The Seed Funding stage is one of the most important stages in the life of a top startup. It is usually the first step in which a company gains institutional investment, which can help to propel startups to a new level. The investments carried out by Top VCs in Seed rounds are the largest, although other parties can also invest in these stages.
1. SV Angel
Year Founded: 2009
HQ: San Francisco, California, USA
Size: 1-10
Founders: Ronald Conway
SV Angel is a Seed VC firm that was founded in 2009 and is currently based in San Francisco, California. In addition to funding to assist businesses, the company offers a variety of other support options, which also include expert advice.
Since the firm was founded just over a decade ago, it has managed a total of 5 investment funds. The use of these funds has allowed SV Angel to make a series of 1083 investments. From these investments, the company has successfully exited from 378.
2. BoxGroup
Year Founded: 2009
HQ: New York, USA
Size: 1-10
Founders: Adam Rothenberg, David Tisch
BoxGroup is a Seed VC firm that was founded in 2009 and is currently based in New York, USA. The company focuses predominantly on technology startups during the early stages of their development. Specific industries include consumer, fintech, enterprise, health and many more.
Since it was founded, the VC has managed a series of six investment funds. These funds have given BoxGroup the resources to make 494 investments since 2009. As a direct consequence of these investments, the business has exited from 96 so far.
3. 8VC
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: San Francisco, California, USA
Size: 11-50
Founders: Alex Kolicich, Drew Oetting, Jake Medwell, Joe Lonsdale, Kimmy Scotti
8VC is an American Seed VC that was founded in 2015 and is currently based in San Francisco, California. The business aims to assist early-stage startups with funding and support in an effort to drive future innovations and improve the landscape for people worldwide.
Since it was founded six years ago, the VC has managed a total of six investment funds. These funds have been put to good use as 8VC has made 278 investments in the time it has been trading. From these investments, the business has only exited from 19 so far.
4. AME Cloud Ventures
Year Founded: 2012
HQ: Palo Alto, California, USA
Size: 11-50
Founders: Jerry Yang
AME Cloud Ventures is a VC firm that was founded in 2012 and is currently headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company specializes in assisting businesses that use technology to create and manage data. Interestingly, the fund is led by the co-founder of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang.
Since the firm was founded nine years ago, it has made a sizable number of investments, with the total coming to 255. It has also exited from a sufficient number of these investments, with the number standing at 54.
5. Mercia Fund Managers
Year Founded: 2010
HQ: Henley-in-Arden, England
Size: 51-100
Founders: Mark Payton, Tim Hazell
Mercia Fund Managers is an English Seed VC that was founded in 2010 and is currently based in Henley-in-Arden. The company focuses on helping innovative and ambitious UK startups in the Midlands region to grow with mentoring and financial support.
Since the business was founded, it has made a series of 122 investments from two investment funds. As it stands, Mercia Fund Managers has exited from eight of these investments.
6. Speedinvest
Year Founded: 2011
HQ: Vienna, Austria
Size: 51-100
Founders: Daniel Keiper-Knorr, Erik Bovee, Michael Schuster, Oliver Holle, Werner Zahnt
Speedinvest is a VC firm that was founded in 2011 and is currently based in Vienna, Austria. This company focuses on early-stage startups, with largely encompasses the Seed Funding Stage. The VC firm deals with technology companies across a variety of sectors to bring them to their next stage of development.
Since the business was founded a decade ago, it has managed a total of seven investment funds. From these funds, the company has successfully made more than 270 investments in that time. Speedinvest has exited from 14 of these investments so far.
7. Cowboy Ventures
Year Founded: 2012
HQ: Palo Alto, California, USA
Size: 1-10
Founders: Aileen Lee
Cowboy Ventures is a VC firm that was founded in 2012 and is currently based in Palo Alto, California. The company provides investment and support to seed-stage companies across a wide variety of industry sectors, so long as they use technology in some manner.
Since the company was founded nine years ago, it has used a total of 3 investment funds. This use of these funds has given the VC firm the capability to make 132 investments. Out of these investments, Cowboy Ventures has exited from 22 of these investments.
8. Moment Ventures
Year Founded: 2013
HQ: Palo Alto, California, USA
Size: 1-10
Founders: Ammar Hanafi, Clint Chao, Rajiv Khemani
Moment Ventures is an early-stage VC firm that was founded in 2013 and is currently headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company mainly focuses on companies that are innovating in the workplace and focuses on the logistics, food, oil, education, transport and construction industries.
Since the company was founded eight years ago, it has managed two investment funds. From the use of these funds, the company has made a series of 36 investments. From these investments, the business has successfully exited from eight.
9. 7Percent Ventures
Year Founded: 2014
HQ: London, England
Size: 1-10
Founders: Andrew Gault, Andrew Scott
7Percent Ventures is an English VC firm that was founded seven years ago and is currently based in London. The company focuses its investment efforts on early-stage startups in the deeptech markets, in addition to the funding, the startups are supported by a team of ex-founders, meaning they have access to someone that understands the challenges faced by startups.
Since the company was founded in 2014, it has managed a pair of investment funds. These funds have given the VC firm the capability to make 63 investments. Out of these investments, the company has managed to successfully exit from seven of these investments.
10. Ascension Ventures
Year Founded: 2012
HQ: London, England
Size: 11-50
Founders: Jean Fougerolles, Kieran Hill
Ascension Ventures is an English Seed VC that was founded in 2012 and is currently based in London, England. The company was built from ex founders who want to bring money and technical support to new startup founders so that they can make their ideas a reality and turn their businesses into a success.
Since the VC firm was founded nine years ago, it has managed a total of ten investment funds. Ascension Ventures has used these funds to make a total of 105 investments into new startups. So far, the company has successfully exited from four of these investments.
11. Struck Capital
Year Founded: 2014
HQ: Santa Monica, California
Size: 1-10
Founders: Adam Struck
Struck Capital is a VC firm that was founded in 2014 and is currently based in Santa Monica, California. The company focuses on providing first capital investment into a variety of different startups that have the potential to change the world and how we interact with it, fostering innovation.
Since the business was founded seven years ago, it has managed a pair of investment funds. The money provided by these funds has fueled a series of 70 investments by the VC firm. From these investments, the business has exited from four so far.
12. TechNexus
Year Founded: 2007
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Size: 11-50
Founders: Fred Hoch, Terry Howerton
TechNexus is an incubator and VC firm that was founded in 2007 and is currently based in Chicago, Illinois. The company focuses on providing early-stage funding and support for a wide variety of startups across multiple industries.
Since the company was founded just around a decade and a half ago, the VC firm has managed to successfully make 151 investments into growing businesses. From these investments, the company has now successfully exited from 10.
13. BEENEXT
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: Singapore
Size: 11-50
Founders: Teruhide Sato
BEENEXT is a Seed VC that was founded in 2015 and is currently based in the Asian country of Singapore. The company invests in early-stage startups across South East Asia, Japan, India and the USA, meaning it has a wide reach. The VC firm focuses on companies that are building data-intensive digital platforms.
Since the company was founded six years ago, it has managed to use six investment funds. These funds have given the VC the opportunity to make 211 investments into growing startups. So far, the company has successfully exited from a total of eight investments.
14. VSV Capital
Year Founded: 2014
HQ: Hanoi, Vietnam
Size: 11-50
Founders: Le Anh Thach, Linh Han
VSV Capital is a Seed VC that was founded seven years ago and is currently headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. The company is one of the most premier investment funds in Vietnam and provides early-stage funding to a variety of different business types, across a large variety of industry sectors. VSV Capital has a proven track record of success with growing new startups and helping them to succeed.
Since the business was founded, it has currently made a total of 49 investments into growing startups across the SEA area. So far, the business has not exited from any of these investments.
15. Founder Collective
Year Founded: 2009
HQ: Cambridge, Mass, USA
Size: 1-10
Founders: Andy Palmer, Anthony Goldbloom, Bill Trenchard, Caterina Fake, Chris Dixon, David Frankel, Elliot Cohen, Eric Paley, Jack Groetzinger, James Tamplin, Micah Rosenbloom, Nadia Boujarwah, Noah Glass, Noah Jessop, Parul Singh, Raj De Datta, Zach Klein
Founder Collective is a Seed VC firm that was founded in 2009 and is currently based in Cambridge, USA. The company provides much-needed seed funding to a variety of different tech-enabled businesses.
Since the company was founded twelve years ago, it has managed a total of three investment funds. The use of these funds has allowed the business to make a series of 438 investments into startups, of which the business has exited from 117 so far.
16. Uncork Capital
Year Founded: 2004
HQ: San Francisco, California, USA
Size: 1-10
Founders: Jeff Clavier
Uncork Capital is an American Seed VC that was founded in 2004 and is currently headquartered in San Francisco, California. The business provides seed funding to technology startups in the SaaS, consumer, marketplace and hardware sectors among others.
Since the business was founded in the early 2000s, it has managed a total of seven investment funds. As a direct consequence of these investment funds, the VC firm has made a series of 361 investments, of which Uncork Capital has exited from 94.
17. Chloe Capital
Year Founded: 2017
HQ: Ithaca, New York, USA
Size: 11-50
Founders: Elisa Miller-Out, Kathryn Cartini
Chloe Capital is an American VC firm that was founded in 2017 and is currently based in Ithaca, New York. The business primarily focuses on fixing the gap between male-founded startups and female-founded startups, by focusing their attention on startups that have female founders in the North America area.
Since the VC firm was founded four years ago, it has made a series of 12 investments into startups. As it stands, the company has not exited from any of these investments.
18. BuiltUp Ventures
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
Size: 1-10
Founders: Oded Eliashiv
BuiltUp Ventures is an Israeli VC that was founded in 2019 and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company focuses exclusively on helping Israeli Proptech startups to grow, with a range of funding and support options.
Since it was founded two years ago, the company has made a total of eight investments, of which it has not exited from any at the time of writing this article.
19. Fresh.fund
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Jerusalem, Israel
Size: 1-10
Founders: Hiday Goldsmith, Zaki Djemal
Fresh Fund is an Israeli Seed VC firm that was founded two years ago and is currently based in Jerusalem, Israel. The company invests in startups across a variety of different verticals and uses its financial power and mentoring capabilities to help these businesses to reach the next level of their development.
Since the business was founded in 2019, it has made a total of nine investments into growing Israeli startups, with no exits confirmed at this time.
20. 01 Ventures
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: London, England
Size: 1-10
Founders: Chris Haley, Correy Voo, Eeswaran Navaratnam, Ton van 't Noordende
01 Ventures is an English VC firm that was founded in 2015 and is currently headquartered in London, England. The company aims to assist tech startups all over Europe with funding and professional support to ensure that they can reach their business goals in earnest.
So far, the business has made a total of four investments into new startups, with no exits being confirmed at this time.
21. SNO Ventures
Year Founded: 2015
HQ: Oslo, Norway
Size: 1-10
Founders: Magne Uppman, Teodor Bjerrang
SNO Ventures is a Norweigan Seed VC that was founded in 2015 and is currently based in Oslo, Norway. The founders of this firm are ex entrepreneurs themselves, which helps them to provide expert guidance to growing businesses. Investments by this company are particularly focused on technology startups.
Since it was founded six years ago, the company has managed a total of two investment funds. SNO Ventures has used these funds to make a series of 13 investments into growing startups. Currently, no exits have been confirmed.
22.Playfair Capital
Year Founded: 2013
HQ: London
Size: 1-10
Founders: Federico Pirzio-Biroli
Playfair Capital is a Seed VC firm that was founded in 2013 and is currently based in London, UK. Playfair takes a sector-agnostic approach and investments span deep tech, SaaS, marketplaces and B2B companies.
Since it was founded, the VC has managed two investment funds with 87 investments and 6 exits. Playfair has backed the founders of more than 60 companies including Mapillary (acq. Facebook), CryptoFacilities (acq. Kraken), Omnipresent, Orca AI, Ravelin, sprout.ai, Thought Machine, Trouva and Vinehealth.
FAQs
What is Seed VC?
Seed VC is generally the smallest VC round that a company can go through, with the investor parting with a small amount of money to help startups through their earliest stages. This funding is typically used to develop products, enact elements of the business plan and other important early-stage business expenses.
How Much Money is Invested in Seed VC?
The COVID-19 pandemic had a big impact on seed funding totals in 2020, with a decrease of 27% over the year and a total of $13.6 Billion. Despite, this, progress in 2021 has been strong and seed funding has recovered strongly.
What is the Average Seed VC Deal?
The average amount of money put into startups from seed funding has risen massively in the last few years, with the average now standing at between $1.7 Million to $4.7 Million.
