Investor database for startups: 4,196 investors, matched to your plan

What’s in the investor database

The Cuttles investor database lists 4,196 active firms that invest directly in startups and small businesses: venture capital firms, angel networks, accelerators, corporate VCs, impact funds, family offices and venture studios, with headquarters in 84 countries. Each profile holds:

• Type and headquarters, and where they invest: named countries, regions or worldwide.
• Stages from pre-seed to late stage, and sectors and business types they back, or whether they invest across all sectors.
• Check size, quoted from their own website when they publish it (995 do).
• How they take pitches: 1,255 have a pitch form, 340 a pitch email address, 160 run application rounds and 43 use a platform. 83 say they only take warm introductions, and the rest only have a general contact page.
• A link to their own website and a confidence level for the profile.

It is firm-level only: no partner names, no personal email addresses and no phone numbers. It isn’t sold as a list or a download. The database is what Cuttles’ Funding match uses to show each founder the investors that fit their own business plan.

Investor types in the database

We only include firms that invest directly in startups and are active. Private equity buyout firms, funds of funds, advisers and lenders, including venture debt funds, are left out.

Investors by stage and check size

Stage is the first filter investors use, and the first one Cuttles applies. Many firms cover several stages:

The list of pre-seed investors is 1,817 long. Most are VCs (1,340), but it is also where angel networks (215), accelerators (119) and venture studios (62) are most active.

Check size matters as much as stage. 995 investors publish their check size, and the median smallest check among them is about $350,000. Many VC funds are simply too big for a first small round. If you need $50,000, angel networks and accelerators are the likelier fit. If your budget shows a need of $2 million, a seed fund is.

VC firms and angel investors by country

Where a firm is based isn’t always where it invests: 1,261 say they invest worldwide, and many name specific countries or regions. Cuttles matches on where they invest, not on their address. For each country: investors based there, investors based elsewhere that name it as a market, and investors that cover its wider region.

Angel networks

Angel groups tend to invest close to home. We have 306 angel networks, 131 of them in the US, from big-city groups to regional networks in smaller states. US venture firms are concentrated in New York (263) and the Bay Area (San Francisco 255, Palo Alto 95, Menlo Park 71), followed by Boston (85), Los Angeles, Austin and Chicago, but many of them invest nationwide.

Investors by sector

A firm can invest in several sectors. The most common in our database:

Investors cluster where fast growth is possible: software, health, climate and fintech. Consumer brands have fewer but real options, with 356 investors backing e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands. Local businesses have almost none: only 23 investors say they back brick-and-mortar businesses such as restaurants or cafés.

When investors aren’t the right fit

Venture investors need a few companies in each fund to return the whole fund, so they look for businesses that can grow very large. A profitable café, agency or trade business can be a great business and still not fit. Investors are probably not your route if:

• you serve one local area, or growth means opening one location at a time,
• you want to keep full ownership and control,
• you need the money within weeks, or
• you can’t yet show how the business could grow many times over.

In those cases, look at startup and small business grants, early revenue from customers, crowdfunding and your own savings. Cuttles doesn’t cover loans.

What Cuttles does and doesn’t do

• It shows public information about firms: what they say they invest in, their check size if published, and how they take pitches, with a link to their own website. No partner names or personal email addresses.
• It doesn’t contact investors for you. No introductions and no pitches sent on your behalf. You decide who to contact.
• It doesn’t give investment advice, take success fees or guarantee funding.
• No lenders. Loans and venture debt are left out.
• Details can go out of date. Profiles we couldn’t fully confirm are marked. Check the investor’s website before you pitch.