Angel Investor Database: How to Use One Well

Finding angel names is the easy part. Foundersuite alone advertises about 150,000 individual angels and high-net-worth investors. The hard part is getting from a list that size to the 15 people who invest in your sector, at your stage, in checks you can use, and who are still writing them this year.

So this page spends little time on the tools and more on the work around them: what fields to trust, how to check an entry in ten minutes, and how to approach someone without spoiling your one good shot at them. Our own public Investor Directory is one of the sources below, and you don't need to pay us anything to use it.

Where angel names actually come from

Five kinds of source are worth knowing about. Most founders should use two: one list for breadth and one network for depth. All details below come from each provider's own pages, read on 2 November 2026.

Sources of angel investors, as of November 2026

Source	What you get	Cost	Watch for
Nautis Investor Directory (public)	Profiles to browse by stage, industry and country	Free to browse, no signup	A research list only; the rest of the work is yours
Nautis Find Investors (in the app)	Filters for type, ticket size, stage, mechanism and industry, plus a % match	Part of a paid plan, with a 14-day trial	The match is a guide; links open out to the firm's site
Foundersuite	Advertises 216,000 investors, with about 150,000 angels and high-net-worth individuals	$0 Basic; Silver $69 a month for full database access	Its pages give different totals, and we couldn't read its pricing page
Visible Connect	Investor search with Angel as a stage filter	Free to search	Size isn't stated for angels; investor counts differ across its pages
OpenVC	Its blog cites 1,000+ solo angels and groups, with filters for geography, stage, check size and sector	Blog says most core features cost nothing, with a paid option for more outreach	We could read only its blog
Crunchbase	Company and investor data; says you can identify investors by stage, sector and geography	Paid products with a trial; we couldn't read the prices	A general company data product, so check how well it covers individual angels
Angel Capital Association directory	Angel groups and accredited platforms, sortable and filterable	Directory page is open to read; ask about any group fees	Individuals aren't listed, for privacy; ACA says it's not a funding source
Angel networks such as Keiretsu Forum	Members who hear pitches; Keiretsu cites 53 chapters on 4 continents and has an Apply To Present page	Its homepage doesn't state fees, so ask	Members include VCs and corporate investors as well as angels; the page doesn't spell out application steps

ACA's advice on group fees is worth repeating. It calls it an important part of diligence to understand what, if any, fees or costs extend to entrepreneurs for presenting or joining a platform. Ask before you apply anywhere.

Is AngelList an angel investor database?

Not on the evidence of its own site. Many older articles send founders to AngelList to search for angels, so check before you rely on that advice. Its homepage on 2 November 2026 presents the company as fund administration and related businesses: funds, SPVs, rolling funds, a retail venture fund and a wealth platform. We found no searchable angel directory for founders on the pages we read, and we can't rule out that one exists elsewhere on the site.

Syndicates still matter to you, but in a different way. AngelList's syndicates page describes a tool for leads who raise money for individual deals through SPVs, with fees that largely fall on the deal: an $8k setup fee plus a $2k state regulatory fee per deal. A lead might bring you a pool of smaller investors once they've decided they like you. That's a way to fill a round, and it isn't a way to find your first believer.

The fields that matter in a listing

A long profile isn't a useful profile. Five fields decide whether a name goes on your list, and the rest is decoration. The table says what to look for and what to distrust.

Listing fields, and how far to trust them

Field	Why it matters	Treat with caution when
Most recent investment and date	The best sign that they're active	There's no date, or the latest deal is over 18 months old
Check size	$10K and $100K angels need very different rounds	It's a wide band such as $5K to $1M
Stage	Someone who backs revenue-stage companies won't fund an idea	The listing simply says all stages
Sector, with portfolio examples	Real examples beat tags	It lists eight sectors and no companies
Location and countries	Some angels only invest nearby or in one legal system	It shows a head-office city only
Instrument	SAFEs, notes or priced equity shape the conversation	It isn't stated, which is common
Lead or follow	A round needs someone to set terms	It isn't stated, so you'll need to ask a founder they backed
Route in	Which mutual contact could introduce you	You've only got a generic inbox address

Inside Nautis's Find Investors, these map to Investor Type, Ticket Size, Investment Stages, Investment Mechanisms, Industries and Operating Countries. Other tools use other labels, but the logic is the same. Filters there combine with AND across categories and OR within one, so too many at once will empty your list quickly.

How to vet an entry in ten minutes

Do this for each name that survives your filters and before you write a word. It's dull work, and it saves you from the most common mistake, which is pitching someone who stopped investing two years ago.

Look for a recent deal. Check the person's own website, LinkedIn or a recent funding announcement. You want something from the past 12 to 18 months.
Scan for conflicts. If they've backed a close competitor, either skip them or think hard about what you'll share.
Confirm the check size. Compare the listed size with the round announcements you can find. Profiles often describe an ambition, not a habit.
Find a founder they've backed. One short message asking what this person is like when things go badly will tell you more than any profile.
Check the formalities later. US securities rules often involve accredited status, which the SEC bases on tests such as net worth over $1 million excluding a primary residence, or income over $200,000 alone or $300,000 with a spouse or partner. A database entry won't settle this, so ask your lawyer how it applies to your round.
Write one sentence on why them. If you can't, drop them from the list.

Why databases go stale

Angels aren't firms with a website to update. They stop investing when a liquidity event runs out, they change sectors after a bad loss, they move countries, and they rarely tell a directory any of this. A record can be correct on the day it's added and wrong within a year.

Headline counts don't tell you much either. On 2 November 2026, Foundersuite's pages gave 216,000 investors on one page, 150,000+ on another and about 121,000 in a blog guide. Visible's pages gave 800+ verified profiles, 19k+ records and 20k+ verified VCs. OpenVC's blog cites both 1,000+ angels and 16,000+ investors. None of that is unusual, since pages get written at different times and count different things, but it does mean a big number says little about whether a particular record is current.

So ask how freshness works rather than how big the list is. Is there a last-updated date on each record? Did the investor claim the profile? Can you report a stale entry? Our own guide says the same about Nautis: always sanity-check the firm's current website before reaching out. That applies to every source on this page.

How to reach out without burning the name

You usually get one first impression with each angel, so treat a shortlist as scarce. As an illustration, not a benchmark: 200 names from a filter might become 40 after vetting and 15 you'd truly want on your cap table. Spend your effort on those 15.

Take the warm path first. Paul Graham's essay on raising money says that before you can talk to investors, you have to be introduced to them. The essay dates from 2013, but the logic holds. It ranks an intro from a founder they've funded just behind one from an investor who has just backed you.
Cold is allowed, if it's specific. When no path exists, write to one person about one reason. Mention a company they backed and why yours connects. The investor cold email generator can produce a first draft, and you should rewrite it until it sounds like you.
No blasts. Angels talk to each other. A bulk email with their first name merged in gets noticed, and it can follow you around a small community.
Keep it to five sentences. What you do, the proof, how much you're raising and on what instrument, why them, and a simple ask. Skip the attachment until they reply.
Follow up once. After about a week, one polite note with one new piece of news. Then leave it, and add them to your next update if they said yes to that.
Know your numbers before they ask. Angels often ask about the cap and what they'd own. The SAFE note calculator shows you the dilution for a given cap so you don't work it out live on a call.

Timing matters as well. Graham's advice is to talk to investors in parallel and not one at a time, and that works with angels too, since a round with momentum is easier to say yes to. For ideas on budget and what else you'll need at this stage, see pre-seed fundraising tools and the guide to pre-seed funding.

From a list to a pipeline in Nautis

You can use our public directory without an account. If you already use Nautis, or you want the list in the same place as your runway and tasks, Find Investors adds filters, a % match badge with a breakdown of how each factor contributes, and Add to Pipeline, which creates a deal in your chosen round with the name, type, average check size, website and LinkedIn already filled in. A round called Watchlist or Long list gives you somewhere to park names you aren't ready to approach.

Be clear about the limits. Nautis doesn't send messages from the directory. It gives you the links to the website and LinkedIn, and you make the approach yourself. You can't export from that page, only from the Fundraising CRM once investors are in a pipeline. Investor deals are limited on the Launch plan, so see the pricing page. Nautis costs $49 to $129 a month as of November 2026, after a 14-day trial, and that's hard to justify for a list alone. If names are all you need right now, the no-cost sources in the table above will get you started.

FAQ

Is there a free angel investor database?

Yes, several. Nautis's public Investor Directory is free to browse without signing up, Visible Connect is free to search and includes an Angel filter, and OpenVC's blog says most of its core features cost nothing. Foundersuite's $0 Basic option has limited database access.

How do I find angel investors for my startup?

Start with founders you know who've raised, and ask who backed them. Then use a database to fill the gaps by stage, sector and check size, and approach local angel groups. Vet each name for recent activity before you contact them.

How accurate are angel investor databases?

They're useful, but they date quickly, because angels change focus or stop investing without telling anyone. Treat each entry as a lead to check. Look for a recent investment and a last-updated date, and confirm details on the person's own site or LinkedIn.

Should I cold email angel investors?

Try a warm introduction first, because it's usually far stronger. If you can't find a path, a short and specific cold email to one person is reasonable. Avoid bulk sends, since angels often know each other and compare notes.

Does Nautis list angel investors?

Yes. Find Investors covers VC firms, angels and other backers, and you can filter by Investor Type. The public Investor Directory can be browsed without an account. Nautis doesn't contact investors for you, so you still make the approach yourself.