Best Pre-Seed Developer Tools & Infrastructure + HR Tech & Future of Work Investors 2026

The future of work belongs to individuals and small teams with creative autonomy, distributed locations, and multiple revenue streams. We invest in tools that enable this future and back founders who embody it.

Storm Ventures backs early-stage B2B enterprise software companies with a focus on AI-native applications, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure. They employ a 'paddling to surfing' growth methodology and have deep expertise in taking companies from inception to $100M+ ARR. Their philosophy: 'the interface layer will disappear. The infrastructure layer will compound.'

Backing transformative founders building exceptional companies across all sectors

Investing in the future of commerce, AI, and labor. We believe our biggest asset is knocking down doors for our founders — leveraging our network of 50+ Fortune 500 CEOs and tech executives as LPs to open customer relationships, accelerate go-to-market, and support talent acquisition.

Market avalanches—invisible but compounding structural shifts driven by demographic and technological change. Invest in technologies transforming how people learn, earn, and own.

First institutional VC fund exclusively founded by former corporate VC leaders. Bridges traditional VC and corporate VC through Counter Club (750+ CVCs, $320B deployed). Invests in B2B SaaS solving nontrivial problems in large markets, providing founders with direct access to enterprise customers, strategic partners, and capital through the CVC network.

Education is the most powerful driver of human potential. We invest in mission-driven teams building transformative education companies that deliver measurable outcomes and expand access globally.

Support first and second generation immigrant founders building unicorn-grade companies. Value-add investor providing capital plus deep network connections to customers, partners, strategic advisors, and founder networks.

Back founders with an athlete-like commitment to the long game across Health (longevity, fertility, performance), Future of Work (AI-native productivity, developer tools), and Global Mobility (immigration, cross-border infrastructure). Invest at pre-seed when post-money valuations are under $10M.

Israel's leading pre-seed platform, backing first-time Israeli founders tapping into non-traditional industries. Invests $150K for 7.5% equity per company (up to $500K in the Digital Health track), paired with a 10-week intensive bootcamp and a 300+ person mentor network.

EPIC Ventures backs early-stage technology companies building in the information economy, with a focus on enterprise SaaS, healthcare technology, cybersecurity, and future of work. The firm believes the best way to build lasting companies is through genuine partnership with founders — providing capital, strategic guidance, operational expertise, and deep network access. Founded in 1994, EPIC helped build the Utah tech ecosystem and continues to be the foundational VC of the Mountain West.

Network-powered startups connecting people and businesses through software tools and platforms

Partner with visionary European founders at seed and Series A, leveraging the team's own operator experience and a network of 150+ international co-investors. Sector agnostic (excluding life sciences and crypto) with ~50 companies per fund. Strong focus on capital efficiency, unit economics, and realistic paths to profitability. Co-investor by default; will lead when it adds value.

Back ambitious founders from Central and Eastern Europe and the diaspora building large-market, 10x-better products, favoring high-risk/high-upside bets over safer, modest-return opportunities, grounded in market data rather than intuition.

We identify exceptional operators with proven track records at scale (ex-Facebook, Google, Stripe) and catalyze their transition into founders. Periods of rapid societal behavior change spur dramatic innovation. We invest in the future of work and consumer utility, providing not just capital but operational expertise, network access, and proven playbooks from building at Facebook/Meta scale.

Founders investing in founders. Boston Seed invests at pre-seed and seed stages in audacious founders building meaningful technology across consumer, B2B SaaS, gaming, sports, AI, and cloud infrastructure. Known for early conviction in unproven categories (e.g., daily fantasy sports via DraftKings in 2012). Emphasizes transparent, humble storytelling about venture realities. All GPs are ex-founders/CEOs with exits, bringing authentic founder empathy.

We back founders building commercially successful businesses that expand economic mobility in America. We invest where capitalism's incentives align with social benefit, embedding mobility impact in core product, not as an afterthought.

The best way to find and support AI companies is to be one ourselves. We back independent thinkers building real systems before consensus forms, partnering as radical learning partners from day one.

Back electric founders with an uncontrollable passion for creating disruptive companies. Invest globally, particularly strong in US and Latin America. Combine capital with operational support through venture studio model, helping build groundbreaking companies from inception through scale.

Back mission-driven founders addressing significant global challenges through leading-edge technology. Provide flexible and patient capital, leveraging our time, resources, and networks to support portfolio company success. Focus on founders with authentic social and environmental missions alongside commercial viability.

ISAI identifies capital-efficient French tech startups early—often as the first VC—backing SaaS and marketplace models with progressive ambition, blue ocean positioning, and category-leader potential. Increasingly an AI-focused investor using it as an enabling lens across all verticals. Their edge: a community of 500+ tech entrepreneur-LPs who open doors, advise, and validate.

Help founders build companies of which they can be proud. We invest in mission-driven founders solving large, urgent problems using technology to create substantive change. Capital is necessary but not sufficient—sweat, reputation, and accountability are our core commitments.

Partner with founders building generational software companies. We provide capital, operational support, and genuine partnership. Focus on technology-driven solutions addressing large and growing markets. Invest across enterprise and consumer software, with depth in AI-native software, fintech, infrastructure, security, vertical SaaS, healthcare, and future of work.

Back founders with grit, industry insights, and strong engineering cultures to build amazing software that disrupts incumbents. Deliberately invest in unsexy industries and antiquated markets (warehousing, real estate, specialty pharmacy, agriculture) that others overlook, where nimble startups can create tremendous value.

Wave Ventures backs Europe's most exceptional Gen Z founders at the earliest stage — angel and pre-seed — in the Nordics and Baltics. We invest before other VCs identify these founders, leveraging a rotating team of top university students embedded in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Tallinn startup ecosystems. We believe the most impactful companies of the next generation will emerge from this region.

Mercury backs disruptive AI and Blockchain-enabled startups outside Silicon Valley, with a focus on capital-efficient founders in the Central US reimagining core industries including fintech, enterprise software, healthcare, energy, manufacturing, and logistics through their five investment themes: Work, Build, Journeys, Data, and Power.

Invest in the future of software built on AI. We partner with technical founders to provide capital, unfair shortcuts, and operational support to accelerate their learning and help them reach their potential. We position ourselves as the first institutional investor for v0.9 stage founders.

Coach and invest in entrepreneurial leaders building world-class, purpose-driven organizations. Combines financial investment with active leadership coaching and organizational development using LinkedIn's proven playbook. Believes great companies are built by great leaders who manage compassionately and combine doing well with doing good.

Technology is the 'new West' — Westbound invests financial and social capital into visionary, values-aligned founders to build a virtuous cycle of wealth and opportunity, with an explicit mission to close the racial wealth gap.

u.ventures backs local entrepreneurs who dare to build exciting global ventures. The firm focuses on early-stage technology startups with world-class founding teams from Ukraine and Eastern Europe with global market ambitions, scalable products, and competitive advantages.

We invest in companies that make business work better, backed by a commitment to understanding profound changes in how business operates. We seek founders with the potential to build extraordinary, outlier companies through transparency, founder-first principles, and patient capital from our investor Bloomberg L.P.

All you need is a Unique Insight. Frst backs exceptional, ambitious founders on Day One, often before there is a product, team, or incorporated company, evaluating opportunities through Ambition, Vision, and Execution.

Invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups where the ecosystem or community around the product is the core competitive moat. Best companies build worlds through bottom-up communities and compelling narratives. We provide capital, strategic advice, narrative development, and leverage our network to help founders succeed.

Morado invests in the 'data-fueled revolution' — backing systems builders who architect new operating systems for legacy industries. They focus on AI, data infrastructure, industrial IoT, robotics & autonomy, computer vision, and health tech at the seed stage.

We back the companies of tomorrow before it's obvious. We combine early-stage European investing with a permanent San Francisco presence to help founders build category-defining global companies. We invest in ambitious technical founders who deeply understand industry transformation.

Backs 'gritty founders' solving real operating problems. Focuses on 'Global Indian' founders — Indian diaspora in the US or India-based founders building for global markets — with an 'India Supply to Global Demand' thesis. Seeks non-incremental startups with strong competitive differentiation and category leadership potential.

The hardest thing in seed is finding product-market fit. We help you find it. If you already have product-market fit, we will help you scale. We partner with exceptionally ambitious founders for the long run and provide capital combined with operational expertise through our 100+ member Product Council.

The best investment opportunities emerge at the intersection of innovation and scale. We invest across the full lifecycle from seed to public markets, focusing on technology companies that will transform sectors globally with particular conviction in AI-enabled platforms and infrastructure.

Inception-stage VC backing experienced founders building B2B autonomous agentic AI from day zero. Leverages Salesforce alumni network to provide portfolio companies with enterprise distribution and operational support.

Early-stage venture capital for IT and Biotech companies in Colorado Front Range and Mid-Atlantic. Focus on experienced founding teams solving important problems with potential for significant financial returns. Patient capital approach with operational support and deep regional networks.

Latino founders represent an underserved but exceptionally talented segment of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We invest in visionary founders who combine bold ideas with execution excellence to build scalable, high-impact businesses that create both economic and social value. We believe institutional capital paired with strategic partnership from Fortune 100 executives and operating experts can unlock the full potential of Latino-led innovation.

Visionary founders, with hustle, heart and humility, who see the world not as it is, but as it could be. Sector-agnostic, high-conviction, low-volume pre-seed investing across the UK and Europe.

Exceptional talent and disruptive ideas know no borders. We invest in emerging innovation hubs where competition is low, valuations are favorable, and founders are capital-efficient. We focus on three transformative themes: Future of Work (hybrid/remote, upskilling, AI automation), Future of Care (healthcare access, value-based care, longevity tech), and Emerging Tech (AI agents, cybersecurity, clean tech). We provide not just capital but operational, sales, policy, and strategic expertise to accelerate growth.

Backing the best founders, not just the best-connected. We assess founders on their qualities, not CV or past experience. We focus on founders building solutions for climate equity, economic empowerment, and healthy ageing.

Underestimated founders are systematically mispriced assets that create alpha rather than requiring concessionary returns. We invest in the very best founders who identify as women, people of color, or LGBTQ, treating capital allocation as activism.

We build category-defining companies through a combination of design, product, operations, and capital. We identify market gaps, pair brilliant founders with Expa's studio resources, and help them build companies that reshape entire industries.

First-check VC backing Baltic founders (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) at inception and pre-seed stages, with a strong focus on AI-first software. Backs founders who don't fit traditional VC criteria—no FAANG background or Ivy League degree required. Seeks undervalued talent before mainstream investor recognition.

Mucker Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology companies from pre-seed through Series B. We partner closely with founders building scalable businesses, often providing a company’s first institutional check and continuing to support them through later stages. Mucker has offices in Venice, California, Austin, and Toronto, and primarily invests across the United States and Canada, with the ability to back exceptional founders in other markets.

AI-enabled companies building essential systems households depend on—across health, wealth, and climate resilience. Backs founders with earned secrets and lived proximity to the problems they solve, particularly serving the 99% in underserved communities.

Elevate Ventures partners with innovation-driven founders to provide strategic capital, mentorship, and ecosystem access. Founded by a former founder (Governor Mitch Daniels), the firm believes the best founders exhibit grit, creativity, and coachability. They invest across all sectors and geographies but maintain primary focus on Indiana and Great Lakes Region entrepreneurs building cross-sector innovations.

Product-obsessed investing in consumer tech, prosumer software, and SMB applications. We back founders based on product quality and user value, not credentials or background.

Serious founders building must-have technology for mission-critical industries. We focus on B2B software companies digitizing legacy industries and transforming established workflows. Specializing in seed-stage, where hands-on operational support, sales acceleration, and capital strategy matter most.

Category creating companies with few to no competitors, defensible business models, and unit economics that are starting to work. Invest across all technology sectors except healthcare. Require 50x return potential. Primary value-add is helping raise Series A from the best possible investor.

Partner with exceptional founders to build rocketships, focusing on enterprise, B2B, and fintech categories, with capital, strategic insight, and network access.

Global venture capital that invests where talent is abundant but capital and opportunity are not. 500 Global backs technology founders with global ambitions across underinvested, fast-growing markets using Silicon Valley expertise combined with deep local knowledge. Core belief: The best founders and innovation emerge globally, not just Silicon Valley.

Empowering entrepreneurs to reimagine the way we live and work by investing in daring technology companies challenging the status quo with permanent capital, lifelong sparring partnership from pre-seed through IPO and beyond.

In AI, the team is the only thing that compounds. Models change monthly and defensibility stories written before the first customer are guesses in a suit; what's legible early is how fast a team learns. We underwrite ambition, agency, and rate of learning.

Great startups can be built anywhere. We believe in founder-centric investing with operational support from a team of successful founders. We serve undernetworked geographic regions.

Praetura backs ambitious northern founders building software, health, life sciences, fintech, cybersecurity, robotics, and other high-growth businesses where operator support and regional conviction matter. The firm positions itself as a more-than-money investor and emphasizes practical support from experienced operators, not just capital.

Operator-led fund investing in ambitious founders building transformative AI applications. We partner with technical founders who understand AI/ML deeply and are solving real customer problems with capital efficiency. Great product is always the best marketing.

Latin America is at its 'Fairchild Semiconductor moment' — full of raw talent and underestimated ambition. NuMundo backs overlooked LatAm founders who lack traditional VC credentials but demonstrate deep market insight, resilience, and execution ability. The firm bridges Silicon Valley networks with LatAm founders from inception through IPO.

Innovation requires more than capital—it demands insight, dedication, and pioneering visionaries. We partner with execution-capable founders building differentiated solutions to large industry problems. We provide hands-on operational support, strategic guidance, and deep founder networks to accelerate success.