Angel Investors for AI Startups in North America: AI Angels, Angel Funds and Networks in the US and Canada
If you are building an AI company in the United States or Canada, angel money usually arrives in one of four ways: an angel-run programme, a small angel fund that writes the first cheque, an angel network or syndicate that pools many members, or a well-known founder or researcher who joins your round after a warm introduction. Most "top AI angel investors" lists mix these up with venture capital firms and name people who no longer invest as angels. For this guide we kept only North American angels, angel funds and networks whose AI investing is shown on their own website or in an official company announcement, and we checked each one in November 2026.
Quick answer: with a technical team and an AI product, apply to AI Grant when a batch opens and talk to SV Angel, which says it backs AI founders and usually writes about $200,000 at seed. In Canada, start with Archangel (Waterloo, many AI deals), Startup TNT (Alberta) and the angel groups ranked by NACO. With revenue, pitch Keiretsu Forum, whose AI interest group screens AI companies every month. Famous AI angels such as Jeff Dean or Geoffrey Hinton do invest, but only through introductions.
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AI Angel Investors and Networks in North America Compared
Sources: each investor's, network's and programme's own website, Cursor's funding announcement and, for Cohere's 2021 round, BetaKit's report, checked 3 November 2026. Cheque sizes are only shown where the source publishes them.
Angel-Run Programmes and AI Angel Funds
1. AI Grant (San Francisco): $250,000 for AI product startups
AI Grant is the best-known angel-funded programme only for AI startups. Each company it selects gets $250,000 on an uncapped SAFE, $350,000 in Azure credits plus $250,000 in other credits, a summit in San Francisco with advisors and founders, and a Demo Day with investors. Its FAQ says anyone can apply with no credentials required, and it looks for technical, pragmatic founders using AI models in a useful or engaging way. Its advisors and speakers include Andrej Karpathy, Patrick Collison, Shopify's Tobi Lütke, Aaron Levie and Dylan Field, and its first batch included Perplexity, Cursor and Replicate. When we checked, applications for Batch 4 were closed, so watch the site for the next call. Founders outside the US can apply too; our global guide to angel investors for AI startups covers its terms and the other open programmes.
2. SV Angel (San Francisco): angel-style seed cheques for AI founders
SV Angel, the firm built by Ron Conway, runs an early-stage Seed Fund and a later Growth Fund. Its FAQ says the Seed Fund typically invests $200,000, that it most often meets founders as they start a pre-seed or seed raise, invests broadly in software, does not lead rounds, takes no board seats and invests mainly in US companies (not only in Silicon Valley). On its AI Open Letter it states that it invests in and supports founders in AI, and its homepage shows OpenAI, Anthropic and Databricks among its portfolio logos. Because it never leads, bring SV Angel in once you have a lead investor or a lead angel.
3. Archangel Network of Funds (Waterloo, Ontario)
Archangel is a network of early-stage funds that invests only in Canadian technology companies. It started in spring 2020 with a COVID-19 call to founders and now runs four funds (Adrenaline, Axion, StarForge and Phoenix Fire) that share deal flow, with 85+ portfolio companies and 179 investments. Its portfolio is full of AI: in 2025 alone it backed Applied Brain Research (AI for edge devices), Crewscope (AI for field operations) and Iris Dynamics (physical AI and smart motors), and earlier investments include DarwinAI, LoopX AI and NL Patent. Archangel does not publish cheque sizes or an application form; founders reach it through the contact page.
Angel Networks and Syndicates With AI Deal Flow
4. Keiretsu Forum's AI Special Interest Group (US and Canada)
The Keiretsu Forum AI Special Interest Group is open to members of every chapter. Its screening committee, made up of investors with AI and machine learning, founder and early-stage backgrounds, meets monthly on Zoom and members nominate new AI companies to it. North American chapters include Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and, in Canada, Toronto, Vancouver, Vaughan, Waterloo-Wellington and London. Keiretsu suits AI companies that already have revenue and are raising $500k to $2M; our guide to angel investor groups in North America has its criteria and 24 other regional groups.
5. Startup TNT (Calgary and Edmonton)
Startup TNT runs angel syndicates in Western Canada: investors pre-commit $5,000 each, do team-based due diligence with 20 to 40 others, and invest through one LP, so the round is a single line on your cap table. Founders apply to its investment summits and need no warm introduction. Its Calgary summit puts $150,000+ into each winner, plus side deals of $25,000 to $250,000 for other finalists; in 2024 its 12 summit winners received $210,000 on average. Applications for the fall 2026 summits are closed (the Calgary finale was set for 26 November 2026), and an Agri-Food summit open to startups across Canada is planned for spring 2027. Its portfolio includes AI companies such as Acuspire and BetterCart Analytics, and NACO lists it among Canada's five most active angel organisations by number of deals.
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6. Gaingels (US-wide)
Gaingels is a network of LGBTQ+ investors and allies that says it has deployed more than $990 million into 2,400+ companies since 2019, with AI among its main sectors. It never leads a round or sets terms: it co-invests alongside experienced lead investors, mostly VC funds, in companies that value diverse leadership, and it offers portfolio companies help recruiting diverse board members. For an AI founder, Gaingels is a way to fill the rest of a round once a lead has committed.
7. Golden Seeds (US-wide, women-led startups)
Golden Seeds is an angel network for US-based women-led startups in all sectors, with 9 chapters and members in 28 states. It reports 275+ companies funded and $200 million invested, and its company news features EliseAI, an AI company that automates back-office work for landlords and health systems. Typical first rounds, cheque sizes and its $50 application fee are covered in our North America groups guide; female founders should also read our tips on angel investors for women founders.
Where to Find More AI Angel Groups
8. NACO (Canada)
The National Angel Capital Organization is Canada's association of angel investors and groups; it says its members have invested $1.92 billion in more than 3,000 companies since 2010. Its list of Canada's most active angel organisations, from its latest annual report, is a good shortlist: by number of deals Capital Angel Network (Ottawa), Keiretsu Forum Canada (Toronto), VANTEC (Vancouver), Golden Triangle Angel Network (Waterloo) and Startup TNT (Edmonton); by dollars invested TandemLaunch, Panache Ventures, Keiretsu Forum Canada, Brilliant Phoenix and GreenSky Ventures. NACO also runs Catalyst programmes such as Moonshots Stage and Women Who Build, and its next summit is set for 28 and 29 April 2027 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (by application).
9. Angel Capital Association (United States)
The Angel Capital Association is the US association of angel groups and accredited platforms. It is clear that it does not invest itself; its public directory lists member groups by region, and those members are the ones who invest. Use it to find the angel groups near you, then check each group's own page for AI deals and criteria.
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AI Researcher- and Founder-Angels Named in Official Announcements
Many of the most sought-after AI angels have no website and take no cold pitches. The reliable way to see who invests is a company's own funding announcement. Use these names to map whose founders could introduce you, not as a list to email.
10. Jeff Dean and Noam Brown (Cursor's Series A)
When Anysphere announced Cursor's $60 million Series A in August 2024, it named Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital and OpenAI as investors, together with Google's Jeff Dean, OpenAI researcher Noam Brown and the founders of Stripe, GitHub, Ramp, Perplexity and OpenAI. Cursor itself came out of AI Grant's first batch, which shows how the programme route and the researcher-angel route often meet.
11. Canada's AI researcher-angels (Cohere's Series A)
Toronto-based Cohere raised a $40 million Series A led by Index Ventures in September 2021. According to BetaKit's report of the announcement, the round included AI researchers Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, Pieter Abbeel and Raquel Urtasun. Researcher-angels like these back founders from their own labs and networks, so building inside or near Canada's AI institutes and university programmes helps; see the Canadian programmes in our list of AI accelerators in North America.
12. Founder-angels you already know
Shopify's Tobi Lütke (based in Canada) is an AI Grant advisor and was named, with Naval Ravikant and Vercel's Guillermo Rauch, among the new investors in Perplexity's January 2024 Series B. Our global guide also covers HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah and Jeff Bezos, whose AI investments are listed on their own sites. None of them publishes a pitch route.
How to Reach AI Angels in North America
- Pick the right door. Programmes (AI Grant) and syndicates with summits (Startup TNT) take applications; angel funds (SV Angel, Archangel) take contact; famous angels need an introduction.
- Match the criteria. Archangel only invests in Canadian companies, Golden Seeds only in US women-led companies, and many US angel groups ask for a US C-corp. Check the official page before you apply.
- Find a lead first. SV Angel and Gaingels never lead. Line up a lead angel, a network deal lead or a seed fund from our early-stage VCs in North America guide, then fill the round.
- Prove you are more than a wrapper. Show users, proprietary data or workflow, and what model and compute costs do to your margins. Tell it as a story: see our fundraising pitch deck guide.
- Close in one vehicle. Use a SAFE or a priced round and group small cheques in an SPV or LP, as Startup TNT does. Read up on term sheet negotiation before you sign.
AI Angel Investors That Changed or Left This List
The 2025 version of this article listed 20 names. We removed those that are venture capital firms, that now invest through a fund rather than as angels, or whose AI investing we could not confirm on an official page:
- Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures and SOSV: venture capital firms, not angels. See our guides to VCs for AI startups and deep tech VCs in North America.
- Elad Gil: still a major AI investor, but he now invests through Gil&Co, which he describes as a multi-stage investment firm.
- Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross: still behind AI Grant, but according to press reports both joined Meta's AI effort in 2025.
- Wei Guo and Peter Thiel: UpHonest Capital and Founders Fund are venture firms.
- Jerry Yang, Scott Belsky, Lachy Groom and Nitesh Banta: we found no official page confirming that they currently invest as AI angels; the old "learn more" links went to investor databases and a directory site.
- Twin Ventures: its site still calls it an angel fund for AI-first startups with a typical $100,000 cheque, but the site's copyright line reads 2019, so confirm it is still investing before you pitch.
- Naval Ravikant and Guillermo Rauch: real AI angels, now covered with their sources in our global guide.
Which AI Angel Route Should You Choose?
- Technical team, pre-seed, AI product, anywhere in North America: AI Grant when a batch opens, and SV Angel once you have a lead.
- Canadian AI startup: Archangel, Startup TNT in Alberta, Keiretsu Forum's Canadian chapters and the groups on NACO's most-active list.
- Revenue and a $500k to $2M round: Keiretsu Forum and its AI interest group, or a regional group from our North America guide.
- Women-led US startup: Golden Seeds, plus Pipeline Angels from the same guide.
- You already have a VC lead: add Gaingels and SV Angel to fill the round.
- You know founders of AI companies: ask them to introduce you to the researcher- and founder-angels in their rounds.
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How AI Founders in North America Combine Angels With Other Funding
Angels are rarely the only source. Many AI founders first join one of the AI accelerators in North America or win prize money in startup competitions in North America. Non-dilutive money buys time before you sell equity: see deep tech grants in North America and, for women-owned companies, our new guide to grants for female entrepreneurs in North America. Where you build matters too: compare the best cities for AI startups in North America and the wider startup cities in North America. And avoid the common pre-seed fundraising mistakes, such as pitching angels before anyone uses the product.
Before you pitch, validate your startup idea with real customers: angels who see dozens of AI pitches a month back founders who can show users, not only a demo.
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FAQ About Angel Investors for AI Startups in North America
Who are the most active angel investors for AI startups in North America in 2027?
Among those you can verify and reach: AI Grant and SV Angel in San Francisco, Archangel in Waterloo, Startup TNT in Alberta and Keiretsu Forum's AI interest group. Researchers such as Jeff Dean and Geoffrey Hinton invest too, but only through introductions.
How much do AI angel investors put into a startup?
Only some publish it. AI Grant invests $250,000 on an uncapped SAFE, SV Angel's Seed Fund typically $200,000, Startup TNT puts $150,000+ into each summit winner, and Keiretsu Forum applicants usually raise $500k to $2M from many members.
Is AI Grant still accepting applications?
AI Grant is active, but applications for Batch 4 were closed when we checked in November 2026. Watch its website for the next batch.
Are there angel investors for AI startups in Canada?
Yes. Archangel's four funds in Waterloo have backed many Canadian AI companies, Startup TNT runs angel syndicates in Calgary and Edmonton, and Keiretsu Forum has chapters in Toronto, Vancouver, Vaughan, Waterloo-Wellington and London. NACO lists Canada's most active angel groups.
Can I pitch famous AI angels like Jeff Dean or Geoffrey Hinton directly?
Not realistically. They publish no pitch route and appear in rounds through their networks, as in Cursor's and Cohere's announcements. Ask founders they have backed for an introduction.
Does SV Angel lead rounds?
No. Its FAQ says it does not lead, is usually a smaller cheque in a round and takes no board seats, so line up a lead investor first.
What is an angel syndicate and why does it matter for AI founders?
A group of angels who invest through one vehicle, so many small cheques show up as one line on your cap table. Startup TNT invests through an LP, and AngelList syndicates work the same way.
Are there angel networks for women-led AI startups?
Golden Seeds invests only in US women-led startups and lists AI companies such as EliseAI in its news. In Canada, NACO runs a Women Who Build programme.
Why are a16z, Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed not on this list?
They are venture capital firms, not angels. You will find them in our guides to VCs for AI startups and deep tech VCs in North America.
Where can I get a backlink by writing about my AI startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
