Pre-seed financing represents one of the earliest institutional stages in a company's development. Businesses at this point can range from teams refining an initial product to companies that already have customers, users, or revenue but have not yet progressed into larger institutional rounds.
That variation is visible across the 2025 companies below. Some entered their pre-seed rounds with measurable revenue or thousands of users. Others had secured early enterprise customers, industry deployments, or demand signals before raising their first institutional capital.
For GTM teams, a recent funding signal can identify companies entering periods of hiring, product development, geographic expansion, or commercial investment. Funding becomes more useful when combined with additional company and operational information.
Key Takeaways
- Early traction can appear before seed funding, with several companies reporting customers, users, revenue growth, or meaningful transaction volume before or around their pre-seed rounds
- AI applications extend across industries, including sales calls, software creation, marketing, legal services, construction, nuclear energy, finance, and creative production
- Vertical specialization appears repeatedly, with CaseBlink, Freeda, Everstar, and Lunos developing AI systems around specific professional workflows
- Pre-seed rounds varied substantially in size, from approximately $1 million to $5 million among the companies included here
- Funding works best as one signal among several, alongside customer adoption, hiring, technology, product usage, leadership, and company-growth information
How the companies were selected
Each company on this list announced a verifiable pre-seed round during 2025.
The ranking considers publicly available indicators including:
- Revenue or transaction growth, when disclosed
- Customer and user adoption
- Product usage and operational volume
- Funding size and investor participation
- Evidence of continued growth after the round
Private companies disclose different types of operating information, so the ranking uses multiple publicly available indicators rather than a single standardized growth metric.
A funding event can also be combined with company targeting criteria such as industry, geography, employee count, technology usage, and hiring activity when building account lists.
1) Telli
CEO: Finn zur Mühlen
Pre-Seed: $3.6 million, April 2025
Industry: Voice AI
What Telli builds
Telli develops AI voice agents for consumer-facing businesses.
Its agents can handle outbound and inbound calls, prequalify prospects, schedule appointments, make product recommendations, and transfer more complex interactions to human employees.
The company was founded by Finn zur Mühlen, Philipp Baumanns, and Seb Hapte-Selassie.
Latest growth evidence
Around its $3.6 million pre-seed, Telli reported more than 50% month-over-month revenue growth.
The six-person company had also processed close to one million phone calls and was serving customers across Germany, the United Kingdom, Latin America, and the United States.
Recent funding
Cherry Ventures and Y Combinator led the April 2025 financing.
Why it matters
Voice AI is moving from basic call routing toward systems that participate directly in sales and customer workflows.
Telli's revenue growth and call volume provide measurable operating evidence at an unusually early financing stage.
2) Altan
CEO and Co-Founder: Albert Salgueda
Pre-Seed: $2.5 million, September 2025
Industry: AI software development
What Altan builds
Altan develops an agent-native platform that uses coordinated AI agents to design, build, and operate software.
Users can describe an application through text or voice, after which specialized agents perform functions associated with product design, software engineering, databases, and application operations.
Latest growth evidence
At the time of its $2.5 million pre-seed, Altan had attracted approximately 25,000 users.
The Barcelona company was operating with a team of roughly seven people while supporting both individual users and businesses.
Recent funding
VentureFriends and JME Ventures co-led the round, with 4Founders Ventures and several technology executives and angel investors participating.
Why it matters
AI-assisted software development is expanding beyond code generation toward systems that can participate in design, implementation, deployment, and operation.
Altan represents this move toward coordinated software-development agents.
3) Expedier
CEO and Founder: Kingsley Madu
Pre-Seed: $1 million, 2025
Industry: Financial technology
What Expedier builds
Expedier provides digital financial services focused on immigrants, diaspora communities, and other groups navigating cross-border financial systems.
Its services include digital wallets, international transfers, cards, bill payments, credit-related tools, and other financial functions.
Latest growth evidence
By its 2025 financing, Expedier had reached more than 20,000 users and processed more than $30 million in transactions over the preceding 24 months.
Founder Institute later highlighted the same operating milestones alongside the company's $1 million pre-seed.
Recent funding
The company closed its pre-seed financing in 2025 after several years of bootstrapped development.
Why it matters
Expedier demonstrates that pre-seed companies can enter institutional financing with meaningful transaction volume already moving through their products.
Its focus also illustrates how fintech companies can build around the requirements of a specific customer segment rather than offering a general-purpose banking interface.
4) Pletor
CEO and Co-Founder: Ferdinand Terme
Pre-Seed: Approximately $2.3 million, June 2025
Industry: AI creative infrastructure
What Pletor builds
Pletor provides infrastructure for creating AI-powered marketing and design workflows.
Teams can combine AI models, brand information, creative references, and reusable agents to produce assets such as advertisements, product imagery, videos, and campaign variations.
Latest growth evidence
Pletor's current platform reports use by more than 1,000 creative teams.
The company has also expanded from individual AI design agents into broader production infrastructure used by agencies and marketing teams.
Its $2.3 million pre-seed was completed in June 2025.
Recent funding
Atlantic Labs and Kima Ventures were among the investors in the round, alongside several individual operators and angel investors.
Why it matters
Marketing teams increasingly need to manage multiple generative models, brand rules, workflows, and production formats.
Pletor is addressing this infrastructure layer rather than focusing on a single image or video-generation model.
5) CaseBlink
CEO and Founder: Khalil Zlaoui
Pre-Seed: $2 million, March 2025
Industry: Legal technology
What CaseBlink builds
CaseBlink develops AI software for immigration-law practices.
The platform can organize evidence, draft documents, prepare immigration forms, assemble filing packets, and support other case-preparation workflows.
Latest growth evidence
CaseBlink now reports more than 1,000 users, adoption by more than 100 law firms, and thousands of AI-supported immigration cases prepared through the platform.
The company's $2 million pre-seed was announced in March 2025.
Recent funding
Tower Research Ventures led the financing, with participation from immigration-law firms and other investors.
Why it matters
Immigration work combines document collection, evidence review, drafting, forms, and case-specific legal requirements.
CaseBlink illustrates how vertical AI companies are building around an entire professional workflow rather than adding a general-purpose assistant to existing software.
6) Superscale AI
Founders: Patrick Haede, Magnus Langanke, and Sebastian Hader
Pre-Seed: $5 million, June 2025
Industry: Marketing technology
What Superscale builds
Superscale develops AI-based marketing software for creating and launching advertising campaigns.
The platform analyzes product and website information before generating campaign strategy, messaging, audience concepts, and advertising assets.
Latest growth evidence
More than 1,000 companies joined Superscale's waitlist following a single social-media announcement before the round.
The company also reported early usage from startup marketing teams and established brands.
Its $5 million pre-seed was one of the larger rounds represented on this list.
Recent funding
Creandum led the financing, with participation from Interface Capital, s16vc, and technology-industry angel investors.
Why it matters
Generative AI has reduced the time required to create marketing assets, but campaign execution still requires audience, messaging, creative, testing, and iteration.
Superscale is developing an agent-based system intended to coordinate more of that process.
7) Freeda
CEO and Co-Founder: Peter Starr
Pre-Seed: Approximately $3.9 million, November 2025
Industry: Construction technology
What Freeda builds
Freeda develops AI-supported plan-review technology for construction and real-estate projects.
Its system analyzes architectural plans for compliance gaps, brand deviations, document inconsistencies, and other issues that can create delays once construction begins.
Latest growth evidence
Freeda reports that its system can perform plan-intelligence workflows in approximately 48 hours compared with more than 100 hours of manual review in some projects.
The company was already working with industry customers around the time of its financing and was selected for STATION F's Future 40.
Its 2025 financing totaled €3.4 million, approximately $3.9 million at the time.
Recent funding
Frst and Brick & Mortar Ventures led the round.
Why it matters
Construction errors identified after work begins can create material delays and additional costs.
Freeda applies AI to a document-intensive quality-control process where errors can directly affect project schedules.
8) Series
Co-Founders: Nathaneo Johnson and Sean Hargrow
Pre-Seed: $3.1 million, April 2025
Industry: AI networking
What Series builds
Series is developing an AI-mediated social and professional networking platform.
Users communicate with an AI agent that identifies relevant people and facilitates introductions based on stated goals and potential mutual value.
Latest growth evidence
The company's financing came together within roughly two weeks after a launch video generated investor interest.
Series initially focused on student entrepreneurs before expanding its intended audience to additional professional communities.
Its $3.1 million pre-seed was completed while both founders were Yale students.
Recent funding
Parable led the round, with participation from Pear VC, DGB.VC, 47th Street, Radicle Impact, Uncommon Projects, and several individual investors.
Why it matters
Professional networking platforms traditionally rely on users searching large networks themselves.
Series is testing an alternative model in which AI actively identifies and facilitates potentially useful connections.
9) Everstar
CEO and Founder: Kevin Kong
Pre-Seed: $4 million, February 2025
Industry: Nuclear technology
What Everstar builds
Everstar develops AI software for nuclear regulatory and compliance workflows.
Its Gordian platform organizes technical and regulatory information to support document-heavy processes involved in nuclear projects and operations.
Latest growth evidence
By September 2025, Everstar said Gordian Research was already being used by customers across operating reactors, new-reactor development, and radioactive-materials organizations.
The company has continued expanding the platform since its $4 million pre-seed.
Recent funding
Third Prime led the financing, with participation from Pelican Energy Partners, EXCEL Services, Virta Ventures, Generational Partners, Page One Ventures, and individual investors.
Why it matters
Nuclear deployment involves substantial regulatory documentation, technical review, licensing, and compliance activity.
Everstar is applying AI to these specialized processes rather than focusing on general enterprise knowledge work.
10) Lunos AI
CEO and Founder: Duncan Barrigan
Pre-Seed: $5 million, September 2025
Industry: Financial operations
What Lunos AI builds
Lunos develops AI agents for accounts-receivable workflows.
The system can manage collections activity, customer communications, invoice follow-up, payment commitments, portal uploads, and related finance operations.
Latest growth evidence
Lunos has since documented customer adoption across finance teams using different levels of automated action.
Current customer examples include organizations using the system to automate follow-up, manage collections, and reduce manual accounts-receivable work.
The company launched publicly alongside its $5 million pre-seed.
Recent funding
General Catalyst and Cherry Ventures led the September 2025 financing.
Why it matters
Accounts receivable combines repetitive communication with exceptions, disputes, payment commitments, and customer-specific context.
Lunos is applying AI agents to the operational work surrounding those interactions rather than limiting automation to scheduled payment reminders.
What these 2025 pre-seed companies show
The companies on this list demonstrate how much operational traction can now appear before a conventional seed round.
Telli already had measurable monthly revenue growth and substantial call volume. Altan had tens of thousands of users. Expedier had processed tens of millions of dollars in transactions. CaseBlink had begun expanding through immigration-law firms.
Other companies demonstrate different early-growth indicators. Pletor and Superscale showed demand for AI-based marketing infrastructure, while Freeda and Everstar began deploying specialized AI in industries with complex professional workflows.
This variation is why funding alone is insufficient for measuring growth. User adoption, transactions, customer deployments, revenue, hiring, product usage, and data enrichment can provide additional context around a recently funded company.
How Landbase supports early-stage company research
Landbase can combine funding events with company, contact, enrichment, qualification, and signal information.
Its web and CLI interfaces use the same underlying account, data, agent, and datasets. An audience created through the web interface can therefore be used in a later CLI workflow, while datasets created programmatically remain accessible visually.
For more specific searches, the Advanced Dataset Creator supports natural-language requirements involving filters, calculations, ratios, aggregations, and custom fields.
A funding-based audience could therefore combine criteria such as:
- Companies that raised pre-seed financing during a selected period
- Industry and geographic requirements
- Employee or hiring growth
- Leadership changes
- Technology usage
- Additional business or buying signals
Current Landbase data infrastructure covers more than 40 million companies and more than 800 million contacts across more than 1,500 fields. Contact enrichment draws on more than 20 providers with verification processes for available work email and phone information.
The Landbase CLI setup also supports workflows from standard terminals and AI-assisted environments including Claude Code and Codex.
This allows early-stage funding research to become part of a reusable dataset rather than remaining a manually maintained list of funding announcements.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a pre-seed funding round?
Pre-seed financing is an early startup funding stage that typically precedes a larger seed round. Companies may use the capital to build or refine products, hire an initial team, test demand, acquire early customers, and develop the operating foundation required for subsequent financing.
Does pre-seed funding mean a company has no customers or revenue?
No. Companies can reach pre-seed financing at very different levels of development. Telli reported revenue growth and substantial call volume, Altan had thousands of users, and Expedier had already processed meaningful transaction volume. Funding-stage labels describe financing history rather than a fixed level of commercial maturity.
How are fast-growing pre-seed companies identified?
Growth can be evaluated using disclosed revenue, user counts, transaction volume, customer adoption, deployments, hiring, product usage, and subsequent financing. Because early-stage companies publish different metrics, several indicators may need to be considered together.
Why should GTM teams monitor pre-seed companies?
Recently funded companies may begin hiring, purchasing technology, expanding products, or developing new commercial processes after raising capital. Funding becomes more informative when combined with industry, employee, leadership, technology, and other company signals.
How can Landbase help identify recently funded companies?
Landbase can combine funding criteria with company attributes, signals, enrichment, and qualification requirements. Teams can create reusable datasets through the web application or CLI, enrich company and contact records, and use the resulting structured information across research, CRM, and other GTM workflows.
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