Pre-seed funding: what it is, how startups raise it, and who raised in 2026
What pre-seed funding is, who provides it, how it differs from seed, and the startups that raised a pre-seed round in 2026, with every disclosed amount linked to its source.
Pre-seed funding is the first outside money a startup takes, often before it has a finished product or a single paying customer. On October 1, 2026, Recent Funding listed 581 pre-seed companies. Only 121 of them have an amount linked to its source, because pre-seed rounds are the ones founders most often announce without a figure.
What pre-seed funding pays for
Pre-seed money buys time to find out whether an idea works. It typically covers:
- Building the first version of the product.
- The founders' salaries for long enough to talk to customers and test the market.
- The evidence a seed investor will ask for: early users, a waitlist, a pilot, or first revenue.
Who invests at pre-seed
Pre-seed rounds are led by the people and funds willing to back a team before there is much to measure:
- Angel investors, often former founders or operators in the same field.
- Accelerators, which invest a standard amount in each company in a batch. See the accelerator portfolios on Recent Funding.
- Pre-seed and seed funds that specialise in first cheques.
- Friends and family, especially before a company has a track record.
Many pre-seed rounds use a SAFE or a convertible note rather than priced shares, which defers the question of what the company is worth until a later round.
Pre-seed versus seed
The line between them is not fixed. Pre-seed generally comes before product-market fit is in sight; seed funds the search for it once there is something working. Recent Funding records the stage an announcement uses, so a company calls its own round pre-seed or seed and we keep that label.
The largest pre-seed rounds of 2026
Some companies now raise pre-seed rounds that would once have been called seed or even Series A, usually when the founders have built and sold a company before. These are the largest pre-seed rounds announced this year, each amount linked to its source:
| # | Company | Industry | Stage | Amount | Announced | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fintech | pre-seed | $65M | fundraisingfox.com | ||
| 2 | ai-agents | pre-seed | $47M | Pulse 2.0 | ||
| 3 | infra-devtools | pre-seed | $42M | sg.finance.yahoo.com | ||
| 4 |  ZuriQ | other | pre-seed | $25.5M | siliconangle.com | |
| 5 | fintech | pre-seed | $15M | businessinsider.com | ||
| 6 | other | pre-seed | $10M | fundraisingfox.com | ||
| 7 | other | pre-seed | $10M | siliconangle.com | ||
| 8 |  Electric Twin | other | pre-seed | $10M | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 9 | consumer-social | pre-seed | $10M | Pulse 2.0 | ||
| 10 |  Prima | other | pre-seed | $10M | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 11 | other | pre-seed | $9.5M | repodo.com | ||
| 12 | payments-stablecoins | pre-seed | $8M | coincarp.com | ||
| 13 | gaming | pre-seed | $7M | siliconangle.com | ||
| 14 | other | pre-seed | $6.9M | siliconangle.com | ||
| 15 | infra-devtools | pre-seed | $6.4M | x.com |
Startups that raised pre-seed recently
The newest pre-seed announcements with a disclosed amount, from the last 90 days (since July 3, 2026):
| # | Company | Industry | Stage | Amount | Announced | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | trading-markets | pre-seed | $1.7M | CryptoRank | ||
| 2 | ai | pre-seed | $1M | entrepreneur.economictimes.indiatimes.com | ||
| 3 |  Nuvah | other | pre-seed | $476K | startuptalky.com | |
| 4 |  Demoverse | other | pre-seed | $600K | indianstartuptimes.com | |
| 5 |  Slayd | other | pre-seed | $160K | dealroom.co | |
| 6 |  Beijan | other | pre-seed | $180K | dealroom.co | |
| 7 | trading-markets | pre-seed | $2.4M | fundraisingfox.com | ||
| 8 |  Peep Beauty | other | pre-seed | $1.2M | dealroom.co | |
| 9 | bio-health | pre-seed | $500K | Griffith University (LinkedIn) | ||
| 10 | robotics-hardware | pre-seed | $350K | fundraisingfox.com | ||
| 11 | ai-agents | pre-seed | $5M | Dealroom | ||
| 12 | other | pre-seed | $10M | siliconangle.com | ||
| 13 |  Alteon | other | pre-seed | $2.5M | entrackr.com | |
| 14 |  Oppex AI | other | pre-seed | $445K | m.economictimes.com | |
| 15 | other | pre-seed | $1.4M | x.com | ||
| 16 | gaming | pre-seed | $7M | siliconangle.com | ||
| 17 |  Nara | payments-stablecoins | pre-seed | $500K | coincarp.com | |
| 18 |  Scooby's Club | other | pre-seed | $250K | retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com | |
| 19 | other | pre-seed | $9.5M | repodo.com | ||
| 20 |  Embedd | ai | pre-seed | $2.7M | siliconangle.com | |
| 21 |  Vinted | other | pre-seed | $1.1M | fundraisingfox.com | |
| 22 |  Tross | other | pre-seed | $400K | raising.fi | |
| 23 |  Zenalyst | other | pre-seed | $314K | entrackr.com | |
| 24 |  Echovane | other | pre-seed | $1M | siliconangle.com | |
| 25 |  Inevitable AI Group | other | pre-seed | $6M | siliconangle.com |
For the largest rounds at the earliest stages in a single month, see the largest seed and pre-seed rounds of September 2026.
Finding pre-seed startups
Pre-seed companies are often still in stealth, so the earliest signal is sometimes not a round at all: see stealth startups for companies flagged before they announced. To list pre-seed rounds as they are announced, use the API:
curl "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/rounds?stage=pre-seed&since=2026-01-01&limit=5"The API guide describes every field and filter.