101 VCs & Angels Open to Cold Outreach in 2026
The most detailed founder directory on the internet. 101 verified investors with fund sizes, check sizes, portfolio companies, notable exits, IPO track records, partner backgrounds, and direct contacts. No warm intro required.
How to use this list: Every investor below has publicly indicated they accept cold outreach. But cold does not mean lazy. Research each fund's thesis, read what the partners have written, and craft a personalized email under 200 words. Personalized cold emails to thesis-matched investors achieve 15-25% reply rates vs. 1-5% for generic blasts. A well-targeted cold email beats a lukewarm intro every time.
01 Tier 1 Funds That Accept Cold Inbound
These are the most established funds on this list. Getting a meeting is harder, but they explicitly accept cold outreach at their seed programs. The upside of landing one of these as a lead investor is enormous for follow-on signaling.
Founded in 1911 (oldest VC firm in the world), ranked 3rd largest by Venture Capital Journal in 2024. Offices in SF, NYC, Boston, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Hong Kong, London. Publishes the industry-standard annual "State of the Cloud" report. Their 2015 vintage fund achieved a reported 3.5x MOIC. Named to CB Insights Smart Money 2025 list. Launched Founders Garage and Bessemer Beam incubators in 2025.
Notable exits: LinkedIn ($26.2B acquisition by Microsoft), Shopify ($100B+ market cap), Twilio (IPO, $70B+ peak), Pinterest (IPO, $12.7B), StubHub (IPO 2025), Hinge Health (IPO 2025), Wiz ($32B acquisition by Google), Mindbody ($2B acquisition by Vista), Melio ($2.5B acquisition by Xero)
Active portfolio:
Investment thesis: Cloud computing, developer tools, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare tech. ~40% of portfolio in cloud/SaaS. Thesis-driven with published "roadmaps" for each sector. Seeks companies with $1B+ ARR potential.
What they look for: Category-defining companies ("roadmap companies"). Strong technical founders. Large TAM. Early signs of product-market fit.
HQ: San Francisco / New York · Website: bvp.com · Team: 210 people, 32 partners
One of Silicon Valley's most powerful firms with dedicated funds for crypto, bio, games, infrastructure, and American Dynamism alongside core tech funds. Their START program specifically targets pre-seed and seed deals with smaller checks. Known for their massive platform team (100+ operators) that helps portfolio companies with recruiting, marketing, and BD.
Notable exits/portfolio: Facebook (pre-IPO), GitHub ($7.5B to Microsoft), Coinbase (IPO), Airbnb (IPO), Instacart (IPO), Okta (IPO), Slack (IPO), Figma ($16.3B IPO 2025), Mistral AI, OpenAI
Investment thesis: Sector-agnostic at seed via START. Dedicated funds: crypto ($7.2B), bio ($2.2B), games ($600M), infra ($3.4B), American Dynamism (defense/gov tech).
Partner background: Blake Kim (seed program) manages early-stage dealflow. Marc Andreessen (co-founder) created Netscape. Ben Horowitz (co-founder) was CEO of Opsware (sold to HP for $1.6B).
HQ: Menlo Park, CA · Website: a16z.com
Tiger Global-style crossover fund that invests from seed to public markets. Unusual in writing very small seed checks ($50K) alongside massive growth rounds. Data-driven investment approach with proprietary analytics platform. Founded by Philippe Laffont, former Tiger Management analyst.
Notable portfolio: Snap (IPO), DoorDash (IPO), Airtable, Chime, Rippling, Ramp, Instacart (IPO), ServiceTitan (IPO 2025)
Why they matter for founders: Getting a seed check from Coatue signals serious follow-on potential, as they routinely lead Series A-C rounds for their best-performing seed investments internally.
HQ: New York · Website: coatue.com
02 US Pre-Seed & Seed VCs
Micro-VCs and seed funds writing first checks of $50K-$3M. These are the investors most likely to respond to cold outreach because they actively need to source deals beyond their network. Most invest off a single meeting and can move in days, not weeks.
Founded by Aileen Lee, the investor who coined the term "unicorn." Previously a Senior Partner at Kleiner Perkins for 10+ years, where she worked hands-on from Series A through IPO on Bloom Energy (IPO), Rent the Runway (IPO), and Trendyol (acquired by Alibaba). MIT and Harvard Business School. Co-founded All Raise (nonprofit advancing women in VC). ~70% of first checks go to pre-product companies.
Notable portfolio: Guild Education ($4.4B valuation), Drata ($2B valuation, security compliance), Dollar Shave Club (acquired by Unilever for $1B), DocSend (acquired by Dropbox), Product Hunt, Textio, August (smart locks)
Investment thesis: Generalist, but ~70% of recent investments in enterprise software. "Life 2.0" -- technology products that re-imagine work and personal life. Particularly strong in fintech (specialist partner Jill Williams, ex-Anthemis) and enterprise AI/robotics (partner Amanda Robson, ex-Norwest).
What they look for: Exceptional teams in large markets. Happy to invest pre-product. Value diversity -- one of the first female-led VC firms in Silicon Valley.
HQ: Palo Alto, CA · Website: cowboy.vc · Team: Aileen Lee, Jill Williams, Amanda Robson, Ted Wang (Board Partner)
Founded by Alex Iskold, a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Techstars NYC (ran it as MD for 5 years) and multiple startups (GetGlue, sold to i.TV; Information Laboratory). Known for being extremely founder-friendly and responsive to cold outreach. Writes extensively on his blog about what makes a good pitch. His Techstars background means he's seen thousands of pitches and can evaluate quickly.
Notable portfolio: Early-stage companies in AI infrastructure, developer tools, and vertical SaaS. Portfolio companies have gone on to raise from a16z, Bessemer, Accel.
Why founders like them: Alex personally responds to most inbound emails. Known for giving honest, fast feedback even on passes. Decision speed is typically 1-2 weeks.
HQ: New York · Website: 2048.vc
The largest dedicated fintech seed fund. Founded by Jake Gibson, co-founder of NerdWallet (grew it to $100M+ revenue). Sheel Mohnot, co-founded several fintech companies. Their fintech specialization means they understand unit economics, regulatory moats, and distribution challenges deeply -- a huge advantage over generalist seed investors for fintech founders.
Notable portfolio: Mantl (banking infrastructure), Middesk (business identity), Heron Data, Nuvocargo, Prism Data, Clerkie
Investment thesis: Exclusively fintech across all sub-verticals: payments, lending, insurance, infrastructure, crypto, B2B financial services. Global, but majority US.
HQ: San Francisco · Website: btv.vc
Impact-oriented seed fund that has backed several breakout companies. Their thesis centers on businesses creating positive change in food systems, health, climate, and financial inclusion. Not a pure impact fund -- they target top-quartile returns while investing in companies making the world better. Morgan Housel, author of "The Psychology of Money," is a partner.
Notable portfolio: Lyft (IPO), Reddit (IPO), Impossible Foods, Kickstarter, Tala, Circul, Danone Manifesto Ventures, Beyond Meat (IPO), Pilot
What they look for: Companies at the intersection of commerce and positive impact. Strong founder-market fit. Evidence that the business model aligns incentives with good outcomes.
HQ: New York · Website: collabfund.com
Named after the year Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses (challenging the establishment). Co-founded by Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, both ex-Thiel Fellowship directors. Their thesis: the best founders are often those who buck conventional paths. They explicitly invest in young founders, dropouts, and unconventional backgrounds. One of the few funds that will write a $50K check to someone with just an idea.
Notable portfolio: Luminar Technologies (IPO, LIDAR for autonomous vehicles -- founded by Austin Russell, Thiel Fellow), Figma (early investor, $16.3B IPO 2025), Scale AI
Investment thesis: Deeptech, education, biotech, frontier technology. Backs founders who are building things the world doesn't know it needs yet.
HQ: San Francisco · Website: 1517fund.com
Solo GP fund run by Charlie O'Donnell, one of NYC's most well-known and accessible seed investors. Previously at First Round Capital and Union Square Ventures. Known for blogging prolifically about his investment process (thisisgoingtobebig.com), responding to every cold email, and being transparent about what works and what doesn't. His blog is required reading for understanding how seed investors think.
Notable portfolio: Canary (smart home security), Orchard (real estate), Hungryroot, Clubhouse (the social app), Tinybeans (ASX-listed), The Wing
Why founders love him: Responds to every email. Makes decisions in 1-2 meetings. No BS. Writes thoughtful public postmortems on what he looks for. If you're in NYC, he's the first call.
HQ: Brooklyn, NYC · Website: brooklynbridge.vc · Blog: thisisgoingtobebig.com
The personal fund of Tim Draper, one of the most legendary early-stage investors in Silicon Valley. The Draper family pioneered venture capital -- Tim's father Bill Draper co-founded Draper & Johnson, and his grandfather William H. Draper Jr. was one of the first VCs on the West Coast. Tim is known for his bold, contrarian bets and was one of the earliest Bitcoin advocates. Also runs Draper University, an entrepreneurship school.
Notable exits: Skype (acquired by eBay for $2.6B, then Microsoft for $8.5B), Hotmail (acquired by Microsoft), Tesla (early investor, IPO), Baidu (IPO), SpaceX, Twitch (acquired by Amazon for $970M), Coinbase (IPO)
Investment thesis: Sector-agnostic with a bias toward transformative technology. Bitcoin/crypto-friendly. Backs bold, ambitious founders regardless of convention.
HQ: San Francisco · Website: draper.vc
04 European VCs
Europe's early-stage ecosystem has produced multiple decacorns (Wise, Revolut, UiPath, Klarna). These funds actively deploy fresh capital and most accept cold inbound from founders anywhere in Europe. Founders in Ireland see 17% cold email reply rates -- the highest in the world.
Europe's most established seed fund, founded in 2007 by Reshma Sohoni and Saul Klein. Has invested in more European unicorns at the seed stage than any other fund. Fund I & II were acquired by Draper Esprit in 2017 for $26.3M, delivering a reported 4x return. LPs include Index Ventures, Atomico, MassMutual Ventures, and Unilever Ventures. 19 partners, 53 team members.
Landmark portfolio companies:
Investment thesis: Fintech, SaaS, AI, marketplaces. Pan-European with strongest deal flow in UK (191 investments), followed by US (48), France, Germany. Average seed round size: $2.39M.
Performance note: Seedcamp exits at a 15-percentage-point lower rate than the industry average, but when exits happen, they are outsized (UiPath alone likely returned the entire fund multiple times over).
HQ: London · Website: seedcamp.com · Managing Partners: Reshma Sohoni, Carlos Espinal
One of Europe's most active early-stage investors, headquartered in Vienna with offices across Europe. Organized into sector-focused teams (fintech, health, industrial tech, climate, deep tech), meaning the partner reviewing your deck is a domain expert, not a generalist. Recently closed a EUR 30M continuation fund backed by Molten Ventures. LP base includes EIF (European Investment Fund).
Notable portfolio: GoStudent ($3.2B valuation, EdTech), Bitpanda (crypto unicorn), Open (banking), Yokoy (spend management), Storyblok, Refurbed, Wefox
Investment thesis: Fintech, health, climate tech, deep tech, industrial tech. Pan-European, with increasingly global scope. Particularly strong in DACH region and Nordics.
HQ: Vienna · Website: speedinvest.com
Founded by Alexander Kudlich (former COO of Rocket Internet, oversaw 100+ company launches) and Ludwig Ensthaler. Despite being founded only in 2020, they've rapidly scaled to $900M+ AUM -- one of the fastest-growing European VCs. Their Rocket Internet DNA means they understand operations, unit economics, and scaling playbooks deeply.
Notable portfolio: ThirdRound, Personio (HR software, valued at $8.5B), Braze (marketing platform), Choco (food tech), Greentick
Investment thesis: Deep tech, climate, AI, vertical SaaS with focus on EU founders scaling globally. Hands-on operational support from day one.
HQ: Berlin · Website: 468.capital
Dublin and London-based fund that explicitly invests in B2B software and explicitly welcomes cold emails (they wrote a blog post about it). Their differentiation: they help European founders launch in the US market, with a dedicated Frontline Growth fund for later stages. Their blog post "How to cold email pitch VCs" is one of the most-shared investor guides on the topic -- they practice what they preach.
Notable portfolio: Modulz/Radix (cold email deal!), Pointy (acquired by Google), ChannelSight, Logentries (acquired by Rapid7)
Why they're special: One of the few funds that publicly confirms their investment in Modulz came from a cold email. They walk the talk.
HQ: Dublin / London · Website: frontline.vc
More European Funds Open to Cold Outreach
Point Nine Capital (Berlin) -- EUR 500K-2M / $400M+ AUM / Pre-Seed & Seed / SaaS, B2B, Marketplaces. Backed Zendesk, Delivery Hero, Typeform. Known for exceptional content (SaaS metrics blog). pointnine.com (apply)
Firstminute Capital (London) -- $500K-$2M / $200M+ / Pre-Seed & Seed / Sector-agnostic. LPs include founders of Spotify, Palantir, Zalando. Portfolio: CloudNC ($45M raised), ZOE ($48M Series B), Cleo ($80M Series C). firstminute.com (apply)
Heartcore Capital (Copenhagen) -- $300K-$6M / $400M+ / Pre-Seed to Series A / Consumer, Health, Real Estate. Portfolio: TravelPerk, Podimo, Taster. heartcore.com (apply)
Amplifier (London) -- EUR 250K-2.5M / ~EUR 50M / Seed & Series A / Climate & Energy only. Contact: Henry Palmer -- hp@amplifierlab.io
Cats VC (Kyiv/Berlin) -- EUR 200K-1M / ~EUR 30M / Seed & Series A / SaaS, Developer tools. Contact: Max Chebotarev -- maxim@cats.vc
Bethnal Green Ventures (London) -- GBP 30K-100K / ~GBP 20M / Pre-Seed / Tech for good. Contact: Paul Miller -- paul@bethnalgreenventures.com
KAYA VC (Prague) -- EUR 1M-3M / EUR 70M (Fund V, fresh) / Pre-Seed to Series A / Tech in Central & Eastern Europe. kaya.vc
Flyer One Ventures (Vilnius) -- Up to EUR 1.3M / EUR 50M (IFC + EBRD backed) / Pre-Seed & Seed / Software in CEE. flyerone.vc
Evercurious VC (Athens) -- EUR 250K-500K / EUR 12.5M / Pre-Seed & Seed / Deep tech, Greece+. Backed by Hellenic Development Bank. evercurious.vc
Conviction VC (London) -- GBP 100K-2M / ~GBP 50M / Seed & Series A / Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech. Contact: Andrew Jenkins -- andrew@passioncapital.com
33East (Nicosia) -- EUR 500K-1M / EUR 26M (EIF-backed) / Pre-Seed & Seed / Tech with Cyprus ties. 33east.vc
Fund F (Vienna) -- ~EUR 300K / EUR 28M / Pre-Seed & Seed / Requires at least one female co-founder. fundf.vc
Tachles VC (Prague) -- $100K-$500K / Pre-Seed & Seed / AI, Cybersecurity, Cloud. Israel + Czech Republic cross-border focus. tachles.vc
05 Angels & Syndicates
Angel investors respond to cold outreach at significantly higher rates than VCs because they actively search for deal flow. Most write $10K-$100K checks with decision cycles of days, not weeks. The US has an estimated 300,000+ active angel investors.
100Unicorns (India) -- $250K-$2M / Pre-Seed to Series A / Tech, India/Global. Contact: Rajesh Mane -- rajesh@100unicorns.in
AC Ventures (Jakarta) -- $500K-$2.5M / Seed & Series A / SE Asia focus. Contact: Pandu Sjahrir -- pandu@danantaraindonesia.com
Acquired Wisdom Fund (SF) -- $25K-$75K / Pre-Seed / Sector-agnostic. Contact: Mendel Chuang -- mendel@awf.vc
Alchemy Ventures (SF) -- $10K-$500K / Pre-Seed & Seed / Web3, Crypto, Dev tools. Contact: Nikil Viswanathan (Alchemy CEO) -- nikil.viswanathan@alchemyapi.io
Allied Venture Partners (Calgary) -- $100K-$350K / Pre-Seed & Seed / Sector-agnostic. Contact: Matt Wilson -- matt@allied.vc
Adapt Ventures (US) -- $25K-$250K / Pre-Seed to Series A / Sector-agnostic. Contact: Mohammed Amdani -- mo@adaptvc.co
Deep Ventures (SF, syndicate) -- $100K-$200K / Pre-Seed & Seed / AI, Data, Health. Contact: Mike Chan -- mike@deepventures.io
Charged Ventures (US) -- $10K-$100K / Pre-Seed & Seed / Sector-agnostic. Lowest barrier to entry. info@chargedventures.io
CBANSV (Silicon Valley) -- $10K-$200K syndicate / Seed / Chicago Booth Angel Network. Contact: Kathy Le -- kathyle@yelp.com
Big Idea Ventures (NYC/Singapore) -- $125K-$5M / Pre-Seed to Series A / Food tech, Alt protein only. Contact: Bill Arnold -- projektyle@gmail.com
CentreGold / CG Angels (Canada) -- $25K-$1M / Pre-Seed & Seed / Sector-agnostic. Contact: Qi Jia -- qidong@celticvc.com
Bloom Venture Partners (US) -- $25K-$250K / Pre-Seed & Seed / Sector-agnostic. Contact: Brian Miller -- brian@bloomventurepartners.com
07 Open Pitch Platforms
OpenVC -- 16,000+ investors. Submit deck, track opens and replies. Free. The largest open investor database. openvc.app
Foundersuite -- CRM for investor outreach. Hosts decks, tracks engagement. Published the 59 VCs open to cold pitches list. Free + paid. foundersuite.com
SeedBlink CORE -- AI-powered matching with 3,000+ EU VCs and angels. Free matching. seedblink.com/core
Seedtable Raise -- 3,000+ active European and global investors. Scored by Seedtable Score (1-100). Freemium. seedtable.com
AngelList -- Rolling funds, syndicates, direct fundraising. The OG platform. Free. angellist.com
Visible.vc -- Investor updates + outreach CRM with templates. Free tier. visible.vc
08 The Cold Email Playbook
The numbers that matter
VCs receive an average of 40 pitches per day and spend just 3 minutes 40 seconds per deck. The average first-meeting-to-term-sheet ratio is 30:1. Generic cold email reply rates: 1-5%. Personalized, thesis-matched cold emails to investors who accept inbound: 15-25%. Follow-ups increase response rates by 66%. Nearly half of all emails are opened based solely on the subject line.
The 200-word structure that works
Subject: [Startup Name] -- [One-line what you do] -- [Best metric]
Example: "Acme AI -- Automated compliance for fintechs -- $45K MRR, 3x QoQ"
Body: Hi [First Name], I saw you invested in [similar company] and your writing about [specific topic]. We're building [what] for [who]. [One sentence on traction/metric]. We're raising [$X] to [goal]. Here's our deck: [tracked link]. Open to taking a look?
Total: Under 100 words. No attachments. No NDA requests. Low-friction CTA.
Before you send
Read 2-3 pieces the partner has written (blog posts, tweets, podcast appearances). Check their last 5-10 investments on Crunchbase. Reference something specific -- not "I love your portfolio" but "Your investment in [company] and your post about [topic] resonated because [specific reason]." This takes 10-15 minutes per email but it's the difference between 2% and 20% reply rates.
Timing and follow-up
Send on Tuesday-Thursday during the investor's time zone working hours (9-11am is ideal). Use a tracked deck link (DocSend, Pitch, or Docsend alternatives) so you can see who opened it. If the deck was opened but no reply after 5-7 days, follow up once. If it wasn't opened, follow up twice at 5-7 day intervals. After that, move on. No reply is a pass -- that's standard VC protocol.
Critical mistakes to avoid: Don't attach PDFs (use tracked links). Don't ask for NDAs (instant red flag). Don't send 30+ slide decks (10-12 slides max). Don't pitch on LinkedIn DMs (under 2% success rate). Don't apologize for reaching out. Don't blast the same email to 500 investors (VC is a small world). Don't email generic addresses -- always target a specific partner whose thesis matches your company.
The platforms that help
DocSend ($10/mo) for deck tracking with page-level analytics. OpenVC (free) for the largest investor database. Foundersuite or Visible.vc for outreach CRM. LinkedIn Sales Navigator for research. Crunchbase (free tier) for checking recent investments. Twitter/X for understanding what partners care about.