52 Emerging Investors Who Want You to Pitch Them Now
It’s the first big question in anyone’s fundraising journey: “Who should I pitch?”
The answer might be: Pitch an emerging investor.
Why? For good reason, according to the team at AngelList, who we partnered with to make this list: Emerging managers bring a distinct mix of energy, focus, and accessibility. Because they’re actively building their reputations, they tend to be deeply engaged with the founders they back—and are often more open to unconventional ideas, backgrounds, and business models. Their funds are typically sized to participate meaningfully in early-stage rounds, allowing them to invest earlier, build conviction faster, and form deeper relationships with founders from the start.
To create this list, AngelList began with a dataset of several hundred venture GPs and then focused on sustained performance, portfolio quality, and consistent early-stage activity. They then prioritized reputation and founder credibility, strength of top investments, and deal-leading activity. The result highlights firms (and their leaders) with meaningful traction — and signal for founders (like you!) to engage.
Spacecadet
Wiz Khuzai leads Spacecadet, which invests in Spacecadets and markets their moonshots. Their goal? To seek and support the boldest, brightest founders to build world-changing moonshots at the frontiers of science and technology.
Cambrian Ventures
Cambrian Ventures is founded by Rex Salisbury, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He funds pre-seed and seed startups that are reshaping the financial services landscape through technological innovation.
GTMfund
Max Altschuler and Paul Irving focus on early- stage B2B SaaS companies founded by great go-to-market (GTM) operators. Their network of VP and C-level GTM leaders helps identify top startups, support due diligence, and help portfolio companies.
Zero Prime Ventures
Pete Soderling and Yang Tran write first checks to enterprise startups that use emerging tech to transform how businesses operate—backing day-zero engineer-founders building technically differentiated startups.
SuperAngel.Fund
Ben Zises’s early-stage fund backs consumer, proptech, and future-of-work startups. It invests early, stays close to founders, and doubles down as breakout growth and strong data emerge.
Nomad Ventures
James Mumma and Chris Nakutis Taylor (First 200 employees at Uber; founding team of Uber Eats) run this early-stage fund that’s focused on foundational industries, network-effect businesses, and marketplace models.
Coalition Operators
Toyin Ajayi, Jaclyn Rice Nelson, Lindsay Ullman, and Ashley Mayer lead this early- stage firm powered by active founders and operators. They aim to create the venture product they’ve always wanted: specific, tangible support from people still in the trenches.
Spice Capital
Maya Bakhai is the founder and GP of Spice Capital, which seeks visionary founders building net-new ideas. Spice Capital is a first-yes firm investing into pre-seed and seed rounds. Since 2021, Spice Capital has backed 50-plus startups across AI, blockchain, fintech, consumer, and deep-tech.
Gutter Capital
Dan Teran and James Gettinger invest in pre-seed and seed-stage software and tech companies that reshape major industries or solve existential problems. The firm seeks exceptional founders tackling issues of affordability, economic mobility, and sustainability.
Allison Pickens Ventures & The New Normal Fund
Allison Pickens invests in founders who are building AI-powered enterprise software, which draws on Allison’s experience as Gainsight’s former COO and a board director for leading SaaS companies.
Leonis Capital
Jay Zhao is the GP of Leonis Capital, a research-driven venture firm investing in exceptional early-stage startups. The firm backs AI-first companies at the seed and pre-seed stages, leveraging deep research to identify breakthrough trends before they reach the mainstream.
Climate Capital
Sundeep Ahuja is the founding GP of Climate Capital, one of the world’s most active climate investors. The firm backs companies across energy generation and transmission, critical minerals, wildfire prevention, and nuclear, providing founders with comprehensive support.
Davidovs Venture Collective (DVC)
GPs Nick Davidov, alongside Marina Davidova, Mel Guymon, Alexey Rybak, and Charles Ferguson lead this venture firm focused on pre-seed and seed- stage companies. They focus on repeat founders in AI, machine learning, robotics, fintech, enterprise software, and biotech.
Forward Deployed Venture Capital
Mark Scianna invests in startups modernizing critical industries through applied AI. Scianna, who worked at Palantir for 11 years, primarily invests in the defense, energy, industrials, and AI sectors, leveraging active-duty and veteran networks to bridge U.S. government challenges with startup solutions.
Canonical
Anand Iyer is the GP of Canonical, a San Francisco-based early-stage VC firm backing founders building deep technology companies. The firm invests in technical founders developing open and decentralized AI infrastructure that will power a post-AGI world.
Recall Capital
Somrat Niyogi is a pre-seed and seed “first check” B2B investor for horizontal and vertical AI applications. Recall Capital leverages their deep operating experience to help founders achieve go-to-market (GTM) fit through hands-on GTM coaching and pipeline generation.
Vela Partners
Yiğit Ihlamur and Fuat Alican lead Vela Partners, an AI-native VC fund built from day zero. From the beginning, the firm has used AI to find and evaluate companies, partnering with founders building in AI and other software domains.
Duro Ventures
Jeroen Bertrams and Sundeep Ahuja (also of Climate Capital, above) are the GPs of Duro Ventures, which invests in exceptional founders at the earliest stages across AI, B2B SaaS, dev tools, consumer, and health tech. The firm’s portfolio includes standout companies such as Turing, Substack, and Shef.
Weekend Fund
Ryan Hoover and Vedika Jain back early- stage startups shaping what’s next. With the support of 350-plus operator LPs, their portfolio spans weird consumer to boring (but big) B2B, led by cutting-edge founders.
The Raba Partnership
George Rzepecki focuses on the intersection of software and network effects in Africa. His firm partners long-term with founders of category- defining African software and internet companies.
Riverside Ventures
Alex Pattis is the GP of Riverside Ventures, a generalist venture capital firm investing in high-growth technology companies. It has invested in 300-plus companies and does not typically lead or price rounds.
Kearny Jackson
Sriram Krishnan and Sunil Chhaya lead this early-stage fund backing founders building the next generation of B2B companies. They partner closely with ambitious technology founders from day zero, providing hands-on support and guidance.
Coelius Capital
Zach Coelius invests in early-stage B2B and B2C software. The firm backs unconventional, high-potential ideas with checks ranging from $200K to $1M, with past investments including Mercury, Cruise, Booksy, Branch Metrics, and Fireflies.
Prototype Capital
Andreas Klinger invests across hardware, automation, AI, robotics, and frontier tech in Europe. His firm focuses on backing ambitious founders leveraging new technologies and is known for championing systematic change in Europe’s startup ecosystem.
Recursive Ventures
Itamar Novick invests in pre-seed tech startups disrupting antiquated industries using data and AI. The firm partners closely with founders to build momentum, move quickly, and help secure smart capital to scale their businesses.
AirAngels
Daniel Rumennik and Lenny Rachitsky are the GPs of AirAngels, which invests in early- stage tech that transforms the way people live, work, and play. Daniel and Lenny are former Airbnb operators who leverage their global network and deep expertise to help founders scale.
iSeed
Utsav Somani is the GP of iSeed, which backs Indian founders with their first checks in the U.S. and India. The firm invests in early-stage technology startups and is supported by a global network of founders and investors helping Indian entrepreneurs scale internationally.
Night Capital
Kevin Carter and Colt Sauers back exceptional founders building in massive markets. Founded by Carter, the firm invests $300K to $500K at the earliest stages across technology sectors and has a portfolio that includes companies such as Zip, Underdog, Kalshi, and Deel.
Todd & Rahul Capital
Todd Goldberg and Rahul Vohra are generalist investors focused on supporting early- stage founders with bold ideas. The firm backs ambitious startups with $300K to $500K investments, helping founders find product–market fit, accelerate go-to-market, and raise from top-tier investors.
Everywhere Ventures
Jenny Fielding and Scott Hartley back pre-seed founders building the future of money, health, and work. The firm has grown from a New York–focused fund into a global operation with over $100M AUM and 300-plus portfolio companies, backing founders in more than 30 countries around the world.
Tenacity Venture Capital
Ben Narasin is the GP of Tenacity Venture Capital, which invests at the seed stage—the top one basis point of the thousand-mile journey. The firm focuses on early-stage technology companies and supports founders through the challenges of building enduring businesses.
Rogue Capital
Christopher Golda is the founder of Rogue Capital, a San Francisco–based early- stage venture firm investing in high-growth technology startups. A former engineer and founder of BackType (acquired by Twitter), he brings deep product and fundraising experience, having invested early in startups such as Benchling, Coinbase, and Supabase.
Draft Ventures
Draft Ventures is a venture fund and venture studio by Artia Moghbel and David Rodriguez. The firm invests in, incubates, and advises pre-seed and seed stage companies in AI, fintech, proptech, and climate tech.
It’s the first big question in anyone’s fundraising journey: “Who should I pitch?”
The answer might be: Pitch an emerging investor.
Why? For good reason, according to the team at AngelList, who we partnered with to make this list: Emerging managers bring a distinct mix of energy, focus, and accessibility. Because they’re actively building their reputations, they tend to be deeply engaged with the founders they back—and are often more open to unconventional ideas, backgrounds, and business models. Their funds are typically sized to participate meaningfully in early-stage rounds, allowing them to invest earlier, build conviction faster, and form deeper relationships with founders from the start.
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