Pre-seed companies are in the earliest stages of development, often pre-product or pre-revenue. These startups typically raise under $1M to validate their concept and build their initial team.
Explore 9,419 recently funded pre-seed companies with lead investors, funding amounts, and founding team data.
| Industry | Companies | Total Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) | 15 | $6.8M |
| Analytics | 2 | Undisclosed |
| AI Infrastructure | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Agentic AI | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Cyber Security | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Application Performance Management | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Drones | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Logistics | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Content | 1 | Undisclosed |
| City | Companies | Total Funding |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 16 | $2.5M |
| New York | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Logan Village | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Stockholm | 1 | Undisclosed |
| München | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Helsinki | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Berlin | 1 | $1.2M |
| Sunnyvale | 1 | Undisclosed |
| Las Rozas De Madrid | 1 | $4.6M |
| Austin | 1 | Undisclosed |
Rudus provides an AI-powered takeoff and estimation platform for concrete subcontractors.
Saffron is an AI technical assessment platform that measures how software engineers use AI to build, debug, and ship software.
Savant is a data tool that organizes scattered company data into structured, searchable operating context for people and AI.
Scope is an agent experience platform that helps companies monitor, analyze, and improve how AI agents discover, and use their products.
Sherpa is a software development company that automatically optimizes and improves websites based on the behaviour and versions of the site.
Shotwell AI is a developer of an AI-powered customer research platform automating qualitative insights.
Sidekick is an AI SMS assistant that gives frontline and deskless workers instant answers from company knowledge, and training materials.
Silmaril secures enterprise generative AI tools by deploying automated, real-time firewalls to stop complex prompt injection attacks.
smol machines provides tools to build, run, and package portable hardware-isolated Linux virtual machines for software development.
Standard Signal develops AI-driven hedge fund strategies using autonomous financial LLM trading systems.
Superlog provides an AI-native observability platform that automates telemetry setup, incident analysis, and code-level bug remediation.
TakeCare OS is an AI system for disability, aged care, and home care that consolidate the entire lifecycle-scheduling, billing into system.
Tenet Industries designs and manufactures low-cost strike drones with proprietary software and purpose-built hardware.
Transload is a security development company that helps logistics and warehouse companies to measure shipments using the security cameras.
Trellis provides enterprise AI agents to automate short-term rental operations, orchestrating guest relations and field workflows.
Userlens is a software development company that helps users to generate feedbacks by analytics and feedback for customer satisfaction.
Voquill is a AI-native operating system that manages workflow, coding, compliance, and revenue for medical labs.
Wato is an enterprise AI workspace providing an orchestration layer for shared agent memory, reusable workflows, and collaborative tools.
WhyBrilliant is an AI-guided recruitment platform matching tech candidates with companies.
YouArt develops AI tools for generating images and videos through workflow-based creative agents and multimodel automation.
Zenbu is an extensible IDE and workspace for developers to run, manage, and review code from parallel AI coding agents.
Zolvo offers software that automates lending operations, reconciles invoices, monitors portfolios, and generates financial reporting data.
Optiak is an AI-based platform that develops a modular operating system designed to streamline operations.
9 Mothers is a defense tech company that offers an AI-powered C-sUAS point defense turret designed to engage multiple fast-moving drones.
Pre-seed funding is the earliest formal stage of startup financing. At this point, founders are typically working on validating an idea, building a prototype, or conducting initial customer discovery. Many pre-seed rounds come from personal savings, friends and family, angel investors, or early-stage accelerators. The company is usually pre-revenue and may not yet have a fully built product.
$50K - $2M
The actual amount varies based on market conditions, company traction, and investor appetite.
Pre-seed capital is generally used to build a minimum viable product (MVP), conduct customer interviews, hire the first one or two team members, and cover operating expenses while the founders validate their assumptions about the market.
Friends and family, angel investors, micro-VCs, and startup accelerators like Y Combinator, Techstars, and 500 Global are the most common pre-seed investors. Some institutional seed funds also participate in pre-seed rounds when they see exceptional founding teams.
At the pre-seed stage, investors focus less on traction metrics and more on the founding team, market opportunity, and the clarity of the problem being solved. A compelling pitch, evidence of domain expertise, and early user interest or waitlist signups can be enough to secure funding.
Based on 9,419 pre-seed companies tracked in the VCBacked database, here is a snapshot of current funding activity at this stage.
Finding companies that have recently raised pre-seed funding is valuable for sales teams, investors, recruiters, and service providers. Pre-Seed startups are actively spending their newly raised capital on tools, talent, and services, making them ideal prospects. VCBacked tracks 9,419 pre-seed companies with verified founder contact information, updated regularly as new rounds are announced.
You can narrow your search by filtering companies by industry vertical, city or region, or by exploring specific combinations such as Pre-Seed artificial intelligence (ai) companies. Each company profile includes funding details, founder names, and contact information to help you reach out directly.
For a broader view of the startup funding landscape, explore all funding stages or browse companies by our full company directory. Whether you are looking for early-stage startups to invest in or growth-stage companies to sell to, VCBacked provides the data you need to identify and connect with the right companies.
Perfect for: B2B sales teams targeting pre-seed companies, investors exploring opportunities, and service providers looking for companies that just raised capital and are ready to scale.
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