Active angel investors and super angels bankrolling founders in 2026

Angel investors move faster than VCs and invest their own money. Most angels write $25K-$100K checks at pre-seed and seed stage. They bet on founders more than metrics since you probably don't have much traction yet. Angels make decisions in days or weeks, not months. You won't get term sheets or board seats from most angels. Just wire transfers and advice when you ask for it.

Quick list

Picking the right angel investor

Check size: Most angels write $25K-$100K checks. Super angels with exits write $100K-$500K. Don't waste time pitching angels who can't write your minimum check size. Ask about typical investment amounts upfront.

Lead vs. follow: Angels almost never lead rounds. They fill out your round after you have a lead VC or another committed angel. Exception is super angels who sometimes lead $500K-$1M pre-seed rounds. Don't expect angels to anchor your entire raise.

Speed: Angels can decide in 1-3 meetings over 2-4 weeks. Some decide after one coffee. No investment committees or partner meetings. The person you're talking to makes the call. This is why angels are valuable even at small check sizes.

Follow-on reserves: Most angels don't reserve capital for your next round. They're making one-time bets. Super angels sometimes follow on if you're doing well. Don't count on angels for Series A. They'll have moved on to new investments.

Communication: Use Ellty to share your deck with trackable links. Angels spend 2-3 minutes on initial deck review. You'll see if they actually looked at your deck or just said yes to the meeting. Track which slides they focus on. Angels care more about team and product than financial projections at this stage.

Value beyond money: Angels add value through intros and specific advice in their domain expertise. A payments angel can intro you to payment processors. A former PM can help with product decisions. Don't expect weekly calls. Most angels are busy with their own companies or jobs.

How to approach angel investors

Research stage fit: Target angels who've invested at your stage recently. Check their AngelList or LinkedIn profiles for latest investments. Angels who haven't invested in 12 months are either selective or done investing. Many successful founders angel invest for 2-3 years then stop.

Build your narrative: Angels invest in founders first. Your story matters more than your metrics at pre-seed. Explain why you're the right person to build this. What's your unfair advantage? Angels have seen your idea before. They're betting you'll execute better than the last 5 teams. Founders increasingly seek cost-efficient DocSend alternatives that offer granular sharing analytics and permissions.

Share your pitch deck: Upload to Ellty and send trackable links. Monitor which pages angels actually view. Early-stage angels skip financial projections and focus on problem, solution, and team slides. If they spend time on your roadmap, they're thinking about product-market fit seriously.

Get warm introductions: Ask your accelerator, other founders, or existing angel investors for intros. Angels get 50-100 cold emails per week. Warm intros get 60% response rate. Cold emails get maybe 3%. Tweet at angels if they're active on X. Some respond better to public context.

Target the right angels: Find angels who understand your market. Don't pitch a fintech angel your gaming startup. Look for angels who've built similar products or worked in your industry. Check their portfolio for pattern matching. If they've invested in 3 HR tech companies, they'll understand your HR startup faster.

Time your outreach: Angels invest year-round. No seasonal patterns like VCs. But don't approach angels until you have something to show. A deck and incorporation papers aren't enough. Ship something users can try. Angels want to see you can build. Prevent unintentional exposure of confidential data by enabling screenshot-blocking during sensitive investor presentations.

Prepare your data room: Set up an Ellty data room with your cap table, incorporation docs, and basic financial model. Angels will ask for these if they're serious. Most angels don't do extensive diligence. They check you're not lying about your background and that your startup is properly incorporated.

Structure initial conversations: Lead with traction or technical progress. Angels don't care about TAM slides. Show them what you've built and learned. Explain your next milestone and why their $50K helps you reach it. Most angels invest because they like you and believe you'll figure it out.

Why angel investors matter in 2026

Pre-seed and seed rounds got harder to raise in 2024-2025. Seed VCs moved upmarket and want to see more traction before investing. The gap between idea and institutional funding widened. Angels filled this gap for teams that can't or won't do Y Combinator.

Angel investors in 2026 are more selective than 2021. They're writing smaller checks and doing more pre-investment diligence. But angels still move faster than VCs and invest based on conviction rather than committee consensus. For pre-product companies, finding 10-15 angels at $25K-$50K each is often easier than raising $1M from one seed fund.

20 top angel investors

1. Naval Ravikant

Naval backs technical founders building products with strong network effects and minimal capital requirements.

• Recent Deals: AngelList, Uber Series A, Twitter Series A (historical investments)
• LinkedIn: Naval Ravikant
• Check Size: $25K-$100K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: nav.al

2. Elad Gil

Elad writes larger angel checks for experienced founders building infrastructure and developer tools.

• Recent Deals: Airbnb early investor, Coinbase Series A, Stripe early stage, PagerDuty early investor
• LinkedIn: Elad Gil
• Check Size: $100K-$500K
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: blog.eladgil.com

3. Jason Calacanis

Jason runs Launch accelerator and invests in consumer tech and fintech with strong founder conviction.

• Recent Deals: Uber seed investor, Robinhood seed investor, Calm Series A, Thumbtack early investor
• LinkedIn: Jason Calacanis
• Check Size: $25K-$250K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: Los Angeles, USA
• Website: calacanis.com

4. Sahil Lavingia

Sahil backs creator economy companies and capital-efficient businesses that don't need large VC rounds.

• Recent Deals: Gumroad founder, invests in bootstrapped-friendly SaaS and creator tools
• LinkedIn: Sahil Lavingia
• Check Size: $10K-$50K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: sahillavingia.com

5. Balaji Srinivasan

Balaji invests in crypto infrastructure, decentralized systems, and longevity tech with technical founders.

• Recent Deals: Former Coinbase CTO, early crypto and web3 investments
• LinkedIn: Balaji Srinivasan
• Check Size: $50K-$200K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: Singapore
• Website: balajis.com

6. Cyan Banister

Cyan backs frontier tech including space, longevity, and deep tech with technical founding teams.

• Recent Deals: Uber early investor, SpaceX early investor, Postmates seed investor, Affirm early stage
• LinkedIn: Cyan Banister
• Check Size: $50K-$250K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: Long Angle (personal investment vehicle)

7. Paul Graham

Paul occasionally angels YC companies and technical founders solving hard problems with elegant solutions.

• Recent Deals: Y Combinator founder, early investor in Reddit, Dropbox, Airbnb (through YC)
• LinkedIn: Paul Graham
• Check Size: $20K-$150K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: England, UK
• Website: paulgraham.com

8. Marc Benioff

Marc invests in enterprise SaaS and impact-driven startups with experienced founding teams.

• Recent Deals: Salesforce founder, angels enterprise software and social impact companies
• LinkedIn: Marc Benioff
• Check Size: $50K-$500K
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: Salesforce Ventures

9. Kevin Hartz

Kevin backs marketplaces, payments, and consumer platforms with strong unit economics.

• Recent Deals: Eventbrite co-founder, Xoom founder, Airbnb early investor, Uber early investor
• LinkedIn: Kevin Hartz
• Check Size: $100K-$500K
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: A* Capital (co-founded venture firm)

10. Gokul Rajaram

Gokul invests in product-focused founders building consumer or B2B products with strong engagement loops.

• Recent Deals: Early Facebook and Square executive, Coinbase, Faire, The Trade Desk early investor
• LinkedIn: Gokul Rajaram
• Check Size: $50K-$200K
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: Personal angel investments

11. Alexis Ohanian

Alexis backs consumer tech, gaming, and creator economy through Seven Seven Six fund and personal investments.

• Recent Deals: Reddit co-founder, Patreon early investor, Initialized Capital co-founder
• LinkedIn: Alexis Ohanian
• Check Size: $50K-$500K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed, Series A
• Location: Los Angeles, USA
• Website: 776.org

12. Garry Tan

Garry invests in developer tools, infrastructure, and technical founders through YC connections and personal angel investing.

• Recent Deals: Y Combinator CEO, early Coinbase investor, Postmates seed investor, Instacart early stage
• LinkedIn: Garry Tan
• Check Size: $25K-$150K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: Initialized Capital co-founder

13. Harry Stebbings

Harry bridges media and investing through 20VC podcast and backs consumer and SaaS founders he interviews.

• Recent Deals: 20VC podcast host, early investor in multiple European and US startups
• LinkedIn: Harry Stebbings
• Check Size: $25K-$100K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: London, UK
• Website: 20vc.com

14. Linda Xie

Linda focuses on crypto infrastructure, DeFi protocols, and web3 applications with technical teams.

• Recent Deals: Scalar Capital co-founder, early crypto and web3 investments
• LinkedIn: Linda Xie
• Check Size: $25K-$100K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: linda.mirror.xyz

15. Jeff Morris Jr

Jeff invests in consumer social, fintech, and product-driven companies with strong user experience.

• Recent Deals: Former Tinder VP Product, early investor in consumer and fintech startups
• LinkedIn: Jeff Morris Jr
• Check Size: $25K-$100K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: Los Angeles, USA
• Website: Personal angel investments

16. Li Jin

Li backs passion economy, creator tools, and community-driven platforms through Variant Fund.

• Recent Deals: Variant Fund founder, early investor in Substack, Teachable, and creator economy startups
• LinkedIn: Li Jin
• Check Size: $50K-$200K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: variant.fund

17. Turner Novak

Turner invests in consumer products and vertical SaaS through Banana Capital with focus on product-market fit signals.

• Recent Deals: Banana Capital founder, early investor in consumer and SaaS companies
• LinkedIn: Turner Novak
• Check Size: $25K-$150K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: Remote
• Website: banana.capital

18. Lachy Groom

Lachy backs technical founders building SaaS and infrastructure products with experience from Stripe.

• Recent Deals: Stripe's first employee, early investor in Figma, Notion, and multiple SaaS companies
• LinkedIn: Lachy Groom
• Check Size: $50K-$250K
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: Personal angel investments

19. Doug Leone

Doug occasionally angels enterprise software and SaaS companies with experienced founding teams.

• Recent Deals: Sequoia Capital partner emeritus, early investor in Nubank, ServiceNow, and enterprise companies
• LinkedIn: Doug Leone
• Check Size: $100K-$500K
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Location: Menlo Park, USA
• Website: Sequoia Capital

20. Avlok Kohli

Avlok invests in developer tools and infrastructure with focus on technical founding teams.

• Recent Deals: AngelList co-founder, FastGrant co-founder, early dev tools investments
• LinkedIn: Avlok Kohli
• Check Size: $25K-$100K
• Stage Focus: Pre-seed, Seed
• Location: San Francisco, USA
• Website: Personal angel investments

How Ellty helps with angel rounds

These 20 angels invested in early-stage companies from 2024 to 2026. Most want to see product traction or technical progress before writing checks.

Upload your deck to Ellty and create unique links for each angel. Angels typically spend 2-4 minutes on initial deck review. You'll see which angels actually opened your deck versus those who ignored your email. Track which slides get attention. Most angels skip your financial projections and focus on problem, solution, and team slides.

When angels get serious, share an Ellty data room with your incorporation docs and cap table. Angel diligence is light but they'll verify basic facts. You'll know when they actually review your materials versus just saying they're interested. Keep your fundraising organized with separate tracking links for each investor so you know who's engaged.

Common questions

How much should I raise from angel investors?

Most founders raise $250K-$750K from angels at pre-seed. That's 10-15 angels at $25K-$50K each or 5-7 angels at $50K-$100K. Don't try to raise your entire $2M seed round from angels. Mix angels with one or two seed VCs.

Do I need a lead investor with angel rounds?

Not required but helpful. One angel who commits first makes it easier to close others. Angels follow momentum. If you can get one respected angel to commit, others will follow. But don't wait months for a lead. Get 2-3 angels committed and use that momentum.

What do angel investors expect in return?

Equity through SAFEs or convertible notes. Most angels invest on standard terms at market cap. Expect to give up 10-15% total across all angels in a pre-seed round. Don't negotiate individual terms with each angel. Pick standard SAFE terms and stick to them.

How long does angel fundraising take?

2-4 months to close a full angel round with 10-15 investors. Each angel decides in 1-4 weeks but you're running parallel processes. First 3-4 angels are hardest. After that, momentum helps. Don't expect to close an angel round in 3 weeks.

Should I raise from friends and family or angels?

Friends and family if they can write $25K+ checks and won't be upset if you fail. Angels if you want people with startup experience and networks. Don't raise from friends who can't afford to lose the money. That ruins relationships.

What's the difference between angels and seed VCs?

Angels invest their own money and decide alone. Seed VCs invest fund money and have partner meetings. Angels move faster but write smaller checks. Seed VCs are more predictable but slower. Mix both in your round for speed and capital.