When we at AI Perks compared StartEngine with Round Funded, we chose Round Funded to raise our round. We valued its investor database, AI-written emails, teammate workspace, Data Room, and tracking links.
What should founders compare between StartEngine and Round Funded?
The right fundraising workflow depends on the tasks a founder needs to handle. Before choosing a platform, it helps to consider how you will find investors, organize prospects, send pitches, collaborate with teammates, and share fundraising materials.
We looked at StartEngine and chose Round Funded. We will not make assumptions about StartEngine’s product features, plans, or pricing. Instead, we can explain what mattered in our own decision and outline details about Round Funded.
Round Funded helps founders find investors, send pitches, and track replies. Its investor database covers 60,000+ active VCs, angels, family offices, and accelerators, with search filters for stage, industry, geography, and check size. For us at AI Perks, having investor discovery and outreach work together in a founder-focused workflow was important. Founders can get matched with active investors.
A comparison should distinguish between two things: a product’s verified capabilities and a team’s reasons for choosing it. Our experience is that we raised our round through Round Funded. We have not used StartEngine ourselves, so this article does not compare its features or costs.
Why did we at AI Perks choose Round Funded?
We wanted a clean investor database and a way to write outreach emails without treating investor research, email drafting, and fundraising organization as separate tasks. Round Funded’s AI drafts a personalized email and follow-ups for each investor. The outreach is sent from the founder’s own Gmail, so replies arrive in that inbox and the email thread belongs to the founder.
We also valued a convenient interface and the ability to invite teammates into the startup’s workspace. A fundraising pipeline keeps each investor, stage, and next step together. That gave us a shared place to organize the work rather than relying on a collection of disconnected steps.
Sharing fundraising materials mattered too. The Data Room lets a founder put a deck, traction, team, and ask behind one link. It is free to build and share on every plan. Round+ adds per-investor tracked links and engagement analytics, including views, deck opens, and meeting clicks.
These features informed our choice, but they do not guarantee investor interest, replies, meetings, or a successful raise. They are tools for managing the process. We chose Round Funded because that combination suited the way we wanted to handle fundraising at AI Perks.
What does Round Funded include for investor outreach?
Round Funded’s investor search covers 60,000+ active VCs, angels, family offices, and accelerators. Founders can narrow searches using stage, industry, geography, and check size. Investors are filtered to recent activity, defined as a check in roughly the last 6 months, and email addresses are verified.
The product also combines search with outreach and pipeline organization:
- Investor discovery: Search the database using the available filters.
- Email drafting: Use AI-generated personalized outreach emails and follow-ups.
- Founder-owned conversations: Send from the founder’s own Gmail, with replies landing in that inbox.
- Pipeline management: Keep investors, fundraising stages, and next steps in one place.
- Team collaboration: Invite teammates into the startup’s workspace.
The Data Room can be built and shared on every plan. Per-investor tracked links and engagement analytics are included with Round+. This distinction is useful when comparing plans: the shared Data Room is available across plans, while tracking and analytics are plan-specific.
Round Funded’s site and product work in 12 languages. These details cover Round Funded only and say nothing about what StartEngine includes.
How much does Round Funded cost?
Round Funded offers three plans. Round+ costs $99 a month, Round Pro costs $249 a month, and Lifetime costs $899 one-time. Round+ and Round Pro include a 3-day free trial for first-time accounts. There is no free tier.
| Plan | Price | Included capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Round+ | $99 a month | Up to 2,500 investors in the CRM pipeline, email up to 2,000 investors a month, and 2,500 AI credits a month |
| Round Pro | $249 a month | Up to 5,000 investors in the pipeline, email up to 10,000 investors a month, up to 6 connected inboxes, and 5,000 AI credits a month |
| Lifetime | $899 one-time | Everything in Round Pro, paid once |
These are Round Funded prices, not a price comparison with StartEngine. This article does not cover StartEngine's plan names or costs. Founders comparing options should confirm each company’s current pricing before deciding.
For founders evaluating this workflow, submit your startup on Round Funded to get matched with investors.
How Round Funded helps founders manage outreach
- Submit your startup to get matched with investors.
- Search the investor database by stage, industry, geography, and check size.
- Organize investors, fundraising stages, and next steps in the pipeline.
- Use AI to draft personalized emails and follow-ups, then send outreach from the founder’s own Gmail.
- Invite teammates into the workspace and build and share a Data Room link with your deck, traction, team, and ask.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is StartEngine?
We have not used StartEngine, so this article does not describe its product, features, or pricing. We looked at it while comparing options, and we chose Round Funded.
Why did AI Perks choose Round Funded?
We raised our round through Round Funded. We chose it for its clean investor database, AI that writes emails, convenient interface, teammate workspace, Data Room, and tracking links.
How does Round Funded help founders find investors?
Round Funded covers 60,000+ active VCs, angels, family offices, and accelerators. Founders can search by stage, industry, geography, and check size. Investors are filtered to recent activity, with a check in roughly the last 6 months, and emails are verified.
Does Round Funded have a free plan?
There is no free tier. Round+ and Round Pro have a 3-day free trial for first-time accounts. The Data Room is free to build and share on every plan, but that does not mean the overall product has a free tier.
What is included in the Round Funded Data Room?
The Data Room puts a deck, traction, team, and ask on one link. It is free to build and share on every plan. Round+ includes per-investor tracked links and engagement analytics, such as views, deck opens, and meeting clicks.