How many pre-seed investors are in New York City?
There are 950+ investors in the AngelMatch database who back pre-seed startups and are based in New York City. Only San Francisco has more, so New York is a real first-check market in its own right, not a Bay Area afterthought.
Put another way, roughly one in six US pre-seed investors in the database lives in New York City. The city also holds the large majority of pre-seed investors across New York State. So even if you're building upstate or on Long Island, most of the state's earliest backers are in the city.
This page is the overlap of two bigger lists. The full pre-seed investor list covers every city, and the New York City investor list covers every stage, including the later-stage funds you'll want after your first round.
Seed rounds in New York got bigger, and that changes pre-seed
Tech:NYC tracked 240+ NYC startups that raised seed rounds in the first half of 2026. Together they raised at least $1.13 billion, and the average seed round hit $6.64 million, up from $5.4 million in the first half of 2025, according to its H1 2026 seed funding analysis.
That's a big number for a round with the word "seed" on it. When seed rounds get that large, seed investors usually want more proof before they commit: a working product, early users or revenue and a team that has already shipped. Pre-seed is where you earn that proof.
The database shows the other side of the squeeze. New York City has 3,000+ seed investors but 950+ at pre-seed, so there's roughly one pre-seed investor for every three at seed. The first check is the hardest one to find, and the pool that writes it is smaller.
So size your pre-seed around the milestones a New York seed investor will want to see, not around a round size you read about online. List those milestones, estimate how many months it takes to hit them and turn that runway into a dollar figure before your first meeting.
What New York City pre-seed investors back
The market mix here is broader than a lot of founders expect. Information technology, B2B and consumer internet are the three most common tags, and more than half of these investors list consumer internet. If you're building a consumer product, that's good news. You won't have to hunt for the handful of investors who still do consumer.
Finance is the other big thread. About half of New York City's pre-seed investors tag fintech, and finance shows up in the top ten on its own too. The startup side looks similar. In Tech:NYC's first-half 2026 seed tally, fintech was one of the biggest categories, behind only AI and enterprise software and digital health.
AI touches almost everything. Tech:NYC found that companies mainly building AI and enterprise software took nearly 45% of all the seed money NYC startups raised in the first half of 2026. You don't have to be an AI company to raise pre-seed in New York. But expect investors to ask how AI changes your costs, your product or your competition, and have a clear answer ready.
Health care is tagged by roughly a third of the pool, which gives digital health founders plenty of room to work with. Enterprise software and SaaS round out the top of the list, which makes sense in a city full of big companies that can be early customers.
Who writes pre-seed checks in New York City
Tags overlap, so one investor can carry several. Still, the shape is clear. About three in four of these investors carry a venture capital tag, and more than half are tagged as angel investors who write personal checks.
Angels usually write checks between $25,000 and $500,000. At pre-seed, plan to build your round from several smaller checks rather than waiting for one big lead to show up. A lead helps, but a pre-seed round in New York often comes together as a group of angels plus one small fund.
Roughly one in five also carry a founder tag. These are people who've built companies themselves, and at pre-seed they're often the most useful first yes. They can judge a team that has no revenue yet, and their name on your cap table makes the next call easier.
The pool also includes 80+ micro VCs and 40+ scouts. Micro VCs are small funds that can move faster than a big firm. Scouts invest small amounts on behalf of larger funds, so a scout check can be your first line into a fund that would never take a cold pre-seed pitch.
Some of the most active pre-seed backers in New York in 2026
A few names come up again and again. BoxGroup is a New York seed fund co-founded by David Tisch and Adam Rothenberg that invests at pre-seed and seed, and both co-founders appear in this list. Tech:NYC also named BoxGroup among the firms that showed up repeatedly in NYC's first-half 2026 seed deals.
Golden Seeds is another. It's a New York-headquartered angel network that invests in companies led or co-led by women, and its co-CEO Loretta McCarthy is in this list too. If your startup has a woman in the CEO seat or on the founding team, a network like this can be a faster path than cold outreach to generalist funds.
Famous names get flooded with decks. Treat them as part of your list, not the whole list. The investors most likely to answer you are often the less famous angels and small funds further down, especially ones who've already backed something close to what you're building.
Stretch your round with New York State's matching fund
This is the most New York-specific tip on the page. NY Ventures, the state's venture capital arm, runs a Pre-Seed and Seed Matching Fund that invests $50,000 to $250,000 in early-stage startups. The catch is that it matches private money. You need at least $1 from a qualified private investor for every $1 the state puts in.
To qualify, you generally need to have raised $2 million or less of dilutive funding before the current round, be registered to do business in New York and have your headquarters and at least one C-suite employee in New York State. Private money raised up to 90 days before the state's investment can count toward the match. The state invests on the same terms as your private investors, whether that's a SAFE, a convertible note or priced equity.
Here's why it matters for your outreach. A New York angel who commits early does more than fill part of your round. If you're accepted, that check can help unlock matching state money, which is worth mentioning once an investor is already interested. Just don't promise it, since the state picks companies through a competitive application.
How to approach pre-seed investors in New York City
Lead with the team and the insight. At pre-seed there's usually no revenue to show, so New York investors are betting on why you're the right people and what you see that others don't. Put that in the first two lines of your email.
Use the city's density. Everyone on this list is within a short trip of everyone else, so an in-person coffee is realistic in a way it isn't in more spread-out markets. Ask for 20 minutes in person instead of a 45-minute video call.
Warm intros still win, and New York makes them easier to get. Angels who've raised money themselves tend to know the partners at local funds. Ask every angel who says yes for one or two intros to the next investor, and send them a short blurb they can forward as is.
If you're writing cold, keep it short, specific to that investor and easy to forward. Mention one of their past investments that's close to what you do, so it's obvious you picked them on purpose.
Some investors here do both stages. If a conversation ends with "come back when you have more traction," write down exactly what they mean, go hit it and follow up. Once you have, you can widen your list to seed investors in other cities too.
New York City's pre-seed pool is big enough to run a real process and small enough that one good intro travels fast. Filter the 950+ investors above by your market, pick the 30 or 40 whose past checks look most like your company and line up a private commitment early if you plan to apply for the state match. The AngelMatch investor database lets you sort and export that shortlist so you can start outreach this week.
Pre-seed investors
