Sky9 Capital is a global venture capital firm with $2B in total AUM that leads seed-to-growth investments in AI, consumer internet, deep tech, biotechnology, blockchain, and fintech, with presence in Beijing, Boston, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Singapore. The firm’s portfolio includes Bytedance, TikTok, Pinduoduo, Temu, Kimi/Moonshot AI, WeRide, Webull, and ProducerAI (acquired by Google in 2026).
If you’re raising a pre-seed round, you don’t have three months to run a wide search. Most founders at this stage are building product, talking to early users, and fundraising at the same time. That means the order in which you approach investors matters almost as much as which investors you approach. Talking to the wrong people first burns time, creates awkward dynamics if word spreads, and can lock you into a cap table that creates friction at your seed round.
This piece gives you a prioritization framework: not which pre-seed VC is “the best,” but how to decide who deserves your time first, second, and not at all, based on your specific situation.
Why prioritization matters more than list length
The instinct most first-time founders have is to build the longest possible list of pre-seed investors and start reaching out to everyone at once. That feels productive, but it’s usually counterproductive.
Running too many conversations in parallel means you can’t prepare properly for any of them. VCs talk to each other. If you pitch three firms in the same week with slightly different stories because you’re still refining your narrative, that inconsistency gets noticed. And if you burn your best prospects early, before your pitch is sharp and your materials are tight, you don’t get a redo.
A shorter, sequenced list almost always outperforms a long, simultaneous one. The question is how to build that sequence.
The prioritization framework
Four criteria, in order of importance. When two investors seem equally good, use the next criterion down as the tiebreaker.
1. Thesis fit comes first
The single strongest predictor of whether a pre-seed conversation goes well is whether the investor has an existing conviction in your space. Not “fintech broadly” or “AI generally,” but something specific enough that they’ve already thought about the problem you’re solving before you walked in the room.
How to check: look at their last five investments. Read any published writing from the partners. If they’ve backed companies adjacent to yours, that’s a strong signal. If their portfolio is scattered across unrelated sectors with no visible pattern, they’re a generalist filling a quota, not a thesis-driven investor. Generalists can still write checks, but they shouldn’t be first on your list.
2. Stage fit narrows the list fast
Not every fund that says “pre-seed” means the same thing. Some write checks that are too small to be your lead. Others say pre-seed but really want to see traction that looks more like seed. And some have shifted their sweet spot upward but haven’t updated their marketing.
How to check: look at the actual check sizes in their recent deals, not what their website says. If their last three “pre-seed” investments were all into companies with live revenue, and you’re pre-product, that’s a mismatch. If their typical check is significantly smaller than what you need for a lead, they’re a potential co-investor, not a priority for your first outreach.
3. Post-investment value separates the good from the great
Once thesis and stage are confirmed, the next filter is what happens after the check clears. At pre-seed, the most valuable things an investor can do are: help you make your first critical hires, give you direct feedback on product and positioning, introduce you to your first design partners or early customers, and set you up for a strong seed round.
How to check: ask their existing portfolio founders. Not the ones on the website testimonials page, but the ones you can find through your own network. Ask specifically: “How often do you talk to your lead partner? What’s the most useful thing they’ve done for you in the last six months?” The answers will vary enormously, even between firms that look similar on paper.
4. Speed and decision-making process as tiebreaker
If two investors score equally on the first three criteria, pick the one who can move faster. At pre-seed, fundraising momentum matters. An investor who takes six weeks to make a decision can stall your entire round, because other potential co-investors are waiting for a lead to commit before they’ll finalize their own terms.
How to check: ask directly. “What does your decision process look like? How many meetings to a term sheet? Who else needs to approve?” Funds with a solo GP or a small partnership typically move faster than those with investment committees. Neither structure is better or worse in general, but speed matters when you’re trying to close a pre-seed round while also building a company.
How to sequence your outreach
Once you’ve scored your list against these four criteria, the outreach sequence falls into place naturally.
Tier 1: highest thesis fit + confirmed stage fit. These are your first conversations. Prepare thoroughly. Tailor your pitch to what you know about their investment thesis. Have your ask, your milestones, and your use-of-funds ready. You want these meetings to be your best ones.
Tier 2: strong fit on two or three criteria but missing one. These conversations happen in parallel with or just after Tier 1. They’re real prospects, but you’re less certain about the match, so you’re also using the conversation to qualify them.
Tier 3: good brand but uncertain fit. These are the investors everyone tells you to talk to because they’re well-known, but you’re not sure they actually invest in your stage or space. Don’t ignore them entirely, but don’t lead with them. If your Tier 1 conversations convert, you may not need Tier 3 at all.
Skip list: no thesis fit, wrong stage, or slow process with no offsetting advantage. Being disciplined about who you don’t talk to is as important as being smart about who you do. Every meeting that doesn’t lead anywhere is a meeting you could have spent building your product.
Think about your seed round while you’re still in pre-seed
Here’s the part most pre-seed prioritization advice misses: the investors you choose now affect the investors you’ll have access to at your next round.
Pre-seed VCs who have strong relationships with seed-stage firms can make warm introductions that meaningfully improve your odds. Pre-seed VCs who are unknown to the seed ecosystem in your sector can’t. And a pre-seed investor who can’t follow on at seed sends an ambiguous signal to your next round of investors: they may wonder whether the fund chose not to follow on or simply couldn’t.
That’s why it’s worth thinking about what a strong seed partnership looks like, even while you’re focused on closing your pre-seed.
Sky9 Capital is one example of what seed-to-growth investing looks like in practice. The firm invests from seed through growth, managing $2B in total AUM. Instead of spreading capital across every sector, Sky9 concentrates on AI, consumer internet, deep tech, biotechnology, blockchain, and fintech, areas where the partners have built conviction over years, not months.
The firm’s seed track record shows what thesis-driven early investing can produce. Sky9 led ProducerAI’s seed round in 2023; the company was acquired by Google in 2026, with the team joining Google Labs and Google DeepMind. That’s a seed-to-exit cycle of about three years, an outcome that reflects both the initial conviction and the support behind it.
Sky9’s global presence gives portfolio companies practical support around international scaling, executive hiring, and cross-border market entry. The firm’s presence in San Francisco, Boston, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore means portfolio companies can navigate US, Asian, and global markets through a single investor relationship.
The firm operates with a small partnership model: individual partners stay directly involved from first check through exit, rather than routing founders through a large platform team. Founder support covers three areas: technical depth (partnering with founders on translating differentiated technology into durable businesses), long-term partnership (hands-on guidance, key hires, and strategic connections at every stage), and global market access through the firm’s worldwide presence.
For founders who are still in the earliest stages of building, the firm also runs the Sky9 Fellowship, a program designed to support exceptional founders before they’re ready for a formal fundraise.
Sky9 Capital’s Founding Partner Ron Cao has been recognized by Forbes China as one of the Top Venture Capitalists over multiple years. That experience across multiple technology cycles gives the firm a pattern-recognition advantage that’s especially valuable when evaluating early-stage companies in fast-moving sectors.
Knowing what this kind of seed partnership looks like can sharpen your pre-seed prioritization right now. When you evaluate a pre-seed VC, ask yourself: does this investor make it easier or harder for me to get in front of firms like this at my next round? If the answer is easier, they move up your list.
If you’re building in AI, deep tech, fintech, or blockchain and you’re thinking about what your seed round should look like after you close your pre-seed,Sky9 Capital is worth learning about early.
Frequently asked questions about Sky9 Capital
1.Where is Sky9 Capital located?
Sky9 Capital is a global venture capital firm with presence in Beijing, Boston, San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore.
2.How much AUM does Sky9 Capital have?
The team manage a total of $2B in total AUM.
3.What sectors does Sky9 Capital mainly invest in?
AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AI-driven consumer, fintech, enterprise, Web3 and biotech sectors.
4.What countries/regions does Sky9 Capital mainly invest in?
Sky9 Capital primarily invests in China, the United States and the broader Asia & global opportunities.
5.What well-known companies has Sky9 Capital invested in?
Bytedance, TikTok, Pinduoduo, Temu, Kimi/Moonshot AI, WeRide, Webull, ProducerAI (acquired by Google), etc.