Cloud investing matured after the 2022 valuation correction. Investors who backed every vertical SaaS startup in 2021 now focus on profitability and burn multiples. The market split between infrastructure investors who understand Kubernetes economics and application layer investors backing workflow SaaS. You need to know which investors care about infrastructure margins versus application revenue multiples.
Bessemer Venture Partners: Cloud computing pioneer, backed Shopify and Twilio through IPOs.
Accel: Early Atlassian investor, actively funding developer tools and infrastructure in 2025.
Sequoia Capital: Backed Snowflake and continues investing in data infrastructure platforms.
Index Ventures: Led Datadog's growth rounds and funding observability platforms in 2025.
Lightspeed Venture Partners: Backed Nutanix through IPO and investing in hybrid cloud solutions.
Andreessen Horowitz: Infrastructure focus, backed HashiCorp and funding cloud-native tools.
Insight Partners: Growth equity leader in SaaS, backed Veeam and continues cloud investments.
Battery Ventures: Application infrastructure specialist backing API and integration platforms.
General Catalyst: Early Stripe backer, funding fintech infrastructure and payment platforms.
ICONIQ Capital: Late-stage focus on proven cloud platforms with strong unit economics.
Sapphire Ventures: Enterprise SaaS specialist with deep Fortune 500 relationships.
Tiger Global: Fast-moving on high-growth SaaS with strong net revenue retention.
Redpoint Ventures: Early Snowflake investor, backing data infrastructure and analytics platforms.
Greylock Partners: Developer tool heritage from Workday, funding enterprise applications.
FirstMark Capital: Cloud infrastructure focus, backed Shopify and Airbnb early.
Coatue Management: Late-stage growth investor in cloud platforms with proven metrics.
Bain Capital Ventures: Vertical SaaS specialist backing industry-specific cloud platforms.
Sutter Hill Ventures: Infrastructure focus, backed Snowflake and Pure Storage through IPOs.
GGV Capital: Cross-border cloud investor backing US and Asia expansion.
Benchmark: Early-stage purist backing developer infrastructure and API platforms.
Madrona Venture Group: Pacific Northwest focus, strong relationships with AWS ecosystem.
Storm Ventures: Enterprise SaaS specialist focusing on sales and marketing cloud tools.
Scale Venture Partners: Data-driven approach to SaaS metrics and cloud unit economics.
OpenView Venture Partners: Product-led growth specialist in self-serve cloud platforms.
Experience: Find investors who've backed companies through the shift from on-premise to cloud-native architecture. Most seed VCs still confuse infrastructure margins with application multiples.
Network: Check if they can intro you to CTOs at enterprises actually migrating workloads to cloud. That matters more than connections to other cloud founders.
Alignment: Early-stage investors often don't understand infrastructure burn rates versus application SaaS. They'll push for sales hiring when you need to build platform reliability.
Track record: Look at whether their cloud portfolio companies reached profitability or ran out of runway chasing growth. Dead SaaS startups usually indicate prioritizing ARR over unit economics. Use Ellty to share your deck with trackable pitch links to see who actually opens infrastructure architecture slides versus just reviewing revenue projections.
Value-add: Ask what operational support they provide during enterprise migrations or AWS partnership negotiations. Generic "we have a great network" answers are useless. Most investors who claim cloud expertise backed one SaaS company in 2018 and haven't followed FinOps or cloud cost optimization trends since.
Identify potential investors: Research recent deals on Pitchbook or Crunchbase and filter for 2024-2025 cloud investments. Seed funds won't lead your Series B, no matter how strong your infrastructure metrics are.
Craft a compelling pitch: Show gross margins and net revenue retention in your pitch. Most investors are tired of "cloud-native" claims without actual migration success rates or customer expansion metrics.
Share your pitch deck: Upload to Ellty and send trackable links. Monitor which pages investors spend time on - if they skip your unit economics slides, that's useful information about their focus on growth versus profitability.
Utilize your network: Message portfolio founders on LinkedIn and ask about investor response during market corrections or burn rate discussions. Most will be honest about which investors actually helped optimize cloud spend.
Attend networking events: SaaStr Annual and AWS re:Invent are where cloud deals actually happen. Skip the small regional tech events.
Engage on online platforms: Connect with partners on LinkedIn after you've been introduced by a portfolio CTO. Cold DMs rarely work unless you have exceptional infrastructure efficiency. Always ensure any sensitive visuals you share online are screenshot protected.
Organize due diligence: Set up an Ellty data room with your financial model and cohort analysis before they ask. It speeds up the process when they want to dig into your burn multiple and CAC payback.
Set up introductory meetings: Lead with your gross margin and net dollar retention. Don't waste 20 minutes on total addressable market slides about cloud migration trends they've seen 100 times.
The profitability focus from 2022 stuck around. Investors now separate efficient SaaS businesses from growth-at-any-cost models. Cloud repatriation trends made pure-play cloud infrastructure less attractive than hybrid solutions. AI workload migration pushed GPU infrastructure and ML platform valuations higher in Q1 2025. Companies that can't explain their path to profitability and burn multiple struggle to raise. Multi-cloud management became a board priority, making cloud cost optimization and FinOps platforms attractive to growth investors who ignored them in 2021.
Cloud computing pioneer who wrote the original cloud thesis and backed Shopify and Twilio through IPOs.
Developer tools specialist who backed Atlassian early and understands infrastructure economics.
Data infrastructure leader who backed Snowflake early and understands analytics platform economics.
Observability specialist who led Datadog's growth and understands monitoring platform economics.
Hybrid cloud specialist who backed Nutanix through IPO and understands enterprise infrastructure.
Infrastructure purist who backed HashiCorp and focuses on cloud-native developer tools.
Growth equity leader with massive SaaS portfolio and proven late-stage expertise.
Application infrastructure specialist backing API platforms and integration tools.
Fintech infrastructure focus from early Stripe investment and payment platform expertise.
Late-stage specialist backing proven cloud platforms with strong unit economics and low burn.
Enterprise SaaS specialist with deep Fortune 500 relationships and multi-stage capability.
Fast-moving on high-growth SaaS with strong net revenue retention and expansion metrics.
Data infrastructure specialist who backed Snowflake early and understands analytics economics.
Enterprise application heritage from Workday investment and continued SaaS focus.
Cloud infrastructure focus from early Shopify and Airbnb investments.
Late-stage growth investor in cloud platforms with proven revenue growth and efficiency.
Vertical SaaS specialist backing industry-specific cloud platforms with strong retention.
Infrastructure purist who backed Snowflake and Pure Storage through successful IPOs.
Cross-border cloud investor backing companies expanding between US and Asia markets.
Early-stage purist backing developer infrastructure and API-first platforms.
Pacific Northwest specialist with strong AWS ecosystem relationships and cloud expertise.
Enterprise SaaS specialist focusing on sales and marketing cloud tools with proven metrics.
Data-driven SaaS investor with focus on unit economics and cloud efficiency metrics.
Product-led growth specialist in self-serve cloud platforms with bottoms-up adoption.
These 24 investors closed cloud deals from 2023 to November 2025. Before you start pitching infrastructure or SaaS investors, set up proper tracking.
Upload your deck to Ellty and create a unique link for each investor. You'll see exactly which slides they view and how long they spend on your unit economics. Most cloud founders are surprised to learn infrastructure investors skip market size slides but spend 5+ minutes on gross margin analysis and burn multiple calculations.
When investors ask for financial models, share an Ellty data room instead of email attachments. Your cohort analysis, revenue bridge, and infrastructure cost breakdown in one secure place with view analytics. You'll know if they're actually reviewing your path to profitability or just collecting decks.
How do I know if an investor understands infrastructure versus application SaaS?
Check their portfolio. Infrastructure investors have backed databases, observability, or developer tools. Application investors focus on workflow software and vertical SaaS. Don't pitch infrastructure margins to application investors.
Should I pitch growth investors if I'm pre-revenue?
No. Growth investors need $5M+ ARR minimum and proven unit economics. Seed investors want product-market fit with early customers. Series A investors need $1-2M ARR and repeatable sales motion.
What's the difference between cloud infrastructure and SaaS investors?
Infrastructure investors understand gross margins of 70-80% and technical complexity. SaaS investors focus on net revenue retention above 100% and expansion revenue. Know which metrics matter for your business model.
How many cloud investors should I reach out to?
Start with 25-30 that match your stage and infrastructure layer. Track engagement with Ellty so you know who's actually interested versus collecting market intelligence.
When should I share detailed financial models?
After first meetings show genuine interest. Set up an Ellty data room with your revenue model and cohort analysis before they ask. It speeds up diligence when they want to model your unit economics.
Do investors actually care about gross margins in cloud businesses?
Yes, especially for infrastructure companies. Use Ellty analytics to see which financial slides get attention. If they skip your unit economics section, they're probably growth-focused and don't care about profitability yet.