Best Pre-Seed E-commerce & Marketplaces + EdTech Investors 2026

Investing at the intersection of Invention & Culture. We back founders building category-defining consumer companies where technology breakthroughs meet emerging human behavior. We see inflection points before they're consensus by tracking both emerging technology capabilities and emerging consumer demands.

We specialize in consumer. We invest under the premise that value creation comes through identifying where consumer behavior is changing, especially before it's obvious. We are obsessed with observing how people live, work, learn, play, eat, and stay well. Often, we look at how technology and consumer centricity are disrupting archaic industries. We back the brave & curious, leaning into the non-obvious ideas that edit entire industries or create new categories.

We invest in founders leading their first institutional venture round. Our mission is to catalyze transformation in Latin America by partnering with the region's top entrepreneurs. Together, we create cycles of innovation, empowerment and change. We believe in long-term partnerships and hands-on support.

Investing in the next generation of badass founders. The firm identifies founders whose backgrounds uniquely position them to create transformative businesses in rapidly growing markets that are often overlooked by mainstream venture capital. Focus on the 'Chingona Factor': market fluency, lived experience, and sheer will.

Founders with genuine conviction solving important problems, backed by unfair advantages and exceptional drive. We provide capital, operational expertise, and access to 100+ world-class startup operators. Our value is in the people on your cap table and the hands-on support—not just the checks.

Invest in people over product at the earliest stage of the entrepreneurial journey. Write the first institutional check for the most promising software and hardware companies. Focus on long-term relationships with founders.

Reshape the Nasdaq by investing in venture capital's biggest blind spots. Back exceptional founders historically overlooked by traditional VC due to demographic factors or non-traditional backgrounds. Leverage proprietary Female Founders Alliance (5,000+ members) as deal flow engine to surface underestimated founders across multiple archetypes.

Identify and partner with visionary entrepreneurs building category-creating companies that unlock entirely new addressable markets. Focus on 'silent suffering' where customers tolerate suboptimal solutions. Use AI, data, and behavioral science to identify non-obvious market opportunities and founder-market fit.

Back technology founders solving foundational and transformational problems across Africa and MENA. Focus on underserved markets with significant TAM. Support entrepreneurs demonstrating grit, creativity, growth mindset, and conviction. Combine global capital markets access with deep local operational expertise.

Backing ambitious Baltic founders who can build global-scale businesses. We invest in teams with proven grit and determination. Our main investment criteria is team and whether they have the grit to succeed. We provide €100-750K in pre-seed and seed capital, hands-on support, and deep networks of founders, angels, and later-stage investors.

High-touch early-stage investing in technology founders building durable software and tech-enabled category leaders, with particular strength in SaaS and the Utah/Silicon Slopes ecosystem.

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.

We back European platforms of tomorrow that democratize market access and enhance efficiency through the power of network effects. Platforms create value by connecting multiple stakeholders in sustainable, long-term businesses.

Investing in customer-obsessed founders redefining everyday experiences. We back founders at the earliest stage (pre-product/pre-revenue) with conviction, capital, and deep operational support including marketing, customer acquisition, and technology infrastructure.

Empowering visionary entrepreneurs to build unique solutions that reshape how Indians live, work, consume, and transact. Kalaari backs potential over pedigree — first-time founders welcome — focusing on tech-driven Indian market opportunities from Pre-Seed through Series A.

Partner with passionate entrepreneurs building companies that change the way we live, work, play, or learn. We're operator-first investors who provide capital, strategic guidance, and operational mentorship alongside network and investor connections.

Back technology that enhances human potential, not just fancy tech. Invest in passionate founders solving real market problems with human-centered impact. Focus on sustainable businesses contributing to economic transformation in Latin America and globally.

Venture capital is the most powerful economic engine the world has ever seen. We back audacious founders solving humanity's hardest challenges through category-creating innovations. We embrace big risks and reject short-termism, committing to 15+ year partnerships with founders who have long-term vision and relentless determination.

Address the critical gender funding gap in African technology entrepreneurship by investing in exceptionally talented female founders and diverse founding teams building technology-enabled solutions for underserved African markets. Data shows female-founded companies deliver 2x revenue per dollar invested compared to male-founded peers.

Invest in tech and tech-enabled startups founded and led by Black and Latino entrepreneurs. We believe the best founders come from historically underinvested communities, and supporting them creates both tremendous returns and changes the narrative of entrepreneurial success.

Turning access into opportunity for founders, investors, and disruptive ideas by backing culturally resonant tech companies and founders who don't fit traditional Silicon Valley mold. Emphasis on showing up right way for founders, making bold bets, and committing fully from first check.

Empower audacious founders who challenge norms and leverage technology to transform industries. We believe in first-time founders with scrappy outsider mentality and narrow niche focus. Silicon Valley expertise combined with deep emerging market knowledge across three continents.

Invest in the smartest people, regardless of what they're building, especially if the idea sounds bad in the beginning. Focus on exceptional founders in overlooked markets and non-consensus businesses. Optimize for founder quality over sector fit.

Investing in women of color entrepreneurs transforms families, communities, and the economy. We are the first institutional capital in, providing integrated support including capital, mentorship, and connections.

Invest in community-driven founders with bold ideas, diverse perspectives, and relentless determination ('ganas') building the future across US and Latin America. Target underestimated founders bringing cultural authenticity and inclusive leadership.

Bold, visionary African founders solving Africa's biggest challenges represent global business opportunities. We combine capital, operational support, and community to build sustainable, continent-scale businesses.

Back Latin American founders with global ambitions who use technology and AI to solve hard, inefficient markets in fintech, commerce, human capital, health, smart cities, and related large regional opportunities.

Support ambitious founders with the 'X Factor' – the insight and drive to build billion-dollar companies. Particularly focused on female founders and mixed-gender teams who have been historically underrepresented in VC.

We back exceptional teams leveraging Egypt's currency-driven cost advantage and local market expertise to build industry-defining companies that scale across MENA and Africa. We provide patient capital, operational support, and regional network access to first-time founders and technical teams.

Pan-African fund solving the significant funding gap in Seed and pre-Series A investment. Backing ambitious African founders tackling critical continental challenges with operational support and investor network.

Identify founders with the determination and resourcefulness to build world-changing companies. We believe exceptional founders can come from any background and at any stage of development. Our mission is to help founders be dramatically better shaped in 3 months than when they arrived.

NYC has tremendous entrepreneurial talent but lacked a structured environment for early-stage founders. ERA provides capital, intense mentorship, and network access to help founders build market-leading companies. Every sector deserves innovation.

Invest in scalable, capital-efficient tech and tech-enabled startups at the Seed stage led by exceptional founders. We identify companies showing early traction that can achieve significant scale with disciplined capital deployment.

We invest in world-class founders solving significant problems. We prioritize founder quality, founder-problem fit, and values-aligned partnerships. We help exceptional founders become category leaders early, before they become obvious trends.

Technology companies are becoming intertwined with the global economy more so than ever before. The most compelling founders build businesses through a broader world view. White Star Capital backs globally ambitious entrepreneurs at Series A, B, and Seed stages across North America, Europe, and Asia, helping them scale internationally through deep local presence on three continents.

We invest in founders with global ambitions creating products that meet tomorrow's internet users' needs through demographic change. Focus on aging & longevity, spending power of women, and the new majority (majority-minority shift).

We invest in the technologies that are transforming our lives, now and into the future. Founded by a successful entrepreneur and former tech journalist, Supernode backs exceptional founders building innovative technology companies across all sectors, from pre-seed through Series A and beyond.

At the earliest stages, team > market > product > idea. Great founders find their way into large markets. Focus on unit economics and value capture alongside value creation. Strong emphasis on B2B managed marketplaces and India-first consumer/enterprise plays.

Innovative technology entrepreneurs exist globally, particularly in emerging markets, and deserve access to world-class mentorship, infrastructure, and Google's vast product ecosystem. We support founders who have proven product-market fit in their home markets and are ready to expand internationally.

Back founders from day one with founder-focused support across fundraising, growth, product, and international expansion. We believe diverse founding teams and global thinking drive exceptional returns.

Best-in-class Black-led, high-growth companies represent a new asset class producing outsized returns. Black founders and their companies, historically overlooked and undercapitalized, represent a watershed investment opportunity.

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.

Invest in and scale technology businesses where artificial intelligence and data capabilities drive impact and market growth across Latin America. Latin Leap aims to help Spanish-speaking Latin America 'leapfrog' through technology investments tailored to emerging market needs, while also bridging international tech companies into the region.

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.

Consumer technology has the power to measurably improve billions of lives across the globe. We invest in exceptional entrepreneurs building digital utilities that provide better access to housing, healthcare, food, financial services, transportation, education, and entertainment globally.

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.

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.

Venture capital systematically overlooks innovation from Black, Brown, women, LGBTQ+, and disabled founders. We back high-potential underrepresented founders in the Midwest and South, addressing the geographic and demographic gaps in traditional coastal VC. The talent is here—between the coasts—and deserves institutional capital and ecosystem support.

Back founders solving existential problems for small and medium-sized businesses in contracting, healthcare, hospitality, and other local industries. Focus on applied AI for service sectors and SMBs, backing founders with deep operational knowledge of the markets they serve.

The smartest place you can invest your capital is in women. We bet on early-stage female-founded and female-led companies creating groundbreaking consumer and B2B software technologies that solve meaningful problems in families, healthcare, childcare, education, climate, and sustainability.

Venture capital should be accessible to exceptional entrepreneurs anywhere. Great companies can be built outside Silicon Valley with the right capital, operational expertise, and network support.

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.

Entrepreneur-centric private investment firm backing Israeli-related seed to early-stage ventures across diverse technology areas. Patient partners who allow founders to build global tech companies at their own pace.

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.

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.