No source ranks developer-tools angels, so this list is in no particular order. These seven investors either publish their focus and portfolio on their own sites or appear in a named dataset: Kenneth Auchenberg, Nat Friedman, David Mytton, Moritz Plassnig, Guillermo Rauch, Max Stoiber and swyx. Facts and check sizes are credited to the page that states them.
How was this list built?
Each profile rests on what the investor publishes, plus two outside sources. The first is Lenny's Newsletter, which worked with Crunchbase in December 2024 to rank the most active US angels and warns that its numbers are directional because many deals are never announced. The second is NFX Signal, which publishes investor profiles with check ranges and sweet spots.
There is also a community list. swyx started a GitHub list of active devtools angels, devtools-angels, whose README gives each person's links, a short bio and, for many entries, a check range the person reported, with the note "no particular order". Its owner archived it on August 3, 2026, so it is now read-only, and the names and ranges in it are self-reported and may have changed.
Who are the angels that back developer tools?
Kenneth Auchenberg
He leads developers.vc, which describes itself as a small fund that backs founders of developer-focused companies. It is no longer making new investments, so use it as a source of portfolio names rather than a door to knock on. Its portfolio includes Linear, StackBlitz, Resend, Browserbase and Turbopuffer, and the site describes him as a former product leader at Stripe and Microsoft.
Nat Friedman
Lenny's puts the former GitHub CEO seventh among the most active angels of 2024 and credits him with a portfolio of 100-plus companies, co-investing with Daniel Gross through NFDG. It describes his focus as mostly AI; the developer-tools connection is his time running GitHub.
David Mytton
Mytton is CEO of Arcjet and co-founded the Console developer-tools newsletter in 2021, according to Console's about page. His investments page says he backs early-stage startups where developers are the primary users, across cloud, devtools, APIs, devops, security and open source. He invests globally, mostly in the US, and typically writes checks of $10,000 to $25,000. The page lists more than 30 devtools companies, including Railway, Resend and Liveblocks, and marks which ones were acquired or shut down.
Moritz Plassnig
His angel investments page says he invests in data, dev and security companies at the first or second round, using a mix of his own money and a scout fund. He also backs small solo-GP micro funds. The page lists 18 investments, among them Hightouch, Liveblocks and Stellate. The devtools-angels list describes him as the founder of Codeship, which he sold.
Guillermo Rauch
Rauch is CEO and co-founder of Vercel, and Lenny's ranks him tenth among 2024's most active angels. His NFX Signal profile lists him as an angel investing from pre-seed to Series A, with checks of $5,000 to $50,000 and a $25,000 sweet spot. Signal's own investment counts for him differ between sections of the profile, so treat any number there with care.
Max Stoiber
His investing page says he and a co-investor back people early, and that he favors products he would use himself, especially developer tools. He asks for a warm introduction rather than a cold pitch. The page lists investments such as Fly.io, Clerk, Raycast and Zed, and labels outcomes openly: DX was acquired by Atlassian and Fig by AWS, while a few companies were wound down. It does not state a check size.
swyx
His site calls him an angel investor active in the AI and devtools community. His portfolio page, last checked September 17, 2026, lists 61 entries including Supabase, Modal, Railway and Browserbase, and names Temporal and Cognition as his largest shareholdings. He says he no longer takes new advising inquiries, and founders raising at pre-seed, seed or Series A should look for a warm introduction.
What do these devtools angels have in common?
Three patterns show up in the sources. First, the checks are small: $10,000 to $25,000 for Mytton and $5,000 to $50,000 for Rauch, small enough to read as an individual's range. Second, two of the seven, Stoiber and swyx, say in writing that they want a warm introduction. Third, several publish their misses next to their wins: Mytton's page marks which companies were acquired or shut down, Stoiber's labels outcomes openly, and Plassnig's flags acquisitions and shutdowns.
How do they say they want to be approached?
The published instructions are short. Stoiber's investing page asks for a warm introduction through mutual connections and says a trusted person vouching for a founder is an important signal. swyx's page says founders raising at pre-seed, seed or Series A should get a warm introduction from someone who knows him. Plassnig gives no process and says that anyone who wants to talk should contact him. Mytton's page gives no pitch instructions, though it says his reach comes through the Console newsletter, which he describes as read by more than 30,000 experienced developers. Auchenberg's fund is closed to new investments, and Friedman and Rauch publish no process in the sources used here.
What they back is easier to read than how to reach them. Mytton looks for early-stage startups where developers are the primary user and says he applies the Console selection criteria to his own investing. Stoiber says he favors products he would use himself and invests alongside Sue Odio as advisors with skin in the game. Plassnig invests in data, dev and security companies at the first or second round, and the Auchenberg fund's own site describes backing founders of developer-focused companies.
For the wider picture of what investors evaluate, read angel investing in developer tools and infrastructure, what angel investors look for in founders and how to find angel investors for your startup. The difference between a syndicate and a single angel is in how to join an angel group or syndicate, and how much angel investors invest puts check sizes in context. More lists are in the angel investing section.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:How much do developer-tools angels invest?
The investors who state a range write small checks: Mytton says $10,000 to $25,000, and Rauch's NFX Signal profile shows $5,000 to $50,000. Others, including Stoiber and Plassnig, do not publish a check size on their pages.
Q:Are these investors still taking pitches?
It varies by investor. Auchenberg's developers.vc is no longer making new investments, swyx no longer takes new advising inquiries but points fundraising founders to warm introductions, and Stoiber asks for a warm introduction.
Q:Why is the order alphabetical?
No named source ranks angels who invest in developer tools. The only ranking used here is Lenny's activity ranking of US angels, which measures how many deals someone did and says nothing about developer tools or about results.
Q:Is the devtools-angels list still maintained?
No. Its owner archived the repository on August 3, 2026, and its README points to a separate list of AI angels. The names and check sizes in it are self-reported and may have changed since.