--- title: "How to Find Investors for an AI Startup: By Stage and State" author: "Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir" last_updated: "2026-11-10" data_as_of: "November 2026" publisher: "The Investor Database" canonical: "https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-an-ai-startup/" --- # How to Find Investors for an AI Startup: Stage Mix, States and Fund Sizes By Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir. Last updated 10 Nov 2026. Data as of November 2026. To find investors for an AI startup, start from our list of [1,576 AI investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors/) and narrow it by stage, place and fund size. Seed is the stage they name most (1,082 of the 1,370 with a stage on file), ahead of pre-seed. 71% are in the US, where California leads with 464. The median fund on file from SEC Form D is $60M, above the $50M for every investor we hold with such a figure. - **1,576** AI investors on the list - **79%** of the 1,370 with a stage on file name seed - **42%** of the US ones with a state on file are in California - **$60M** median fund size on file (SEC Form D, 867 firms) By type, the 1,576 are 1,413 VC firms, 33 corporate venture arms, 30 angel networks, 27 accelerators and 24 SEIS or EIS funds, with 49 of other types. The tags these investors most often carry beside AI are SaaS and B2B software (1,189), healthtech and digital health (651) and fintech (614). ## What do AI investors look for? An AI pitch is read for what the company owns that a competitor with the same models could not copy. Investors ask where the data comes from, what the product costs to run for each customer and whether usage holds up after the first trial. - **What is yours and what is rented?** Models, data and distribution can each be built, licensed or borrowed, and the answer shapes the margin. - **What does it cost to serve one customer?** Compute is a variable cost, so the gross margin of an AI product has to be shown, not assumed. - **Are customers still using it after the pilot?** Retention after the first months separates a working process from an experiment. ## Which stage do AI investors back? Among the 1,370 of the 1,576 with a stage on file (a firm can state several), seed comes first with 1,082 (79%), then pre-seed (633), Series A (500), growth (295) and Series B (204). Set against every investor we hold, the group leans toward pre-seed (46% here, 39% overall) and away from growth (22% here, 28% overall). With about four fifths naming seed, a seed round has the widest field on this list. | Stage (our research) | AI investors | Share of the 1,370 with a stage on file | Share of all 1,576 on the list | Same share, all investors with a stage | Difference in points | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | [Pre-seed AI investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/pre-seed-ai-investors/) | 633 | 46% | 40% | 39% | +7 | | [Seed AI investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/seed-ai-investors/) | 1,082 | 79% | 69% | 75% | +4 | | [Series A AI investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/series-a-ai-investors/) | 500 | 36% | 32% | 34% | +2 | | [Series B AI investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/series-b-ai-investors/) | 204 | 15% | 13% | 14% | +1 | | [Growth-stage AI investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/growth-ai-investors/) | 295 | 22% | 19% | 28% | -6 | ## Where are AI investors based? 71% of the list is American: 1,123 of the 1,576 are in the US, 214 in the UK and 230 in the rest of Europe. Among the 1,099 US investors with a state on file, California holds about two fifths (464), more than its 36% share of all US investors we hold. New York is a distant second with 159, then Massachusetts (61) and Florida (60). | State | AI investors | Share of the 1,099 with a state on file | Share of all US investors | Difference in points | |---|---|---|---|---| | [California](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-california/) | 464 | 42% | 36% | +6 | | [New York](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-new-york/) | 159 | 14% | 15% | -1 | | [Massachusetts](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-massachusetts/) | 61 | 6% | 6% | 0 | | [Florida](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-florida/) | 60 | 5% | 6% | -1 | | [Texas](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-texas/) | 56 | 5% | 6% | -1 | | [Illinois](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-illinois/) | 35 | 3% | 3% | 0 | | [Washington](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-washington/) | 26 | 2% | 2% | 0 | | [Colorado](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-colorado/) | 23 | 2% | 2% | 0 | By city, counting the head offices of every type of investor, the largest groups are San Francisco (150), New York (131), Palo Alto (64) and Menlo Park (47). | City | State | AI investors | Share of the 1,123 in the US | |---|---|---|---| | San Francisco | CA | 150 | 13% | | New York | NY | 131 | 12% | | Palo Alto | CA | 64 | 6% | | Menlo Park | CA | 47 | 4% | | Boston | MA | 35 | 3% | | Austin | TX | 30 | 3% | | Chicago | IL | 24 | 2% | | Los Angeles | CA | 19 | 2% | Metro area lists for this sector, each with its own row count: [AI investors in the San Francisco Bay Area](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-san-francisco-bay-area/) (364), [AI investors in Silicon Valley](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-silicon-valley/) (172), [AI investors in Los Angeles](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-los-angeles/) (63), [AI investors in Miami and South Florida](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-miami/) (39), [AI investors in Austin](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-austin/) (30), [AI investors in Chicago](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-chicago/) (28). The same investors as lists by region: [AI venture capital firms in the US](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-us/) (1,112), [AI investors in the UK](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-uk/) (214), [AI investors in Europe](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-europe/) (230). ## How big are AI funds? Across the 867 of the 1,576 AI investors with a fund size from SEC Form D on file, the median is $60M, above the $50M for every investor we hold with such a figure. About a quarter of these funds are under $25M and about two fifths are $100M or more. The figure is the fund as filed, not a check size, and a firm's main fund on our record, which is not always its newest; for 180 of the 867 the offering amount is indefinite, so it is the amount sold so far. | Fund size on file (SEC Form D) | AI investors | Share | Share, all investors with a figure | |---|---|---|---| | Under $10M | 96 | 11% | 15% | | $10M to $25M | 126 | 15% | 18% | | $25M to $50M | 121 | 14% | 15% | | $50M to $100M | 192 | 22% | 19% | | $100M to $250M | 194 | 22% | 19% | | $250M to $1B | 126 | 15% | 12% | | $1B and over | 12 | 1% | 1% | ## Which AI investors can you look at first? The AI tag is broad, so on its own it is a weak filter. Look at what the firm backed before the current wave, and at whether it funds models, tools for builders or applications. Then keep the ones that invest at your layer. The 5 firms below are among the free rows of our list of [AI venture capital firms in the US](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-us/) (1,112): each names the sector in its own description, and they stand in that list's order, by our activity score, which is no measure of quality. ### Kleiner Perkins HQ: Menlo Park, California · Type: VC firm · Stages (our research): Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth · Latest activity: Form D filing, Aug 2026 · Fund size on file: $995M (SEC Form D, 2026) Venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, with a portfolio spanning established technology names and newer AI companies. Profile: https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/kleiner-perkins/ ### Toyota Ventures HQ: Los Altos, California · Type: Corporate VC · Stages (our research): Seed, Series A · Latest activity: Portfolio news, Oct 2026 (our research) · Private fund assets: $928M (SEC Form ADV) Los Altos early stage venture arm of Toyota investing in frontier tech and climate tech, including AI, robotics, computing, aerospace, mobility, energy storage and carbon capture. Profile: https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/toyota-ventures/ ### Craft Ventures HQ: San Francisco, California · Type: VC firm · Stages (our research): Seed, Series A, Growth · Latest activity: Form D filing, Sep 2026 · Fund size on file: $712M (SEC Form D, 2022) San Francisco venture firm run by senior operators, backing B2B software, AI and other technology companies at several stages. Profile: https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/craft-ventures/ ### Madrona HQ: Seattle, Washington · Type: VC firm · Stages (our research): Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth · Latest activity: New deal, Oct 2026 (our research) · Fund size on file: $490M (SEC Form D, 2025) Seattle venture firm backing technology founders at seed, early and acceleration stages in Seattle, the Bay Area and beyond, across AI, biotech, consumer, infrastructure, deep tech and security. Profile: https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/madrona/ ### Safar Partners HQ: Cambridge, Massachusetts · Type: VC firm · Stages (our research): Seed · Latest activity: New deal, Aug 2026 (our research) · Fund size on file: $300M (SEC Form D, 2023) Cambridge, MA technology venture fund investing in startups spun out of universities, mainly MIT, Harvard and the University of Rochester. Covers cleantech and advanced materials, AI and robotics, and life sciences. Profile: https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/safar-partners/ ## Which US AI investors filed with the SEC most recently? 512 of the 1,123 US AI investors (46%) have a Form D filing dated in the 12 months to 6 Nov 2026, a first notice or the yearly amendment of an older fund, above the 38% for all US investors we hold. Our file of new fund notices for the 8 weeks to 6 Nov 2026 holds 107 from 76 of these investors, among them [Quiet Capital](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/quiet-capital/), [LightX Capital](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/lightx-capital/) and [Steel Atlas](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/steel-atlas/). **US investors tagged AI with a public profile, newest filing first, new notices and amendments alike; the amount is the one on that filing, which can be a side vehicle or an amount sold so far, and the 8-week file holds new notices only.** | Investor | Location | Stages (our research) | Latest Form D filing | Amount on that filing | |---|---|---|---|---| | [Quiet Capital](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/quiet-capital/) | San Francisco, California | Pre-seed | 6 Nov 2026 | Not stated | | [Reveille](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/reveille/) | New York, New York | Seed | 4 Nov 2026 | $40M | | [GrayHair Venture Partners](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/grayhair-venture-partners/) | Ridgewood, New Jersey | Seed | 4 Nov 2026 | $20M | | [LightX Capital](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/lightx-capital/) | Chicago, Illinois | Pre-seed | 4 Nov 2026 | Not stated | | [ClearSky](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/clearsky/) | West Palm Beach, Florida | Growth | 2 Nov 2026 | $500M | | [Decisive Point VENTURES](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/decisive-point-ventures/) | Greenwich, Connecticut | Not stated | 2 Nov 2026 | $19M | | [Steel Atlas](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/steel-atlas/) | New York, New York | Not stated | 2 Nov 2026 | $100M | | [25Madison Ventures](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investors/25madison-ventures/) | New York, New York | Pre-seed, Seed, Series A | 30 Oct 2026 | $50M | ## What should an AI founder have ready before the first email? An AI company is asked what it costs to run and what it owns, so bring both answers. - Gross margin after compute, per customer or per task. - Where your training and test data comes from, and the rights you hold to it. - How many of the customers who started a trial are still using the product three months later. ### Words AI investors use - **Inference cost:** What it costs in compute each time the model produces an answer. - **Fine-tuning:** Further training of an existing model on your own data. - **Evaluation set:** A fixed set of test cases used to measure whether the model is accurate enough. - **Data rights:** The legal permission to train on, store and use a set of data. **A common slip.** Describing the model before the problem. Say who uses the product and what it replaces, then how it works. ## How do you reach AI investors? 93% of the list has a named decision-maker on file (1,473 of 1,576, 7,399 names in all), above the 84% across the whole database. About two fifths have a firm email address (631), and 426 publish how they want to be pitched, such as a form or an application page. Use a pitch route where a firm publishes one, and otherwise write to one named person at a time, starting from the free [outreach email templates](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/investor-outreach-email-templates/); the full list is [AI investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors/), all 1,576 investors, one per row, the first 25 free to read, and the [matching tool](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investor-matching-tool/#s=ai) opens with AI already picked. This list has 1,576 rows and a single-list file covers up to 300, so its rows are sold inside the Global Bundle file. **Get all 1,576 investors and 7,399 named contacts, $297:** https://theinvestordatabase.com/buy/bundle. One-time payment. No subscription. No account. Or get the [free sample file](https://theinvestordatabase.com/#sample) (100 investors) first. ## Method and limits - **Source:** SEC Form D for filing dates and fund sizes; our own research (each firm's website, UK and EU registers) for stage, the sector tag and dated deals. - **Counts:** The 1,576 rows of the list this page links to, as of November 2026, set against all 4,178 investors we hold (3,019 in the US); a gap under 3 points is treated as none, and a rank compares the sectors that have a list on this site and at least 30 rows for the measure (10 for a median fund size). - **Limits:** 1,302 US firms have no sector on file, so the true number of AI investors is higher; 1,370 of the 1,576 here have a stage on file and 867 a fund size from SEC Form D; what investors look for, which ones to keep, the words they use and what to have ready are our advice for this sector, not data about any one investor. ## Questions ### How do I find investors for an AI startup? Start from the list of 1,576 AI investors, then filter by stage (1,082 of the 1,370 with a stage on file name seed), by place (42% of the US ones with a state on file are in California) and by fund size (the median fund on file is $60M). ### What do AI investors ask founders? What is yours and what is rented? What does it cost to serve one customer? Are customers still using it after the pilot? ### How big are AI funds? The median fund on file is $60M across the 867 AI investors with a figure from SEC Form D, above the $50M for every investor we hold with such a figure. ### Can I contact AI investors directly? 1,473 of the 1,576 have a named decision-maker on file and 631 a firm email address; 426 publish a pitch route, and where one exists it is the way in they ask for. ## Guides for other sectors - [How to find consumer products and CPG investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-cpg-startup/) - [How to find consumer investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-consumer-startup/) - [How to find ecommerce investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-an-ecommerce-startup/) - [How to find edtech investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-an-edtech-startup/) - [How to find proptech and real estate tech investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-proptech-startup/) - [How to find climate tech investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-climate-tech-startup/) - [How to find deep tech investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-deep-tech-startup/) - [How to find hardware investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-hardware-startup/) - [How to find impact investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-an-impact-startup/) - [How to find food and beverage investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-food-and-beverage-startup/) - [How to find SaaS and B2B software investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-saas-startup/) - [How to find fintech investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-fintech-startup/) - [How to find healthtech and digital health investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-healthtech-startup/) - [How to find cybersecurity investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-cybersecurity-startup/) - [How to find gaming investors](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-a-gaming-startup/) ## Related - [AI investors (1,576)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors/) - [AI venture capital firms in the US (1,112)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-us/) - [AI investors in the UK (214)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-uk/) - [AI investors in Europe (230)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-europe/) - [Seed AI investors (1,082)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/seed-ai-investors/) - [Pre-seed AI investors (633)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/pre-seed-ai-investors/) - [AI investors in California (464)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-california/) - [AI investors in New York (159)](https://theinvestordatabase.com/lists/ai-investors-in-new-york/) - [Match AI investors to your round](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investor-matching-tool/#s=ai) - [How to build an investor list](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-build-an-investor-list/) - [Investor outreach email templates](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/investor-outreach-email-templates/) - [How many investors to pitch](https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-many-investors-should-you-pitch/) - [Investor databases compared](https://theinvestordatabase.com/compare/) - [What is in the investor database](https://theinvestordatabase.com/investor-database/) ## Cite this page Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir, "How to Find Investors for an AI Startup: Stage Mix, States and Fund Sizes", The Investor Database, 10 Nov 2026. https://theinvestordatabase.com/guides/how-to-find-investors-for-an-ai-startup/