With more SaaS companies entering the market, the more SaaS venture capital options we have seen emerge. In order to help you navigate the space, we’ve laid out some helpful information for SaaS founders who are currently looking to scale their businesses and raise Venture Capital. We’ve also put together a list of VC firms with a proven track record of investing in SaaS startups.
Using data from our investor database, Visible Connect, we highlight investors across different stages (if you’re looking for only seed-stage investors check out our list of 60+ Active Seed Stage SaaS Investors).
Related Resource: Top SaaS Products for Startups
You can check out our entire database of SaaS investors here.
The Current State of SaaS
The SaaS market is currently characterized by rapid growth, technological innovation, and intense competition. SaaS companies that can develop products to meet the evolving needs of businesses and users in a fast-changing landscape are in for a win!
The SaaS market is one of the fastest-growing industries globally. The rise of cloud computing has accelerated the growth of the industry, as more businesses look to adopt software solutions that are delivered over the internet. This has led to the development of a wide range of SaaS products that cater to different industries.
One of the notable trends in the SaaS market is the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. SaaS companies are leveraging AI and ML to develop products that can automate processes and provide more personalized experiences for users. This trend is expected to continue, with the global AI market projected to reach $190 billion by 2025.
Another trend is the growing importance of data privacy and security. As more businesses move their operations online, there is an increasing need for SaaS products that can provide secure and reliable data storage and management. SaaS companies are investing heavily in cybersecurity to meet this demand, and this has led to the development of new products that offer advanced security features.
In terms of competition, the SaaS market is becoming increasingly crowded, with new players entering the market every day. This has led to a focus on differentiation, with SaaS companies looking to develop unique products that can stand out in a crowded market. The rise of open-source software has also increased competition, as businesses can now build their own software solutions using existing code.
SaaS Metrics
Metrics play a crucial role in the success of SaaS startups, and they are especially important when it comes to securing funding from investors. Investors look for companies that can demonstrate strong growth potential and profitability, and metrics provide a way to measure these factors. Here are some of the key metrics that investors will be looking at:
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): MRR is the amount of revenue that a SaaS company generates each month from its recurring subscriptions. Investors will be looking for steady and predictable growth in MRR, as this indicates that the company has a solid customer base and is generating recurring revenue.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): CAC is the amount of money a SaaS company spends to acquire a new customer. Investors will be looking for companies with low CAC, as this indicates that the company has an efficient customer acquisition strategy.
- Lifetime Value (LTV): LTV is the total amount of revenue that a SaaS company can expect to generate from a customer over the course of their lifetime. Investors will be looking for companies with high LTV, as this indicates that the company has a strong customer retention strategy.
- Churn: This measures the percentage of customers who cancel their subscription each month. It’s important to keep churn as low as possible to maximize the lifetime value of customers.
- Monthly Active Users (MAU): This measures the number of unique users who engage with the product each month. It’s important to track this metric to ensure that the business is growing and that users are finding value in the product.
To improve these metrics, SaaS founders should focus on developing a strong product and providing excellent customer service. They should also invest in marketing and sales strategies that are tailored to their target audience. To present these metrics to investors, SaaS founders should be prepared with clear and concise presentations that demonstrate the company’s growth potential and profitability.
Related Metrics Resources:
- [Webinar Recording] Using SaaS Metrics to Build Your Fundraising Narrative with Forum Ventures
- Download Your SaaS Metrics Template: Our SaaS Metrics Template automatically calculates your key SaaS metrics like MRR, ACV, churn, CAC, payback period, and more. Simply enter in your new customer data and the template will handle the rest.
- Our Ultimate Guide to SaaS Metrics
What VCs Look For in SaaS Companies
Growth is the key to attracting investment, increasing revenue, and expanding market share. The SaaS industry is highly competitive, and startups must grow quickly to stay ahead of the competition.
VCs want to see that your SaaS startup is gaining traction in the market. This can be demonstrated through metrics such as:
- Customer acquisition
- Retention
- Expansion
- Revenue growth
Provide insights into effective customer acquisition strategies, such as content and value-driven marketing, paid advertising, and referral programs.
Acquiring new customers is essential, but retaining them is equally important, as it is cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. Expansion can come in the form of upselling or cross-selling to existing customers, or expanding into new markets.
Scalability is another important factor as VCs are looking for startups that have the potential to grow rapidly and become market leaders. It’s important to have a business model and infrastructure that can support this growth and scale efficiently.
By achieving growth through these means, SaaS startups can demonstrate their ability to scale and attract investment, which is critical for continued success.
The Role of Technology for a SaaS Startup
Technology plays a crucial role in scaling a SaaS business, as it enables companies to automate processes, analyze data, and optimize their operations.
Data analytics is key to understanding customer behavior, user engagement, product performance, identifying trends, and making data-driven decisions. By leveraging tools and analyzing this data, SaaS companies can identify areas for improvement, make data-driven decisions, and optimize their products and services to better meet customer needs. For example, data analytics can help companies identify which features are most popular with users, which marketing campaigns are most effective, and which customer segments are most valuable.
Automation plays a crucial role in scaling a SaaS business, as it enables companies to streamline their operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and can free up time and resources to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Cloud infrastructure enables companies to scale their operations, as it provides the flexibility, scalability, and security needed to support a growing customer base. By leveraging cloud computing services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform, companies can easily scale their infrastructure up or down based on demand, without the need for significant upfront investments in hardware.
SaaS Success Stories & How They Got There
The success of these SaaS startups can be attributed to their ability to provide innovative solutions that met the needs of their target customers. Their fundraising strategies, customer acquisition tactics, and product development processes all played a crucial role in achieving their goals and building sustainable businesses.
In terms of product development, all of these companies focused on building products that were easy to use and provided real value to their customers. They also prioritized customer feedback and made regular updates to improve their products based on user needs.
- Slack is a communication platform that has revolutionized the way teams work together. Slack’s success can be attributed to its user-friendly interface, integrations with other tools, and its focus on collaboration. Slack raised a total of $1.4 billion in funding before going public, and its customer acquisition tactics included word-of-mouth marketing, referrals, and a freemium model.
- Zoom is a video conferencing platform that has seen explosive growth in recent years. Zoom’s success can be attributed to its simplicity, ease of use, and reliability. Zoom raised $751 million in funding before going public, and its customer acquisition tactics included viral marketing through free trials and referrals.
- HubSpot is a marketing automation platform that provides a range of tools to help businesses grow. HubSpot’s success can be attributed to its all-in-one platform, user-friendly interface, and inbound marketing approach. HubSpot raised $375 million in funding before going public, and its customer acquisition tactics included content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing.
- DocuSign is a digital signature platform that enables businesses to sign and manage documents electronically. DocuSign’s success can be attributed to its ease of use, security, and convenience. DocuSign raised $518 million in funding before going public, and its customer acquisition tactics included partnerships with other software providers, targeted advertising, and a free trial offer.
Resources For SaaS Founders
- Developing a Successful SaaS Sales Strategy
- [Webinar] SaaS Company Benchmarking with Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital
- 20 Best SaaS Tools for Startups
- The Founders Forward Podcast List: “Christoph Janz on SaaS fundraising”
VCs Investing in SaaS Companies
SaaStr Fund
- Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
- About: SaaStr is the world’s largest community of SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs. To continue expanding and serving the community, SaaStr has grown its offerings to include regional and global events, a co-selling space, an investment fund, and an automated e-learning platform.
- Investment stages: Seed
- Popular investments: Gorgias, RevenueCat, MaestroQA
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Related Resource: 14 Venture Capital Firms in Silicon Valley Driving Startup Growth
500 Startups
- Location: Mountain View, California, United States
- About:500 Startups is a global venture capital firm with a network of startup programs headquartered in Silicon Valley.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A
- Popular investments: LottieFiles, Butlr Technologies, Flat.mx
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Frontline Ventures
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- About: We back B2B SaaS companies with international ambition. Whether you’re at an early stage with sights on the US, or at a later stage looking to the rich potential of Europe, we can help you get where you want to go.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Popular investments: Localyze, Koyo, Qualio
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Atlanta Ventures
- Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- About: We empower SaaS entrepreneurs to achieve their potential through community, content, and capital.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
- Popular investments: Terminus, MessageGears, Greenzie
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
VenTech
- Location: Paris, Ile-de-France, France
- About: Ventech is a global early-stage VC firm based out of Paris, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki, Shanghai and Hong Kong with over €900m raised to fuel globally ambitious entrepreneurs and their visions of the future positive digital economy. Since inception in 1998, Ventech has made 200+ investments.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A
- Popular investments: Believe, Vestiaire Collective, Botify
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Molten Ventures
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- About: We invest in Europe’s tech leaders at Series A and beyond to make more possible. More from hardware, more from software, more from healthcare, more for consumers… the hardest tech problems are just the biggest business opportunities.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Popular investments: CoachHub, FintechOS, Lyst
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Shasta Ventures
- Location: Menlo Park, California, United States
- About: We invest in Europe’s tech leaders at Series A and beyond to make more possible. More from hardware, more from software, more from healthcare, more for consumers… the hardest tech problems are just the biggest business opportunities.
- Investment stages: Series A, Series B
- Popular investments: Partly, Tally, Data.world
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Seedcamp
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- About: We invest early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. We are running our Investment Forum process entirely online and are proactively investing in European companies across pre-seed and seed who are building the breakout businesses of tomorrow.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
- Popular investments: CyberSmart, Treecard, Meilisearch
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
1517 Fund
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- About: 1517 supports teams with pre-seed and seed funding for technology startups.
- Investment stages: Seed, Pre-seed
- Popular investments: Space Perspectives, Presso
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
2048 Ventures
- Location: New York City, NY
- About: First and foremost, we always want to meet exceptional founders with a compelling vision and strong founder-market-fit, regardless of the space they are building in. We look for companies that are differentiated and defensible through data and technology.
- Investment stages: Pre-seed
- Popular investments: Koffie Labs, Mealco, Ware
- Check size: $300K-$600K
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Acceleprise
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- About: Acceleprise invests in early stage B2B SaaS and enterprise technology companies and unifies the global technology community through mentors.
- Investment stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Series A
- Check size: $50K-$1M
- Thesis: There are many founders who have great ideas in B2B, but don’t know enough about Sales and GTM to scale. With the help of top operators in our network from the likes of Salesforce, Cisco, Gainsight, Zuora, and more, we can help.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Active Capital
- Location: San Antonio, TX
- About: Active Capital is a venture firm focused on leading seed rounds for B2B SaaS companies outside of Silicon Valley.
- Investment stages: Pre-seed, Seed
- Check size: $100K-$1M
- Thesis: Active Capital is a venture firm designed to lead seed rounds for B2B SaaS companies outside of Silicon Valley.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Album VC
- Location: Provo, UT
- About: Album VC is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology ventures, shaping the future of technology and culture.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Check size: $500K-$5M
- Sweetspot Check Size: $1.25M
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Bessemer Venture Partners
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- About: Bessemer Venture Partners is the world’s most experienced early-stage venture capital firm. With a portfolio of more than 200 companies, Bessemer helps visionary entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to create companies that matter and support them through every stage of their growth.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth
- Check size: $100K-$50M
- Sweetspot Check Size: $15M
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Boldstart Ventures
- Location: New York, NY
- About: Boldstart Ventures is a first check investor for technical enterprise founders.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Check size: $250K-$2.5M
- Sweetspot Check Size: $1.5M
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Connetic Ventures
- Location: Covington, KY
- About: Connetic is reinventing the VC industry by turning tables on intuition and biases to a more data-driven approach
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Check size: $100K-$800K
- Sweetspot Check Size: $100K
- Thesis: We use proprietary data and machine learning to create a diversified portfolio of high-potential startups
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Forum Ventures
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- About: Forum Ventures is the leading early-stage fund, program and community for B2B SaaS startups based in New York, San Francisco, and Toronto. With over 400 portfolio companies globally, Forum founders have gone on to raise $600M+ in follow-on funding from funds like Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Ventures, Serena Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, CRV, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Bowery Capital, FirstRound Capital Salesforce Ventures, SV Angel, and many more.
- Investment stages: Early stage
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Frontier Ventures
- Location: Cupertino, CA
- About: Frontier Ventures invests in early-stage internet companies with network effects and connects them with global markets.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B
- Check size: $5M
- Thesis: We invest in technology businesses with network effects. We believe that network effects create the strongest barriers to entry for technology businesses.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Growth Street Partners
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- About: Growth Street Partners is an investment firm that provides SaaS and technology-enabled services to grow your sales & marketing.
- Investment stages: Series A, Growth
- Check size: $3M-$5M
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Harlem Capital
- Location: New York, NY
- About: Harlem Capital is an early-stage venture firm that invests in post-revenue tech-enabled startups, focused on minority and women founders.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth
- Check size: $500K-$1M
- Thesis: Women or POC founders (no deep tech, bio, crypto, hardware)
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
High Alpha
- Location: Indianapolis, IN
- About: High Alpha creates and funds companies through a new model for entrepreneurship that unites company building and venture capital.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A, Startup Studio
- Check size: $1M-$3M
- Thesis: Scalable Enterprise Cloud Businesses
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Kickstart Fund
- Location: Cottonwood Heights, UT
- About: Kickstart is an early-stage VC fund based in Utah.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Check size: $200K-$2M
- Sweetspot Check Size: $1M
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Related Resource: The Rise of Venture Capital in Utah: A Look at Utah’s Top 10 VC Firms
M25
- Location: Chicago, IL
- About: Early-stage VC investing in startups headquartered in the Midwest across a wide variety of industries.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
- Check size: $250K-$500K
- Sweetspot Check Size: $350K
- Thesis: Midwest HQ, tech-enabled, and any industry except therapeutics/pharma or vices
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Matrix Partners
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- About: Matrix Partners works with visionary founders of early-stage startups to amplify their potential. Their general partners blend deep experience with personal commitment to support founders from start to success.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Check size: $5M-$20M
- Sweetspot Check Size: $12M
- Thesis: Matrix Partners works with visionary founders of early-stage startups to amplify their potential.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Moai Capital
- Location: San Mateo, CA
- About: Moai Capital is a Silicon Valley seed capital firm, founded and managed by Brian Jacobs.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series
- Check size: $25K-$100K
- Thesis: Seed Capital for Impassioned Entrepreneurs
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Mucker Capital
- Location: Santa Monica, CA
- About: MuckerLab is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation, pre-seed, seed, start-up, early-stage, and Series A investments.
- Investment stages: Accelerator, Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
- Check size: $100K-$4M
- Thesis: We partner with exceptional entrepreneurs to provide their earliest institutional funding and work with them side-by-side to help launch and scale their new ventures.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Newark Venture Partners
- Location: Newark, NJ
- About: Newark Venture Partners is an early-stage venture fund based in Newark, NJ.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A
- Check size: $250K-$2M
- Sweetspot Check Size: $1M
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
NXTP Ventures
- Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
- About: NXTP Ventures backs early-stage technology companies led by extraordinary entrepreneurs throughout Latin America.
- Investment stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Thesis: We partner with high-impact, visionary founders early on in their journey as one of the first sources of institutional funding to help build their companies into future market leaders with long-term competitive advantages.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Point Nine Capital
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- About: We invest globally with a focus on early-stage B2B businesses, particularly in SaaS, marketplaces, and crypto.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
- Check size: $500K-$5M
- Sweetspot check size: $1.25M
- Thesis: We’re looking for dedicated, passionate entrepreneurs who are committed to building large internet companies.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Precursor Ventures
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- About: An early-stage venture firm focused on classic seed investing.
- Investment stages: Seed
- Check size: $100K-$300K
- Sweetspot check size: $250K
- Thesis: We invest in people over products at the earliest stage of the entrepreneurial journey.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
PreSeed Ventures
- Location: Lyngby, Denmark
- About: As a notable early-stage investor PreSeed Ventures lived well over 400 journeys alongside Danish startups like Vivino, Trustpilot & Lunar.
- Investment stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Thesis: We might be just another early stage VC. We’re no alchemists, but we know our craft by heart. We lived well over 400 journeys, alongside young guns, moms, dads, outliers, big egos and eccentrics – the best kind if you ask us. We worked closely with them all – long term, and we can say without a shadow of doubt that we know startups way beyond metrics and facts. Only invest in Danish companies.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Tiny Capital
- Location: Victoria, Canada
- About: Tiny Capital makes investments in both private and public companies and have a base of permanent capital from a family office.
- Investment stages: Seed
- Check size: $100K-$50M
- Sweetspot check size: $3M
- Thesis: We start, buy, and invest in wonderful internet businesses.
To learn more, view their Visible Connect Profile.
Related Resource: 10 Venture Capital Firms in Canada Leading the Future of Innovation
How To Target the Right SaaS Investors
With the average VC + founder relationship being 8-10 years, it is important you are selective about what investors you are adding to your cap table. Learn more about finding the right SaaS investors for your business below:
1. Build Your Ideal Investor Profile To Narrow the Search
At Visible, we think of a VC fundraise similarly to a traditional B2B sales and marketing funnel. You are bringing investors into your top of funnel, nurturing them throughout a raise, and hopefully closing them at the bottom of the funnel.
Just like any sales process starts by defining your ideal customer, the same can be said for an investment process.
- Location: Understand where an investor is based and if they invest globally or locally.
- Industry focus: Might sound obvious but make sure an investor is actively investing in your space and has experience in your sector.
- Investment stage focus: As you likely noticed in our list above, VC firms can range from small, early-stage checks to huge, late-stage checks. Make sure your size and stage align with the investors you are pitching. (if you’re looking for only seed-stage investors check out our list of 60+ Active Seed Stage SaaS Investors)
- Current portfolio: Understanding a VC funds current portfolio can help you (1) see what type of companies they are investing in (2) make sure they have not invested in any competitors and (3) can use it as a source to see if you know any current founders for a reference check and introductions.
- Fund age: While it might be less obvious knowing a fund age will help you determine where you fit into their lifecycle. If they are nearing the end of their fund/capital, chances are they might not be able to offer the support as an earlier investment.
- Deal velocity: VC funds oftentimes have differing strategies. Some might invest in deals at a rapid rate while others might be extra diligent and invest in a handful a year. If you’re in need of capital asap, make sure you are paying attention to their deal velocity.
Related Resource: Building Your Ideal Investor Persona
2. Get a Meeting With Your Top Candidates
Generally, there are 2 umbrella strategies to get an introduction to a potential investor:
- Cold Outreach
- Warm introductions
Most investors will tell you they prefer a warm introduction. As a founder, it is your job to make this happen. Turn to your immediate network and see if you can find your way in via warm introduction. Look to other founders, current investors, mentors, and peers.
Sometimes a warm introduction is not possible and that is 100% okay! Cold outreach can work well when crafted and leveraged correctly. For cold outreach, check out our blog post, 5 Strategies for Cold Emailing Potential Investors.
3. Come Prepared With a Powerful Pitch Deck and Questions
Once you have built your list of investors and defined your strategy for reaching out. You will likely need resources to share and build interest — the most common is the pitch deck.
Different investors will have different opinions but chances are an investor will likely want to see a pitch deck or some data before a meeting. If you are lucky enough to land a meeting check out our post, “First Meeting with a Potential Investor? Ask These 5 Questions.”
Related Resource: How to Nail Your First Investor Pitch with Lolita Taub & Eric Bahn
Use Visible to find investors, track your raise, share your pitch deck, and understand how investors are engaging with your raise. Give it a free try for 14 days here.
Related Resource: 11 Top Venture Capital Firms in Boston
Start Your Next Round with Visible
We believe great outcomes happen when founders forge relationships with investors and potential investors. We created our Connect Investor Database to help you in the first step of this journey.
Instead of wasting time trying to figure out investor fit and profile for their given stage and industry, we created filters allowing you to find VCs and accelerators who are looking to invest in companies like you. Check out all our investors here and filter as needed.
After learning more about them with the profile information and resources given you can reach out to them with a tailored email. To help craft that first email check out 5 Strategies for Cold Emailing Potential Investors and How to Cold Email Investors: A Video by Michael Seibel of YC.
After finding the right Investor you can create a personalized investor database with Visible. Combine qualified investors from Visible Connect with your own investor lists to share targeted Updates, decks, and dashboards. Start your free trial here.
