Startup lead generation: recently funded startups as sales leads
How to find startups that just raised, the founders to contact and the investors behind them, and when to reach out, with the list Recent Funding updates every day.
The best startup leads are companies that just raised: they have new money and new plans to spend it. In the seven days to October 26, 2026, 178 startups on Recent Funding announced a round with a sourced amount, and 1144 announced a round in the last 30 days. Each one comes with its stage, industry, investors and, for most, named founders.
Lead generation is the most common use of the Recent Funding API. Most requests look up one company at a time to qualify a lead.
Why a new round makes a good lead
A company that just raised usually hires, buys tools and starts new projects in the months after the money lands. Its founders are still the buyers at this stage. The announcement also gives you a reason to write that isn't a cold pitch.
Build the list
- Start with recent rounds. Recently funded startups lists every round of the last 7 days, newest day first.
- Pick the stage you sell to. Pre-seed and seed teams are small and founder-led. Series A and later are hiring fast and buying for teams.
- Pick the industry. Every company has categories, such as AI agents or fintech.
- Find the people. Most profiles name the founders, with links to their X and LinkedIn profiles and the page that lists them. Browse them on founders.
- Note the investors. The lead investor is a natural reference, and investor pages show who else they backed.
The largest seed rounds of the last 30 days
| # | Company | Industry | Stage | Amount | Announced | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ai | seed | $230M | tradersunion.com | ||
| 2 | fintech | seed | $230M | thefintechtimes.com | ||
| 3 | defense | seed | $200M | techcrunch.com | ||
| 4 | bio-health | seed | $153M | The Globe and Mail | ||
| 5 | robotics-hardware | seed | $150M | Dealroom | ||
| 6 | fintech | seed | $61M | ascendants.in | ||
| 7 | ai | seed | $60M | finsmes.com | ||
| 8 | fintech | seed | $60M | businesswire.com | ||
| 9 | enterprise-software | seed | $49.76M | startups.com.br | ||
| 10 | media-marketing | seed | $48M | finsmes.com | ||
| 11 | bio-health | seed | $45M | entarabi.com | ||
| 12 |  Capable | bio-health | seed | $38M | app.dealroom.co | |
| 13 | defense | seed | $35M | citybiz.co | ||
| 14 |  Enact Intelligence | other | seed | $30M | finsmes.com | |
| 15 | ai | seed | $30M | theaiinsider.tech |
The full list is on seed stage startups.
Where the money went, last 30 days
| Industry | Companies |
|---|---|
| ai | 183 |
| bio-health | 113 |
| robotics-hardware | 72 |
| fintech | 43 |
| energy-climate | 31 |
| logistics-mobility | 29 |
| infra-devtools | 27 |
| ai-agents | 25 |
| ecommerce-retail | 24 |
| security-privacy | 24 |
| enterprise-software | 22 |
| food-agriculture | 20 |
| consumer-social | 15 |
| media-marketing | 15 |
| insurtech | 14 |
| payments-stablecoins | 11 |
| proptech | 11 |
| data-analytics | 9 |
| defense | 7 |
| defi | 7 |
| edtech | 6 |
| legal-gov | 6 |
| trading-markets | 3 |
| gaming | 2 |
| other | 2 |
| hr-work | 1 |
Founders at recently funded startups
| Founder | Title | Company | Founding team | Latest round | Announced |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founder | Three founders | $1B | |||
X · LinkedIn | Co-founder and CEO | Solo founder | $1B | ||
| Founder | Two founders | $750M | |||
X · LinkedIn | Founder | Solo founder | $668M | ||
| Founder | Two founders | $609.75M | |||
| Co-Founder & VP, Engineering | Four or more | $600M | |||
X · LinkedIn | Founder | Solo founder | $500M | ||
| Founder | Three founders | $445M | |||
| Founder | Three founders | $400M | |||
| YEYu Enyuan | Founder | Solo founder | $400M |
728 of the companies with a round in the last 30 days have at least one named founder on record.
When and how to reach out
- Within a few weeks of the announcement. The round is news, and the team is planning how to spend it.
- Lead with the round. Mention what they raised, who led it, and one specific way you help at that stage.
- Keep it short. One clear reason to talk beats a feature list.
- Respect a no. Stop when someone asks you to, and follow the email rules where they are.
Pull the list into your CRM
The same data is in the Recent Funding API. This returns the newest seed rounds, 50 at a time, each with its founders and investors:
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RF_KEY" "https://recentfunding.com/api/v1/companies?stage=seed&sort=announced&limit=50"For new rounds every day, a lead-generation workflow needs live data: that is the Pro plan. Every amount links to the page it came from (how the data is sourced).
Related on Recent Funding
- Startup funding data: the last 30 days in charts
- Recently funded startups, updated daily
- Money flow: raises, acquisitions and new funds
- Stealth startups
- Recently funded startup founders: archetypes by team size, title, accelerator and industry
- Stealth startup founders: who is building in stealth, and how to find them
- AI investors: the VC firms and accelerators backing the most AI startups
- Recent Funding API docs: every endpoint behind this post; a free API key takes just an email