growth.

Criteria: Enterprise software and infrastructure, consumer internet, AI and machine learning, fintech, and healthcare spanning life sciences, digital health and medical devices. Invests on a rolling basis with no application deadline; partner introduction remains the practical route.

What this means for your pitchThe dual practice matters at the intersection of software and clinical care, where generalist funds often lack the capability to diligence the regulated half of the business.

NEA press release, January 2023. Checked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

States that it incubates ideas, leads seed rounds and scales growth-stage companies. Organises its work into four named stages: seed, early, growth, and graduated, the last meaning companies that have reached an IPO or an acquisition. States 423 investments over more than twenty years, of which 89 have graduated.

Criteria: Invests across seven named domains: apps, infrastructure, commerce, fintech, healthcare, physical AI and security. Closed two oversubscribed funds totalling $1.9 billion in February 2023, and a separate crypto fund of $500 million in April 2022. Publishes no check sizes and no ownership targets. Note carefully that the $180 billion under management figure on its site belongs to Bain Capital, the parent firm, spread across thirteen divisions; it is not the venture arm, and BCV does not publish assets under management of its own.

What this means for your pitchThe four-stage vocabulary is theirs, so use it, and say in your first line which of the four you are, because they are handled differently. Do not quote the $180 billion back at them. That is the parent firm across thirteen divisions, and mistaking it for the venture fund tells them you read the homepage and stopped.

Bain Capital Ventures does not publish assets under management for the venture arm. Figures near $10 billion appear in secondary coverage and are unverified here.

Bain Capital Ventures, aboutChecked 16 August 2026

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A specialist rather than a generalist. States that every technology revolution unlocks new business models and that its edge is recognising them early, pointing to Salesforce as its horizontal SaaS bet and Veeva as its vertical one.

Criteria: States that its current focus is AI-Native Services, which it defines as companies that sell outcomes rather than software, alongside AI infrastructure and physical world AI. Publishes an unusual constraint: that its partners each make just one investment annually, which it describes as a deliberate choice that lets it go deep with every founder. Its team page lists six general partners and one further partner. Publishes no check size, no fund size and no stage definitions.

What this means for your pitchDo the arithmetic on their own two published numbers before you spend a month here. Seven investment partners at a stated one investment each per year is a very small number of new companies, which means long odds and, if you get in, unusually deep engagement. Only worth the effort if you are B2B software and can name the business model shift you are riding in a single line.

Emergence CapitalChecked 16 August 2026

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States that it is a seed-stage firm investing in founder potential long before it is obvious, and describes itself as partners for the hard parts, not just the headlines. An early backer of SendGrid and LaunchDarkly; its portfolio also includes Tailscale, Groq, Human Interest, Loft Orbital and Gamma.

Criteria: States a focus on AI-native companies. Publishes no check size, no fund size and no ownership target. Unusually for this directory, it publishes a direct address for pitches on its own site, which makes it one of the few firms here that openly invites cold inbound rather than routing everything through warm introductions.

What this means for your pitchThis is among the shortest paths in the directory for a founder without a network: one stage, a stated willingness to look early, and a published address to send to. Because they publish no check size, ask for it on the first call rather than guessing, and ask what ownership they need, because a seed-only firm has to earn its whole return from this round.

Uncork CapitalChecked 16 August 2026

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States that it believes before others understand and that it turns sci-fi into sci-fact. Groups its portfolio under themes it names as securing life and environment, increasing productivity and efficiency, and progressing science and knowledge.

Criteria: Publishes no criteria. States no stages, no assets under management, no fund sizes and no check sizes on its own site. What it does publish is a large body of writing, including its Riskgaming platform, and for a firm this quiet about process that writing is the most reliable available signal of what it currently finds interesting.

What this means for your pitchRead the writing rather than the website. With no published criteria and no stated stages, what they are publishing and what they have recently backed are the only honest indicators of current appetite. Expect a science and engineering conversation rather than a metrics one, and treat the first meeting as a research discussion.

Assets under management, fund sizes and stage focus are not published by the firm. Figures appearing in secondary coverage are unverified here.

Lux CapitalChecked 16 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

States it has invested in technology companies globally since 1983 and has backed more than 450 companies over its forty-year history. Operates from Boston, San Francisco, Menlo Park, Tel Aviv, London and New York.

Criteria: States that Battery Ventures XV, the fund it is currently investing from, is capitalised at $3.25 billion. Invests across four named areas: application software, infrastructure software, consumer, and industrial technology and life science tools. Publishes no check sizes and no stage-by-stage criteria.

What this means for your pitchWork out whether your round is large enough to matter to a $3.25 billion fund before you spend time on the fit. A flagship of that size has to deploy in quantity, so however well your sector matches, a first cheque into a pre-seed company is not what this vehicle is built to do.

Battery VenturesChecked 17 August 2026

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States it invests at the early stages in companies that make business work better. Alone among the firms in this directory, it has open sourced a guide to how the fund works and publishes it as an operating manual, on the stated reasoning that transparency about how it thinks is the first step to trust and that it treats its founders as its customers.

Criteria: States it runs a $75 million seed fund and is investing from its fifth fund, the same size and focus as the first four, alongside a $75 million opportunity fund, for $450 million in total under management. The published manual covers check sizes, diligence questions and core beliefs, and the firm states that making its criteria public helps founders decide whether to work with it at all.

What this means for your pitchRead the manual before you write to them. Almost no other firm here hands you its diligence questions in advance, which makes this the cheapest preparation available anywhere in the directory. Arriving without having read it tells them precisely how much homework you do.

Bloomberg BetaTheir operating manualChecked 17 August 2026

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States plainly that it specialises in pre-seed and seed. Runs several named founder programmes, including Dorm for student founders, and Female Founders Circles and Persian Founders Circles.

Criteria: Offers named founder services in talent and recruiting, fundraising, go-to-market, and public relations and marketing. Publishes no check size, no fund size and no application route on its homepage, and does not enumerate its verticals there.

What this means for your pitchThe programmes are the door. For a student or a first-time founder without a network, a named circle or the Dorm programme is a far more realistic entry point than a cold approach to the fund, and it costs an application rather than an introduction.

Check sizes, fund size and vertical focus are not published on the firm's homepage.

Pear VCChecked 17 August 2026

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States it invests at pre-seed in pre-traction, pre-everything companies, and runs a Founders-in-Residence programme to help founders work out whether an idea is ready for venture capital at all, before any investment.

Criteria: Publishes both of the figures that matter most to a founder: a $500 million fund, and cheques of $500,000 to $2 million and above. Does not name sectors.

What this means for your pitchOne of very few firms here that publishes its cheque size, which lets you work out the implied round and your dilution before the first call rather than after it. If you are earlier than a company, ask about Founders-in-Residence rather than pitching the fund.

Afore CapitalChecked 17 August 2026

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Describes itself as the first investor for technical founders and states it backs leading engineers, researchers and scientists. Names early positions in Datadog, Fastly, Runway, Modal, Luma, Temporal and Chainguard.

Criteria: States a focus on technical founders building applications, models, tools and infrastructure, spanning artificial intelligence and machine learning, data infrastructure and developer tools. Publishes no stage definitions, no check sizes and no fund size.

What this means for your pitchThe filter here is you rather than your metrics. A firm describing itself as the first investor for technical founders is telling you it will read your engineering before your spreadsheet, which is good news if you are pre-revenue and bad news if your real advantage is commercial rather than technical.

Stage definitions, check sizes and fund size are not published by the firm.

Amplify PartnersChecked 17 August 2026

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Publishes an unusually specific account of how it actually behaves: states that 94 percent of its investments are seed or Series A, that it often goes from first meeting to term sheet in 24 hours, and that 85 percent of new Felicis-backed founders come from network referrals.

Criteria: Four named focus areas: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and defence, global resilience and energy, and health and bio. States it has backed early-stage founders from more than 40 countries, that more than 65 Felicis-backed companies are unicorns, and that its portfolio has generated over $300 billion in total market value. Publishes no check size and no fund size.

What this means for your pitchTake the 85 percent seriously. On the firm's own figures roughly five of every six new investments arrive through a referral, so an introduction here is not a nicety, it is the main road. The stated 24 hour turn cuts both ways: prepare as though the decision will be made in a day, because it may be.

FelicisChecked 17 August 2026

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States five decades of experience, 400 companies and more than 135 IPOs, and describes its purpose as backing the exceptional and helping convert momentum into market dominance.

Criteria: Publishes no stages, no sectors, no check sizes and no capital under management on its site. What it does publish is a track record measured largely in public listings.

What this means for your pitchRead the IPO count as the criteria they decline to publish. A firm that measures itself in public listings is looking for companies already on that path, which makes this a firm to approach when you have momentum to convert rather than when you need a first cheque.

Stages, sectors, check sizes and capital under management are not published by the firm. Figures appearing in secondary coverage are unverified here.

IVPChecked 17 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

Maintains the most minimal public presence of any firm in this directory. Its website states a Palo Alto address and very little else: no thesis, no criteria, no stages, no sectors, no team philosophy and no application route.

Criteria: Publishes nothing. This entry exists because knowing that is worth as much as any criteria list. There is no homework to do here, because the firm has published none to do.

What this means for your pitchDo not spend an afternoon hunting for a way in through their website, because there is not one. As with Benchmark, access is relationship driven, and the only realistic route is a founder or investor who already knows them. Spend the time you would have spent researching on finding that person.

Stages, sectors, check sizes, fund sizes and criteria are all unpublished. Widely reported descriptions of the firm's incubation model are not verified here.

The firm publishes no criteria; its website states an address and little else. Checked 17 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

Describes itself as a venture firm built like a technology company, and states it interviewed 500 founders to design its model. Its distinguishing claim is a proprietary data platform rather than a thesis.

Criteria: States approximately $3 billion in assets under management across seven named areas: health and pharmatech, enterprise AI, cybersecurity, fintech, consumer, applied AI and machine learning with vertical SaaS, and AI and machine learning infrastructure with developer tools. States its Beacon AI platform tracks 650 million employees and provides talent search, competitive intelligence and sales lead data, that portfolio companies average 47 support interactions with the firm per quarter, and that every company takes part in at least one programme within six months of joining. Publishes no check sizes and no stage definitions.

What this means for your pitchThe platform is the pitch, so make them show it. Forty-seven interactions a quarter is a specific and checkable claim, and a firm confident enough to publish that number should be willing to walk you through what those interactions actually were for a company at your stage.

Check sizes and stage definitions are not published by the firm.

SignalFireChecked 17 August 2026

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States it is a deep technology venture firm backing entrepreneurs who address the hardest, highest-stakes problems in the world, and that it has done so since 2010. States it has more published scientists than MBAs on its team.

Criteria: Names ten areas: AI, compute and quantum; computational biology and chemistry; cybersecurity, security and defence; energy and climate; finance and insurance; industrial transformation and advanced manufacturing; next generation agriculture; space; techbio; and techmed. Publishes no stages, no check sizes and no assets under management.

What this means for your pitchThe scientists-to-MBAs line is a hiring boast, but it is also an accurate warning about the meeting: expect to defend the science rather than the go-to-market. If your hard problem is technical and genuinely unsolved, this is the right room. If your advantage is commercial, it is not.

Stages, check sizes and assets under management are not published by the firm. A $1.3 billion fund target appears in press coverage and is unverified here.

DCVCChecked 17 August 2026

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States it is a team of senior operators and investors with one goal, to help founders build great companies, and describes itself as designed by founders for founders.

Criteria: Publishes no stages, no check sizes, no fund size and no sector list. Portfolio examples on the site point towards cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, but the firm states no sector focus of its own.

What this means for your pitchWith nothing published, the operator bench is the entire proposition. Ask in the first call which operators would actually work with you and how often, because that is the only thing distinguishing this from any other cheque, and it is the one thing they are claiming.

Stages, check sizes, fund size and sector focus are not published by the firm.

Craft VenturesChecked 17 August 2026

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States it invests in expansion-stage enterprise software companies, that it looks for businesses past product market fit which it believes can become category leaders, and that it invests with high conviction in a select number of companies.

Criteria: States firmwide assets under management of more than $10 billion as of 30 June 2026. Focus on enterprise AI, with a portfolio spanning data infrastructure, security, customer data platforms, sales and marketing automation, human resources technology, fintech and healthcare applications. Publishes a CEO net promoter score of 82 from its portfolio. Publishes no check sizes.

What this means for your pitchPost product market fit is the gate and they state it plainly, so do not approach before you can evidence it. The published net promoter score is unusual and worth using: ask them to introduce you to the founders who scored them, because a firm willing to publish the number should be comfortable with the reference call.

Check sizes are not published by the firm.

Sapphire VenturesChecked 17 August 2026

Full profile: what they are funding lately →

States it partners with early-stage AI companies. Publishes a go-to-market benchmark tool built from its portfolio data, which it describes as showing what good go-to-market looks like based on more than 175 venture-backed startups.

Criteria: Focus on AI applications and AI verticals. The published benchmarks are the substance of what it makes available to founders. Publishes no check sizes and no fund size.

What this means for your pitchUse the benchmark tool whether or not you ever pitch them. Knowing where your go-to-market metrics sit against 175 venture-backed companies is worth an afternoon regardless of who eventually funds you, and arriving already knowing where you sit against their own dataset is a strong opening.

Check sizes and fund size are not published by the firm.

Scale Venture PartnersChecked 17 August 2026

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A crossover investor rather than a pure venture firm: states it invests in innovation through both public and private markets. Runs three named private strategies, venture for early-stage startups, growth for late-stage companies, and tactical for debt and equity solutions, alongside public equities.

Criteria: Publishes no assets under management, no founding year, no check sizes and no sector definition on its site. Portfolio examples name Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, Stripe, SpaceX and Cursor.

What this means for your pitchKnow which of the three strategies you are approaching before you write, because venture, growth and tactical are different businesses with different mandates. Understand too that a crossover investor can mark your company against public comparables in a way a pure venture fund will not, which is a tailwind in a rising market and a discipline in a falling one.

Assets under management, founding year, check sizes and sector focus are not published by the firm. Figures appearing in secondary coverage are unverified here.

CoatueChecked 17 August 2026

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States 65 years of partnering with innovators and more than 700 companies backed. Invests from early-stage venture through late-stage growth, with dedicated operations in India and Israel alongside North America.

Criteria: Names biotechnology, life sciences, fintech, proptech, consumer products and business-to-business SaaS among its areas. Publishes no check sizes and no capital under management.

What this means for your pitchThe stage range is very wide, so the useful question is not whether they invest at your stage but which team does. Establish that before the first meeting, and if you are outside North America check whether the India or Israel practice is the right door, because they are presented as distinct operations.

Check sizes and capital under management are not published by the firm.

NorwestChecked 17 August 2026

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States more than 25 years of experience, describes itself as research driven, and says it pursues a long-term approach to partnering with high-quality, innovative companies across different stages of their lifecycle. Its website states very little else.

Criteria: Publishes no stages, no sectors, no check sizes and no assets under management. The site names one office, on West 57th Street in New York, and offers a founder no route to make contact. As with Benchmark and Sutter Hill, the absence is the information.

What this means for your pitchDo not spend time constructing a pitch path from the website, because there is none. Access is relationship driven. The firm is widely described in reporting as a fast mover at growth stage; treat that as reputation rather than published fact, and expect any engagement to arrive through your existing investors rather than through inbound.

Stages, sectors, check sizes and assets under management are not published by the firm. Descriptions of its crossover strategy and its pace appear only in secondary coverage and are unverified here.

Tiger GlobalChecked 18 August 2026

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States $3 billion under management and describes its approach as early conviction: backing founders with the vision to define entire categories and the courage to own the totality of what they build from the start.

Criteria: Four named categories: brands and experiences, marketplaces and services, personal systems, and platforms and infrastructure, read through three stated AI lenses, AI as agent, AI as infrastructure, and AI as intelligence layer. States that the most important companies being built now deploy serious technical capability while making deliberate decisions about how people experience and rely on it. Publishes no check sizes.

What this means for your pitchThe category vocabulary is the filter. Place your company in one of their four categories and say which AI lens applies before they ask, because asking them to do your positioning is the wrong first impression. The experience language is not decoration either; expect questions about how people will live with the product, not just what the model can do.

ForerunnerChecked 18 August 2026

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Founded in 2007 by Nigel Morris with former Capital One colleagues Frank Rotman and Caribou Honig. Invests only in financial services, from credit and lending to insurance, wealth management, proptech, banking as a service and embedded finance, across the entire lifecycle from pre-seed to IPO, with named early and growth vehicles including Belay and Fontes.

Criteria: States $4.0 billion under management and $2.4 billion invested, operating in 20 countries across five continents: the United States since 2007, Europe since 2012, Latin America since 2014, Asia and India since 2021, Africa since 2022. Publishes its cheque arithmetic: typical initial checks of $3 million to $10 million, an early-stage average of approximately $15 million in total, and growth investments of $15 million to $20 million. States it looks for durable businesses built on strong unit economics, and that it avoids companies that have a new technology and are looking for a place to use it.

What this means for your pitchLead with unit economics, because they state plainly that is the foundation they underwrite. The founding partners spent careers inside Capital One, so expect credit-grade scrutiny of your numbers, not vibes. And if your story is a technology in search of a use case, they have told you in advance that they will pass.

QED InvestorsChecked 18 August 2026

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A fintech specialist that publishes philosophy rather than criteria. Its site states that the future belongs to the rebels, and that it backs not just technology or business models but the ability of founders to build brands that matter.

Criteria: Names its territory as running from AI to global commerce, from infrastructure to wealth management, from money movement to identity, and from data to energy. Publishes no stages, no check sizes, no fund sizes and no assets under management, and offers no application route or contact process on its site.

What this means for your pitchThe site tells you how they think, not how to reach them, and both facts matter. If your fintech thesis is about brand and changing how people feel about a category, their language will fit yours. Plan the approach through investors and founders they already know, because the front door does not exist. For published fintech criteria and cheque sizes, compare QED in this directory.

Stages, check sizes, fund sizes and assets under management are not published by the firm.

Ribbit CapitalChecked 18 August 2026

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Founded by founders who state they built 10 companies with more than $10 billion in exits. The name stands for network effects, which the firm has studied for over 20 years and calls the number one way to create defensibility in the digital world.

Criteria: States it typically invests at pre-seed and seed, in the United States, Israel, Latin America and Europe, and that it underwrites two things: the founding team and the market opportunity. States it funds you first and funds you fast. Backed founders join The Guild, its network of more than 500 founders. Publishes 448 essays, a network effects manual describing 16 distinct types, a free three hour masterclass, and software for founders: Signal, a fundraising network connecting founders to investors, and Brieflink for sharing decks.

What this means for your pitchRead the network effects manual before you pitch, then name which of the 16 types your product builds and why it strengthens with each user. That is their underwriting language, and arriving fluent in it is the cheapest credibility available here. They state the best routes in are a warm introduction or Signal, their own tool, which is a door any founder can open without knowing anyone.

NFX, aboutChecked 18 August 2026

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A thesis-driven early-stage firm whose stated thesis is AI for the digital, physical and biological world, with SaaS and business-to-business software as its heritage. States it is a small equal partnership of four partners, each working closely with six to eight companies.

Criteria: Publishes its cheque range plainly: $1 million to $10 million per company, across pre-seed, seed and Series A. States it works alongside exceptional founders to accelerate their learning and provide unfair shortcuts. Based in Europe, investing globally.

What this means for your pitchOne of very few firms in this directory that both publishes its cheque range and operates from Europe, which makes it a natural first read for a European B2B founder. Four partners at six to eight companies each is a deliberately small book: expect genuine partner attention if you get in, and be honest with yourself about the odds implied by that arithmetic.

Point NineChecked 18 August 2026

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States it likes to come in at the earliest stages, writing a first check at seed or even pre-seed, then supporting subsequent rounds from a growth fund. Headquartered in Los Angeles with investment professionals in the Bay Area as well, investing nationally and, for the right deal, globally.

Criteria: States a belief in rolling up sleeves and doing the hard work alongside founders, and specifically in being there when a company hits a bump in the road, even when that means delivering tough messages others will not. Hosts the annual Upfront Summit in Los Angeles, an invitation-only gathering of more than 1,000 investors, entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Publishes no check sizes and no fund sizes.

What this means for your pitchThe tough-messages line is the tell: this is a firm advertising candour rather than cheerleading, which is worth more than a slightly larger cheque when the road bends. Their Thoughts blog writes up recent seed leads and the reasoning behind them in public, which is the practical read before any approach.

Check sizes and fund sizes are not published by the firm.

Upfront Ventures, aboutChecked 18 August 2026

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The Pacific Northwest anchor of this directory. States it invests in people and ideas for the long run, and describes itself as an active, full-stack partner that rolls up its sleeves to help founders turn visionary ideas into transformational businesses.

Criteria: Backs founding teams at seed, early and acceleration stages, across named areas including AI and intelligent apps, AI-enabled biotech, consumer and marketplace, data and infrastructure, deep tech, developer platforms and tools, enterprise apps, and security. Publishes no check sizes and no fund sizes.

What this means for your pitchIf you are building in Seattle this is the first serious call, and they will still see you from Palo Alto. The acceleration-stage language matters: they state they stay past the first check, so ask directly what staying with a company at your stage has actually looked like.

Check sizes and fund sizes are not published by the firm.

MadronaChecked 18 August 2026

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States its philosophy in six words: invest in people over product, at the earliest stages of the entrepreneurial journey. Describes itself as a classic pre-seed and seed firm investing in long-term relationships with founders it believes in.

Criteria: States that since 2015 it has partnered with more than 500 founding teams. Publishes no check sizes and no fund sizes on its site.

What this means for your pitchPeople over product is an underwriting statement, not a slogan: the meeting will be about you, your judgment and your history more than your demo. Five hundred teams in a decade also says they decide often, so prepare to talk about yourself with the same rigour most founders reserve for the market slide.

Check sizes and fund sizes are not published by the firm.

Precursor VenturesChecked 18 August 2026

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States it invests in hilariously early startups, and that a founder does not need perfect metrics, a famous network, or a 47-slide deck. What it says you do need: an ambitious idea, evidence of hustle, and the nerve to start.

Criteria: Publishes the three numbers most firms keep private: a first check of $150,000, a decision in one to two meetings, and less than a week from yes to wire. Applications are open to anyone through a form on its site.

What this means for your pitchThis is the fastest published path from stranger to funded in the directory: an open form, one or two meetings, and money inside a week of a yes. The $150,000 check also tells you what it is for, getting started rather than getting far, so know what the next raise looks like before you take this one.

Hustle FundChecked 18 August 2026

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