MARKET NOTES / 001UNITED STATES / SAN FRANCISCO / CHATBOTS
LESS GUESSWORK. A BETTER RESEARCH LIST.

Chatbots.
San Francisco.

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Companies are based in San Francisco · investors can be based anywhere
Dataset through 22 May 2026 · calculated 14 Sep 2026
01 / THE SHORTLIST LAB

Make the list work for your company.

63 backers based in San Francisco are shown by default. Compare up to three.

63 of 276 selected backers · San Francisco only

Shows investors whose recorded city is San Francisco. Unknown cities are excluded. Market charts cover all investor locations.

Theme filtering selects backers of companies carrying that theme tag. Entry-stage filtering selects backers with an entry at that stage; the two matches may be different companies. Row metrics describe their entire dated Chatbots history in San Francisco.

Selected investors ranked by distinct companies backed, with first-entry financing and recent activity.
CompareInvestor / recorded locationCompanies
here
New in
24 months
Median total
entry round
Companies
backed again
Latest
investment
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THE INVESTOR, IN CONTEXT
LINKEDIN ACCESS

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02 / THE MARKET READ

Activity is a better starting point
than a long list of names.

Latest 24 months: after 22 May 2024 through 22 May 2026.

RECENT PARTICIPATION
247

Backers in a recent round

238 added at least one new company in this market. The remainder participated only in companies they had already backed here.

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MARKET PACE
115

Distinct equity rounds

Across 86 companies, versus 62 rounds in the preceding 24 months. Each company round is counted once.

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EARLY FINANCING
65.2%

Rounds at Angel, Pre-Seed or Seed

75 of 115 recent rounds. Compare your stage with its own financing range before sizing the ask.

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NEW RELATIONSHIPS
83%

Participations were first entries

306 first investor–company relationships out of 370 participations. The other 64 were later rounds together.

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Build a syndicate beyond the city.

Of 247 recently active backers, 53 have a recorded San Francisco location and 138 are based elsewhere. Location is missing for 56. Search by market experience first, then investigate the people and their remit.

Match the whole round to your plan.

Recent Seed rounds have a median size of $500K, across 66 disclosed amounts. That is total company financing. An individual investor’s cheque or available capital is not disclosed here.

03 / EMERGING THEMES

Which themes are gaining share?

Follow financing activity across the company classifications represented in this market.

Latest four complete quarters: 01 Apr 2025–31 Mar 2026 · 53 market rounds, versus 60 in the preceding four quarters.

BROADLY STEADY

Enterprise Software

-1.4 pp

39 of 53 recent rounds (73.6%), versus 45 of 60 (75.0%).

GAINING SHARE

Saas

+19.8 pp

37 of 53 recent rounds (69.8%), versus 30 of 60 (50.0%).

LOSING SHARE

Customer Service Software

-9.8 pp

16 of 53 recent rounds (30.2%), versus 24 of 60 (40.0%).

LATEST DETECTED SPIKE

Artificial Intelligence

81.8%

9 of 11 rounds in Q2 2025, compared with 46.7% over the prior four quarters.

SPIKE DETECTION

Look beyond the headline total.

Share of market roundsPrior four-quarter shareDetected spike

Scroll sideways to explore all quarters.

Customer Service Chatbots: quarterly share of recorded equity roundsSolid line: share of market rounds. Dashed line: share over the previous four complete quarters. Rings mark rule-based spikes. Shading marks a partial quarter, excluded from detection. 0%12.5%25%37.5%50% Partial 2020Q1 2020: 0 / 4 rounds, 0%Q2 2020: 1 / 2 rounds, 50%Q3 2020: 0 / 3 rounds, 0%Q4 2020: 1 / 3 rounds, 33.33%2021Q1 2021: 0 / 4 rounds, 0%Q2 2021: 4 / 8 rounds, 50%Q3 2021: 1 / 5 rounds, 20%Q4 2021: 2 / 6 rounds, 33.33%2022Q1 2022: 1 / 3 rounds, 33.33%Q2 2022: 1 / 5 rounds, 20%Q3 2022: 1 / 3 rounds, 33.33%Q4 2022: 0 / 2 rounds, 0%2023Q1 2023: 4 / 10 rounds, 40%Q2 2023: 2 / 5 rounds, 40%Q3 2023: 2 / 7 rounds, 28.57%Q4 2023: 3 / 7 rounds, 42.86%2024Q1 2024: 5 / 24 rounds, 20.83%Q2 2024: 3 / 7 rounds, 42.86%Q3 2024: 2 / 10 rounds, 20%Q4 2024: 8 / 20 rounds, 40%2025Q1 2025: 4 / 23 rounds, 17.39%Q2 2025: 2 / 11 rounds, 18.18%Q3 2025: 2 / 15 rounds, 13.33%Q4 2025: 4 / 16 rounds, 25%2026Q1 2026: 4 / 11 rounds, 36.36%Q2 2026: 1 / 5 rounds, 20%

Q1 2026 · 4 of 11 market rounds · 4 companies · 36.4% share. A detected spike, 1.97× the prior four-quarter share.

Select a dot to inspect the exact count and baseline. The partial quarter through 22 May 2026 is shown but cannot trigger a spike.

The theme shift, year by year.

Share of all recorded Chatbots rounds in San Francisco. Each cell also gives its theme-round count.

Theme shares and round counts by calendar year. 2026 is partial through 22 May 2026.
Investment theme2020202120222023202420252026*
83.3%10 / 1282.6%19 / 2392.3%12 / 1389.7%26 / 2982.0%50 / 6173.9%48 / 6568.8%11 / 16
66.7%8 / 1269.6%16 / 2353.9%7 / 1365.5%19 / 2957.4%35 / 6155.4%36 / 6568.8%11 / 16
33.3%4 / 1252.2%12 / 2369.2%9 / 1355.2%16 / 2944.3%27 / 6129.2%19 / 6531.3%5 / 16
58.3%7 / 1256.5%13 / 2353.9%7 / 1369.0%20 / 2947.5%29 / 6140.0%26 / 6537.5%6 / 16
16.7%2 / 1230.4%7 / 2323.1%3 / 1337.9%11 / 2929.5%18 / 6118.5%12 / 6531.3%5 / 16
33.3%4 / 1239.1%9 / 2323.1%3 / 1351.7%15 / 2927.9%17 / 6115.4%10 / 6518.8%3 / 16
41.7%5 / 1234.8%8 / 2323.1%3 / 1351.7%15 / 2927.9%17 / 6124.6%16 / 6525.0%4 / 16
0.0%0 / 120.0%0 / 237.7%1 / 136.9%2 / 2914.8%9 / 6120.0%13 / 6518.8%3 / 16

*2026 is partial. Company themes use the tags available in this dataset, applied to historical rounds; they do not date when a business adopted a technology. Themes overlap, so shares do not add to 100%. Each company round is counted once within a theme. These charts cover investors from all locations; the shortlist keeps its own location filter.

How a spike is detected

A complete quarter is flagged when its theme share is at least 1.75× the share across the preceding four quarters and at least 5 percentage points higher. It must contain at least 3 theme rounds across 3 companies, at least 10 market rounds, and at least 3 theme rounds in the baseline. All four baseline quarters must have market observations. A zero baseline, missing observations or partial quarter cannot produce a flag.

This is a transparent screening rule, not a statistical significance test or a forecast. A higher share can accompany fewer rounds when the wider market contracts; the counts beside the chart make that distinction visible.

04 / THE DEPTH MAP

One appearance, or a pattern?

532 of 617 backers with dated histories appear in just one company. Select a cell to explore the directory.

Backers by type and number of distinct Chatbots companies backed in San Francisco, all dated history.
Portfolio breadth here1 company2 companies3–56–1011+
Firms & institutions
Individual angels

Circle area increases with backer count. The shortlist includes backers with 2 or more companies in this market, plus other backers active in the latest 24 months. In the 1-company cell, only recently active backers are available to explore. The shortlist’s investor-location filter also applies; select all locations to broaden the results. 8 backers have only undated entries.

05 / ROUND DESIGN

Different stages. Different capital.

Recent equity rounds · 24-month window.
Amounts are in USD.

StageDistinct roundsMedian / middle half
Angel
1
$15K$15K–$15K1 disclosed · small sample
Seed
74
$500K$500K–$4.0M66 disclosed
Series A
21
$24M$17M–$30M20 disclosed
Series B
12
$72M$58M–$168M12 disclosed
Series C
3
$91M$70M–$111M2 disclosed · small sample
Series D
3
$175M$100M–$213M3 disclosed · small sample
Series E+
1
$950M$950M–$950M1 disclosed · small sample
06 / FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE

The most recent recorded rounds.

Distinct company rounds.
Named backers are shown lead-first.

Seed

No-code platform designed for building AI tools

$2.2M total equity round
2 named backers

FundersClub · Y Combinator

Seed

Developer of AI-powered platform automating customer support and help desk tasks

$8.5M total equity round
3 named backers

Redpoint Ventures · Defy · SV Angel

Series E+

A conversational AI platform that helps businesses to build customer experiences

$950M total equity round
5 named backers

Google Ventures · Tiger Global Management · Benchmark · Greenoaks · Sequoia Capital

Seed

AI-powered platform for creating and customizing social agents

$8.0M total equity round
3 named backers

Lightspeed Venture Partners · AI Grant · AIC

Series A

Developer of an AI platform for automating audit and compliance testing

$20M total equity round
4 named backers

Andreessen Horowitz · Cowboy Ventures · Elad Gil · First Round Capital

Series B

Voice AI platform for developers

$50M total equity round
4 named backers

Peak XV Partners · Bessemer Venture Partners · Kleiner Perkins · M12

07 / READING THE ATLAS

What these patterns can tell you.

The market boundary

Recorded equity rounds for companies tagged Chatbots and located in San Francisco. Investor headquarters may be elsewhere. Company sector and location reflect the available company records, not necessarily the location or sector at the investment date.

The time boundary

Data coverage ends 22 May 2026. The latest market round is 19 May 2026. There are 11 undated participations, excluded from timing metrics. Activity after the cutoff is unknown.

The relationship boundary

“New” is the first dated relationship between a backer and a company in this market. “Backed again” requires a later dated round together. A first observed entry may follow an earlier unrecorded investment.

The financing boundary

Amounts describe entire equity rounds, not personal cheques, fund capacity or returns. Medians exclude missing and non-positive amounts; the middle half spans the 25th–75th percentiles. A recorded investment does not establish current availability.

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Calculated 14 Sep 2026 · 276 investor histories to explore