At NFX we’re making our new $450M Fund instantly actionable for Founders with our six new FAST programs to get pre-seed and seed funding in 9 days. Open October 7–31, 2021.

With most VCs pulling back during COVID-19, capital is drying up for Founders just when they need it most. So we’re leaning in to invest more, and we’ve moved up the launch of our FAST Seed initiative.

Founders can apply for a $1-2M seed round for 15%, and receive a commitment in 9 days or less. We’ve allocated $20M for this initiative to start.

It’s a rolling review process and each company will be evaluated separately. The sooner founders apply, the sooner they receive funding. The first window for NFX to make FAST investments will be between April 14 and May 22.

We’ve been building the foundations of FAST for a long time: the software, legal & financial infrastructure, team, and processes necessary to move at this speed and scale. Tens of thousands of Founders already use software we’ve built — Signal and The Brief — to speed up their fundraising. FAST is the logical next step.

Fundamentally, FAST represents a new SLA to Founders for fundraising:

1. Initial response within 3 business days
2. Decision within 9 days
3. Money in your bank within 3 weeks
4. Simple financial contract
5. Transparent, you know the deal terms and where you are in every step of the process
6. Digital and remote
7. All applicants get feedback, no Founder left ghosted

Founders who receive FAST funding will get the same high level of support NFX gives all its investments. They join as equals in the NFX Guild, our portfolio of 125+ top Founders who support each other.

We are eager to back ambitious Founders like us that see what others do not and are willing to take risks, even in this time of uncertainty.

Founders apply here.

FAST Seed Funding Q&A:

Q: What does FAST stand for?
A: Founder-friendly, Application-driven, Software-enabled, and Transparent.

Q: What are the investment terms?
A:
– $1M or $1.5M or $2M SAFE for 15%
– NFX takes one board seat or board observer seat
– 15% ESOP post-investment
– 4-year Founder vesting
– Single trigger acceleration on M&A

See SAFE here.

Q: How do I increase my odds of getting investment from NFX?
A: The FAST application, which uses software that NFX built called The Company Brief, has many videos and tips for nailing the application including adding recommendations from your advisors.

Learn more about what each NFX Partner is interested in by visiting their Signal profiles: James Currier, Pete Flint, and Gigi Levy-Weiss.

Here’s our current portfolio.

Here are some essays we’ve written on fundraising.

Q: What kinds of companies should apply?
A: NFX invests in a broad range of sectors including B2C, B2B, SMB software, computation biology, enterprise software, proptech, fintech, games, marketplaces, networks, healthcare, etc. See our existing portfolio to get a sense.

We focus on companies located in the US and Israel, and companies whose primary market is the US. We favor companies that can have network effects.

We don’t invest in these sectors: semiconductor, medical devices, pure pharma, pure hardware, and network devices.

Q: How do I apply?
A: Create a private Company Brief which includes a deck, a video, and answers to 12 questions. Then submit the link to NFX here.

Q: Who sees my application?
A: Only NFX. It’s a private application.

Q: Are investments first come, first served?
A: Yes, investments are first come, first served. $20M has been allocated. As soon as you finish your Company Brief and submit it to NFX, we’ll get to work on evaluating the investment. The first window is from April 14 to May 22.

Q: How can NFX invest so quickly?
A: NFX has built a software stack to streamline the due diligence, financial and legal processes that normally take weeks or months. Further, we’ve standardized the terms and documentation of the investment so both the Founders and NFX know what we’re aiming to achieve.

As Founders ourselves, we know how much time and effort Founders spend raising money. We’re committed to improving the fundraising process and have built Signal (2017) and The Company Brief (2018) as free open tools for the Founder community. FAST is something we have been developing for a long time. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we moved up the timeline.

Q: Is this an accelerator?
A: No, not at all. This is a faster, easier way to raise your seed round. NFX is a Pre-Seed and Seed venture fund.

Q: Is this a new financial instrument like a SAFE?
A: No, not at all. This is a higher level of service that Founders should start to expect from VCs. We actually use a type of SAFE to help streamline FAST.

Founders can learn more and apply here.