NFX Signal Investor API: find investors, check sizes, and VC firms

Python and MCP examples for the NFX Signal Investor API on Apify. It turns Signal by NFX investor lists into structured JSON: venture investors, the VC firms behind them, and the check size each investor actually writes.

Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to NFX. It reads the same public investor lists any visitor can browse.

Text walkthrough

If you have ever searched for how to find investors for a startup, the hard part is not finding names, it is finding the right names with the right cheque size. This API starts from the public Signal NFX investor lists: 349 of them, spanning 103 sectors and four stages from pre-seed to Series B. Run mode: "lists" first and you get the whole catalog with a slug, a stage, a sector, and an investor count for each one. Pick the slugs that match your round, pass them as listSlugs with mode: "investors", and every row comes back with the investor's name, position, firm, profile link, investment locations, and the min, target, and max investment they write. Switch to mode: "firms" and the same list gives you a list of VC firms instead, which is the shape you want for a CRM import. Turn on enrichWithLinkedIn or enrichWithCrunchbase and each unique firm also picks up industry, size, funding, rank, and status. No login, cookie, or token for the source is needed, because these are the public lists.

Related MCP server: Frontrun MCP Server

Quick start (Python + uv)

git clone https://github.com/johnisanerd/Apify-NFX-Signal-Investor-API.git
cd Apify-NFX-Signal-Investor-API
cp .env.example .env      # paste your Apify token
uv sync
uv run nfx-signal-investor-api-example.py

Get a free Apify account and API token: https://apify.com?fpr=9n7kx3

Features

• Investors with check sizes (min, target, max in USD), position, firm, and profile links

• A list of VC firms per sector or geography, deduplicated and ready to import

• The full VC database catalog: 349 lists across 103 sectors and four stages

• Optional LinkedIn and Crunchbase firm enrichment in the same run

• Cursor pagination that walks an entire list, with maxItems to cap a run

• Pay per result, so scraping a small test list stays cheap

Input parameters

Output fields

result_type tells you the row kind: investor, firm, list, or error.

Recipes

Ready-made examples on the Apify Store. Each one runs as-is.

• Find Investors for Your Startup by Stage and Check Size

• List of VC Firms in San Francisco Bay Area

• Pre Seed Investors List With Check Sizes

• Crunchbase Alternative for Investor and VC Firm Data

• VC Database Export by Sector and Stage

Schedule tip: save any of these as a Task, attach a monthly Schedule, and diff each run to catch investors entering your sector.

Install in Claude Cowork Desktop

Cowork is the desktop app's automation mode. To give it the NFX Signal Investor API as a tool, add the Apify MCP server as a connector.

1. Open the Claude desktop app and go to Settings → Connectors (or Settings → Developer → Edit Config).

   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the Apify MCP server, preloaded with only this Actor:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api"]
    }
  }
}

3. Restart the app and complete the OAuth prompt, or add your Apify API token in connector settings.

4. Ask Cowork to run the NFX Signal Investor API.

Download the desktop app and start a free trial: https://claude.ai/referral/uIlpa7nPLg More help: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/claude-desktop

Install in Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api"

To use a token instead of browser OAuth:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"

Verify with claude mcp list, or run /mcp inside a session.

Try Claude Code free: https://claude.ai/referral/uIlpa7nPLg Claude Code MCP docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/mcp

Install in Claude (website)

1. Go to Settings → Connectors → Browse connectors and search for Apify MCP server. Install it.

2. Authenticate with your Apify API token, and enable the tool johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api.

3. In any chat, open + → Connectors and turn on Apify.

4. Or choose Add custom connector and paste https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api.

Open Claude on the web: https://claude.ai

Install in Cursor

Create .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api"
    }
  }
}

Then open Cursor → Settings → MCP and confirm the apify server shows a green dot.

New to Cursor? Get it here: https://cursor.com/referral?code=XQP4VBLI3NNX

Install in ChatGPT

1. Profile icon → Settings > Apps. Enable Developer mode under Advanced settings if you do not see Create app.

2. Create app: name it Apify, MCP Server URL https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api, Authentication OAuth.

3. Click Create and authorize with Apify.

4. In a chat, click + → Developer mode and select Apify.

More help: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp

FAQ

How do I find investors for my startup?

Run mode: "lists" to see the catalog, pick the slugs matching your sector and stage, then run mode: "investors" on them. Sort by targetInvestment and you have a target list ordered by the cheque each investor writes.

Do I need a Signal NFX login?

No. The lists this reads are the public ones on signal.nfx.com, so no account or token is needed for the source.

How do I get a list of VC firms for one city?

Use mode: "firms" with a geographic list slug such as san-francisco-bay-area, new-york-city, or london.

Is this a Crunchbase alternative?

It is a complement. Those platforms are company-centric databases; this is investor-centric and includes check sizes that company databases rarely publish. You can enrich firms with Crunchbase data in the same run.

People also search for

signal nfx, nfx signal investors, how to find investors, list of vc firms, vc database, venture capital data, pre seed investors, early stage investors, scraping investor lists

🪢 Use this from n8n

Available as an n8n community node, n8n-nodes-nfx-signal-investor-api. In n8n: Settings, Community Nodes, install n8n-nodes-nfx-signal-investor-api, then use it in any workflow (it also works as an AI Agent tool).

🌐 About Alpha OSINT

This example repo is part of Alpha OSINT, a toolset of financial and operations data sources and APIs. See the NFX Signal Investor API source page for related tools and use cases.

Related

• Actor on Apify Store: https://apify.com/johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api?fpr=9n7kx3

• Report an issue: https://apify.com/johnvc/nfx-signal-investor-api/issues/open?fpr=9n7kx3

Last Updated: 2026.08.24