/Investors

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

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.

Sanjeev Kumarunlockedknows T.M. Ravi · together at FogHorn Systems, Inc (overlapped)
knows the team · via Coopers & Lybrand
×4knows the team · via TiE
knows the team · via Nile
knows the team · via Kauffman Fellows Class 3
×4knows the team · via March Capital Partners
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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.

Stage
Pre-Seed–Series A
HQ
Santa Monica, CA, US
Leads rounds
Leads
Instruments
Equity
Founded
1998
AUM
$650M
VC funds
6
Tracked investments
30
IPOs
1
Acquisitions
1

Team · 7 people

from curated & public directories

What they invest in

from 12 of 30 portfolio companies

AI & 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 path

By year:2019 · 12018 · 12017 · 12016 · 22015 · 22014 · 12013 · 12010 · 12006 · 12000 · 112 dated

PayPalpaypal.cominNASDAQ: PYPLSeries B · Jan 2000 · $23M

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

Bridgbridg.cominSeries A · Jan 2015

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

Cars Directcarsdirect.com

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

CarStorycarstory.ai

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

Evertuneevertune.aiinSeed · May 2010 · $800K

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

Games2Winmediagames2winmedia.cominMay 2019

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

Idealabidealab.com

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

Meru Networksmerunetworks.com

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

Co-investorsSierra VenturesTenaya CapitalBlueStream Ventures

Mimosa Systemsmimosasystems.comacquired by Iron Mountain

Next-generation content and email archiving with compliance and disaster recovery

Co-investorsAugust CapitalIcon Ventures

Netzeronetzero.net

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

Rubicon Projectrubiconproject.com𝕏

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

Spycloudspycloud.comin𝕏Seed · Jun 2017 · $3M

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

Supplyframesupplyframe.comin𝕏

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

UserTestingusertesting.comin𝕏

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

Basel Fakhouryin

Co-investorsAccelAdams Street PartnersDag VenturesInspiration VenturesIntercept VenturesOpenView Venture Partners+4 more

Xfirexfire.com

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 acquisitions

PayPalNASDAQ: PYPLMimosa Systemsacq. by Iron Mountain

Portfolio news

latest coverage across their companies

Fund performance · per public LP disclosures

as of Jun 2025
FundVintageCommittedNet IRRTVPIDPI
Clearstone Venture Partners III-A, L.PLPs: California State Teachers' Retirement System, The Regents of the University of California2004—8.2%2.79x2.07x

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 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.

Both backed · 3
Sequoia Capital

Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm that partners with founders to build technology companies.

Both backed · 1
$4.4M – $214M
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.

Both backed · 1
$200K – $2M
Morpheus Ventures

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Both backed · 1
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Founders Fund

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$500K – $5M
Benchmark

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Bling Capital

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Bonfire Ventures

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Hack VC

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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
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.

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Crosscut Ventures

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$250K – $750K
▶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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