Clearstone Venture Partners
Venture capitalSanta Monica · Pre-Seed–Series A · 7 people tracked
Also known as Cedarstone Advisors · CLEARSTONE VENTURE MANAGEMENT SERVICES, L.L.C
Find your way into Clearstone Venture Partners
2,134 people in our graph share verified history with the Clearstone Venture Partners team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Investment thesis
Clearstone Venture Partners acts as an early-stage lead investor, backing founders and teams building technology companies. The firm has enabled large US institutions to participate as early investors, focusing on fintech and payments, enterprise technologies, and data-driven marketplaces. Across three funds it has deployed $650 million, producing 9 IPOs and roughly a dozen M&A exits.
Source: firm website, verified Sep 29, 2026.
Team · 7 people
from curated & public directoriesWhat they invest in
from 12 of 30 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×4Marketing Tech ×4AdTech ×3Consumer ×3Media & Entertainment ×3Data & Infrastructure ×2Enterprise Software ×2Gaming ×2
HQs:United States×6India×1
Investments · 30 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2019 · 12018 · 12017 · 12016 · 22015 · 22014 · 12013 · 12010 · 12006 · 12000 · 112 dated
PayPal is the payments company that came out of the March 2000 merger of Confinity — founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery to beam money between Palm Pilots — and Elon Musk's online bank X.com.
San Jose, US
Max Levchin(Co-founder & CTO)inPeter Thiel(Co-founder & CEO)inLuke Nosek(Co-founder & VP Marketing Strategy)inKen Howery(Co-founder & CFO)inElon Musk(Co-founder (X.com); CEO 2000)inAlex Chriss(President and Chief Executive Officer)in
Co-investorsBlueRun VenturesDG Daiwa VenturesMercury FundSequoia CapitalUpfront VenturesAccel+4 more
Bridg provides in-store identity resolution that links anonymous point-of-sale transactions to known customer profiles or creates new ones, enriching them with extended attributes to expand a retailer's first-party data.
AdTechData & InfrastructureMarketing TechRetail TechLos Angeles, US
Amit Jain(Executive Officer, Director)inMichael Horowitz(Executive Officer)Michael Bell(Executive Officer)inJuan Pereira(Executive Officer)James Armstrong(Director)
BoardJoseph Miller(Director)in
Co-investorsBaroda VenturesKarlin VenturesMarch Capital PartnersMucker CapitalNextEquity PartnersMorpheus Ventures+1 more
CarsDirect is an automotive website that publishes car news, model previews, and buying information for prospective vehicle buyers in the U.S. market.
ConsumerMedia & Entertainment
Co-investorsIdealab
CarStory offers AI-based inventory intelligence for automotive dealerships, providing vehicle appraisals, market intelligence, and analytics to help dealers price, market, and manage their car inventory.
AI & Machine LearningMobility & TransportationRetail Tech
Evertune builds AI-powered solutions for marketing and advertising, leveraging machine learning and identity graph technology.
AdTechAI & Machine LearningMarketing TechNew York City, US
Brian Stempeck(CEO & Co-Founder)inEd Chater(Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder)inPoul Costinsky(Chief Science Officer & Co-Founder)inMatt Cochran(CTO)in
BoardNihal Mehta(Director)in
Co-investorsEniac VenturesFelicis VenturesNextView VenturesIA Ventures
Games2win develops gaming products and services for digital media and entertainment markets.
GamingMedia & Entertainment
Alok Kejriwal(Co-Founder and CEO)inMahesh Khambadkone(Co-Founder and COO)in
Co-investorsNirvana Venture AdvisorsSaama CapitalICICI VentureNexus Venture Partners
Idealab is a technology incubator that generates startup ideas internally, tests many in parallel, and spins the most promising into standalone companies with recruited teams.
AI & Machine LearningCleantechDeep Tech
Bill Gross(Founder)in
Provides a virtualized wireless LAN solution that cost-effectively optimizes the enterprise network.
Co-investorsSierra VenturesTenaya CapitalBlueStream Ventures
Next-generation content and email archiving with compliance and disaster recovery
Co-investorsAugust CapitalIcon Ventures
NetZero appears to be an internet service provider offering promotional deals to customers, with the page primarily promoting a Norton 360 cybersecurity subscription offer rather than describing its own services.
Consumer
Co-investorsDraper AssociatesIdealab
Magnite operates a programmatic advertising platform that connects advertisers with media owners and publishers, with particular strength in connected TV and streaming video advertising.
AdTechMarketing TechMedia & Entertainment
Co-investorsAdvance Venture PartnersBlumberg CapitalMayfield FundXG Ventures
SpyCloud is an identity threat protection company that detects and responds to stolen credentials, malware-exfiltrated data, and phishing intelligence to prevent account takeover, fraud, ransomware, and session hijacking for enterprise customers.
CybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareAustin, US
Edward Ross(Executive Officer, Director)Alen Puzic(Director)inJason Lancaster(SVP, Investigations)inTrevor HilligossinPhil Fuster(VP, Federal Sales)inJennifer Parker(Executive Officer)in
Co-investorsCentana Growth PartnersCentana PartnersM12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund)March Capital PartnersRiverwood CapitalSilverton Partners
Supplyframe operates the Design-to-Source Intelligence (DSI) Network, a set of vertical search engines, community sites, media properties, and SaaS tools used by engineering, sourcing, and supply chain professionals.
Advanced ManufacturingB2B MarketplacesData & InfrastructureHardwareLogistics & Supply ChainSaaSSemiconductorsLos Angeles, US
Steve Flagg(Founder)in
Co-investorsKleiner PerkinsUS Venture Partners
UserTesting provides a human insight platform that helps Product, Marketing, Digital, and CX teams at enterprises collect and analyze real human feedback to validate decisions and improve customer experiences.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareImpact & Social GoodMarketing TechSaaSBellevue, US
Co-investorsAccelAdams Street PartnersDag VenturesInspiration VenturesIntercept VenturesOpenView Venture Partners+4 more
Xfire provides tools and word-list resources to help players solve daily word games like Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, and Strands more efficiently.
ConsumerGaming
Co-investorsNew Enterprise Associates (NEA)Intel Capital
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
ApplariatBillDeskeToysGemShareIntegrienKazeonKuapayLeisureLinkOverturePensa NetworksPeopleSupportPerspicaRubiconTogedrWeddingChannel
Exits · 2
1 IPOs · 1 acquisitionsPayPalNASDAQ: PYPLMimosa Systemsacq. by Iron Mountain
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesEvertune · finsmes.com · Aug 13, 2025
Fund performance · per public LP disclosures
as of Jun 2025| Fund | Vintage | Committed | Net IRR | TVPI | DPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearstone Venture Partners III-A, L.PLPs: California State Teachers' Retirement System, The Regents of the University of California | 2004 | — | 8.2% | 2.79x | 2.07x |
Source: public limited-partner disclosures (CalPERS, CalSTRS). Net IRR / TVPI / DPI as reported by the limited partner; a fund's early-year IRR is an interim estimate (J-curve).
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Clearstone Venture Partners made?
- Clearstone Venture Partners has 30 tracked investments, 2 of which have exited.
- What stage does Clearstone Venture Partners invest at?
- Clearstone Venture Partners invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Clearstone Venture Partners focus on?
- Clearstone Venture Partners focuses on Data & Infrastructure, Enterprise Software, Fintech, Marketplaces, SaaS.
- Where is Clearstone Venture Partners located?
- Clearstone Venture Partners is headquartered in Santa Monica, US.
- Does Clearstone Venture Partners lead rounds?
- Yes, Clearstone Venture Partners leads investment rounds.
Media · Podcasts & interviews
featuring the team- Startups - William Quigley, Clearstone Venture Partners
This Week in Startups · William Quigley
Co-investors · 17
March Capital is an early-growth venture capital firm investing in frontier technology companies focused on the AI revolution, partnering with founders to build category-defining businesses.
Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm that partners with founders to build technology companies.
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.
Morpheus Ventures is a venture capital fund that backs early-stage companies and supports founders through the challenges of scaling toward hyper-growth.
Founders Fund is a venture capital firm that backs technology companies building transformative products.
Benchmark is a venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco and Woodside that invests in early-stage startups.
Bling Capital is a seed-stage venture firm that helps entrepreneurs find and scale product-market fit, backed by a Product Council of 100+ product leaders.
Bonfire Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm that backs founders reinventing how business operates, leading seed rounds in AI-native B2B software.
Hack VC is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage crypto, blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance, and AI companies.
BAM Ventures is an early-stage investment firm made up of experienced entrepreneurs based in Southern California, backing founders building consumer-focused technologies, products, and services that transform commerce.
Tribeca Venture Partners is a New York-based venture capital firm that backs early-stage founders using emerging technologies to build category-defining companies.
Crosscut is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles that backs founders building frontier technologies aimed at solving major societal challenges.
▶5 more co-investors
Miramar Venture PartnersAct One VenturesThe Perkins FundTriangle Peak PartnersUnicorn India Ventures
Firms observed investing alongside Clearstone Venture Partners, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Clearstone Venture Partners's recorded portfolio.
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