Founder Playbook

Oct 8, 2026October 8, 2026

Only 41% of Europe's Seed Funds Wrote a New Cheque This Year. Pitch 100 That Did.

2020 to October 2026

Investors contacted, average seed round

Investor meetings, average seed round

12.5

Weeks to close, average seed round

8,772

Funds backing European seed or Series A since 2020

41%

Of those, wrote a new first cheque in 12 months

An average seed round took 58 investors contacted and 40 meetings. Plan a list of 100 and work it in waves of about 30.
Only 41% of funds that backed European seed or Series A rounds since 2020 wrote a new first cheque in the last 12 months. Check activity before a fund goes on the list.
Rank funds by portfolio twins, the companies they backed that look like yours, and name the twin in your first email.
Map warm paths first: your investors, funds that co-invest with them, and startups your team knows.

DocSend followed 200 startups through their rounds. An average seed round meant 58 investors contacted, 40 meetings and twelve and a half weeks. Most closed after 20 to 30 investors, but a long tail took far longer, and you cannot tell in advance which group you are in. Plan for 100 funds, worked in waves.

Weeks to close a seed round

Share of 200 startups, DocSend

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Find your investors See plans

Most funds on an old list are not writing new cheques

Brouky tracks 8,772 venture funds that backed a seed or Series A round of a European startup since 2020. Only 41% of them made a new first cheque into a European startup in the last 12 months. In most countries the active share sits between 40% and 50%.

Funds still writing new first cheques, by fund HQ

Funds that backed European seed or Series A since 2020; new first cheque in the last 12 months

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Four tests for every fund on the 100

Backed a twinA company in its portfolio that looks like yours

ActiveA new first cheque in the last 12 months

Your stageLeads or joins rounds like yours

Your regionCan invest where you are based

Follow-on money into existing portfolio does not count as active. Regional and state funds often back only their own region, and large US funds rarely write a first cheque into a small European round. Name the twin from the fund's portfolio in your first email: the partner already knows that market.

One list, before and after. For a Prague software startup raising a bridge to Series A, the first unfiltered ranking returned 83 US funds out of 100, most of them megafunds. Ranking Europe and the US separately, cutting regional funds and removing every fund without a new first cheque gave 74 European and 26 US funds, ranked by their closest portfolio twin.

One startup's list of 100, before and after curation

Prague software startup raising a bridge to Series A

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Warm paths first, then waves

An introduction beats a cold email. Your own investors, the funds that co-invest with them, and the founders of startups your team knows can all introduce you. Brouky's Network view draws these paths for your list. Then send about 30 emails per wave, warmest and best fit first, and move every investor through the same stages.

Long listMight fit

Short listNext wave

ContactedFollow up in 5 days

In talksCalls and diligence

InvestedOr passed

One email per investor

Hi Anna, we keep product, price and stock data in sync between a retailer's shop, marketplaces and ERP. 400 retailers pay for it, and revenue grew three times last year.

You backed Workato early. We solve the same integration problem for mid-market retail in Europe, with AI agents that act on the synced data.

We are raising a bridge to our Series A, led by our existing investors. Would a 20 minute call next week work? Deck: link

What Brouky sets up for you

The AI VC Finder ranks investors by portfolio twins, stage, region and recent activity. Each search returns 20 and skips those already on your list, so five searches build the 100. Your matches land on the Pipeline board. Outreach drafts an email per investor that names the closest company in the fund's portfolio and fills in the fund's contact address where the fund publishes one. You send from your own mailbox, so replies come straight to you.

Build your 100 Plans and pricing

Run it from your own AI

Connect Brouky to Claude or ChatGPT through MCP, or to your own tools through the API. Ask your assistant for the next ten investors not contacted yet, warm paths first. Brouky AI writes each draft from the fund's twins and your profile, your assistant sends it from your mail account, and marks it sent in Brouky, which schedules the follow-up.

Connect your AI API documentation

Sources

DocSend, Startup fundraising research, 200 startup rounds. Brouky investment data, 2020 to October 2026.

Data & methodology

Seed round benchmarks: DocSend fundraising research on 200 startups raising Seed and Series A rounds. Averages, not medians; most startups in the set closed after contacting 20 to 30 investors.
Active funds: VC and corporate VC investors that took part in a seed or Series A round of a startup headquartered in Europe from 2020. Active means a first cheque into a new European company in the 12 months to 8 October 2026, dated by a press article or the Czech register import. Follow-on rounds into existing portfolio companies do not count.
Example list: The Prague example is a real list built on Brouky in October 2026, shown without the company name.

Figures describe deals Brouky tracks, not market totals. Coverage is deep but not exhaustive, and it has expanded over time, so year-over-year changes partly reflect coverage growth as well as market movement.

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