How Do I Find Investors Who Are Actually Active Right Now?
Stop chasing ghost investors. Learn how to identify VCs and angels actively deploying capital in 2025 and build a targeted list of investors ready to write checks.
The biggest time-waster in fundraising isn't rejection, it's chasing investors who aren't even writing checks.
Every founder has experienced it: you spend hours researching an investor, craft the perfect cold email, maybe even get a meeting, only to discover they haven't made a new investment in two years. Traditional databases are filled with these "ghost investors," and they're silently killing your fundraising momentum.
The Ghost Investor Problem
Most investor databases suffer from the same fundamental flaw: they show you who has invested, not who is investing.
Here's why this matters:
VC funds operate in cycles. A typical venture fund deploys about 50% of its capital in the first 2–3 years, then reserves the rest for follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies. A fund that raised capital in 2020? They're likely not doing many new deals in 2025.
Angels go dormant. Individual investors move in and out of active investing based on liquidity events, personal circumstances, and market conditions. An angel who was prolific in 2022 might have completely stopped writing checks.
Databases don't update fast enough. Many platforms rely on automated scraping without verification, resulting in outdated contact information, inactive funds, and inaccurate investment thesis descriptions. You're essentially working from a map that's years out of date.
The result? Founders waste weeks, sometimes months, reaching out to investors who were never going to respond because they're simply not in deployment mode.
What "Active" Actually Means
When identifying truly active investors, look for these signals:
Recent fund activity: Has the VC firm raised a new fund in the last 18–24 months? Fresh capital means they're actively looking for new deals.
Recent investments: Have they made investments in the past 6–12 months? Check their portfolio page, press releases, and deal announcements.
Public engagement: Are partners speaking at events, publishing content, or actively engaging on LinkedIn/X? Active investors stay visible.
Open for business signals: Some investors explicitly state they're "actively deploying" or "open to new deals" on their websites or social profiles.
Traditional Methods vs. Smarter Approaches
The Old Way: Most founders cobble together investor lists from Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and free spreadsheets floating around the internet. Then they spend 15–20 minutes per investor verifying whether each one is still active, relevant to their sector, and investing at their stage.
For a list of 200 investors, that's 50–70 hours of manual research, before you've sent a single email.
The Smarter Way: Live intelligence platforms track investor activity in real-time, filtering out dormant funds and highlighting who's actually writing checks right now. Instead of static snapshots, you get dynamic data that reflects current market activity.
Key Filters for Finding Active Investors
When building your target list, prioritize investors who match these criteria:
Invested in the last 18 months : Proof they're currently deploying capital
Stage alignment : Pre-seed investors won't lead your Series A
Sector focus : Fintech specialists rarely invest in biotech
Check size match : Don't pitch a $50M fund for a $500K angel check
Geographic relevance : Some investors only back founders in specific regions
How SheetVenture Solves This
SheetVenture was built specifically to eliminate the ghost investor problem.
We track over 30,000 investors who have written checks in the last 18 months, not historical data from years ago. Our platform monitors deal activity daily, so you always know who's actively deploying capital.
Our AI-powered scoring ranks investors by capital velocity, sector fit, and recent activity. You can filter by stage, geography, and investment thesis, then export hyper-targeted lists directly to a spreadsheet, no CRM lock-in, no complex workflows.
Instead of spending weeks on manual research, founders download qualified investor lists in minutes and start outreach immediately.
The Bottom Line
Finding active investors isn't about having the biggest list, it's about having the right list. Every email to a dormant investor is time stolen from conversations that could actually close your round.
Stop chasing ghosts. Start targeting investors who are ready to write checks today.
SheetVenture is the AI-powered live intelligence platform helping founders access real-time VC and PE data. We track 30,000+ active investors so you can raise faster.