Venture capital firms in San Francisco and the Bay Area: a 2026 guide.

Alchemist Accelerator

Ravi Belani's accelerator for technical founders building enterprise, B2B, AI and deep tech companies, with programs in Chicago, Doha and Japan as well.

Berkeley SkyDeck

UC Berkeley's accelerator and incubator, run jointly by Haas and the College of Engineering since 2012, for startups with a Berkeley connection.

Neo

Ali Partovi's firm pairs pre-seed and seed investing with the Neo Residency and Neo Scholars for technical founders and students.

Plug and Play

Saeed Amidi's Sunnyvale accelerator and venture firm, founded in 2006, connects early-stage startups with corporate partners by industry.

StartX

Stanford's accelerator and community for students, faculty and alumni, which takes no equity and charges no fees.

Y Combinator

The accelerator Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Tappan Morris and Trevor Blackwell started in 2005; it funds startups in batches four times a year.

500 Global

Formerly 500 Startups, founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai; its Silicon Valley flagship strategy invests from pre-seed onward, in the US and abroad.

Abstract Ventures

A sector-agnostic firm investing at seed and early stage, with a portfolio that runs from AI and biotech to crypto, fintech and insurance.

Afore Capital

A pre-seed specialist co-founded in 2016 by Gaurav Jain and Anamitra Banerji that backs pre-traction companies and runs a Founders-in-Residence program.

Amplify Partners

Aims to be the first investor for technical founders building developer tools, data infrastructure and AI, and lists early bets on Datadog and Fastly.

Array Ventures

A first-check firm for technical founders in enterprise software, AI infrastructure and developer tools, starting at pre-seed.

Bee Partners

Michael Berolzheimer's pre-seed firm, founded in 2011, backs technical founders at inception in machine learning, human-machine interaction and biology-meets-machines.

Cantos

Ian Rountree's firm backs people building for the physical world, from satellites and defense to energy and mining, from pre-seed to Series B.

Cleo Capital

Sarah Kunst's generalist fund, founded in 2018, invests mainly at the earliest stages across AI, fintech, consumer, enterprise and deep tech.

Conviction

Sarah Guo's firm, founded in 2022, is built for AI-native "Software 3.0" companies and invests at seed and Series A.

Costanoa Ventures

Leads seed and Series A rounds in applied AI, data infrastructure, cybersecurity, fintech and national security, from San Francisco and Palo Alto.

Draper Associates

Tim Draper's San Mateo firm invests at seed and early stage in AI, crypto, biotech, space and what it calls unconventional ideas.

Electric Capital

Founded in 2018 by Curtis Spencer and Avichal Garg, it invests from pre-seed to Series A in frontier technology, from AI to crypto infrastructure.

Felicis

Aydin Senkut's firm, founded in 2006, starts at seed in AI, cybersecurity and defense, energy and health; its site lists early bets on Notion, Canva and Shopify.

Fifty Years

Backs scientists and deep tech founders at pre-seed and seed, and runs the 5050 program to help researchers become founders.

First Round Capital

A seed-only firm founded in 2004 by Josh Kopelman and Howard Morgan; it publishes the First Round Review, and its featured companies include Notion, Square and Roblox.

Floodgate

Mike Maples Jr. and Ann Miura-Ko's early-stage firm aims to be a startup's "first true believers," often writing the first institutional check.

Foundation Capital

Founded in 1995 and based in Palo Alto, it invests from day zero in enterprise, AI, fintech and crypto; it wrote Cerebras's first term sheet.

Freestyle Capital

A seed and early-stage firm founded in 2009 by partners who were founders first; Wikipedia says it backs 10 to 12 companies a year.

Haystack

Semil Shah's firm leads or joins initial rounds for software and technology founders and says it does not chase themes.

Homebrew

Hunter Walk and Satya Patel's seed firm for mission-driven founders; the partners now invest their own capital.

Hustle Fund

Elizabeth Yin and Eric Bahn's pre-seed fund invests "hilariously early" in software startups and runs Angel Squad for new angel investors.

Illuminate Ventures

Leads seed rounds for B2B and enterprise software founders, often ones that already have customers.

Initialized Capital

Founded in 2011 by Alexis Ohanian, Harj Taggar and Garry Tan, this seed firm says it invests on passion over pedigree.

K9 Ventures

A Palo Alto pre-seed micro VC that backs technical teams using technology to solve real problems, and publishes its criteria for founders.

Kapor Capital

An Oakland firm that has invested only in impact startups since 2011, backing early-stage companies that close gaps in access and opportunity.

Khosla Ventures

Vinod Khosla's firm, founded in 2004, invests earliest, from pre-seed through Series A, and also runs Main and Opportunity funds.

Liquid 2 Ventures

Joe Montana's seed firm, co-founded in 2015 with Michael Ma and Michael Miller, partners with founders from day one; GitLab is in its portfolio.

Long Journey Ventures

An early-stage team that includes Lee Jacobs and Cyan Banister and says it backs unconventional founders early, as their "second believers."

Mayfield

Formed in 1969, Mayfield says it aims to be the first institutional investor for AI founders and makes most of its investments at inception.

NFX

A seed firm built around network effects, founded in 2015; it publishes essays on the topic and runs Signal, a public investor directory.

Paradigm

Founded in 2018 by Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm started in crypto and now invests in crypto, AI and robotics from the earliest stages.

Pear VC

Pejman Nozad and Mar Hershenson's pre-seed and seed firm, known for its PearX program and its founder communities.

Pioneer Fund

A fund of more than 540 Y Combinator alumni who invest in and support current YC startups.

Precursor Ventures

Charles Hudson's pre-seed and seed firm, founded in 2015, invests in people over product, often before there is one.

Quiet Capital

Invests from day zero across AI, crypto, deep tech, fintech and health, under the motto "signal above noise."

Rebel Fund

Run by Y Combinator alumni, it invests in YC startups it selects with its own data model.

Root Ventures

An engineer-run seed fund that leads first rounds for founders taking on hard engineering and deep tech problems.

Sierra Ventures

A San Mateo early-stage firm that backs AI and deep tech founders from inception and connects them with corporate buyers.

Slow Ventures

A generalist firm investing since 2011 in the earliest rounds, from fintech and SaaS to crypto, health and the creator economy.

Soma Capital

Aneel Ranadive's seed firm, which lists early bets on Ramp, Deel and Rippling and runs a fellows program for very early founders.

South Park Commons

A founder community and fund for what it calls the -1 to 0 stage, before founders have picked an idea; started by Ruchi Sanghvi and Aditya Agarwal.

Susa Ventures

A seed and early-stage firm founded in 2013 and known for a data-driven approach; its early bets reportedly included Robinhood and Flexport.

The House Fund

Invests at inception in startups from UC Berkeley students, faculty and alumni.

True Ventures

Jon Callaghan and Phil Black's firm, founded in 2005, writes the first check at seed and says it stays for every chapter after.

Uncork Capital

Jeff Clavier's seed firm aims to write the first check and now leans into AI-native software; Tailscale and LaunchDarkly are among its companies.

Unshackled Ventures

Writes the first check for technical founders at day zero, including immigrant founders, with visa support alongside capital.

Unusual Ventures

John Vrionis and Jyoti Bansal's seed firm for enterprise software, AI and cybersecurity, known for its product-market fit playbook.

Vertex Ventures US

Leads or co-leads seed and Series A rounds for B2B infrastructure and SaaS founders; part of the global Vertex network.

Village Global

An early-stage firm backed by prominent entrepreneurs, offering pre-seed and seed founders capital, mentorship and a network.

WestWave Capital

A seed firm backing AI-native enterprise software, cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure founders before the consensus forms.

Wing Venture Capital

An AI-first firm founded in 2013 by Peter Wagner and Gaurav Garg, investing from seed to Series A in AI applications and infrastructure.

11.2 Capital

Named for Earth's escape velocity, this San Francisco firm backs early-stage companies built on emerging technology, from AI and quantum to robotics, space and climate.

5AM Ventures

A life sciences investor that funds and helps build early companies in biopharma, drug delivery and research tools, including some it incubates from academic work.

Alsop Louie Partners

A risk-oriented early-stage firm whose portfolio centers on analytics, cybersecurity, consumer technology and disruptive tech.

Altos Ventures

Founded in 1996 and investing largely for mission-driven institutions, Altos is known for early bets in Korea, such as Coupang and Toss, and for backing Roblox.

August Capital

A Sand Hill Road firm that deliberately backs fewer information technology companies; past investments include Splunk and Atheros.

Benchmark

Founded in 1995 and known for its equal partnership, Benchmark typically leads a company's first institutional round, with a partner joining the board.

Bloomberg Beta

Funded solely by Bloomberg since 2013, this early-stage fund backs companies that make work better and has open-sourced its operating manual.

BlueRun Ventures

A Menlo Park early-stage firm for fintech, digital health, enterprise and consumer founders; its past exits include PayPal and Waze.

Canaan

An early-stage technology and healthcare investor founded in 1987; headquartered in Connecticut, with offices in San Francisco and Menlo Park.

Congruent Ventures

A climate firm backing early-stage software, hardware and bio companies that cut carbon; it publishes an annual 50 by 2050 list with SVB.

Correlation Ventures

A data-driven co-investor that says it decides within days, usually investing in early-stage companies alongside a lead investor.

CRV

Founded in 1970 as Charles River Ventures and now based in Palo Alto, CRV led DoorDash's first round and the Series A rounds of Mercury and Vercel.

Defy

An early-stage firm in Woodside backing founders across software, education, health, logistics and biotech, including Honorlock and Securly.

Dell Technologies Capital

Dell's corporate venture arm, investing since 2012 and leading early rounds in enterprise infrastructure, AI and security startups.

Emergence Capital

An early-stage B2B software specialist founded in 2003 that now also writes playbooks on AI-native services companies.

Forerunner Ventures

Kirsten Green's consumer-focused firm, founded in 2012, has backed brands and platforms such as Glossier, Warby Parker, Oura and Faire.

Greylock

Founded in 1965 and now in Menlo Park, Greylock backs early consumer and enterprise software; it partnered with Figma when the team was seven people.

Innovation Endeavors

Eric Schmidt and Dror Berman's early-stage firm backs technical founders in AI, computing infrastructure, sensing, robotics, electrification and biology.

Jackson Square Ventures

An early-stage investor in software, marketplaces and AI-native companies since 2011, with Strava, DocuSign and Upwork among its backings.

Kindred Ventures

Led by Steve Jang and Kanyi Maqubela, it backs early-stage founders in AI, climate, crypto, fintech, health and mobility.

Moxxie Ventures

Katie Jacobs Stanton's early-stage firm, founded in 2019, backs consumer, health, fintech and software companies such as Calm and Carta.

Obvious Ventures

Co-founded by Ev Williams in 2014, Obvious backs "world positive" companies in planetary health, human health and economic health.

Operator Collective

Mallun Yen's B2B firm, whose limited partners include more than 200 senior tech operators who help its founders.

Playground Global

Backs scientists and engineers turning breakthrough science into companies, often before there is a product, across computing, energy and engineered biology.

Prelude Ventures

Invests only in climate, backing early-stage startups with the greatest potential to cut emissions; started in 2009.

Reach Capital

An early-stage investor in learning, healthcare and future-of-work startups, with former teachers on its team.

Scale Venture Partners

An early-stage AI and B2B software firm in Foster City that helps founders move beyond founder-led sales; DocuSign and HubSpot are among its companies.

Shasta Ventures

An early-stage Sand Hill Road firm founded in 2004 by Rob Coneybeer and Ravi Mohan, focused on software, AI and deep technology.

Storm Ventures

An early-stage B2B firm in Palo Alto backing enterprise AI software, from infrastructure and cybersecurity to vertical SaaS.

Sutter Hill Ventures

Founded in 1962, one of Silicon Valley's oldest venture firms, with a deliberately minimal public profile.

Toyota Ventures

Toyota's standalone early-stage fund, investing in deep tech and climate tech from AI and robotics to materials and carbon capture.

Translink Capital

Since 2006, connects its early-stage portfolio with corporate partners in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Trinity Ventures

A Menlo Park early-stage firm since 1986; in 2025 it closed a continuation fund for companies from an older fund, so check its site for current activity.

U.S. Venture Partners (USVP)

An early-stage IT and healthcare investor whose companies include Box, HotelTonight and Inari Medical.

Walden Catalyst Ventures

A deep tech firm launched in 2021 by Lip-Bu Tan and Young Sohn, backing early-stage semiconductor, AI, quantum and digital biology companies.

Weekend Fund

Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover's early-stage fund backs founders "from weird consumer to boring B2B," with product and launch help.

XYZ Venture Capital

Ross Fubini's early-stage firm backs fintech, insurance, enterprise and public-sector founders in industries it calls "tech-forgotten."

Accel

Founded in 1983, Accel pitches itself as the first partner to strong teams and names Facebook, Slack and Dropbox among its investments.

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

The firm Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz founded in 2009 invests from seed to growth across focus areas from AI and crypto to American Dynamism.

Base10 Partners

Backs automation for large, traditional industries; its Advancement Initiative fund gives half of that fund's carried interest to HBCUs.

Bessemer Venture Partners

With roots going back to 1911, Bessemer invests from seed to growth in any sector and is known for its research on cloud software.

Blumberg Capital

David Blumberg's firm, founded in 1991, typically leads seed and Series A rounds in AI and fintech and follows on through growth.

BOND

Mary Meeker's growth-stage technology firm, spun out of Kleiner Perkins in 2019, and home of her long-running trends reports.

Canvas Prime (formerly Canvas Ventures)

Formerly Canvas Ventures, it leads Series A and B rounds in fintech, digital health and AI companies.

CapitalG

Alphabet's independent growth fund, with Alphabet as its only limited partner; its portfolio includes Stripe, Databricks and CrowdStrike.

Contrary

Eric Tarczynski's talent-driven firm backs a small number of founders from seed to scale and publishes long-form Contrary Research.

Cota Capital

Bobby Yazdani's firm, founded in 2015, backs what it calls the "net new" in enterprise technology, from early stage through growth.

Craft Ventures

Founded in 2017 by David Sacks and Bill Lee, Craft is a team of former founders and operators backing software, SaaS and AI companies.

Crosslink Capital

An early-stage consumer and enterprise investor since 1989 that also runs a public-equity business for fast-growing companies.

DAG Ventures

Its site describes leading mid-stage and growth rounds in companies backed by select early-stage firms, citing Xoom and AdMob.

DCVC

Originally Data Collective, DCVC backs deep tech companies tackling climate, health and heavy industry, and runs a biotech practice, DCVC Bio.

Eclipse

Eclipse calls itself "Operators with Capital" and backs companies rebuilding the physical economy, from manufacturing and logistics to energy and defense.

Founders Fund

Peter Thiel, Ken Howery and Luke Nosek's 2005 firm backs revolutionary technology across stages; its portfolio includes SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril.

Glynn Capital

A long-term investor in a limited number of private and public technology growth companies.

Goodwater Capital

Says it is the largest venture firm dedicated entirely to consumer and prosumer technology, investing from early stage through growth.

Greenoaks

Neil Mehta's concentrated, long-term growth investor, founded in 2012, with offices in San Francisco, New York and Chicago.

GV

Alphabet's venture arm, founded in 2009 as Google Ventures, investing from seed to growth in AI, enterprise, consumer, frontier tech and life sciences.

Haun Ventures

Katie Haun's firm, launched in 2022, backs founders rebuilding finance, from stablecoins and payments to crypto infrastructure.

ICONIQ

A hybrid family office founded in 2011 whose venture and growth arm, ICONIQ Growth, invests in technology companies.

Index Ventures

Founded in Geneva in 1996 and headquartered in London, Index runs a major San Francisco office and invests from seed to IPO.

Industry Ventures

A venture platform since 2000 that invests in companies directly, buys stakes from founders and early employees, and backs other venture funds.

Intel Capital

Intel's investment arm since 1991, backing cloud, device, frontier and silicon companies; Intel kept it in-house after dropping a planned 2025 spinoff.

IVP (Institutional Venture Partners)

One of Silicon Valley's first venture firms, founded by Reid Dennis in 1980, and now a growth-stage investor in fast-growing technology companies.

Kleiner Perkins

The Sand Hill Road firm founded in 1972 invests from early stage to growth; its homepage features Amazon, Google, Genentech and Anthropic.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

A multi-stage firm founded in 2000 that says it backs founders from seed to Series F, and highlights its long partnership with Anthropic.

Menlo Ventures

An early-stage firm since 1976 with broad focus areas, and co-runner, with Anthropic, of the Anthology Fund for AI startups.

Meritech Capital

A late-stage specialist founded in 1999 that works with a handful of technology companies at a time as they head toward public markets.

New Enterprise Associates (NEA)

Founded in 1977, NEA invests at every stage from idea to IPO in technology and healthcare, from a Sand Hill Road office.

Norwest

Founded in 1961, Norwest pairs venture capital with growth equity across consumer, enterprise software, fintech, healthcare and biotech.

Owl Ventures

An education and workforce technology investor that says it leads rounds at every stage, from pre-seed to pre-IPO.

Redpoint Ventures

Founded in 1999, Redpoint invests at seed, early and growth stages and publishes InfraRed, an annual report on infrastructure companies.

Ribbit Capital

Micky Malka's Palo Alto firm, founded in 2012, invests worldwide in financial technology.

Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce's investment arm, partnering with enterprise and AI companies from seed through growth since 2009.

Sapphire Ventures

An expansion-stage investor in enterprise software and AI since 1996, which also invests in other venture funds.

Sequoia Capital

Don Valentine's 1972 firm invests from seed to growth and runs Arc, a twice-yearly program for pre-seed and seed founders.

SignalFire

Calls itself the first venture firm built as a technology company, pairing seed-to-scale investing with its Beacon AI data platform.

Social Capital

Chamath Palihapitiya's firm, founded in 2011, now runs as a family-office style investor rather than raising outside funds.

SV Angel

Ron Conway and David Lee's firm, founded in 2009, runs seed and growth portfolios across software, AI, hardware and more.

TCV

Formerly Technology Crossover Ventures, TCV has backed growth-stage technology companies in private and public markets since 1995.

Tenaya Capital

Provides early-growth capital to enterprise and consumer technology companies from Palo Alto.

Threshold Ventures

A focused early-stage firm that backs a small number of founder-led companies; the team has backed Box, Twilio and Rippling.

Tribe Capital

Founded in 2018, Tribe uses data science to pick what it calls "N-of-1" companies, with venture, crypto and incubation strategies.

Venrock

Formed in 1969 to build on the Rockefeller family's investing, Venrock backs technology and healthcare companies from Palo Alto and New York.

Emerson Collective

Laurene Powell Jobs's organization combines impact investing with philanthropy and advocacy across education, immigration, the environment and health.