86 Seed Investors in San Francisco — 82 Currently Deploying

Invest first in founders making mutants a reality by reimagining the universe. Generalist investors backing companies that make 1 billion lives better through bold bets in deep tec…

Bee Partners backs radical technical founders at inception (pre-product, pre-revenue) with conviction-first capital. They invest in AI supercycle futures, enterprise AI agents, har…

We are founders and operators who partner with early-stage founders building infrastructure and SaaS companies, leveraging our experience to help technical founders nail go-to-mark…

South Park Commons helps talented technologists and founders turn 'illegible into the inevitable' by providing a home for figuring out what's next, transitioning from -1 to 0 (pre-…

YC turns builders into formidable founders by providing structured mentorship, funding, and network access during a 12-week batch program. The program transforms early-stage teams …

Offer founders pursuing their life's work an alternative to the hype cycle by providing long-term thinking and supporting category-defining companies across all sectors that will l…

Operator Collective is an early-stage B2B venture firm that connects founders to exceptional enterprise operators, believing companies succeed because of the people who build them.

Forum Ventures is a founder-first AI venture studio, accelerator, and pre-seed fund committed to the entrepreneurial journey from zero to one, with a maniacal focus on becoming an …

Write the first check to builders who are still dreaming, tinkering, and exploring what they want to create. Work with founders pre-product, pre-traction, and often pre-idea.

Investing in the best technical storytellers at preseed and seed stage. The fund focuses on founders who can effectively communicate complex technical visions.

Lead and co-lead Series A and Seed rounds in companies with early signs of product-market fit, focusing on consumer technology and consumerization of enterprise technology.

Accelerating AI-native founders at the earliest stages. Lead early rounds in companies and founders building the future, providing that first check before others think you're onto …

Partner with bold technical founders from inception, before product or first check, backing AI-native infrastructure, security, apps, and models to build the autonomous enterprise.

Pre-seed venture fund leading investments in Intelligent Industry Solutions, focused on AI-led innovation that delivers radical productivity, industrial efficiency through percepti…

Champion inspired and obsessive builders across seed stage, from enterprise SaaS to sustainability, health, hard tech, AI, infrastructure, consumer, and crypto. Provide guidance fr…

We back founders building things the world hasn't seen yet, at the moment before the world believes. We are a specialized and scaled seed fund designed to actually deliver with dee…

Amplify invests in technical founders building the next generation of applications, models, tools, and infrastructure. For almost 15 years they have been the first investor and par…

Bold, early, impactful ventures with brutal honesty. Believe in world-class teams making contrarian bets on impossibly big ideas, from AI to cleantech to deep tech.

Support audacious entrepreneurs building consumer technology that transforms how billions experience the world through connectivity, convenience, entertainment and empowerment, inv…

NFX identifies and backs founders building companies with network effects. The fund emphasizes software development, founder support through content/tools, and emerging technologie…

Atomic functions as a co-founder replacement, providing serial entrepreneurs, specialist teams, and resources to de-risk company building and accelerate time to market while founde…

Backing outlier founders at the earliest stages.

Early stage B2B-focused venture firm specializing in building enterprise leaders through disruptive B2B AI software investments in enterprise infrastructure, cybersecurity, and rel…

SignalFire is a VC firm built like a tech company that combines AI tools, data infrastructure, and deep sector expertise with portfolio support to help founders scale faster. The f…

Neo invests in people and the next generation of founders through pre-seed/seed funding, a startup residency program, and a diverse mentorship community. The fund believes in suppo…

Heavybit invests from Day 0 with high conviction in unique, transformative technical startups that build enterprise infrastructure, providing hands-on support to scale from incepti…

Bonfire backs founders reshaping how businesses operate as AI rewires every workflow. With two decades investing in business software, they lead seed rounds and commit deeply to a …

Experienced founders (particularly serial/exit founders) win 22x more often. Zero-equity retreats attract elite repeat founders who avoid traditional accelerators, enabling first-m…

Partnering with ambitious early-stage founders building category-defining companies across enterprise and consumer sectors.

AI Fund is a venture studio that co-founds companies with entrepreneurs, venture funds, and corporate partners to build AI-powered startups that move humanity forward, from idea to…

The product-market fit partner for technical enterprise founders, turning product-market fit from improbable to inevitable through proprietary playbook and methodology.

High-conviction early-stage venture firm seeking winning founders in emerging technologies, particularly in crypto, DeFi, tokenization, and stablecoins.

The first venture capital firm designed for a new era where work is more creative, life is more flexible, and founders can be 'triple threats' combining multiple skill sets and rev…

A fund of 500+ Y Combinator alumni investing in and supporting top startups from Y Combinator, the world's top accelerator.

Specialists in pre-seed and seed investing, founded by operators who have built and scaled companies. Provide hands-on support through recruiting, GTM coaching, fundraising assista…

Early-stage founders solving large, urgent problems with durable companies using technology to create substantive change. Homebrew provides capital, time, and reputation beyond jus…

Help entrepreneurs find product-market fit at seed stage, then scale. Leverage a council of 100+ top product leaders to build winning products loved by customers.

Back the world's best AI native founders at pre-seed and seed stages with product and go-to-market expertise from OpenAI, Meta, Twitter, and a16z to help them reshape the world.

Founders backing founders with first-hand experience. Global vision to scale a founders-centric investment model.

We're aligned with founders for the long haul, investing at the earliest stages with sector-agnostic conviction in exceptional entrepreneurs. We believe in founder alignment, early…

GC backs founders who venture beyond, partnering with leading entrepreneurs to build toward global resiliency and applied AI. We are an investment and transformation company.

Lead seed rounds and partner with founders from 0 to 1

Back founders who rewrite the rules and imagine what's next, with focus on early-stage companies demonstrating conviction-driven vision across multiple sectors and geographies.

Seed-stage fund that helps founders build generational companies by providing connections, experience, hands-on support, and human-centered partnership from pre-seed through scale.

Network-driven seed fund that provides $500K-$3M in capital plus access to 400+ founders, operator angels, and luminary LPs from world's greatest tech companies to help founders bu…

Air Street Capital invests in AI-first companies as early as possible, iterating through product, market and technology strategy from day 1 to create enduring companies with lastin…

Partner at inception with technically brilliant founders who see past impossible to inevitable. Invest in technical breakthroughs becoming world-changing companies, particularly in…

Back visionary and relentless founders building the future using technology and science. Belief in AGI for good, decentralized systems, personalized well-being, quiet electric tran…

Canaan invests in visionaries with transformative ideas where science and technology become society. The firm focuses on early-stage companies that break the mold to bring spectacu…

Invest in people first, companies second. Focus on seed-stage technology startups led by entrepreneurs uniquely positioned to transform their industry, with emphasis on atypical fo…

Cherubic invests in the most ambitious founders from angel to pre-IPO stage, acting as a long-term partner and friend first, investor second.

First believers in AI Native founders, providing zero to one capital and hands-on support for builders of AI Native applications, infrastructure, and developer tools.

Invest in people over product at the earliest stages of entrepreneurial journey, focusing on long-term relationships with founders at pre-seed and seed stages.

Cambrian Ventures backs founders building fintech infrastructure and adjacent verticals. Money connects everything, so they invest broadly across lending, insurtech, healthtech, pa…

Invest in startups from seed to Series B across Artificial Intelligence, Lifestyle consumption upgrades, and Frontier Technology, partnering with founders creating waves of innovat…

First Round partners with unreasonable founders at the earliest stages to help them imagine and build transformative companies. The fund focuses on being the world's best partner f…

Investing in technology companies within supply chain, manufacturing, and software infrastructure that makes and moves the world.

Correlation Ventures backs groundbreaking technology and data science companies that solve industry problems through rapid decision-making and industry-leading networks.

First institutional investor for early-stage AI founders, with 70% of investments beginning at inception. People-first approach to building breakthrough companies.

Paradigm builds and invests across crypto, AI, robotics, and other new frontiers, with a focus on advancing the frontier for everyone through software development and open source c…

How many seed investors are actively deploying right now?

DryPowder tracks 86 seed funds. Of these, 82 are currently deploying capital based on recent fund closes, portfolio activity, and partner signals. Use DryPowder's fund matching to see which ones fit your specific startup.

What check size do seed VCs write?

Among 86 seed funds on DryPowder, check sizes run from $25K–$50M. Ranges vary by fund size, vintage, and whether the fund leads rounds. Each fund profile shows check size detail and lead preference.

How do I get a meeting with a seed VC?

A warm intro is still the fastest path. Most seed VCs on DryPowder do accept cold outreach or direct applications, but response rates vary widely by fund. Before reaching out, use DryPowder's AI matching to get a fit score and specific talking points. Founders who lead with thesis-aligned framing get significantly better response rates than those sending the same deck to every fund on a list.

How long does a seed round typically take to close?

Seed rounds typically take 3-6 months from first meeting to close. Most of that time is spent on qualification: investors want to see early traction, run multiple meetings, and often complete reference checks. With a committed lead who sets terms, the rest of the round usually fills within 2-4 weeks. Without a lead, the process drags. DryPowder's deployment signals help identify which seed funds are actively writing checks right now versus sitting between vehicles.

How many seed investors should I be talking to at once?

Most fundraisers recommend a parallel process: identify 20-40 target investors but approach your highest-fit funds first. Of the 82 seed funds currently deploying, not all will match your specific stage and sector. Use fund matching to find your top 10-15, approach those first, collect feedback, then go wider. Going to every fund simultaneously without qualifying first burns bridges and dilutes the urgency that helps close a round.

How is DryPowder different from building a VC list on LinkedIn or Crunchbase?

The fund list you build on LinkedIn or Crunchbase is roughly the same list every other founder is building. DryPowder adds three things a manual search cannot: deployment signals (which funds have recently closed new vehicles and are actively writing checks), AI thesis matching (which of the 86 seed funds actually fits your specific startup, ranked by fit), and verified partner contact details. The goal is 15 targeted, thesis-aligned pitches instead of 150 generic ones.