# Top 15 Franchise Startup Investors in United States in May 2026 ## IDEA Fund Partners - Type: VC Fund - Location: Durham, North Carolina, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Software, SaaS, Information Technology As one of the oldest and most active early-stage investment firms in the Southeast, our investment philosophy has been honed from years of experience. We fund entrepreneurs who are applying technology and business model innovations to industries in the earliest stages of digital disruption with an emphasis on underserved people, places and stages. ## Alerion Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Charleston, South Carolina, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B - Focus: Software, SaaS, Information Technology Alerion Ventures is an evergreen venture capital firm focused on early stage investments in scalable startups. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, Alerion prefers to partner with entrepreneurs in the Southeast. ## TechOperators - Type: VC Fund - Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C - Focus: Software, SaaS, Security TechOperators is a venture capital firm which focuses on solutions in software, internet, cloud computing, security, and infrastructure. ## Bolt Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: E-Commerce, Sports, Retail Bolt Ventures is a team of entrepreneurs and investment specialists that offers seed and early stage financing solutions to companies focused on e-commerce, mobile, and subscription-based business models. It was founded in 2013 and is based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. ## BIP Capital - Type: VC Fund - Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B - Focus: Software, Health Care, SaaS BIP Ventures connects ambitious founders with bold investors to build innovation and wealth. Get to know us and join the innovation economy. ## Invest Nebraska - Type: VC Fund - Location: Lincoln, Nebraska, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, Health Care, Information Technology Invest Nebraska builds a better future for our state by providing financial and operational assistance to high growth companies, advancing the entrepreneurial economy, and attracting out-of-state capital to Nebraska. ## Highway 12 Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Boise, Idaho, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C - Focus: Software, Information Technology, Enterprise Software They invest in people, not companies. What kind of people? They place on bets on passionate people who are committed to the ideas and principles that drive their businesses. People who don't know the word "quit," who aren't afraid to enter new territory and face unseen challenges. People who seek a different path, a better way,and who are entrepreneurs at heart. ## Chicago Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Information Technology Chicago Ventures leads seed investments in overlooked teams. ## Daniel Rutberg - Type: Angel - Location: Los Angeles, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: FinTech, Finance, Franchise Daniel Rutberg is a CoFounder & COO at MuteSix. ## Grotech Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Vienna, Virginia, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C - Focus: Software, SaaS, Information Technology As one of the longest-established firms in the venture industry, Grotech Ventures has built a reputation for being a collaborative, long-term partner for CEOs and entrepreneurs by aligning their definition of success with that of their partners.They initially invest between $500,000 and $5 million in early stage, high growth technologycompanies, reserving significant capital for subsequent investments to support companies through early and growth stages.They look to partner with entrepreneurs who have fresh ideas, breakthrough innovations and unconventional approaches that will yield explosive growth. They believe that their ability to meaningfully contribute to a business’s development is just as important as the capital they invest. As such, they seek investment opportunities that offer them the chance to leverage the experience, insight and network they have built since their inception in 1984. Their approach is personal and long-term, not institutional. ## Sean Fannan - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Pre-Seed - Focus: FinTech, Finance, Franchise Sean Fannan is co-founder and CTO of Chartboost, a technology platform for mobile developers to find new users and monetize their games. Chartboost works with over 32,000 games, serves over 12 billion game sessions per month and has raised $21M from Sequoia Capital and other investors. Prior to Chartboost, Fannan was one of the early employeesat Tapulous, that was acquired by Walt Disney in 2010 to become Disney Mobile. ## Tribeca Venture Partners - Type: VC Fund - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Series B, Seed - Focus: Software, SaaS, E-Commerce TVP is a venture capital firm that invests in digital media, e-commerce, fintech, education, ad tech, and mobile apps sectors. ## GSA Venture Partners - Type: VC Fund - Location: New York, New York, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A - Focus: Finance, Financial Services, Credit GSA Venture Partners was acquired by Tribeca Venture Partners in October 2011 and all its investments under the portfolio TVP I. GSA Venture Partners was a New York-based early stage venture fund that helps entrepreneurs build innovative companies. ## Joey Katzen - Type: Angel - Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series C - Focus: Software, SaaS, Restaurants Joey Katzen is an entrepreneur and attorney whose expertise has been instrumental in the founding, growth, and exit of multiple Inc-500 companies.He is a volunteer Lead Mentor at Hawaii-based Blue Startups and a Selection Committee member of Honolulu-based Hawaii Angels.A storyteller by trade, he now spends much of his time helpingentrepreneurs distill new or difficult concepts into readily accessible verbal and visual stories that others can’t say no to.Whether for a fundraising deck, a sales pitch, or product and onboarding conceptualization, Joey's process is aided by his varied background in angel investing, law, marketing, product development, engineering, and visual design.While earning his law degree at the University of Virginia, Joey was a member of the founding team of Atlanta-based Vendormate, a healthcare compliance platform later acquired by Cleveland-based Primus Capital and then Louisville-based GHX, Inc. He went on to serve as interim CEO of DC-based Roomtag, a commercial leasing and space-optimization tech suite later acquired by Austin-based Asure Software. Later, he cofounded Atlanta-based KidsLink, a child-management app for parents.His first claims to fame came while attending Georgia Tech in the 2000s when he founded--and promoted with early gonzo marketing--the university-oriented web portal Walksideways.com, visited weekly by a third of the Georgia Tech student body, and developed the Retail Alphabet Game, an early Internet branding puzzle which appeared in the New York Times, National Post, Detroit Free Press, and Christian Science Monitor.Let's build some FOMO. ## XTX Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: London, England, United Kingdom - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B - Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Software XTX Ventures is the venture capital arm of XTX Markets. XTX Markets is a leading, innovation-driven algorithmic trading firm.XTX Ventures focuses on early stage startups (Seed to Series A) applying machine learning and leverages XTX Markets’ deep expertise in ML and financial technology to help grow and enhance those businesses. We are geographyand industry agnostic. # About Shizune Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features: - 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others) - Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data - Updated daily from public funding news - CSV and Excel export The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co