How to Get Investors For Your App Idea to Reality?

So, you have a multi-dollar app idea in your mind but don't know how you can finance it? Then you have come to the right place. The mobile app is a huge and evergreen market which definitely gives better ROI but if you don't finance it properly, it could be a nightmare for you.

CBI insights research shows that over 38% of startups fail due to lack of funds.

Funding is very important to successfully launch your app into a market. Today, every startup is trying hard to find and secure investors for their app. Hence, it gets tougher to convince the investors why they should invest in your app idea.

If you don't have any idea how to find investors for an app, then read this guide till the end to find app investors for your startup and understand different stages of funding and other useful information.

First of all, let's understand why investors are important for bringing life to any app ideas.

Why Do You Need Investors for Your App Idea?

Good investors are tough to find so you should immediately start looking for investors once you have a good app idea. Read below why you need investors for your app idea.

#1. Biggest Reason- Financial Support

When you have financial support behind your back, you can freely develop, launch, and scale an app without worrying about funds. This helps to focus on app development with complete productivity without any interruption and stress.

#2. Get The Right Mentorship and Guidance

Investors guide you in the right direction because they are already experienced and know how to make the most of their investment. This helps you to work under them and refine the app development accordingly.

#3. Get Access to Investors' Networks

You need a lot of connections and publicity to market your app and make it reach a wider audience. Investors already have a lot of connections, potential customers, strategic partners, and other investors. This can be a plus point and a turning point for you from the beginning phase.

#4. Adds Credibility to Your Business

If a reputable investor believes in your app idea, the other investors, partners, and customers easily trust your app idea. This adds credibility to your business.

#5. Strategic Decision Making

If the investor is investing in your app idea, he/she will take the funding seriously and help you in making necessary improvements according to their market experience.

#6. Early Stage Opportunities

If investors like your strong business idea, they can support your vision after launch. Hence, you can secure early-stage opportunities without giving much equity.

Types of Investors

There are many ways to find mobile app investors, but before that, you must be aware of different types of investors to pick the right one for your app idea.

#1. Angel Investors

Angel investors are available for every industry and are popularly known as seed funders. As the name itself says, “angel” they invest their personal money or assets in your app idea. And the best part is you don't have to pay back the money they have invested. Hence, angel investors are the perfect option for startups who have a great app idea and need a push for a successful launch.

#2. Venture Capitalists (VCs)

Venture capitalists are specialized investment firms that are ready to invest huge sums of money in potential startups in order to get high returns. They are experienced people who have experience in understanding business models, growth strategies, and market potential. Hence, you don't only get money, but you also get a guidance partner to take the app idea in the right direction.

#3. Crowdfunding Platforms

Crowdfunding is the modern way of asking for investments from the public, websites, or collaboration. If you are good at pitching, you can raise a high amount of funds easily by reaching a wider network.

#4. App Contests

Many tech companies, incubators, and investors organize app contests where startups from around the world participate and compete for funding, mentorship, or exposure. If you win such contests, the companies or investors invest in your app idea and support the entire development phase, including market research, strategies, launch, and more.

#5. Family and Friends

“Friends and family are the best investors who already believe in you, no matter what.” Other than this, it is also the easiest option to convince and raise funds for the business. But if you are mixing personal relations with business, make sure to clear risks and other things in the beginning.

#6. Co-founders

Teamwork makes the dream work. Hence, having a co-founder by your side builds a strong team foundation and increases the chances of getting investors. If you have someone in your friends or family with industry expertise and experience, inviting them to become a co-founder can be a good idea.

How to Prepare Before Pitching to Investors?

You need to be 100% prepared with a useful explanation of your app idea before pitching to investors. Because this is not a trial-and-test method. The first impression matters how you introduce your app idea to the investor creates a long-lasting impact. So, make sure to complete the below checklist before you find investors for the app.

#1. Research and Understand Your App Market and Investor Audience

Today, there is an app for almost everything. This leads to tough competition because investors will only invest if your app is unique and has the potential to grow in the future. Know your app market inside and out. Research your competitors and similar apps, and find out how you can make your app unique.

Also, research your investors—what industries do they invest in? What kind of startups have they funded before? This will help you to pitch accordingly.

#2. Attend Networking Events

Attend conferences, startup meets, and investor summits to know about the new and old investors in the market. This is the best way to represent your app idea to a broader investor audience. As business is all about networking, investors are more likely to fund when they know you and have met you before.

#3. Branding

If you are serious about your app idea, start branding it from the first phase. Start making logos, taglines, websites, or messages to send users. This shows the app idea has already started and creates a professional impression to visualize the app idea.

#4. Utilize Social Media

Social media is powerful. Today, everyone is on social media, so make sure you create social media profiles for your app idea to create familiarity. Participate in groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. By using relevant hashtags and posting regularly, you can reach investors who might be interested in app ideas like yours.

#5. Be Ready with An Impactful Pitch

Investors are getting lots of pitches and inquiries on a daily basis. You only get one shot to impress investors—make it count! Always be ready with a pitch whenever you get a chance to explain your app idea anywhere because opportunities are everywhere. Anyone can turn out to be an investor if they like your idea.

#6. Have a Superb Business Plan

Having just a great app idea is not enough- you must have a solid business plan that includes a revenue model, growth strategy, competitive analysis, and financial projections. Your business plan should answer investors' doubts regarding users, ROI, returns, and other things.

#7. Build a Strong Team

Investors are not just funding your app, they are also investing in the people behind this app idea. Hence, it's important to have a solid team. Create a strong team that is technically expert and business-minded. Highlight your team’s strengths, industry experience, and complementary skills to show investors that your idea is 100% profitable and safe to invest in.

What Investors Look for in an App Idea?

Have you ever think what app idea investors look for before funding any app idea? Understanding the logic of how investors think is important to increase the chances of getting funds. Below are the important things that any investor will consider.

#1. Market Potential and Demand

Investors don't just fund your ideas; they also fund future opportunities. As app development is a long project, they look for unique apps, your market presence, impression, potential, and overall demand for the app. It's important that your app is solving the real-life problems of users then only it will grow its user base.

In short, your app idea should be in demand in the current and future also.

#2. Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

There are already so many apps in the market that are already doing a job of solving users' problems. So, what's new in your app? You need to define this to investors. For that, you will need to do detailed research and understand the current user's pain points and problems they are facing.

#3. Scalable Business Model

Investors are always thinking of long-term profit. So they will check if your business is scalable and handle a growing user base and changing trends. For this, you need to choose the scalable technology and tools for building an app that is flexible to adapt to changing trends and growing user bases without affecting performance.

#4. Strong Founding Team

The best idea won't succeed if it doesn't have the right founders and funders behind it. Hence, if you are the founder, investors will look at your technical and professional background to check whether you have technical understanding and knowledge enough to make this app idea profitable.

How To Gain Investor Trust And Make Them Invest In App Ideas?

Apart from the perfect idea and perfect pitching, your idea and presentation should make the investors trust you. The below process will help you to gain trust and raise funds from the investors.

#1. Validate Your App Idea

Your app idea must be promising. Conduct surveys, gather user feedback, and test market demand. Show proof of your research and statistics from reputed sources that people need this and will use your app.

Pro tip: Your idea should focus on solving the problems of a wider audience, not just a small audience.

#2. Find the Relevant Market and Market Size

App development is a huge market. You need to study market size and its relevancy. Analyze the present conditions and demands of a particular industry. Research about your competitor's strengths, weaknesses, market reports, and growth trends. This research should prove that your idea is capable of generating significant revenue.

#3. Hire the Best App Development Company

Investors want assurance that your app will be built professionally with high performance, security, and scalability. This needs hiring the best app development company that can execute your app idea smoothly. When you have a strong tech team with you, it boosts investor’s confidence.

#4. Learn the Investment Basics

You must know the investment basics to avoid unnecessary arguments with investors. This impresses the investors when you understand their funding process easier. You can easily choose the type of funding, capital, and ROI in a better way.

#5. Decide Monetization Model

Investors are only concerned about profit, so explain to them your monetization strategies. Explain your monetization models like subscriptions, in-app purchases, ads, or enterprise licensing and how this will generate revenue after a certain time.

#6. Build a Prototype or MVP

Build a small version of your app to make investors understand the flow, features and working of your app. Giving a practical demo of app is better than explaining ideas just by mouth. This also helps to get useful feedback and refine the idea.

Stages of Fundraising for App

There are mainly four stages of fundraising, and you need to understand different fundraising stages to align with your goals and investors.

#1. Pre-Seed

This is the very first stage of fundraising, where you are just selling your idea to get started with the operations. At the pre-seed stage, you have just shared your idea with the investors. If investors like it, you are supposed to build an MVP or prototype to further validate the concept.

Here, all the funding comes from your personal savings, friends, family, or early angel investors.

#2. Seed

This is the stage where things move forward with research, operations, testing product-market fit, and other things. Funding at the seed stage comes from venture capital, angel investments, and other startup incubators that see potential in your idea.

#3. Series A

If you reach till series A, then you are near to fundraising from investors. This is the first stage of venture capital funding. This stage includes scaling and optimizing the app and using marketing strategies to reach a broad audience.

#4. Series B, C, and Beyond

Next comes series B, C, D, and beyond. At this stage, you expand your app idea to different areas. let's understand in a sequence manner how the funds are used in sequence.

As we discussed above, in series A, you raise the funds.

• With Series B funds, you refine business models and strengthen teams. 
• By Series C, you prepare for massive expansion, acquisitions, or even IPO plans. 
• As the app audience grows and you see profits, you expand to series D, E, etc. bringing more funds for market dominance.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking Investors

Here are the common mistakes that you should avoid or else you can lose investors.

#1. Pitching an Unvalidated Idea

Investors will only agree to fund if your idea is unique and solves market or real-life user problems. So, never pitch without market research, customer feedback, or a prototype.

#2. Failing to Research the Investor’s Portfolio and Interests

Always research the investor's profiles to know what their interests are. Where have they invested earlier, profits earned, and other things? This will prevent you from wasting time and approach investors within your level and needs.

#3. Avoiding the Importance of a Strong Team

The good idea is nothing if it does not have great brains behind it. Because the idea is just a thought, but the execution is a continuous process that needs skilled experts to ensure everything is on the right track.

#4. Neglecting to Prepare for Tough Questions

Investors will obviously ask so many questions that might include tweaks and twists. No one invests their money without reason, so be prepared mentally to answer every tough question with honesty and calmness.

#5. Being Unrealistic about Valuation and Funding Needs

Never give an unrealistic valuation of the app. Investors are already experienced and have worked with many startups, so they already know the valuation of different types of apps. Be realistic—justify your valuation with revenue, growth metrics, and industry benchmarks, and set a fair price.

Conclusion

By reading the above blog, you might know how to get investors for an app. After all the app development project is not a one-time investment, it's a continuous and long-term process that needs every team member at every stage. As technology and market needs evolve, you will need to invest and improve the app to keep generating profit. So, it's important to choose an investor who has the same vision and business goals like you.

Follow the above tips and prepare a great pitch, and definitely you will get the best investors who understand and value the app as you do.

At expert app devs, we have developed high-performing apps for startups that attracted really good investors. If you need help with creating MVP or a basic version of the app to find your dream investors, get a quote, or have a call with our consultant today.

Frequently Asked Questions

#1. Do I need a Fully Developed App to Attract Investors?

No, but you do need more than just an idea. Investors look for validation—an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), user traction, or market demand. If you have a prototype or beta version to show your app’s potential, it's enough to attract funding. Plus, show real-world usage, customer interest, and a scalable business model to make your pitch compelling.

#2. How Much Funding Do I Need to Start an App?

The exact funding can't be decided. but you can expect funding between $10,000 to $500,000 depending on the complexity, platform used, development method, marketing strategies, and more.

#3. What is the Best Funding Stage to Seek Investors?

It depends on your progress. If you have just an idea, start with pre-seed or seed funding. If you are working with MVP, Series A is ideal. If your startup is scaling rapidly, Series B and beyond can fuel expansion. Investors usually prefer startups with proof of concept, early users, and market demand before funding.

#4. What Should My Investor Pitch Deck Include?

Your pitch deck should make investors understand about your business goals, strategies, growth, and other important things in a clear manner. Here are the things you should add to your pitch deck.

• Problem & Solution – What does your software solve?
•  Market Opportunity – How big is the market?
• Product & Features – What makes it unique?
• Business Model – How will it make money?
•  Traction & Growth – Any users or revenue?
• Team – Who’s behind the idea?
• Funding Ask – How much you need, and how you’ll use it?

#5. Why MVP is a Good Idea to Get Investors’ Attention?

MVP is a good idea because it shows how your app will function and work with real-time users. So, instead of just a concept, MVP attracts the investor's attention with confidence.

#6. How Do I Find Investors Who are Interested in App Ideas?

You can find investors everywhere -online and offline both.

• Check on online platforms like AngelList, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn, and more. Here you can also find angel investors and VCs.
• Visit events, startup conferences, startup summits, and other programs.
• Try a Kickstarter campaign to connect with investor communities.

Other than this, participate in JumpStart programs and competitions to represent your business idea to industry professionals.

Pro tip: Try cold outreach, emails, and social media.

#7. What Percentage of Equity Should I Offer Investors?

It depends on your funding round and valuation. In the early stages, 10-20% is fair for seed funding. Series A investors may take 15-30%. You should balance investment needs with long-term ownership. Also, don't give too much equity at the starting stage.

#8. What If I Don't Have a Technical Background?

Not a problem if you don't have a technical background because many successful founders also don't belong to the tech field. But you can do the following things.

✔ Partner With A Technical Co-Founder

✔ Hire An Experienced Development Team

✔ Use No-Code/Low-Code Platforms For An MVP

✔ Outsource To A Trusted App Development Company

Pro tip: learn basic coding skills and acquire relevant knowledge for app development to have smooth communication and understanding of technical terms.

#9. How Can I Protect My App Idea from Being Stolen?

Every business idea is precious, and it needs protection. Do the following things to keep your app idea safe and prevent stealing.

• Always sign NDAs For investors, developers, and partners mentioning terms and conditions.
• Protect your brand name, logo, and content with Trademarks & copyrights.
• Keep records of everything with proof.
• Execute the app idea fast and launch as soon as possible.

When you work with us, you do not have to worry about your idea getting stolen because our team follows strong security measures and data protection methods.

#10. Beyond the Numbers, What's the "It" Factor You Look for in a Promising App?

Investors often look for something unique, compelling, or game-changing that makes an app viral, useful, and loved by users. It should be for real-life users, making their tasks or operations easier.

Other than this, a unique team, versatility, and added value are the factors that shape the success of most startups. Obviously, numbers matter, but storytelling, market insight, and the ability to pivot also make a difference in this journey.