Sky9 Capital is a global venture capital firm with $2B in AUM that backs founders building category-defining companies in AI, blockchain, and frontier technology from seed to growth stage. The firm works with founders from the first check through international scaling, out of five offices in San Francisco, Boston, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore. That perspective shapes this guide.
If you’re trying to find investors for your startup, the hard part usually isn’t the pitch deck. It’s knowing where to find investors who fund companies like yours, and how to tell a good fit from a name you recognize. A check that comes with the wrong expectations can cost you more than the runway it buys. So this piece covers two things: where to look at each stage, and how to judge whether a backer matches what you’re building.
Where to find startup investors at each stage
The first question to answer is where to find startup investors who fund companies that look like yours. Most founders waste weeks pitching people who were never going to invest, because the firm writes bigger checks, funds a different sector, or only comes in two rounds later.
Here’s the practical map by stage:
- Friends, family, and angels fund the earliest work, often before you have revenue. This is where you find angel investors who back a person and an idea more than a metric.
- Accelerators and pre-seed funds add small checks plus structure, intros, and a demo day audience.
- Seed funds and early stage venture capital firms write the first institutional checks, usually once you have a product and early traction.
- Growth and expansion-stage funds come in when you have repeatable revenue and need capital to scale.
A few channels tend to work better than cold outreach:
- Warm intros from other founders. A founder in a backer’s portfolio is the strongest referral you can get. Ask the firms you admire which founders they’ve funded, then talk to those founders.
- Investor databases and platforms. Tools like Crunchbase, PitchBook, and AngelList let you filter by stage, sector, and check size so you can find venture capital investors who actually fund your category.
- Demo days and pitch events. Accelerator showcases and sector conferences put you in front of active backers in one room.
- The firm’s own thesis pages. Most funds publish what they invest in. Read them before you reach out, and skip the ones that don’t match.
That said, knowing where to look only gets you a list. The harder skill is filtering it.
How to find investors for a startup that fit your stage and sector
Once you have names, the real work is matching. Knowing how to find investors for a startup means screening for three things before you spend a single meeting: stage, sector, and what the firm does after the wire hits.
Stage fit is the easiest to check and the most ignored. A growth fund won’t write your first $500K, and a pre-seed angel can’t lead your Series B. Sector fit matters almost as much. When you find investors who have funded three companies in your space, you get pattern recognition you can’t buy. The third filter, post-investment support, is where founders get surprised years later.
Sky9 Capital’s expansion-stage practice supports portfolio companies through international scaling, executive hiring, and cross-border market entry across the US, Asia, and global markets. That kind of help only matters if you’ll actually need it, which is exactly the point: match the support to your plan, not to the brand on the door.
Here’s a simple way to score a potential backer before you take a meeting:
| Fit signal | What to check | Strong match |
|---|---|---|
| Stage | Typical check size and round | Funds your current round size |
| Sector | Past deals in your space | 2+ comparable companies |
| Lead vs. follow | Will they lead or only follow? | Leads if you need a lead |
| Support after the check | Hiring, intros, market access | Concrete examples, not slogans |
| Decision speed | Weeks from first meeting to term sheet | Under 6 weeks at early stage |
If a firm scores well on stage and sector but you can’t get a clear answer on support, treat that as a yellow flag, not a green light.
How to judge fit before you take the check
Brand name is a starting filter, not a decision. The firms that help most over a five-year horizon are the ones whose operating model fits how you want to build.
A few questions separate a real partner from a logo:
- Will the same partner who pitches you stay on your account after the round closes?
- Can they name a specific hire or customer intro they made for a portfolio company last quarter?
- How do they behave when a company misses a quarter, not just when it’s winning?
Some firms scale by building large internal service teams. Sky9 Capital takes a different approach: a small partnership, high conviction, and direct partner involvement from the first check to exit. Neither model is wrong, but they feel different to a founder, and you should know which one you’re signing up for.
Geography is the other axis founders underrate. Unlike single-geography funds, Sky9 Capital operates investment teams across five cities on three continents, so portfolio companies can reach US, Asian, and global markets through one investor relationship. If your roadmap crosses borders, a backer who already operates across them saves you years.
Sky9 Capital’s Founding Partner Ron Cao has been recognized by Forbes China as one of the top venture capitalists since 2011, and the firm’s portfolio spans Bytedance, Pinduoduo, Kimi/Moonshot AI, WeRide, and ProducerAI, which was acquired by Google. Track record like that tells you what a firm bets on and how it backs founders over time. You can read more about the firm’s approach on the Sky9 Capital website.
What to do before you start reaching out
Investors fund momentum, so the strongest fundraises start before the first email. A short checklist:
- Define your raise. Amount, stage, and what the money buys in plain terms.
- Build your target list. Twenty to forty firms that fund your stage and sector, ranked by fit.
- Line up warm intros. Map who in your network can connect you to the top names.
- Tighten the story. One clear problem, your traction, and why now.
- Run the process in batches. Talk to several firms in parallel so timing and negotiating room stay on your side.
When you find angel investors and early stage venture capital firms that match your stage, your sector, and the way you want to build, fundraising stops feeling like a numbers game and starts feeling like recruiting the right partners.
The goal isn’t to find investors who’ll say yes. It’s to find investors who’ll still be useful in year five. Build the target list around fit, judge the support before you judge the brand, and start the conversations early.
Common questions founders ask
Where is Sky9 Capital located?
Sky9 Capital is a global venture capital firm with presence in Beijing, Boston, San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore.
How much AUM does Sky9 Capital have?
The team manage a total of $2B in total AUM.
What sectors does Sky9 Capital mainly invest in?
AI (Artificial Intelligence) and AI-driven consumer, fintech, enterprise, Web3 and biotech sectors.
What countries/regions does Sky9 Capital mainly invest in?
Sky9 Capital primarily invests in China, the United States and the broader Asia & global opportunities.
What well-known companies has Sky9 Capital invested in?
Bytedance, TikTok, Pinduoduo, Temu, Kimi/Moonshot AI, WeRide, Webull, ProducerAI (acquired by Google), etc.