Who's writing cheques: the firms backing the most startups, to 13 Nov

Who backed the most companies

Ranked by how many separate companies each firm was named as backing over the 90 days to 13 November 2026. Firms on the same count share a place, listed alphabetically within it.

• 1. Seedcamp — 6 companies, most recently 12 November 2026. Sectors: Other B2B Software, Defence. Backed: SE3 (Series A, €27m round, reported); Marble Cognition (Pre-seed, €3.4m round, reported); Vessla (Pre-seed, $3.3m round, reported); Solvera (Pre-seed, $6.3m round, reported); Metaview (Series C, €53.1m round, reported); Embedd (Pre-seed, $2.7m round, reported).
• 2. HTGF — 5 companies, most recently 9 November 2026. Sectors: Fintech, Biotech & Life Sciences, Cybersecurity. Backed: SRTD Biotech (Seed, €31.5m round, reported); TODAY (Seed, €2.8m round, reported); Finches (Pre-seed, €2m round, reported); Kontext (stage not reported, $4m round, reported); Veridue (Pre-seed, $4m round, reported).
• 2. Nvidia — 5 companies, most recently 12 November 2026. Sectors: AI, Biotech & Life Sciences, Robotics. Backed: Agile Robots (Series D+, $500m round, reported); fal (Series D+, $1.3bn round, reported); Nscale (Growth, $3.4bn round, reported); Basecamp Research (Series C, $140m round, reported); Groq (stage not reported).
• 2. Y Combinator — 5 companies, most recently 30 October 2026. Sectors: Other B2B Software, Aviation, Biotech & Life Sciences. Backed: Easol (Series A, €17.9m round, reported); HyLight (stage not reported, €13m round, reported); Spott (Series A, €18.3m round, reported); Zeit AI (stage not reported, €4.3m round, reported); Adaptyv Bio (Series A, €34.4m round, reported).
• 5. General Catalyst — 4 companies, most recently 9 November 2026. Sectors: Defence, Consumer Services, Fintech. Backed: Onodrim Industries (Series A, $300m round, reported); Hypersonica (stage not reported, €100m round, reported); Matiks (Seed, $10m round, reported); Félix (Series C, $200m round, reported).
• 5. IDG Capital — 4 companies, most recently 16 October 2026. Sectors: Robotics, AI. Backed: InfiMaker (Seed); Butterfly Effect (stage not reported, $500m round, reported); PHYMI (Seed, $100m round, reported); XPeng Robotics (Series A, $900m round, reported).
• 5. Lightspeed — 4 companies, most recently 11 November 2026. Sectors: Other B2B Software, Defence, Robotics. Backed: Fractile (stage not reported, £540m round, reported); Nominal (stage not reported, $240m round, reported); Hypersonica (stage not reported, €100m round, reported); RobCo (Growth).
• 5. Sequoia — 4 companies, most recently 21 October 2026. Sectors: Robotics, AI, Other B2B Software. Backed: Blacksmith (Series C, $66m round, reported); Mecka AI (stage not reported, $60m round, reported); RobCo (Growth); Rillet (stage not reported, $100m round, reported).

A further 69 firms cleared the two-company floor. The live board lists every one, with each company and the announcement it came from.

Where their cheques went

Between them, the 77 listed firms backed 132 separate companies. By sector, counting each company once however many of these firms backed it:

• Other B2B Software — 29 companies
• Robotics — 14 companies
• Fintech — 13 companies
• AI — 11 companies
• Semiconductors — 9 companies
• Biotech & Life Sciences — 8 companies
• 12 other sectors — 48 companies

By stage, as each announcement labelled it:

• Stage not reported — 36 companies
• Pre-seed — 31 companies
• Seed — 28 companies
• Series A — 17 companies
• Series B — 7 companies
• Series C — 6 companies
• Series D+ — 5 companies
• Growth — 2 companies

New to the list in the last 14 days

These firms reached two companies between 31 October 2026 and 13 November 2026, dated by the announcement of the company that took them there:

• Angelini Ventures — VectorY Therapeutics, announced 13 November 2026
• Accel — SE3, announced 12 November 2026
• Heartcore Capital — Mondrio, announced 12 November 2026
• Norrsken VC — Orakl Oncology, announced 12 November 2026
• Serena — Orakl Oncology, announced 12 November 2026
• Singular — Orakl Oncology, announced 12 November 2026
• SoftBank — Agile Robots, announced 12 November 2026
• Cherry Ventures — Tano, announced 11 November 2026
• Emblem — Numina, announced 10 November 2026
• Lakestar — Onodrim Industries, announced 9 November 2026 (3 companies in all)
• NRW.BANK — SRTD Biotech, announced 9 November 2026
• Eviny Ventures — Vensum Power, announced 6 November 2026
• Concept Ventures — Mindmax, announced 5 November 2026
• Picus Capital — Kabilio, announced 5 November 2026
• SFC Capital — Nayara, announced 5 November 2026
• UK Sovereign AI Fund — Potential Sciences, announced 5 November 2026
• Vendep Capital — Claimlane, announced 5 November 2026
• Visionaries — Kabilio, announced 5 November 2026
• Gaorong Ventures — Nanochap, announced 3 November 2026
• Antler — Sortrace, announced 2 November 2026 (3 companies in all)
• Keen Venture Partners — Gallium Defense, announced 2 November 2026
• Lightspeed — Hypersonica, announced 2 November 2026 (4 companies in all)

How to use this if you are raising

• Read a fund's last ninety days, not its website. A thesis page says what a fund would like to back. The companies it was named in this quarter say what it does back, and at what stage.
• Match the stage before the sector. A firm whose recent cheques are all Series B rarely leads a pre-seed round, however close the sector fit.
• Look at who else was in the round. The other names in the same announcement are firms that fund already invests alongside, which is often the shortest route to an introduction.
• Read absence carefully. A firm missing from this list may simply not announce through the outlets we read. Silence here is not evidence that a fund has stopped investing.

What this counts, and what it does not

• Reported, not verified. Every name comes from a public funding announcement we collected, linked below. It is a record of what was reported, not a register of who invested.
• Companies, never money. When four firms are named in one round, the public record does not say who put in what. So there is no money column, and no firm's share of anything.
• Firms only, two companies minimum. Named individuals are left out, and a firm is listed on its second company. 506 more firms were named once in this window: counted, not listed.
• Our coverage, not the market. 291 of the 484 companies in the window named at least one backer, and only those can count. Rumoured rounds are left out entirely.
• Spellings. We merge a firm's names only where they differ by a legal suffix, so a firm reported under two different names can appear twice.
• Frozen on publication. This is the board as it stood on 13 November 2026. The live board moves with every collection run.