Fundraising Fox
Carbide Ventures
Venture capitalPalo Alto · Pre-Seed–Series A · 9 people tracked
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Investment thesis
Carbide Ventures makes high-conviction investments at the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, focusing on what it calls the 'New Age of Compute.' The firm prefers B2B companies, particularly those selling to large enterprises, and believes advances in artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, and materials will continue to drive software's expansion. Run by operators who have helped build multiple unicorns and $100M+ ARR businesses, the firm brings functional expertise across go-to-market, product, technology, and finance. It invests globally across North America, Asia, and Europe, and offers particular support for the US-Japan corridor, helping companies with Japan market entry and Japanese companies expanding worldwide.
Source: firm website, verified Sep 29, 2026.
Team · 9 people
from the firm's website & public directories
Founder mafia
3 people who came through Carbide Ventures went on to found or lead other companies.
What they invest in
from 33 of 53 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×16SaaS ×15Enterprise Software ×13Data & Infrastructure ×8Cloud Computing ×6Hardware ×5Deep Tech ×4Marketing Tech ×4
HQs:United States×12Japan×6Australia×2United Arab Emirates×1United Kingdom×1Singapore×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 22 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×92 founders×53 founders×54+ founders×3
Where their founders studiedfrom 24 founders with education data
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ×2Stanford University ×2The University of Western Australia ×2University of Melbourne ×2University of Washington ×2
What their founders studiedfrom 22 founders with field-of-study data
Computer Science ×9Physics ×6Engineering ×4Business & Management ×2
Where their founders worked beforefrom 23 founders with career history
Google ×3IBM ×2Microsoft ×2MIT ×2Palo Alto Networks ×2Uber ×2
Accelerator rootsportfolio companies that came through a program
8 founders hold a PhD · 1 hold an MBA (of 24 with degree data)
Investments · 53 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2025 · 32024 · 32023 · 62022 · 22021 · 22015 · 117 dated
Impinj develops RAIN RFID technology used to connect physical items to digital systems, serving businesses across industries through its partners and solutions.
Enterprise SoftwareHardwareIoTRetail TechSemiconductors
Chris Diorio(Founder)inCary Baker(Chief Financial Officer)inGahan Richardson(Executive Vice President and General Manager, Impinj Business Unit)Cathal Phelan(Chief Innovation Officer)inYukio Morikubo(General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer)inAlberto Pesavento(Chief Technology Officer)in
Co-investorsMadrona Venture GroupCipio Partners
nLIGHT designs and manufactures high-power semiconductor lasers for defense systems, directed energy applications, and advanced manufacturing.
Deep TechDefense TechHardwareVancouver, US
Scott Keeney(Founder)inJake Bell(Executive Officer)David Schaezler(Executive Officer)inRob Martinsen(Executive Officer)inJoseph DeBartolo(Executive Officer)
BoardBill Ericson(Director)
Co-investorsBonaventure CapitalMenlo VenturesMultiplier CapitalOak Investment PartnersWellington ManagementMohr Davidow Ventures
Beetexting is a business texting platform that lets sales, service, operations, recruiting, and marketing teams communicate with contacts over SMS through shared inboxes, automations, and bots.
Enterprise SoftwareSaaSSales Tech
Bifrost provides GPU-accelerated simulation and synthetic data generation for physical AI systems, enabling teams to train, test, and evaluate robotic and autonomous systems using photorealistic, multi-modal sensor data.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechRoboticsSingapore, SG
Charles Wong(Founder)in
Co-investorsChampion Hill VenturesIn-Q-TelMD One VenturesPeak XV PartnersSUTD Venture Holdings Pte. Ltd.Techstars+3 more
Bitfury operates in the cryptocurrency/blockchain industry, with noted expertise in mining solutions and related technology infrastructure.
AI & Machine LearningCrypto & Web3Deep Tech
Val Vavilov(CEO, Co-founder, Chairman)inValery Nebesny(Founder)Valery Vavilov(Founder)
Co-investors10T FundiTech CapitalKorelya CapitalBINARY CAPITALCDP Venture CapitalVerve Ventures
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Chronosphere is an observability platform for microservices and containers, offering an end-to-end observability solution and a telemetry pipeline (from the creators of Fluent Bit and Calyptia) to collect, transform, and route telemetry data while controlling cost and complexity.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Co-investorsACTAI VenturesSierra Ventures
Software platform for retail store operations management.
Co-investorsFIRSTLIGHT CapitalJIC Venture Growth InvestmentsNew Commerce VenturesOriental Land InnovationsJAFCO Group
Design platform; Blackbird invested when it was just an idea and in every round since.
SocialSurry Hills, Nsw, AU
Melanie Perkins(Founder)inClifford Obrecht(Executive Officer, Director)Cliff Obrecht(Founder)inCameron Adams(Founder)inIan LeeJeffrey Story
Co-investors3Spoke Capital500 GlobalAirTree VenturesAlkeon InnovationAlpha Square GroupAltra Venture+58 more
Platform connecting corporations with volunteer and giving opportunities for CSR.
Sukhendra Rompally(Founder)in
Chronosphere provides an observability platform for microservices and containers that helps teams detect and fix customer-impacting issues while controlling costs and complexity.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsSaaSNew York, US
Martin Mao(Founder)inRob Skillington(Founder)inAshley Alexander(Chief People Officer)inMargaret Dawson(Global Head of Marketing)inBill Hineline(Field Chief Technology Officer)inIan Smith(Chief of Staff to the CEO and Head of Strategy)in
Co-investorsACTAI VenturesAdditionAntiBasis Set VenturesCardinia VenturesFounders Fund+15 more
Cledara provides a software management platform for finance teams to discover, purchase, manage, and cancel software subscriptions across their organization.
Enterprise SoftwareFintechSaaSLondon, GB
Cristina Vila(Founder)inCristina Vila Vives(Founder)inBrad van Leeuwen(Founder)in
Co-investorsAnthemis VentureCommerzVenturesNauta CapitalNotion CapitalTechstarsMassive
IBM Cloudant is a managed NoSQL database service based on Apache CouchDB, designed for building hyperscale, globally distributed applications with features including encryption, multi-region availability, full-text search, and geospatial indexing.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareBoston, US
Michael Miller(Founder)inAlan Hoffman(Founder)inAdam Kocoloski(Founder)in
Co-investorsAvalon Ventures Management, LlcF-Prime CapitalToba CapitalY CombinatorDevonshire InvestorsIn-Q-Tel+2 more
Dyad converts unstructured healthcare data into structured clinical codes (SNOMED, ICD-10, CPT) using its GENIE graph-based AI and clinical knowledge graph, delivering outputs into existing EHRs, applications, and data lakes.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureHealthtech
Steven Hamblin(Founder)in
Co-investorsACTAI VenturesGeneral Catalyst
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Live interactive video platform for community engagement and monetization.
Co-investorsACTAI Ventures1confirmation
Fan and community engagement platform in Japan.
LakeFusion provides AI-powered Master Data Management (MDM) software integrated with the Databricks Lakehouse platform, giving businesses a unified platform to manage, integrate, and optimize their data.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise Software
Co-investorsSilverton Partners
Lazuli provides a product data platform that uses generative AI to collect, organize, and enrich product information for enterprises.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareSaaSTokyo, JP
Seigen Hagiwara(Founder)in
Co-investorsCoral CapitalGlobal Brain
Liven offers an all-in-one technology platform for hospitality businesses that integrates back-of-house and front-of-house operations.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFoodTechRetail TechSaaSMelbourne, AU
Grace Wong(Founder)William Wong(Founder)
Co-investorsACTAI VenturesArtesianBlitzscaling VenturesPerennial PartnersDay One Ventures
Lumber offers an AI-based workforce management platform for construction companies, covering certified payroll, prevailing wage and union compliance, hiring and credential tracking, and real-time field operations visibility.
AI & Machine LearningConstruction TechHR TechSan Jose, US
Shreesha Ramdas(Founder)in
Co-investorsConvergeFirsthandVCFoundation Capital
Coroyawa is a specialized flooring material designed to reduce fracture and trauma risk for elderly users by combining stable walking comfort with impact absorption during falls.
HardwareHealthtechMedical DevicesNew MaterialsHamamatsu, JP
Co-investorsHulic StartupIDATEN VenturesInclusion JapanJIC Venture Growth InvestmentsMonozukuri VenturesMPower+1 more
Co-investorsCaesar Business AngelsCaesar Ventures
Nutmeg provides smart maps and guest portals for attractions and hotels, enabling personalized visitor experiences and revenue optimization.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSTravel & Hospitality
Co-investorsBalderton CapitalGoldman SachsPentech Ventures
Nutmeg is a tourism DX platform that helps tourism operators—such as theme parks, attractions, transport services, and aquariums—increase direct sales through online booking, electronic ticketing, CRM/marketing automation, and fan-building tools.
Marketing TechSaaSTravel & HospitalityBerkeley, JP
Takashi Nakaguchi(Chief Executive Officer and President)
Co-investorsCoral Capital
BrazeAI Decisioning Studio is an AI platform that helps marketers make personalized 1:1 customer decisions by optimizing channel, offer, creative, and timing across hundreds of customer attributes.
AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechBoston, US
George Khachatryan(Founder)Victor Kostyuk(Founder)
BoardMike Ghaffary(Director)in
Co-investors515 VenturesAfterWork VenturesAlumni VenturesBlack Nova VCCanvas VenturesDarcy Naunton+4 more
QuEra develops neutral-atom quantum computers, building both the quantum hardware and the classical control systems that operate them, along with related software and applications.
Deep TechHardwareQuantum ComputingBoston, US
Nate Gemelke(Co-founder, Chief Technology Strategist)inVladan Vuletić(Founder)inMikhail Lukin(Founder)Markus Greiner(Co-founder, Professor of Physics, Harvard University)Nathan Gemelke, Ph.D.(Co-founder, Chief Technology Strategist)inMikhail Lukin, Ph.D.(Co-founder and Chief Scientist, Professor of Physics, Harvard University)
Co-investorsConstructor Capital USSafar PartnersSoftBank Vision FundValor Equity PartnersDay One VenturesFinTech Ventures+1 more
Runetale provides a secure mesh network (VPN) that automates point-to-point connectivity with zero configuration, using WireGuard-based peer-to-peer encryption and least-privilege access.
Cloud ComputingCybersecurityEnterprise Software
Co-investorsDelight Ventures
Skillnote is a skills management platform that visualizes and analyzes employee skills, licenses, and training plans on a single matrix, and centralizes records for quality standard audits such as ISO 9001 and IATF 16949.
Advanced ManufacturingHR TechSaaS
SOUNDRAW is an AI music generator that creates royalty-free, legally licensed tracks trained exclusively on in-house produced music.
AI & Machine LearningCreator EconomyMedia & Entertainment
Co-investorsANOBAKAAPOLLO CAPITALmint VCDEEPCORE Inc.iSGS Investment WorksSMBC Venture Capital
Springdel builds an enterprise-grade EdgeOps platform (Springmatic) for managing and running interactive edge devices at scale, offering fleet visibility, device and data control, and AI-ready deep-learning insights.
Enterprise SoftwareIoTSaaS
Calvin Chung(Founder)in
Co-investorsBeyond Ventures
Synacor provides cloud-based software and services for video, internet, and communications providers, device manufacturers, governments, and enterprises.
Cloud ComputingCybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareMedia & EntertainmentSaaSBuffalo, US
William J. Stuart(Executive Officer)Himesh Bhise(Executive Officer, Director)inDrake Harvey(Chief Executive Officer (CEO))inIra Berger(Chief Finance Officer (CFO))inAnthony Chadd(Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Zimbra)inBret Cunningham(Chief Product Officer (CPO))in
Co-investorsNorth Atlantic CapitalWalden Catalyst
TheSEA provides an operating system and workflow platform for beauty brands to integrate AI into their creative processes from the ground up.
AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaSTokyo, JP
Yanjin Li(CEO & Cofounder)inYoshihiro Onchi(CMO & Cofounder)in
WALT automates data pipeline optimization and decision-making workflows for organizations of any size.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise Software
Treasure Data offers the Personalization AI Suite, an AI-native tool that uses unified customer data and real-time signals to automatically personalize web content, offers, and experiences for individual customers.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureMarketing TechMountain View, US
Kazuki Ota(Executive Officer, Director)Hironobu Yoshikawa(Founder)Hiro Yoshikawa(Founder)inKazuki Ohta(Founder)Sadayuki Furuhashi(Founder)
BoardTim Guleri(Director)in
Co-investorsHaymaker VenturesHeavybitIrregular ExpressionsIT-Farm CorporationScale Venture PartnersSierra Ventures+3 more
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Type Five combines modular design with construction methods to build customizable accessory dwelling units and living spaces, offering up-front pricing and faster move-in times.
Construction TechPropTechBerkeley, US
BoardAleksis Bertoni(Director)Tim Thimmaiah(Executive Officer, Director)in
Co-investorsBackwards CapitalBlack Jays VenturesHawk Hill VenturesNight CapitalVillage GlobalZelda Ventures
Widevine provides digital rights management solutions that enable media service providers to secure and deliver high-quality video and audio content across consumer electronics devices.
Cloud ComputingCybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareMedia & EntertainmentSaaS
Co-investorsVantagePoint Capital Partners
Wish is a mobile-first, low-price e-commerce marketplace connecting mainly Chinese merchants with bargain shoppers worldwide.
San Francisco, US
Peter Szulczewski(Founder)inDanny Zhang(Founder)Piotr Szulczewski(Founder)
Co-investors137 Ventures8VCAcequia Capital (AceCap)China Growth CapitalCoatue ManagementCRV (Charles River Ventures)+23 more
Independent provider of digital video brand advertising solutions.
Co-investorsFelicis VenturesGFT VenturesMenlo VenturesTransLink CapitalAccelDag Ventures+4 more
zypl.ai is a financial technology platform that uses AI and machine learning to assess credit risk and issue loans.
AI & Machine LearningFintechSaaSDubai, AE
Azizjon Azimi(Founder)
Co-investorsPresightPresto VenturesProsus Ventures
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Findy Inc. runs a set of services for software engineers and engineering organizations, including a job-matching service for engineers, a freelance/side-job matching service, and a SaaS product for measuring and supporting engineering team performance.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsHR TechSaaSTokyo, JP
山田 裕一朗(代表取締役 (Representative Director))Yamada Yuichiro(Representative Director)Sato Masataka(Director CTO)in
Co-investorsGlobal BrainKDDI Open Innovation FundLB InvestmentZENRIN FUTURE PARTNERS
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
Technocentra GroupBeceemCarbon Design SystemsiAsiaWorksLocation LabsLumberRuckusSensageSkillnoteSmartsignalTweetdeckWALT AI
Rows marked “SEC filing” are inferred from directors named on the company's SEC Form D — public regulatory data, not a portfolio list published by the firm.
Exits · 9
2 IPOs · 7 acquisitions · showing 5ImpinjNASDAQ: PInLight PhotonicsNASDAQ: LASRCalyptiaacq. by ChronosphereCloudantacq. by IBMLocation Labsacq. by Avast
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesLakeFusion · finsmes.com · May 4, 2026
QuEra Computing · finsmes.com · Dec 9, 2025
Chronosphere · Chronosphere Newsroom · Nov 25, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Carbide Ventures made?
- Carbide Ventures has 53 tracked investments, 9 of which have exited, including 5 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does Carbide Ventures invest at?
- Carbide Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Carbide Ventures focus on?
- Carbide Ventures focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Crypto & Web3, Data & Infrastructure, Deep Tech, EdTech, Enterprise Software, Fintech, Hardware, Healthtech, IoT, New Materials, Quantum Computing, SaaS.
- Where is Carbide Ventures located?
- Carbide Ventures is headquartered in Palo Alto, US.
- Does Carbide Ventures lead rounds?
- Carbide Ventures has led 3 of the 6 rounds where its role is on record.
- Who does Carbide Ventures co-invest with?
- Carbide Ventures most often shares deals with ACTAI Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Sierra Ventures, among 128 tracked co-investors.
- What size deals does Carbide Ventures back?
- Across 10 deals with disclosed amounts, Carbide Ventures has joined rounds of $1M – $234M (median $5M).
Images
Co-investors · 7
Techstars is a global startup accelerator and early-stage investor that funds and mentors ambitious founders, providing $220K in capital, a three-month program, and access to a worldwide network of mentors, investors, and corporate partners.
Foundation Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that commits to founders at the idea stage and maintains long-term relationships with portfolio companies through their growth journey.
Peak XV Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm investing across seed, venture, growth and later stages, backing companies across borders in India, Southeast Asia and beyond. It also runs the Surge program.
Silverton Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Texas that partners with founders long-term, having backed 75+ portfolio companies with 30+ acquisitions and 4 IPOs.
Airbus Ventures is a conviction-led venture firm that invests in early-stage companies building critical industrial systems and infrastructure.
Sapphire Ventures partners with expansion-stage enterprise software companies, aiming to help them become category leaders. Its Platform team of operators supports portfolio companies with customer introductions, go-to-market talent, and growth advisory.
Bowery Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in B2B technology founders, partnering with them to modernize how business is done and providing hands-on go-to-market, talent, and business development support.
Firms observed investing alongside Carbide Ventures, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Carbide Ventures's recorded portfolio.
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