Candou Ventures
Venture capitalActively deployingMenlo Park · Pre-Seed–Series A · 10 people tracked
Find your way into Candou Ventures
1,631 people in our graph share verified history with the Candou Ventures team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Investment thesis
Candou focuses on providing the first institutional seed round for startups with unique, defensible ideas. It looks for innovative, differentiated technologies that solve a real problem and address a large market, explicitly excluding mobile apps. Beyond funding seed rounds in the $500K to $1M range, the firm positions itself as a hands-on partner that helps founders shape their plans into investible businesses and subsequently raise capital from tier-one venture firms. Candou emphasizes transparency in its interactions and leverages Silicon Valley operating experience, technical expertise and networks to support portfolio companies.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 10 people
from the firm's website & curated & public directories
Founder mafia
3 people who came through Candou Ventures went on to found or lead other companies.
What they invest in
from 15 of 20 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×10Enterprise Software ×5SaaS ×5Data & Infrastructure ×4Developer Tools ×3B2B Marketplaces ×2Cleantech ×2Deep Tech ×2
HQs:United States×10Canada×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 9 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×62 founders×23 founders×1
Where their founders studiedfrom 11 founders with education data
Conestoga College ×2
What their founders studiedfrom 11 founders with field-of-study data
Engineering ×5Computer Science ×4Mathematics & Statistics ×2
Where their founders worked beforefrom 12 founders with career history
University of Waterloo ×2
Investments · 20 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2023 · 12022 · 12021 · 12017 · 14 dated
1health is a healthcare platform that connects patient records across separate organizations, resolving patient identity and assembling one shared record so hand-offs like referrals, discharges, and results no longer rely on faxes and manual work.
Data & InfrastructureDigital HealthHealthtech
ApplyBoard operates a platform connecting international students with educational institutions across Canada, the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, and Germany.
AI & Machine LearningB2B MarketplacesEdTechMarketplacesSaaSLondon, CA
Meti Basiri(Founder)inMartin Basiri(Co-Founder and Former Chief Executive Officer)inMassi Basiri(President and Co-Founder)in
Co-investors500 GlobalArtiman VenturesBDC Growth Venture FundCeltic House Asia PartnersDrive CapitalETS Strategic Capital+11 more
Bodo builds a high-performance analytics engine and answer layer for enterprise AI, letting data teams run Pandas, Python, and SQL across CPUs and GPUs without code, workflow, or data migration changes.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Ehsan Totoni(Founder)in
Co-investorsFusionKoch Disruptive TechnologiesDell Technologies CapitalUncorrelated Ventures
Cognichip develops Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI), an AI system designed to accelerate semiconductor design by reducing design effort and time-to-market for chip manufacturers.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDeveloper ToolsSemiconductorsRedwood City, US
Faraj Aalaei(Founder)inEhsan Kamalinejad(Founder)in
Co-investorsFPVGlobal Catalyst Partners JapanLux CapitalMayfield FundNewBuild.VCVSC Ventures+3 more
Entropy Systems provides AI-powered compliance and evidence processing for product documentation, handling multilingual labels, test reports, and declarations to ensure consistent regulatory compliance and market access.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
Medsien provides remote care management technology for medical providers to deliver chronic care to patients remotely.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtechSaaSSan Francisco, US
HAMED AHMADI(Executive Officer, Director)inSINA TORABI(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardDAVID RANGEL(Director)in
Co-investorsMerus CapitalNaples Technology Ventures
mimik powers the agentic economy by enabling real-time AI inference across endpoint devices including smartphones, drones, robots, and machines, combined with cloud capabilities.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareIoTSan Francisco, US
Fay Arjomandi(Founder and CEO)in
Co-investorsPier 88 Investment Partners
Movellus develops infrastructure IP for semiconductor chips, including on-die telemetry sensors, clock generation, and integrated power delivery, marketed under its Aeonic product family.
Deep TechHardwareSemiconductors
Co-investorsInvest MichiganMichigan Capital NetworkMichigan RiseSand Hill AngelsIntel Capital
NinjaTech offers a platform of autonomous "AI employees" that plan and execute multi-step business workflows end to end, operating around the clock from tools like Slack, Teams, and WhatsApp.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkLos Altos, US
Arash Sadrieh(Founder)inBabak Pahlavan(Founder)in
Co-investors2.12 AngelsFerocity Capital
Omniscent builds MEMS-based micro gas chromatography analyzers that detect VOCs and other gases at sub-ppb levels without carrier gas, for continuous monitoring in harsh environments.
CleantechHardwareIoTSaratoga, US
Yogesh Gianchandani(Executive Officer)Sassan Teymouri(Executive Officer, Director)
Pockyt provides a cross-border payments platform that combines in-country virtual accounts in 11 markets, local payment methods, and multi-currency treasury (27 fiat currencies plus USDC) into a single programmable interface.
B2B MarketplacesCrypto & Web3Fintech
Co-investors37 AngelsImagination Capital
Pyze provides an Execution Intelligence platform that captures how employees actually work inside web-based enterprise applications, helping organizations measure workforce productivity, find automation opportunities, and evaluate AI agent deployments.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
Co-investorsAAF Management Ltd.Correlation VenturesBenhamou Global VenturesBGVDoubleRockIlluminate Ventures
SignalRank is an investment vehicle that uses an algorithmic selection process to identify top-decile, venture-backed Series B companies and provides pro-rata follow-on financing through a network of existing investors.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureFintechPalo Alto, US
Keith Teare(Executive Officer, Director)inMatt Melkonian(Director)Kayvan Baroumand(Director)
BoardFaraj Aalaei(Director)
Co-investorsAstanor VenturesFarajaalaei Altera
Sakuu manufactures commercial-scale dry-process printing equipment and technologies for producing batteries and supercapacitors, serving AI data centers and electric vehicle industries.
Advanced ManufacturingCleantechEnergyNew MaterialsSan Jose, US
Robert Bagheri(CEO)
Co-investorsVarana
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
AlteraAxysCimaExostellarKeraCel
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companies
Cognichip · semiengineering.com · Jul 13, 2026
Medsien · nasdaqprivatemarket.com · Apr 3, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Candou Ventures made?
- Candou Ventures has 20 tracked investments.
- What stage does Candou Ventures invest at?
- Candou Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What is Candou Ventures's typical check size?
- Candou Ventures typically writes checks of $500K – $1M.
- What sectors does Candou Ventures focus on?
- Candou Ventures focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Consumer, Data & Infrastructure, Deep Tech, Enterprise Software, IoT, SaaS, Sector Agnostic.
- Where is Candou Ventures located?
- Candou Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, US.
- Who does Candou Ventures co-invest with?
- Candou Ventures most often shares deals with Correlation Ventures, Drive Capital, Index Ventures, among 43 tracked co-investors.
Media · Podcasts & interviews
featuring the teamSusan Akbarpour - Managing Partner - Candou Ventures
Dylan Conroy · Susan Akbarpour
The Defensible and Differentiated Idea with Faraj Aalaei, Founding Partner at Candou Ventures
Faraj Aalaei · kaltura.com
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