18 SaaS investors financing San Francisco software startups in 2026

San Francisco closed $42B across 1,200+ SaaS deals in 2025. Enterprise software still dominates. The city has more B2B SaaS investors per capita than anywhere else. Competition is brutal but capital is deep. You'll find seed checks from $500K to $5M and Series A rounds hitting $15-30M. Most SF SaaS investors expect $1M+ ARR for Series A.

Quick list

Why San Francisco for SaaS fundraising

SF has 200+ active SaaS-focused funds. Average seed round is $3.2M. Series A hits $18M. That's 40% higher than Austin and 60% higher than NYC for software deals.

The concentration matters. You can meet 5 enterprise VCs in a single day on Sand Hill Road. Most SF SaaS investors have 20+ portfolio companies who'll take your product calls. The network effects are real.

The downside is competition. You're pitching against 50 other HR SaaS companies. VCs here see 10X more decks than anywhere else. Your metrics need to be top decile. $100K MRR won't get meetings in SF when it might in Austin.

Nonprofit operations often depend on trust-based collaboration rather than strict process. SF investors expect faster growth. They want 3X year-over-year, not 2X. Burn rates are higher because talent costs more. Your $200K engineer in Texas costs $350K here.

But late-stage capital is deeper. When you need $50M for Series C, SF has 30+ funds who write those checks. Austin has maybe 3.

Picking the right San Francisco SaaS investor

Stage and check size: Seed funds here write $1-3M checks. Series A is $10-25M. Series B jumps to $30-60M. Know which stage you're actually at. $500K ARR won't get Series A meetings regardless of growth rate.

Enterprise vs PLG focus: Half of SF SaaS investors only do enterprise sales. The other half only backs product-led growth. Accel and Bessemer lean enterprise. Index and Craft back both. Don't pitch your bottom-up motion to enterprise-only funds.

Portfolio overlap: Check if they've backed direct competitors. Most won't invest in two HR tech companies or two dev tools in the same category. If they passed on your competitor last year, you're probably out too.

Vertical expertise: Some funds only do fintech SaaS or healthcare SaaS. Storm Ventures is enterprise infrastructure only. GGV wants cross-border plays. Baseline and Homebrew stick to horizontal tools. Match your category to their thesis.

Follow-on reserves: Top SF funds reserve 50% of their fund for follow-ons. That means they can lead your next 2-3 rounds. Smaller funds tap out after Series A. You'll need new lead investors for B and C. Ask about their follow-on capacity before taking the deal.

Use Ellty to share your deck with trackable links: SF investors review 100+ decks per month. You need to know if they actually opened yours. Track which slides they viewed and how long they spent on your metrics. That tells you if they're serious or just being polite.

How to find and approach San Francisco SaaS investors

Research SaaS deals on Pitchbook and Crunchbase: Filter for B2B software deals in SF from the last 12 months. See which funds are actually writing checks. Don't waste time on funds that haven't done a SaaS deal since 2023.

Leverage YC and other accelerators: Y Combinator, Alchemist, and 500 Global all have SF offices. Their demo days are where seed deals happen. Alumni networks get you warm intros to every major fund.

Build relationships at SaaStr Annual: SaaStr Annual in SF is where 10,000+ SaaS founders and investors meet. The conference costs $2K but you'll have coffee with 20 VCs in three days. Pavilion and SaaS Connect events work too.

Share your pitch deck on Ellty with unique links: Create a different link for each SF investor. You'll see exactly who viewed which slides. SF VCs typically review decks within 24 hours. If they don't open it in 3 days, they're not interested.

Attend AGP and 500 Global events: Angel's Gate Partners runs monthly dinners for SaaS founders and investors. 500 Global hosts demo days quarterly. Both are better for intros than cold emails. Show up, ask good questions, follow up after.

Connect with portfolio founders at their companies: Find SaaS founders who raised from your target investors. Ask for 15 minutes on Zoom. They'll tell you which partners actually respond and what metrics convinced them. LinkedIn makes this easy.

Organize due diligence in an Ellty data room: SF investors move fast once they decide. Have your financial model, cap table, customer contracts, and security docs ready before first meetings. Share one secure link instead of Dropbox folders and email attachments.

Understand SF's meeting pace: Expect 3-5 meetings before a term sheet. First meeting is high-level. Second is metrics deep-dive. Third is team and product. Fourth is references and technical diligence. Then you get a term sheet or a pass. This takes 4-8 weeks.

San Francisco SaaS considerations

SF investors expect efficient growth. Your LTV:CAC needs to hit 3:1 minimum. Payback period under 18 months. Net dollar retention above 110%. These aren't negotiable for Series A.

Most SF funds want you to relocate here or at least have an office. Remote-first is fine for seed but Series A investors expect you in town for board meetings and intros. Plan on flying in monthly at minimum.

The timelines are faster than other cities. Deals close in 6-8 weeks, not 3-4 months. But competition is higher. Your metrics need to be top quartile. Anything below median won't get funded here when investors can back 10 other companies with better numbers. Most GDPR missteps happen quietly, long before anyone notices.

18 top SaaS investors in San Francisco

1. Sequoia Capital

The top brand in SaaS. Portfolio includes Stripe, Zoom, ServiceNow, and MongoDB. Every SF founder wants Sequoia on their cap table.

• Recent Deals: Figma ($200M Series D, 2023), Vanta ($150M Series B, 2025), Arctic Wolf ($401M Series F, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Roelof Botha
• Sector Focus: Enterprise SaaS, dev tools, fintech infrastructure, security software, vertical SaaS
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
• Office Location: 2800 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
• Website: sequoiacap.com

2. Accel

Backed Atlassian, Slack, Qualtrics, and UiPath. Strong enterprise sales network and B2B SaaS expertise.

• Recent Deals: Superhuman ($75M Series C, 2025), Webflow ($120M Series C, 2024), Notion ($275M Series C, 2023)
• LinkedIn: Rich Wong
• Sector Focus: B2B SaaS, productivity tools, collaboration software, enterprise infrastructure
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
• Office Location: 500 University Avenue, Palo Alto
• Website: accel.com

3. Bessemer Venture Partners

Century-old fund with deep SaaS history. Backed Twilio, Shopify, and LinkedIn. Strong for enterprise software.

• Recent Deals: Contentful ($80M Series E, 2025), Toast ($400M Series F, 2024), Intercom ($125M Series D, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Byron Deeter
• Sector Focus: Cloud infrastructure, vertical SaaS, fintech SaaS, healthcare IT, developer tools
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
• Office Location: 1865 Palmer Avenue, Larchmont Village
• Website: bvp.com

4. Index Ventures

European fund with strong SF presence. Led Figma, Dropbox, and Slack. Good for product-led growth companies.

• Recent Deals: Pilot ($40M Series B, 2025), Confluent ($250M Series E, 2023), Discord ($500M Series H, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Mike Volpi
• Sector Focus: PLG SaaS, developer tools, collaboration software, fintech SaaS
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: 1 Market Street, Suite 3200, San Francisco
• Website: indexventures.com

5. Lightspeed Venture Partners

Backed Affirm, Nutanix, and AppDynamics. Strong enterprise sales expertise and growth-stage support.

• Recent Deals: Vanta ($150M Series B, 2025), Zepto ($665M Series D, 2025), Razorpay ($160M Series F, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Gaurav Gupta
• Sector Focus: Enterprise SaaS, fintech, security software, vertical SaaS, infrastructure
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
• Office Location: 2200 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
• Website: lsvp.com

6. Khosla Ventures

Contrarian bets on infrastructure and AI-powered SaaS. Backed Square, OpenAI, and Affirm early.

• Recent Deals: Rippling ($500M Series D, 2024), OpenAI (multiple rounds 2023-2025), Luminary Cloud ($50M Series A, 2025)
• LinkedIn: Vinod Khosla
• Sector Focus: AI infrastructure, dev tools, enterprise SaaS, security, fintech
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: 2128 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
• Website: khoslaventures.com

7. Redpoint Ventures

Led Snowflake, Stripe, and Twilio early. Focus on enterprise infrastructure and data companies.

• Recent Deals: Kustomer ($60M Series D, 2024), Looker ($103M Series D pre-IPO), Nubank ($400M Series G, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Tomasz Tunguz
• Sector Focus: Data infrastructure, enterprise SaaS, fintech, dev tools, analytics
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: 3000 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
• Website: redpoint.com

8. Greylock Partners

Backed Dropbox, Workday, and LinkedIn. Strong for horizontal SaaS and productivity tools.

• Recent Deals: Coda ($80M Series D, 2025), Palo Alto Networks (early investor), Abnormal Security ($210M Series D, 2025)
• LinkedIn: Sarah Guo
• Sector Focus: Productivity software, security SaaS, infrastructure, fintech, collaboration
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: 2550 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
• Website: greylock.com

9. Craft Ventures

Founded by David Sacks. Strong for B2B SaaS with sales-led motion. Portfolio includes ClickUp and Sourcegraph.

• Recent Deals: ClickUp ($400M Series C, 2024), Sourcegraph ($125M Series D, 2025), Vanta ($110M Series C, 2024)
• LinkedIn: David Sacks
• Sector Focus: B2B SaaS, dev tools, productivity, sales software, vertical SaaS
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: 901 Mission Street, San Francisco
• Website: craftventures.com

10. Point Nine Capital

European seed fund with SF office. Backed Zendesk, Algolia, and Loom. Good for PLG SaaS.

• Recent Deals: Algolia ($150M Series C, 2024), Typeform ($135M Series C, 2023), Contentful (early investor)
• LinkedIn: Christoph Janz
• Sector Focus: PLG SaaS, horizontal tools, dev tools, productivity, vertical SaaS
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A, Series B
• Office Location: San Francisco (remote-first with SF presence)
• Website: pointninecap.com

11. Storm Ventures

Enterprise-only fund. Won't touch consumer or SMB. Backed Workato, Marketo, and Hootsuite.

• Recent Deals: Workato ($200M Series E, 2024), Veriff ($69M Series C, 2025), Tray.io ($50M Series C, 2023)
• LinkedIn: Ryan Floyd
• Sector Focus: Enterprise infrastructure, workflow automation, security, data platforms
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: 2800 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park
• Website: stormventures.com

12. Battery Ventures

Growth-stage specialist. Backed Wayfair, Glassdoor, and AppNexus. Good for $20M+ rounds.

• Recent Deals: Phenom ($100M Series E, 2024), FourKites ($50M Series D, 2024), Seismic ($170M Series F, 2023)
• LinkedIn: Neeraj Agrawal
• Sector Focus: HR tech, sales software, marketing tech, security, infrastructure
• Stage Focus: Series B, Series C, Series D, Growth
• Office Location: 200 Clarendon Street, Boston (SF presence via partners)
• Website: battery.com

13. GGV Capital

Cross-border focus. Strong in China and US. Backed Slack, Airbnb, and Square.

• Recent Deals: Airbase ($60M Series C, 2024), Slack (early investor pre-IPO), StockX ($275M Series E, 2023)
• LinkedIn: Hans Tung
• Sector Focus: B2B SaaS with international expansion, fintech, marketplace SaaS
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
• Office Location: 425 California Street, San Francisco
• Website: ggvc.com

14. Baseline Ventures

Seed specialist. Small fund, high conviction. Backed Instagram, Heroku, and Stitch Fix.

• Recent Deals: Astranis ($250M Series D, 2024), Gusto (early seed investor), Patreon (early investor)
• LinkedIn: Steve Anderson
• Sector Focus: Dev tools, infrastructure, horizontal SaaS, fintech
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Office Location: Palo Alto
• Website: baselinev.com

15. Homebrew

Seed fund run by Satya Patel and Hunter Walk. Backed Plaid, Chime, and Cruise.

• Recent Deals: Amplitude ($150M Series E, 2024), Cameo (early investor), Finix ($35M Series B, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Hunter Walk
• Sector Focus: Developer tools, fintech, vertical SaaS, infrastructure
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Office Location: 2625 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
• Website: homebrew.co

16. First Round Capital

Seed-stage only. Backed Square, Notion, and Warby Parker. Strong for product-first companies.

• Recent Deals: Notion (early seed investor), Looker (seed investor), Roblox (early investor)
• LinkedIn: Josh Kopelman
• Sector Focus: PLG SaaS, horizontal tools, dev platforms, productivity
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Office Location: 1 Front Street, San Francisco
• Website: firstround.com

17. 8VC

Founded by Joe Lonsdale. Backs infrastructure and fintech SaaS. Portfolio includes Ocrolus and Addepar.

• Recent Deals: Ocrolus ($80M Series C, 2024), Addepar ($300M Series E, 2023), Resilience ($800M Series C, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Joe Lonsdale
• Sector Focus: Fintech infrastructure, data platforms, security, vertical SaaS
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth
• Office Location: 150 Post Street, San Francisco
• Website: 8vc.com

18. Unusual Ventures

Seed-focused with data-driven approach. Strong for technical founders. Backed Cerebras and Sysdig.

• Recent Deals: Sysdig ($350M Series G, 2024), Cerebras ($250M Series F, 2024), Aviator ($17M Series A, 2025)
• LinkedIn: John Vrionis
• Sector Focus: Infrastructure, security, dev tools, data platforms, AI SaaS
• Stage Focus: Seed, Series A
• Office Location: 135 Main Street, Menlo Park
• Website: unusual.vc

Start tracking your San Francisco SaaS investor outreach

These 18 investors closed 200+ SaaS deals in SF in 2025-2026. Before you start reaching out to Sand Hill Road funds, set up proper tracking.

Upload your deck to Ellty and create a unique link for each SF investor. You'll see exactly which slides they view and how long they spend on your financials. SF SaaS investors typically skip your origin story but spend 5+ minutes on your unit economics and customer acquisition slides. That tells you what matters.

When SF investors ask for more materials, share an Ellty data room instead of messy email threads. Your cap table, financial model, and customer contracts in one secure place with view analytics.

Common questions

Do I need to relocate to SF to raise from SF SaaS investors?

No for seed, but most Series A investors expect you in town monthly for board meetings and customer intros. Remote-first works if your metrics are exceptional.

How does SF compare to NYC for SaaS fundraising?

SF has 3X more SaaS-focused funds and average rounds are 40% larger. NYC is better for fintech SaaS and vertical SaaS with sales-led motion.

What's the average Series A round size for SaaS in SF?

$15-25M in 2025-2026. That's up from $12-18M in 2023. You'll need $1-2M ARR minimum and 200%+ growth to qualify.

Should I raise locally first or go straight to SF?

If you're outside SF and have $500K+ ARR, go straight to SF. Local rounds make sense pre-product but SF capital is worth the flight once you have revenue.

What growth rates do SF SaaS investors expect?

3X year-over-year minimum for Series A. 2X for Series B and beyond. Anything below 150% growth won't get meetings here.

What's the timeline from first meeting to term sheet in SF?

4-8 weeks typically. First meeting to partner meeting is 1-2 weeks. Partner meeting to term sheet is 2-4 weeks. Add 2 weeks for due diligence.

Which SaaS categories are overheated in SF right now?

AI dev tools, HR tech, and sales automation have 50+ funded companies each. Competition is brutal. Security SaaS and vertical B2B are less crowded.