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Startup funding in the US: the 2026 guide for founders

Editorial

By TrustList Editorial

SBIR and STTR after the 2025 lapse, NSF, NIH and DOE seed funds, SBA programmes, SSBCI, angel groups and accelerators: US startup funding in 2026.

About Startup funding in the US: the 2026 guide for founders

Startup funding in the US: the 2026 guide for founders

Founders in the United States can draw on federal research awards that take no equity, programmes backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA), Treasury money run by the states, and a large private market of angel groups, accelerators and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York and Boston.

This guide covers SBIR and STTR, including the lapse that began on 1 October 2025 and the reauthorisation that followed; the seed funds run by NSF, NIH and DOE; SBA programmes; the State Small Business Credit Initiative; angel networks in Silicon Valley and New York; accelerators; and the main VC hubs.

Every figure comes from the official page of the programme or organisation concerned, listed under Sources. Award limits, deadlines and fund sizes change, so where a figure is likely to move we say it was correct at the time of writing (September 2026). Check the official page before you apply.

TrustList does not give financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Eligibility for federal programmes, and the right company structure for raising money, depend on your circumstances, so take advice from a lawyer or accountant who works with startups.

SBIR and STTR: America's Seed Fund

The 2025 lapse and the 2026 reauthorisation

If you read about SBIR and STTR in late 2025 or early 2026, you may have been told they were closed. For a while, they were.

Legislative authority for both programmes expired on 1 October 2025. The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said that as a result NIH had no active SBIR or STTR solicitations. On 13 April 2026, President Trump signed S. 3971, the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act, which reauthorises SBIR and STTR through 30 September 2031, according to the SBA. Agencies then restarted: NIH, for example, released new SBIR and STTR funding opportunities on 29 May 2026.

Work from each agency's current solicitation. Some agencies changed their processes and award levels during 2026, so guidance written before the lapse may no longer apply.

How the programmes work

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) are coordinated by the SBA and funded through 11 participating federal agencies. Each agency publishes its own topics and solicitations, and the programmes do not fund unsolicited proposals.

The awards are non-dilutive: the government takes no equity and no ownership of your intellectual property. They come in phases. Phase I funds a proof of concept, and typically only Phase I awardees can apply for Phase II. No SBIR or STTR money is awarded in Phase III.

At the time of writing (September 2026), the SBA says that as of April 2026 agencies may issue a Phase I award of up to $323,090 and a Phase II award of up to $2,153,927 without seeking SBA approval. Larger awards need a waiver.

To be eligible, your company must be a for-profit entity located in the US, with fewer than 500 employees, owned and controlled by US citizens or permanent residents. Further restrictions apply where venture capital firms own part of the company. For a Phase I SBIR award, your company must do at least two-thirds of the research itself.

STTR is similar, but your company must formally partner with a research institution. The small business must do at least 40% of the R&D and the institution at least 30%, and the two must agree how intellectual property will be handled. Six agencies take part in STTR.

Seed funds at NSF, NIH and DOE

NSF

America's Seed Fund powered by NSF helps startups develop their ideas and bring them to market. NSF takes no equity, and awardees keep full ownership of their company and intellectual property.

Under the current solicitation, NSF 26-510, Phase I proposals can request up to $305,000 for projects of 6 to 18 months, and Phase II proposals up to $1,250,000. Active Phase II awardees can request supplements of $50,000 to $500,000, and the solicitation also allows Strategic Breakthrough proposals of up to $30,000,000.

You cannot go straight to a full proposal. You first submit a Project Pitch and must receive an official invitation. Each company can submit at most two Project Pitches in a 12-month period, and an invitation is valid for the next two deadlines. At the time of writing (September 2026), the upcoming full proposal deadlines are 4 November 2026, 4 March 2027 and 7 July 2027.

NSF's rules are strict about ownership and location. Your company must have fewer than 500 employees and be located in the US, and at least 50% of its equity must be owned by US citizens or permanent residents. NSF does not fund companies majority-owned by multiple venture capital firms, private equity firms or hedge funds. Your technical lead must be employed by the company for at least 20 hours a week.

All funded work, including work by consultants and contractors, must take place in the US. If you use a development team abroad, plan which work the award will pay for before you apply.

NIH

NIH's SBIR and STTR programmes fund health and biomedical R&D. At the time of writing (September 2026), total Phase I funding normally may not exceed $323,090 and Phase II $2,153,927, though NIH has an SBA waiver to go above those caps for specific topics.

Your business must be a for-profit entity located in the US with 500 or fewer employees, including affiliates, and no single venture capital operating company, hedge fund or private equity firm may own more than 50% of it. Start early: NIH warns that the registrations required before you apply can take six to eight weeks.

DOE

The Department of Energy's SBIR and STTR programmes give non-dilutive funding to for-profit US small businesses that meet SBA eligibility rules. DOE has consolidated their management in its Office of Technology Commercialization and changed how applications work.

You now enter with a single application and progress through a series of Go/No-Go decision points. You pitch first: you cannot submit a full application without an invitation, and each small business can enter up to three pitches. Before completing a full application, you must register with the System for Award Management (SAM) and the SBA Company Registry.

At the time of writing (September 2026), DOE had opened about $147 million of Phase II funding opportunities on 22 July 2026 and announced a $10 million Phase I opportunity for its Genesis Mission, with an anticipated 40 awards. DOE says a broader Phase I opportunity is expected later this autumn.

SBA programmes: SBICs and microloans

Small Business Investment Companies

An SBIC is a privately owned investment company that the SBA licenses and regulates. The SBA does not invest in small businesses directly. It gives qualifying funds a government-guaranteed loan to match the capital they raise privately, and the SBICs invest in small businesses through debt and equity.

The SBA lists more than 300 licensed SBICs. At the time of writing (September 2026), its page gives a typical SBIC loan of $250,000 to $10 million at interest of 9% to 16%, and typical investments of $100,000 to $5 million. Each SBIC has its own profile for industry, geography, company maturity and financing type, so check whether a fund backs companies at your stage.

Your business must be small under SBA size standards, with at least 51% of its employees and assets in the US. For SBIC financing, that means a tangible net worth under $24 million and average net income after federal income taxes under $8 million for the preceding two completed years. Some industries, including farmland, real estate and financing, do not qualify.

Microloans

The SBA Microloan program provides loans of up to $50,000 to help small businesses start up and expand. The average microloan is about $13,000, and the longest repayment term is seven years. At the time of writing (September 2026), the SBA says interest rates generally fall between 8% and 13%.

The SBA funds non-profit, community-based intermediary lenders, which make every credit decision and set the terms. Your business must operate for profit, be located in the US and be small under SBA size standards, and you cannot use a microloan to pay existing debts or buy real estate.

SSBCI and state programmes

The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) is a Treasury programme of nearly $10 billion. It gives money to states, the District of Columbia, territories and Tribal governments, which design their own programmes: equity and venture capital, loan participation, loan guarantees, collateral support and capital access programmes. Treasury expects it to bring in up to $10 of private investment for every $1 of programme funding.

For a startup, the equity programmes are the most relevant. Tennessee's LaunchTN, for example, invests in Tennessee-based startups and venture capital firms. You apply to the programme in your state or territory, not to Treasury, which publishes a list of programmes and contacts.

The money has an end date. Treasury says jurisdictions must submit final disbursement requests by 31 December 2027, that its own programme actions stop on 11 March 2028, and that Congress has provided for all undisbursed SSBCI funding to be rescinded on 30 September 2030. Ask your state programme how much it still has to invest.

Some states run venture programmes of their own. In Massachusetts, at the time of writing (September 2026), MassVentures offers START grants of $100,000 to $500,000 to Massachusetts-based companies that have won an SBIR or STTR Phase II award in the past five years.

Angel networks in Silicon Valley and New York

Angel groups bring individual investors together to screen and hear pitches. They differ in who they back, how much they invest, what they charge and how long their process takes. The examples below come from each group's own website, and the member numbers, cheque sizes and fees are as stated at the time of writing (September 2026). They show the range and are not a recommendation. TrustList's angel network ranking lists more.

The Angel Capital Association (ACA) is an association for angel investors. At the time of writing (September 2026), it says its members include more than 15,000 accredited investors, investing individually or through more than 250 angel groups and platforms. ACA does not fund companies, review business plans or make introductions, but its member directory is a practical way to find groups near you.

Silicon Valley

  • Band of Angels is a group of 150+ angel investors, mostly current and former high-tech executives. The whole group meets monthly to consider three startups chosen from the 50+ it screens each month. It gives an investment size of $300,000 to $750,000, charges presenting companies no fees, and does not invest in entities not registered in the US.
  • Keiretsu Forum was founded in the San Francisco East Bay in 2000 and has chapters around the world, including one in Silicon Valley. It is not a fund: its members provide early-stage capital of $250,000 to $2 million. Founders apply to the nearest chapter and ask that region about its process and fees.

New York

  • New York Angels has more than 135 active members. Investments range from $100,000 to $1.5 million, with a median of around $500,000. It charges no fee to submit, and applications go through Gust.
  • Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York has 300+ angel investors and usually selects five companies for each monthly pitch night. Founders do not need a Harvard connection, and it prefers, but is not limited to, the Greater New York area.
  • Golden Seeds invests in women-led companies domiciled in the US with at least one woman in an operating C-suite role. Its chapters include New York and Silicon Valley. Typical first-round investments are $250,000 to $2 million, and it charges a non-refundable $50 application fee.

Three checks save time. Confirm your company meets the group's rules, since some only invest in US-registered entities. Ask about fees before you apply. And plan around the calendar: several of these groups meet monthly, so a round can take more than one cycle.

Accelerators: Y Combinator, Techstars and others

An accelerator invests a standard amount for a stake and runs a time-limited programme. Compare the terms carefully, including how any SAFE converts, what fees apply and where you must be based.

  • Y Combinator invests $500,000: $125,000 on a post-money SAFE for a fixed 7%, and $375,000 on an uncapped MFN SAFE. It charges no fees. YC is a three-month programme that runs four times a year. It invests in US, Canadian, Cayman and Singapore corporations, and companies incorporated elsewhere must "flip" to a parent company in one of those countries. At the time of writing (September 2026), it is taking applications for its Winter 2027 batch, with an on-time deadline of 2 November at 8pm Pacific time.
  • Techstars invests $220,000: $200,000 on an uncapped MFN Safe and $20,000 on a post-money convertible equity agreement. It receives a minimum of 5%, plus whatever the Safe converts into, and charges no fee. Programmes last three months. At the time of writing (September 2026), its Boston programme's final deadline is 18 November 2026, for a start on 8 March 2027.
  • 500 Global offers companies accepted into its Flagship Accelerator $150,000 for a 6% stake, in a four-month in-person programme in Silicon Valley. Its flagship page did not show a confirmed 2026 cohort when we checked, so ask about dates directly.
  • Berkeley SkyDeck's fund invests $210,000 for 7.25% in companies accepted into its six-month Cohort Program, and SkyDeck charges each cohort startup a $7,500 programme fee.
  • StartX, for founders with a Stanford affiliation, takes no equity and charges no fees.
  • MassChallenge, based in Boston, is a non-profit and takes no equity.
  • HAX, SOSV's hard tech programme, offers up to $550,000 in pre-seed funding on a SAFE, with a six-month residency. SOSV says it needs an ownership position above 10% for its $550,000 average cheque.

If you are outside the US, read the incorporation rules before you apply. A flip, or reincorporating in another country, can have legal and tax consequences at home as well as in the US.

VC hubs: Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York and Boston

TrustList has separate venture capital rankings for the four main US hubs, and each has a different mix of programmes and investors around it.

Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Y Combinator is based in San Francisco, Berkeley SkyDeck in Berkeley, and StartX serves Stanford founders. Band of Angels meets in Silicon Valley, and the Keiretsu Forum Silicon Valley chapter meets in Palo Alto. See the rankings of VC firms in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

New York. New York Angels, HBS Alumni Angels of Greater New York and a Golden Seeds chapter are active in the city, and Techstars runs a New York City accelerator. See the New York City ranking.

Boston. MassChallenge and a Techstars accelerator are based there, and Massachusetts companies with a Phase II award can look at MassVentures' START grants. See the Boston ranking.

However you find a firm, the approach is the same:

  • Match stage and cheque size. Check the stages and sectors on the firm's own website before you contact it.
  • Find out who leads. Followers commit once a lead investor has set the terms.
  • Get an introduction. A founder the firm has backed, an angel who co-invests with it or your accelerator is a better route than a cold email.
  • Be ready for diligence. Have your deck, financial model, cap table and incorporation documents in order.

How to use TrustList's funding rankings

The US startup funding programmes ranking brings together the federal and state programmes in this guide, with facts quoted from official pages. Use it alongside the angel network and VC hub rankings linked above. Federal programmes changed a great deal in 2026, so confirm the details on the agency's own page before you apply.

Be clear about what the investor rankings show. A funder is included because its own website says it invests at that stage, in that sector or from an office in that city. The rankings are built from what funders publish about themselves, not from investment performance or returns, and they cannot tell you whether a funder will back your company. Sponsored placements are labelled. Our trust and methodology page explains how TrustList keeps rankings independent.

Every investor and programme profile on TrustList also has a form to request an introduction. The TrustList team reads each request and passes on only those that fit the funder's stage and focus, with your pitch and contact details. It costs nothing, and a funder is not obliged to reply.

TrustList does not give financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Speak to a qualified adviser about eligibility, company structure and the terms of any investment.

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