Pre-seed investing means backing a company before it has meaningful revenue, sometimes before it has a finished product - the firms below specialize in evaluating founder conviction and market timing with the least amount of concrete evidence to go on.
Menlo Park, CA
Founded 1961
Spotify's 2018 direct listing on the NYSE - one of several major exits, including Lending Club's 2014 IPO, where Norwest was the largest institutional investor
Enterprise SoftwareConsumer InternetFintechHealthcare
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Menlo Park, CA
Founded 2004
Block (formerly Square)'s 2015 IPO, one of fintech's defining public debuts
Clean EnergyAIDeep Tech
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Figma's July 2025 IPO at a $56 billion valuation - Index backed the design platform years before its explosive public debut
Consumer InternetFintechAIMarketplaces
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Twitter's 2013 IPO - Spark led the company's early investment in 2007 when it had fewer than a dozen employees
Consumer InternetEnterprise SoftwareFintechAI
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Lagos, Nigeria
Founded 2019
Not publicly disclosed (100+ portfolio companies collectively valued above $6B, 2024)
Assets Managed
No confirmed fund-level exit yet - founder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji's own prior track record co-founding Andela and Flutterwave, both real African unicorns backed by SoftBank and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is the firm's cl…
FintechHealthcareEdtechClimate
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Menlo Park, CA
Founded 1989
No single signature exit with a verified public dollar figure - Crosslink's track record instead runs through Alpha, its invite-only network of more than 2,000 founders, CEOs, and investors co-founded by General Partner …
AIEnterprise SoftwareConsumer InternetFintech
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Palo Alto, CA
Founded 1970
DoorDash's December 2020 IPO at a $39 billion valuation - CRV led the company's seed round in 2013, when it was just nine weeks old
Consumer InternetMarketplacesEnterprise SoftwareCybersecurity
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Menlo Park, CA
Founded 1981
$4.3B+ (invested since inception)
Assets Managed
Yammer's $1.2 billion acquisition by Microsoft in 2012 - USVP was an early investor in the enterprise social networking company, one of 93-plus IPOs and countless acquisitions across the firm's four-decade history
Enterprise SoftwareCybersecurityConsumerHealthcare
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Palo Alto, CA
Founded 2005
Fitbit's 2015 IPO - True Ventures was among Fitbit's first institutional investors, backing the company when it looked like little more than a pedometer in a world with no wearables market yet
ConsumerHardwareMediaAI
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2013
No single dollar-verified SignalFire exit confirmed yet - founder Chris Farmer's prior seed program at General Catalyst backed Coinbase, Discord, Stripe, Venmo, and Zapier, lending real pre-existing credibility to Signal…
AIEnterprise SoftwareCybersecurityHealthcare
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Menlo Park, CA
Founded 1969
Lyft's 2019 IPO - one of Mayfield's most recognizable public outcomes, still held in the firm's portfolio today
AIEnterprise SoftwareSemiconductors/Deep TechCybersecurity
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Berlin, Germany
Founded 2015
€3B+ (~$3.2B)
Assets Managed
Delivery Hero's 2017 IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, raising approximately €1 billion - an early Target Global bet, alongside Auto1 Group's 2021 Frankfurt IPO
FintechMobilityConsumerAI
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2010
Twilio's NYSE IPO under ticker TWLO - one of 500 Global's earliest and most consequential bets, backed years before it became a category-defining cloud communications company
FintechEnterprise SoftwareConsumer
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Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Founded 2007
Lightspeed Commerce's 2019 dual listing on the NYSE and TSX - Inovia was Lightspeed's first Canadian investor and helped lead a 2017 buyout that kept the Montreal point-of-sale company from a foreign takeover ahead of it…
AICybersecurityDigital HealthFintech
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2012
$2B+ personal fund (2026, per CB Insights)
Assets Managed
Airbnb's 2020 IPO - one of dozens of pre-IPO checks across a track record including Coinbase, Instacart, Pinterest, and Roblox
AIFintechSaaSMarketplaces
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No confirmed public exit yet - Lowercarbon's flagship bets (Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Charm Industrial, Solugen, Zap Energy) remain private, hard-tech climate companies still working toward commercial deployment
ClimateCarbon RemovalEnergyIndustrial Technology
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£2B (~$2.6B)
Assets Managed
Depop's $1.6 billion acquisition by Etsy in 2021 - an early Octopus Ventures backer of the fashion resale marketplace, alongside continued positions in Zoopla and SwiftKey
Deep TechHealthcareFintechConsumer
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Princeton, NJ
Founded 1995
$1.5B (as of 2023)
Assets Managed
No single dollar-verified signature exit - SOSV instead measures itself by cumulative deep-tech scale: more than 1,000 portfolio companies since inception, with in-house wet labs and hardware fabrication facilities built…
Deep TechBiotechClimateHardware
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2015
Lyft's 2019 Nasdaq IPO - one of NFX's earliest network-effects bets, backed years before the ride-sharing company's public debut, alongside fellow early portfolio company DoorDash
MarketplacesAIConsumerSaaS
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No confirmed exit yet - OSE operates a deliberately patient, evergreen model with no fixed fund life, and its 125-plus Oxford spinout companies remain privately held with a combined value exceeding £1.1 billion
Deep TechHealthcareIndustrial Tech
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Bonn, Germany
Founded 2005
€1.4B+ (following Fund IV launch)
Assets Managed
CureVac's August 2020 Nasdaq IPO - HTGF backed the mRNA vaccine developer as a seed-stage investor years before it became a household name during the COVID-19 pandemic
Deep TechHealthcareClimateEnterprise Software
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Berlin, Germany
Founded 2012
No confirmed public exit yet - Project A's model is operational company-building rather than harvesting, and its clearest current proof point is Trade Republic, now managing €100 billion in customer assets while still pr…
FintechDefense TechEnterprise SoftwareAI
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Sydney, Australia
Founded 2014
$1.2B+ (across all funds)
Assets Managed
No confirmed public exit yet - AirTree's clearest proof points are current unicorns Canva, Airwallex, and Linktree, all still privately held among the firm's eight billion-dollar-plus portfolio companies
FintechConsumerEnterprise SoftwareClimate
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Anthemis Digital Acquisitions I Corp's 2021 market debut - an all-female-led fintech SPAC founder Amy Nauiokas led to market, alongside real early-portfolio outcomes at Zoopla and Betterment
FintechInsurtech
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Paris, France
Founded 1998
€1.1B+ raised since inception (2025)
Assets Managed
AIHealthcareEnterprise SoftwareCybersecurity
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Vienna, Austria
Founded 2011
€1B+ (mid-2020s)
Assets Managed
No single defined public exit documented - Speedinvest's portfolio includes fintech infrastructure companies like Bitpanda
FintechAIHealthcare
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New York, NY
Founded 2015
Jet.com's approximately $3.3 billion acquisition by Walmart in September 2016 - Brad Svrluga was an early investor via the firm's predecessor, High Peaks Ventures
FintechConsumerHealthcareEnterprise Software
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New York, NY
Founded 2003
Etsy's 2015 IPO - USV backed the handmade-goods marketplace in 2008 when it looked like a niche bet against Amazon
Consumer InternetFintechCryptoMarketplaces
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$1B+ (following $320M raise, June 2026)
Assets Managed
UiPath's April 2021 Nasdaq IPO at a $35 billion valuation - Seedcamp was the process automation company's earliest backer, one of three decacorns (alongside Wise and Revolut) that trace back to its first check
FintechSaaSAICybersecurity
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No traditional exit yet - Antler's model is building companies from Day Zero rather than harvesting existing ones, and its clearest proof points are two current unicorns: Airalo (eSIM marketplace) and Lovable (Swedish AI…
ConsumerEnterprise SoftwareFintechAI
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Mountain View, CA
Founded 2017
No confirmed exit yet - Gradient's clearest proof points are current unicorns WRITER and Lambda AI, both still privately held, within a broader 175-plus company portfolio
AIDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareFintech
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$820M+ (across five funds)
Assets Managed
Careem's 2019 acquisition by Uber for $3.1 billion - BECO was an early backer of the Gulf's dominant ride-hailing company, one of two billion-dollar-plus exits in the firm's track record alongside Property Finder
FintechEnterprise SoftwareConsumerAI
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2009
$800M+ deployed (since inception)
Assets Managed
PillPack's $753 million acquisition by Amazon in September 2018 - Kevin Colleran was an early investor in the online pharmacy
ConsumerFintechEnterprise SoftwareCrypto
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Menlo Park, CA
Founded 2013
$800M (across four funds)
Assets Managed
DoorDash's 2020 NYSE IPO under ticker DASH - Pear's roughly $1.9 million investment, made as one of the firm's first five deals in 2013, was worth more than $440 million at listing, a nearly 233x return on the firm's ent…
FintechAICybersecurityHealthcare
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New York, NY
Founded 2007
$550M (across two new funds, as of October 2025)
Assets Managed
Flatiron Health's $1.9 billion acquisition by Roche in 2018 - BoxGroup was an early investor in the healthcare data company, one of several major exits alongside PillPack, Matterport, and Trello
FintechEnterprise SoftwareConsumerDeep Tech
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2017
No singular household-name exit - Village Global's model spreads bets widely across 233 companies rather than concentrating on a few outsized wins, producing 9 unicorns and 22 acquisitions cumulatively
FintechConsumerAIHealthcare
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Berlin, Germany
Founded 2016
$500M (across three funds)
Assets Managed
No public exit - BlueYard's crypto-native thesis means outcomes come as token appreciation rather than IPOs; the firm's clearest proof points are co-founders O'Leary and Whitmire's pre-BlueYard bets on Wunderlist (acquir…
CryptoDeep TechDefense Tech
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No standalone AUM disclosed; Phoenix Court family reported $500M first close (2022)
Assets Managed
Wise's 2021 direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, valuing the fintech company at about $11 billion
FintechConsumerMarketplacesEnterprise Software
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2013
DoorDash's 2020 IPO - Semil Shah invested in DoorDash's $2.5 million seed round in 2013, one of Haystack's very first bets, made within six months of founding the firm
ConsumerCloud/SaaSAIAutonomy
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Cambridge, MA
Founded 1977
Oculus VR's 2014 acquisition by Facebook for approximately $2.3 billion - Matrix backed the company at an early stage
AIInfrastructureFintechSemiconductors
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2013
No public exits yet - the firm instead measures itself by founder outcomes: head Roy Bahat cites 93 founders who've become millionaires from Bloomberg Beta-backed companies as the metric he's proudest of, ahead of raw re…
AIEnterprise SoftwareFintechFuture of Work
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Toronto, Canada
Founded 2017
$350M+ (Fund II, $471M CAD, closed 2019)
Assets Managed
Layer 6 AI's acquisition by TD Bank Group in January 2018, roughly 15 months after founding - co-founders Jordan Jacobs and Tomi Poutanen sold the company before turning to build Radical Ventures full-time (deal value un…
AIMachine LearningDeep Tech
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New York, NY
Founded 2019
$330M (Inspired III)
Assets Managed
Financial TechnologyHealthcareArtificial IntelligenceWorkforce and Education
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2014
$312M (Kindred Ventures III and Selector I, 2023)
Assets Managed
Sector-Agnostic
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Nairobi, Kenya
Founded 1999
$300M+ (across all funds)
Assets Managed
No confirmed public exit yet - Andela, backed three years before reaching a $1.5 billion valuation in 2021, remains TLcom's clearest proof point as one of Africa's few non-fintech unicorns, though it stays privately held
FintechAgritechEdtechMobility
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ThredUp's 2021 Nasdaq IPO - NextView backed the online consignment marketplace as a seed-stage investor years before its public debut
MarketplacesConsumerDigital HealthVertical SaaS
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Berlin, Germany
Founded 2013
€300M (Rocket Internet balance-sheet allocation, 2024)
Assets Managed
FintechSoftwareHealth TechConsumer Tech
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2005
Twitter, Facebook, and PayPal's early growth - SV Angel and founder Ron Conway's Angel Investors LP were among the first checks into all three before they became household names
Consumer InternetEarly-Stage Technology
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2015
The Athletic's 2022 acquisition by The New York Times for $525 million - Precursor backed the sports media company years before the deal, as one of founder Charles Hudson's earliest bets
SoftwareHardwareConsumer
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New York, NY
Founded 2010
$250M (Fund VII, 2025)
Assets Managed
CybersecurityAI InfrastructurePhysical AIDeveloper-First Infrastructure
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Philadelphia, PA
Founded 1999
Sprinklr's 2021 NYSE IPO, priced at $16 per share and valuing the customer experience management company at roughly $4 billion
Consumer InternetEnterprise SoftwareMedia TechFintech
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2004
$200M+ (per fund, not cumulative)
Assets Managed
Uber's 2019 IPO - First Round led the company's first-ever institutional funding round in 2010, a roughly $1.25 million bet that became one of the highest-multiple returns in venture history
Consumer InternetMarketplacesFintechSaaS
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São Paulo, Brazil
Founded 2016
$175M+ (Fund III alone raised $100M, 2021)
Assets Managed
Méliuz's IPO on Brazil's B3 exchange - Canary counts the cashback and fintech company among its key portfolio successes, alongside continued backing of 99 and Clara
FintechEnterprise SoftwareConsumerClimate
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New York, NY
Founded 2013
$160M+ (Fund III)
Assets Managed
Oort's acquisition by Cisco - one of several strategic exits in 645's portfolio, alongside LeagueApps' acquisition by Accel-KKR
FintechEnterpriseHealthtechCybersecurity
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Los Angeles, CA
Founded 2016
$160M+ (Fund IV)
Assets Managed
SGNL's acquisition by CrowdStrike for $740 million in 2026 - Fika backed the identity security startup as an early investor, alongside earlier exits like Openpath Security to Motorola Solutions
B2B SoftwareFintechMarketplacesAI Services
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2013
$150M+ (Fund III, closed 2022)
Assets Managed
No confirmed large exit yet - Root's portfolio, including Particle and Pivot Bio, remains largely private, reflecting the longer development timelines typical of deep tech and hardware-enabled startups
Deep TechIndustrial TechAI
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Menlo Park, CA
Founded 2008
$150M (latest closed fund)
Assets Managed
Lyft's 2019 Nasdaq IPO - Ann Miura-Ko's seed bet in the company then known as Zimride is among the best-known pre-seed checks in venture capital
Consumer InternetSaaSMarketplacesFintech
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Mountain View, CA
Founded 2012
Not disclosed ($150M NEXT Fund, 2017; undisclosed AI-focused Q Fund, 2018)
Assets Managed
No single dollar-verified signature exit - Samsung NEXT's scale is cumulative instead: more than 230 investments and 330+ companies backed since inception, run by a 38-person team spanning Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Ne…
AIFintechHealthcareCloud Infrastructure
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2017
$125M+ (across multiple funds)
Assets Managed
No confirmed exit yet - Hustle Fund's portfolio, including HoneyBook, Nova Credit, and Berbix, remains largely private, though early bets on The Pill Club and Webflow highlight the firm's pattern-recognition at the earli…
FintechHealthcareCryptoEnterprise Software
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2014
$111M debut institutional fund, announced 2022
Assets Managed
FintechEcommerceHealthConsumer
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$100M+ (recent funds)
Assets Managed
Instagram's 2012 acquisition by Facebook for roughly $1 billion - founder Steve Anderson was Instagram's very first investor
Consumer InternetMobileEarly-Stage Software
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Bengaluru, India
Founded 2011
$100M (Fund V, 2025)
Assets Managed
FintechEdtechHealthcareConsumer Internet
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New York, NY
Founded 2014
$100M+ across three investment vehicles
Assets Managed
B2B SoftwareVertical SaaSFintechHealth Tech
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Buenos Aires, Argentina
Founded 2011
$98M (Fund III, 2023)
Assets Managed
SaaSFintechMarketplacesLogistics
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Cambridge, MA
Founded 2009
$95M+ (latest fund)
Assets Managed
PillPack's 2018 acquisition by Amazon for approximately $1 billion - Founder Collective was among the pharmacy startup's first seed investors
Seed-StageSector-Agnostic
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2016
$90M fund raised in 2021, following an initial $5M first fund
Assets Managed
Deep TechClimateSynthetic BiologyFood & Agriculture
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2013
$85M (across two funds)
Assets Managed
Chime's Nasdaq IPO in June 2025 under ticker CHYM - one of Homebrew's earliest bets, the company priced at $27 a share, popped 37% on debut, and reached an $11.6 billion valuation
FintechDeveloper ToolsAI
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Nairobi, Kenya
Founded 2019
$78M (across two funds)
Assets Managed
No confirmed exit yet - Enza's portfolio companies have instead attracted strong follow-on validation, including Guidewheel's Greycroft-led Series A and Shara's Index Ventures-led Series A, both companies Enza backed at …
FintechHealthcareClimateEnterprise Software
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Abuja, Nigeria
Founded 2016
$64M+ (Fund II first close, November 2025)
Assets Managed
Paystack's 2020 acquisition by Stripe for approximately $200 million - Ventures Platform was an early institutional investor in the Nigerian payments company, still the largest startup acquisition in Nigerian history at …
FintechHealthcareEnterprise SoftwareAI
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Brooklyn, NY
Founded 2017
$60M (Fund II, 2021)
Assets Managed
FintechEcommerceHealthcareB2B Software
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Berlin, Germany
Founded 2011
Not publicly disclosed (Fund III closed at $60M, 2015; multiple funds since)
Assets Managed
Zendesk, Christoph Janz's very first angel check, went public in 2014 and was later taken private in a $10.2 billion deal led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira in 2022
SaaSMarketplacesAIFintech
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Santa Monica, CA
Founded 2011
Early investor in Honey Science, the browser-extension startup PayPal acquired in 2020 for about $4B
ConsumerFintechSaaS
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Palo Alto, CA
Founded 2009
$42M+ (current fund)
Assets Managed
Twilio's 2016 IPO - Manu Kumar was Twilio's earliest investor, backing the company years before it became a public cloud communications giant
Pre-SeedNew TechnologyNew Markets
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2014
$40M+ (latest fund)
Assets Managed
No public exit yet - Designer Fund's portfolio includes still-private companies like Stripe and Notion, both valued in the tens of billions, alongside Gusto and Framer
Design-Led Early-Stage SoftwareHealthBusiness Software
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$36.5M+ (latest fund)
Assets Managed
No public exit yet - M25 has backed more than 150 Midwest startups since 2015, whose combined follow-on funding exceeds $600 million
Midwest Early-Stage TechSoftwareFintechHealthcare IT
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New York, NY
Founded 2025
$30M+ (debut fund)
Assets Managed
No public exit yet - Worldbuild closed its debut fund in 2026 and is still building its earliest cohort, including SF Compute and Browserbase
AI InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsAerospaceEnergy
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2025
$22M+ (debut fund)
Assets Managed
No public exit yet - Modern Technical Fund closed its debut fund in 2025 and is still building its earliest cohort of technical founders
InfrastructureDataSecurityDeveloper Tooling
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San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Founded 2022
$20M+ (latest fund)
Assets Managed
No public exit yet - Cambrian closed its second $20 million fintech-focused fund in 2025
FintechFintech Infrastructure
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$13.5M+ (debut fund)
Assets Managed
No public exit yet - Symphonic Capital closed its debut $13.5 million fund in April 2025
HealthWealthClimate Resilience
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New York, NY
Founded 2022
$10M+ (latest fund)
Assets Managed
No public exit yet - The Fintech Fund closed its $10 million second fund in September 2024
FintechCryptoDeFi
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2016
Not publicly disclosed
Assets Managed
No public exit documented - South Park Commons backs founders at the idea stage, before a company typically exists
Enterprise SoftwareConsumer Internet
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Los Angeles, CA
Founded 2011
Not Disclosed
Assets Managed
Co-founded and grew Dollar Shave Club, which Unilever purchased for about $1B in 2016
Consumer Internet
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Lagos, Nigeria
Founded 2021
Not publicly disclosed (53 startups backed via Fund I, 2022)
Assets Managed
No confirmed fund-level exit yet - Voltron itself launched in 2021, though co-founder Olumide Soyombo's prior personal angel investment in Paystack (acquired by Stripe in 2020) lends the firm real pre-existing credibilit…
FintechHealthcareEnterprise Software
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2005
Not disclosed as traditional AUM ($500K standard check per company; YC Continuity growth fund)
Assets Managed
Coinbase's 2021 Nasdaq direct listing at an $85 billion valuation - the most valuable company in YC history at time of listing
AISaaSConsumer InternetFintech
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Landshut, Germany
Founded 1995
Not publicly disclosed
Assets Managed
Deep TechHealthcareClimateEnterprise Software
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San Francisco, CA
Founded 2013
Not publicly disclosed
Assets Managed
Developer ToolsCloud InfrastructureEnterprise Software
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Mumbai, India
Founded 2013
Not publicly disclosed
Assets Managed
Enterprise SoftwareFintechConsumerSaaS
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Not publicly disclosed
Assets Managed
Machine IntelligenceData ScienceDistributed SystemsAutomation
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New York, NY
Founded 2016
Not publicly disclosed
Assets Managed
Artificial IntelligenceFintechBiotechDefense Tech
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