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.

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.

Clearstone Venture Partners

Venture capital

Santa Monica · Pre-Seed–Series A · 7 people tracked

Also known as Cedarstone Advisors · CLEARSTONE VENTURE MANAGEMENT SERVICES, L.L.C

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Find your way into Clearstone Venture Partners

773 people in our graph share verified history with the Clearstone Venture Partners team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Scott Billerunlockedknows Bill Elkus · together at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (overlapped)

×2knows the team · via TiE

knows the team · via Massachusetts Institute of Technology

×2knows the team · via Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management

knows the team · via FogHorn Systems, Inc

knows the team · via Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

✨ Fox Verdict

Investment thesis

Clearstone positions itself as an early-stage lead investor backing founders and teams building technology companies. Its focus areas include fintech and payments, enterprise technologies, and data-driven marketplaces. The firm has enabled large US institutions to participate as early investors in emerging innovations, and points to a track record of $650 million invested over three funds, resulting in 9 IPOs and nearly a dozen M&A exits.

Invests inData & Infrastructure Enterprise Software Fintech Marketplaces Santa Monica United States

Source: firm website, verified Sep 15, 2026.

Stage

Pre-Seed–Series A

Santa Monica, CA, US

Leads rounds

Leads

Instruments

Equity

Founded

1998

AUM

$650M

VC funds

Tracked investments

Team · 7 people

from curated & public directories

Sumant Mandal· Managing Director· Santa Monica, Californiain 𝕏

Co-founder and Managing Partner of March Capital with over two decades of venture capital experience, investing in automation technologies (generative AI, ML, RPA, cloud/data infrastructure) and companies supporting India's digitization. He co-founded incubators The Hive and The Fabric, was previously a Managing Director at Clearstone Venture Partners, and serves on several company boards.

Bill Elkus· Managing Partner· Park City, Utah, United Statesin

Bill Elkus founded Clearstone Venture Partners in 1997 and serves as Managing Member of its General Partners. He has held board and observer positions at companies including PayPal, Overture, United Online, and several others, with Clearstone Fund I ranking first among approximately 700 funds evaluated by CalPERS in 2011 by internal rate of return. Elkus holds a JD from Harvard Law School and both an MS in Management and BS in Mathematics from MIT, and began his career at Boston Consulting Group before founding Nathan Todd & Company, an investment advisory firm managing over $600 million.

William Quigley· Managing Partner

Prabakar Sundarrajan· Venture Partner𝕏

T.M. Ravi· Venture Partner· Palo Alto, Californiain 𝕏

Co-founder and Managing Director of The Hive, a serial entrepreneur who has started over 25 startups and was founder & CEO of Mimosa Systems, Peakstone Corporation, and Media Blitz. He held marketing leadership roles at Iron Mountain, Computer Associates, and Cheyenne Software, and holds an MS and PhD from UCLA and a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur.

t•••@hivedata.comreveal

Dana Moraly· Chief Financial Officer· Los Angelesin 𝕏

Dana Moraly is a Partner and Chief Financial & Administrative Officer at March Capital, overseeing fund accounting and HR with over 25 years of experience as a CFO in venture capital. She previously served as CFO of Clearstone Venture Partners, managed finance for private equity funds at Trust Company of the West, and worked at Coopers & Lybrand and Deloitte.

d•••@hivedata.comreveal

Vish Mishra· Venture Partner· Menlo Park, California, United Statesin 𝕏

Vish Mishra is a venture capitalist at Clearstone Venture Partners since 2002, where he has participated in investments generating over $10 billion in market value across notable companies including PayPal, BillDesk, VeloCloud, and Rubicon Project. With 47 years in Silicon Valley and 40 years of technology industry leadership spanning software, internet, telecommunications, and healthcare, he serves as chairman of Sunshine in Interaction and holds or has held board positions at multiple technology companies. Mishra is active in philanthropic and community engagement efforts, including leadership roles with The Indus Entrepreneurs Silicon Valley, the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, and the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship at San Jose State University.

What they invest in

from 2 of 3 portfolio companies

AdTech ×1Gaming ×1Marketing Tech ×1Media & Entertainment ×1

Investments · 3 tracked

founders shown can be your intro path

Games2wingames2win.com in

Games2win is a mobile game publisher that develops and distributes games across iOS and Android platforms for casual gaming audiences worldwide.

Gaming

Alok Kejriwal(Founder)in

Co-investorsNirvana Venture Advisors

Meru Networksmerunetworks.com

Provides a virtualized wireless LAN solution that cost-effectively optimizes the enterprise network.

Co-investorsTenaya Capital BlueStream Ventures

Rubicon Projectrubiconproject.com in 𝕏

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 Partners Blumberg Capital Mayfield Fund XG Ventures

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

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.
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

Sequoia Capital

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Founders Fund

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Benchmark

Benchmark is a venture capital firm with offices in San Francisco and Woodside that invests in early-stage startups.

$100K – $30M

Bling Capital

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$1M – $5M

Bonfire Ventures

Bonfire Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm that backs founders reinventing how business operates, leading seed rounds in AI-native B2B software.

$2M – $4M

Hack VC

Hack VC is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage crypto, blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance, and AI companies.

$3M

BAM Ventures

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.

$100K – $1M

March Capital Partners

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.

Tribeca Venture Partners

Tribeca Venture Partners is a New York-based venture capital firm that backs early-stage founders using emerging technologies to build category-defining companies.

$1M – $15M

Crosscut Ventures

Crosscut is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles that backs founders building frontier technologies aimed at solving major societal challenges.

$250K – $750K

Silverton Partners

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.

$200K – $2M

Miramar Venture Partners

Miramar Digital Ventures is a seed and early-stage venture firm backing founders leveraging smart connected sensors, big data, and intelligent machines to drive disruption.

$100K – $3M

▶5 more co-investors

Act One Ventures The Perkins Fund Morpheus Ventures Triangle Peak Partners Unicorn 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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