Where to Find Pre-Seed Investors in Europe (and How to Get Warm Intros That Convert)

Europe's pre-seed investor map fits on a single page. About 80 active funds write first checks between €250K and €3M, four major accelerators run structured cohorts, and EBAN coordinates angel networks across 50 countries. The hard part is not finding the list. The hard part is getting through the door and having something real to show when you do.

This article maps the actual European pre-seed landscape as it stands in 2026, explains how it differs from the US market, and shows how founders who close rounds in this market do something the others do not: they build proof before they ask for the meeting.

What "pre-seed in Europe" actually looks like in 2026

Pre-seed in Europe in 2026 means a first institutional round, usually between €500K and €3M, written by a small fund, an angel syndicate, an accelerator program, or some combination of the three. Tom Wehmeier at Atomico, who leads the State of European Tech 2025 report, tracks the European median Seed round at about 50% of the US median. Median round sizes at the Seed and Series A stages climbed roughly 23% and 25% year on year in Europe per the same report. The discount narrows further up the stack (Series B sits at 79% of the US median), but at the earliest stages, the gap is widest.

The same report notes a second pattern that matters for founders: since 2022, the number of smaller early-stage funding rounds in Europe has fallen by roughly 20% per year, driven almost entirely by a decline in sub-$1M rounds. The funds that used to write €300K first checks have grown up. They now write €1M to €2M and want to see more before they commit.

Regional variation inside Europe is real. France and Benelux lead early-stage growth with companies achieving €5.0 million median valuations and median deal sizes jumping to €1.8 million in 2025, a 38.5% year-on-year increase per the State of European Tech data. The UK saw pre-seed and seed median valuations decline 1.1% to €4.7 million. Germany sits in the middle. If you are a French founder, the funding environment in 2026 is structurally different from a UK founder pitching the same product.

This shifts how founders should think about who to approach. The fund matters less than three things: whether the fund is currently deploying capital, what check size it writes today (which often differs from what its website says), and whether your geography matches its target market.

The four channels that actually fund European pre-seed today

There are four real channels through which European pre-seed capital flows. Most founders raise from two or three of them simultaneously.

1. Dedicated pre-seed and early-stage funds

The active European pre-seed funds in 2026 fall into three groups. The first is pan-European generalists with strong networks: Seedcamp in London (backers of Wise, Revolut, and UiPath), LocalGlobe, Atomico, Index Ventures, and HV Capital in Berlin. The second is regional specialists with deep coverage of a specific market: Speedinvest (Vienna, pan-European with 8 specialist teams and 400+ portfolio companies), Project A (Berlin, operator-heavy model), Cherry Ventures (Berlin, writes €500K-€5M with a €1.5M sweet spot for seed), Heartcore (Copenhagen, $300K-$6M range), and Plural (London, founder-led fund).

The third group is the new pre-seed-only specialists that raised fresh capital in 2025. Concept Ventures, London-based, runs one of Europe's largest dedicated pre-seed funds, backing up to 50 UK and European startups with first checks around $1M. Day One Capital in Budapest rolled out a €45M pre-seed and seed fund writing €500K to €2.5M initial checks. KAYA VC raised €70M for its fifth fund to back early-stage startups across Central and Eastern Europe with €1M to €3M tickets.

The practical signal here is that European pre-seed funding capacity is not the bottleneck in 2026. There is capital. The bottleneck is getting through the door of the funds that fit your stage, sector, and geography.

2. Accelerator programs with structured pre-seed checks

European accelerators in 2026 act as pre-seed funds with a curriculum attached. The four major programs:

Seedcamp (London, since 2007): invests between $350K and $1M. Made 32 investments in 2025. Network-driven model with operator support across hiring, product, and go-to-market. Portfolio includes 5 unicorns.

Techstars (London, Berlin, Paris cohorts): per its official FAQ, Techstars provides $120,000 of investment in exchange for a 6% equity stake, with the structure including a stipend and an optional convertible note. Techstars is one of the most selective accelerators globally, with reported acceptance rates around 1%.

Entrepreneur First (London, Paris, Berlin): unique model that funds individuals before they have a team, then helps them find co-founders inside the program. Pre-seed investment plus structured coaching.

Antler (Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin and globally): also runs the company-formation model. Provides pre-seed funding (around $250K for ~9% in some geographies) plus a global network. Antler is highly selective, with reported acceptance rates around 1% to 2%.

Accelerators are simultaneously the easiest and the hardest pre-seed channel. Easy because the application process is public, deadlines are visible, and the program defines the relationship. Hard because acceptance rates are between 0.5% and 2%, and most founders who get in have already done preparation that mirrors what investors want to see independently. The accelerator is not a shortcut around the work; it is an environment that demands the work earlier.

3. Angel networks and syndicates

EBAN, the European Business Angels Network, represents over 150 member organizations across more than 50 countries, coordinating an early-stage angel investment market measured in the tens of billions of euros annually per its statistics compendium. National networks operate underneath EBAN: HBAN in Ireland, BAND in Germany, LBAN in Luxembourg (focused on seed and pre-Series A startups seeking €200K to €2M), Business Angels Network Greece, and dozens more.

The structural shift in European angel investing per Sifted's coverage of EBAN is that angels are moving from solo checks into syndicates and small funds. This mitigates individual risk and gives founders a single coordinator to negotiate with instead of ten angels with ten different sets of questions.

Syndicate platforms have grown alongside the networks. AngelList operates in Europe, Seedrs handles equity crowdfunding for UK and Continental founders, and platforms like SeedBlink and Republic run vetted syndicates for accredited investors. Tickets from these channels typically range from €25K to €500K, often used to fill out a round led by a fund.

4. Government-backed early-stage capital

Most European countries operate sovereign or quasi-sovereign early-stage funds that co-invest alongside private capital at pre-seed and seed. Bpifrance in France, British Business Investments and Innovate UK in the UK, KfW Capital in Germany, EIF (European Investment Fund) across the EU, and various regional development banks. These are rarely lead investors at pre-seed, but they often anchor rounds, match private capital, or provide grant funding alongside equity.

For most pre-seed founders, the practical entry point is via a fund that already takes EIF or national co-investment. The fund handles the paperwork. The founder gets exposure to public capital without filing a separate application.

Why your list of 80 funds does not solve your problem

The temptation when starting to fundraise is to build a spreadsheet of 100 funds, scrape contact details, and start sending emails. This is the most common pre-seed approach and the one with the worst conversion economics.

Cold outreach to investors converts at 1% to 5% across multiple 2025 benchmarks. Metal.so's 2025 warm-intros-vs-cold-email analysis shows warm introductions delivering response rates roughly 10 to 20 times higher than cold outreach, with portfolio-founder intros and co-investor referrals consistently in the top tier. A founder pursuing 50 well-targeted warm introductions typically generates more meaningful conversations than 200 cold emails.

The math is brutal: a smaller batch of warm intros consistently outperforms a much larger batch of cold emails, with a fraction of the time spent. And yet most first-time founders default to cold email because warm intros require a network they have not built yet.

The warm intro advantage comes from a specific mechanism. Investors receive hundreds of unsolicited pitches weekly. They cannot give each one careful attention, so they triage by trust signals. When a portfolio founder forwards a deck, the investor skips the credibility assessment and moves straight to evaluating the opportunity. The trust transfer happens in one sentence: "I trust this person, you should take the meeting." Cold email has to earn that trust from zero. The warm intro starts with it.

This is also why fundraising cycles in 2025 are running roughly twice as long as the 2021 peak across multiple industry trackers. The dataset most founders read is US-weighted, but European founders report similar or longer cycles. Most of that elapsed time is the friction of building relationships from cold, then having the same conversation repeatedly across investors who do not share context. See How Long Does It Take to Close a Seed Round in 2026 for the underlying data.

How to actually get warm intros in Europe

Warm intros are not a network you have or do not have. They are a network you build over 6 to 12 months before you start raising. The European pre-seed founders who close fast all do roughly the same three things in the year before their round.

They engage with the investor's portfolio companies first. Every European pre-seed fund publishes its portfolio. Pick the 15 most relevant companies (your sector, your stage, your geography) and become useful to those founders. Comment thoughtfully on their LinkedIn posts. Share their job openings. Make introductions you can make. After six months, those founders know your name. When you are ready to raise, you can ask one of them for an intro to their investor at the fund. This is the single most common warm-intro path in practice.

They join programs where the investor shows up. Accelerators are one path. Industry summits, EBAN Congress events, Sifted Summit, Slush, TechBBQ, and pre-seed-specific events like 4YFN all create environments where investors come to meet founders. A 5-minute booth conversation followed by a thoughtful LinkedIn message a week later converts at a multiple of cold email. Sifted's data on European angel investing notes that summit attendance is one of the strongest predictors of who an angel funds in the following 12 months.

They build the proof artifact before they need it. This is the part most founders skip. A warm intro opens the door. The 30-minute meeting that follows has to convert. The investor walks in knowing the founder has been vouched for; they walk out knowing whether the business is real.

Where the proof artifact comes in

The proof artifact is the thing the founder hands an investor that compresses what would otherwise take 4 to 6 meetings to learn. It is not the deck. The deck is the marketing layer. The proof artifact is the structured underneath: actual traction data, the founder's own narration of why the market is real and what they have learned, references that the investor can check, and the financial picture without the rounding errors.

European pre-seed founders who build this before the first meeting see meetings start one level deeper, because investors arrive prepared. Instead of asking, "How big is the market?" the investor arrives knowing the founder's market sizing logic and can ask the more interesting question: "Where does that sizing break if X happens?" Instead of asking, "What's the team?" the investor knows who the team is and asks how the founder thinks about hiring the next two roles. The conversation starts one level deeper.

SeedForge was built for this part of the European pre-seed cycle. The founder does one 30-minute AI session that asks what European pre-seed investors actually ask: the market logic, the customer evidence, the financial assumptions, the team's decision-making, the unit economics where they exist, and the assumptions the founder still has to test. The output is a Living Profile the founder shares via one link. When a warm intro lands and the investor opens the SeedForge Link, they see structured proof before the call. The meeting starts with the questions that matter, not the ones that are already answered. See an example profile at seedforge.com/s/hYoiPikkCoVt.

This matters more for European founders than for US founders because the European pre-seed market has tighter check sizes, longer decision cycles, and more multi-stakeholder funds. Compressing the proof step is the difference between closing in 8 weeks and closing in 6 months.

European pre-seed channels at a glance

How European pre-seed differs from US pre-seed (and what to do about it)

Three structural differences shape how European founders should approach pre-seed differently from US founders.

The round size is smaller, but the proof bar is similar. Atomico's data shows the European median Seed round runs at about 50% of the US median. The investor's diligence still takes the same number of hours. A French founder raising €1.2M has to meet roughly the same number of investor questions as a US founder raising $2.5M, but with half the capital to deploy. Compressing the proof step is more important in Europe, not less.

The SAFE has crossed the Atlantic, but convertible notes have not disappeared in Europe. Peter Walker at Carta, who tracks instrument adoption quarterly, has shown SAFEs dominating US pre-seed rounds while still growing more slowly in Europe. Convertible notes remain common in specific European geographies and for larger or more structured deals. European pre-seed founders should understand both. For the differences and when each makes sense, see Convertible Note vs SAFE for Founders 2026.

Multi-stakeholder funds slow decisions. European pre-seed funds often involve LP committees, national co-investors, or regulatory review for grant-eligible deals. A US fund can sign on a partner's conviction; a European fund frequently needs three signatures. Founders should expect 8-14 weeks from first call to signed term sheet, even for funds that move fast.

The implication for the founder is that the proof step has more leverage in Europe. A US investor can take a 25-minute meeting and write a $250K check on partner conviction. A European investor running the same process has to bring their colleagues. The proof artifact does the talking when the founder is not in the room.

The pre-fundraise checklist for European founders

Before approaching any European pre-seed investor, the founder should have these items ready and rehearsed.

1. A clear sector and stage match. Which 25 funds (not 100) actually invest at your check size, in your sector, in your geography? Use Dealroom, Crunchbase, Sifted's investor directory, and the European Innovation Council database to build a tight list. Quality of fit matters more than length.

2. A warm-intro path to each. For each of the 25 funds, identify the portfolio founder, angel investor, or shared connection who could make the introduction. If you cannot find one for a given fund, that fund is a lower-probability target. Adjust the list.

3. Build your Living Profile. Run a 30-minute session at seedforge.com (the first one is free) so a warm intro lands with a structured profile attached, not just a deck. See an investor-facing example: seedforge.com/s/hYoiPikkCoVt. Without this artifact, the warm intro converts at a lower rate because the investor still has to extract the basics in the meeting.

4. A 90-second narrative. When the warm intro happens, the investor will ask one question: "What does this company do?" The answer must be 90 seconds, concrete, and end with the single sharpest data point you have. Rehearse this until it is automatic.

5. A short list of references. Three customers, two prior investors or advisors, and one industry expert. Investors call references before the third meeting in Europe more often than US founders expect. Make it easy.

6. The next-round logic. Investors at pre-seed are underwriting the Series A. They will ask what milestones unlock the next round and what evidence you will have at that point. The answer should be specific to your business, not generic.

For a deeper version of this checklist applied to the angel-investor channel specifically, see How to Find Angel Investors for Your Startup in 2026. For the full picture on what investors are looking at when they review your prep, see How to Raise a Seed Round.

FAQ

How many European pre-seed funds should I approach in a round?

Aim for 20 to 30 well-targeted funds, not 100. The Atomico State of European Tech data and the warm-intro conversion benchmarks both suggest tighter targeting produces faster closes. Twenty funds you can reach via warm intro will produce more meetings than 100 cold emails.

What is the average European pre-seed round size in 2026?

European pre-seed rounds typically range from €500K to €3M. The median is around €1.2M to €1.8M depending on geography, with France and Benelux running higher (€1.8M median in 2025 per Atomico) and the UK slightly lower (€1.2M). New 2025 pre-seed funds like Concept Ventures and Day One Capital are writing $1M average first checks.

Are European angel networks like EBAN actually useful for pre-seed?

Yes, but indirectly. EBAN and its 150+ member organizations are most useful as a way to find specific angels who match your sector and stage, then approach those angels through the network's events and connections. Angel syndicates from these networks often co-invest €100K to €500K alongside a lead fund.

How long does it take to close a pre-seed round in Europe?

Median time from first investor meeting to signed term sheet is 8 to 14 weeks for European pre-seed founders in 2026, with another 4 to 6 weeks to close. Founders with a warm-intro path and a strong proof artifact often close in 6 to 10 weeks total. For a deeper look at timelines, see How Long Does It Take to Close a Seed Round in 2026.

Should I join a European accelerator before raising pre-seed?

If you are pre-product or pre-team, yes. Programs like Entrepreneur First and Antler are designed for this stage. If you have a working product and early traction, the opportunity cost of a 3-month program may exceed the value of the check and network. Run the numbers against your specific milestones.

Is it possible to raise pre-seed in Europe without a warm intro?

It is possible but harder. Cold outreach to investors typically converts at 1% to 5%, while warm introductions deliver an order-of-magnitude improvement across multiple 2025 industry analyses. Some new pre-seed funds like Concept Ventures and Day One Capital accept inbound applications. A small percentage of US-style "open application" European funds exist. For most founders, the warm-intro path is dramatically more efficient even if it takes longer to set up.

Start your Living Profile

The European pre-seed map gives you the door. The proof artifact decides whether the meeting converts.

Build yours at seedforge.com. One 30-minute AI session, the first one is free. The output is a Living Profile every investor in your warm-intro list can explore via a single link, so the call starts at the questions that matter.

See an example: seedforge.com/s/hYoiPikkCoVt.