Quick answer
A free investor database is enough when you can find relevant firms, inspect their mandates and keep a manageable research queue. Start with OpenVC for broad search, compare restricted free tiers before exporting, and verify candidates on fund websites. Pay when a specific limit blocks your workflow, after testing the quality of your shortlist.
See which investors fit your startup
Add your website. We pick three investors who back companies at your stage, sector and market, with the evidence for each.
What do you actually get for free?
Free access can mean searchable profiles, a limited preview or a fundraising tracker with its own capacity limits. Check which action you need to complete before choosing a product. Finding a name, proving that it fits and managing the conversation are separate jobs, even when one service offers tools for all of them.
We publish this comparison as the team behind 12inf. 12inf finds and ranks VC investors for a founder's startup from public evidence. The recommendations below concern workflow choices; the table records vendors' advertised terms.
**Public pricing sources checked 14 October 2026.** These are access limits, not a ranking of database accuracy.
| Starting point | Advertised free access | Boundary to check | Useful first task |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenVC pricing | Investor search, CRM and deck sharing | Check-size and lead-preference filters are listed under Premium | Build candidates from a clear company brief |
| Seedtable pricing | Top 10 list rows and 5 full profiles per month | CSV export is excluded from Free | Inspect whether its coverage fits your market |
| Foundersuite pricing | Basic is free, with 75 investors per pipeline | Confirm database and export access separately from pipeline capacity | Test the structure of your research queue |
| Visible pricing | Starter includes Connect discovery, updates to 100 investors, 2 decks and 2 pipelines | Larger workflows require checking paid capacity | Combine initial discovery with investor updates |
| Public fund websites plus your own sheet | Read accessible mandate and portfolio pages | Research and maintenance are manual | Resolve the evidence behind a candidate |
A free trial has an expiry; a free tier has ongoing limits. Record which you are using before importing your working list. Do not assume that being able to view a profile also gives you permission or a product feature to download the whole database.
When is a free database enough?
Free is a sensible starting point when one founder can review the candidates and maintain the next actions. Write the company brief before searching: product, buyer, stage, investment geography and intended allocation. Then use the same brief across sources so differences in results reflect the source rather than a moving search request.
Take a small batch through the complete workflow. Open the firm's own website, locate the relevant mandate, save the supporting URL and decide whether the candidate deserves a conversation. The investor research and database comparison explains how discovery and evidence review fit together.
The useful output is a queue with reasons. A founder should be able to explain why each firm is there, what remains to be clarified and which action follows. If that is easy to maintain, a larger subscription may add little to the immediate task.
How do you verify a free list?
Keep the investment mandate separate from the firm's office address. A city filter can help you discover a name, but a local office does not establish where the fund invests. Apply the same care to stage labels: a broad seed tag needs an underlying statement that applies to your company and the relevant vehicle.
Our saved catalog illustrates why these fields deserve separate columns: 353 funds have both structured stage and investment-geography evidence. That is a field-presence count, not a list of firms suitable for every startup. The denominator and snapshot are in the method note below. Browse seed investors by mandate for candidates, then check the individual evidence.
Read initial check sizes in their original currency. Distinguish an amount invested into a company from a fund's total assets or follow-on reserves. Use the investor match review workflow to combine these facts with product fit and portfolio overlap.
Copy this free-database evaluation worksheet
Use the worksheet on the same company brief for each source. Fill it with observed behavior and linked evidence, then name the limit that would justify paying. Leave unsupported facts blank and write the question needed to resolve them. This makes a trial useful even if you decide to keep the spreadsheet.
Company brief: [product, buyer, stage, geography, allocation]
Source and access tier: [name, URL, free tier or expiring trial]
Terms checked on: [date]
For each candidate:
Fund / official website:
Why it appeared in this search:
Stage statement / source URL / date checked:
Investment geography statement / source URL / date checked:
Initial check / currency / source URL:
Relevant portfolio evidence / potential conflict:
Current activity question:
Decision: research further / clarify / approach / exclude
Reason and next action:
For the tool:
Can I save these evidence fields and retrieve them later?
Can I move my own notes out in a usable format?
Which action is blocked by the free tier?
Would paying resolve that action, or do I need better research?Copy this example to use it in your own tools.
Keep the resulting rows in an investor shortlist worksheet. Revisit rejected candidates only when the reason changes; otherwise a second database can quietly refill the queue with names you already ruled out.
What would make paying worthwhile?
Pay for a demonstrated bottleneck, such as a filter, export or shared workflow that you will actually use. Estimate the time spent per usable candidate before comparing subscription prices. More returned names can increase research work if you still need to check every mandate and remove duplicates by hand.
Consider a fictional batch of 20 candidates taking 6 minutes each to review. That is 120 minutes. If 8 survive your checks, the review cost is 15 minutes per retained candidate. These are planning assumptions, not measured performance for any vendor. Test your own batch before assigning a value to faster search.
For evidence-led discovery, Find investors for your startup with the same brief. Compare the resulting research with your existing queue, and inspect the current subscription plans only when you can identify the work you need them to support.
If export or discovery limits block the workflow, use the Seedtable alternatives test brief to compare a replacement.
For tracking and migration, use the Foundersuite alternatives checklist to preserve your notes and next actions.
FAQ
Is there a genuinely free investor database?
Yes. The public plans above include ongoing free access, with different restrictions. Check the action you need, especially detailed filtering and exporting, instead of treating a free signup as unlimited use.
Does a free investor list include verified current interest?
A listing cannot establish interest in your company. Public evidence can support mandate fit; the investor's response establishes whether it wants to discuss your round.
Can I use a free angel investor list the same way?
Use the same source checks, but keep individuals and organisations distinct. A firm's investment policy cannot automatically establish an individual's personal mandate. This comparison avoids personal contact directories.
Do I need a fundraising CRM immediately?
Use one when ownership, reminders or collaboration become difficult to maintain. A well-kept sheet can support early research; the practical test is whether the next action remains visible and current.
Should I combine several free databases?
Combine them when they add relevant evidence or coverage. Deduplicate by the fund's official identity and keep source URLs, so repeated listings do not masquerade as independent confirmation.
Method and limits
As of 14 October 2026: 686 ready fund IDs from a 1,142-entity public catalog snapshot; 353 contain both selected structured fields. Missing fields mean unestablished evidence. No legacy join or live fund-page refresh. Pricing links were publicly read on the stated date; logged-in features, exports and checkout were not tested. The time calculation is fictional.
Prepared with AI assistance from linked public sources. Named source records and fictional worked scenarios are identified in the article.
From shortlist to first meeting
Everything in Launch, plus help with the first email and the first call.
- Deck review
- First emails built on each investor's recent deals
- Meeting prep, phone numbers and CSV export