Fundraising Fox
Cold Start Ventures
Venture capitalNew York · Pre-Seed–Seed · 1 people tracked
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Investment thesis
Cold Start Ventures operates as an incubation and venture partner that acts as co-founders rather than passive investors. The firm develops companies from its own theses, targeting overlooked opportunities before the broader market recognizes them, then pairs those ideas with exceptional founders. It provides hands-on support across strategy and fundraising, helping portfolio founders raise from top-tier VCs and scale rapidly. The firm emphasizes conviction-led investing, deep operational involvement, and compounding success across its portfolio, with a focus on backing founders who think differently and attack generational opportunities.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 7, 2026.
Team · 1 people
from the firm's website
What they invest in
from 13 of 16 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×6Developer Tools ×4Enterprise Software ×4Healthtech ×4SaaS ×4Deep Tech ×3Digital Health ×3Fintech ×3
HQs:United States×9Australia×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 14 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×22 founders×23 founders×24+ founders×8
Where their founders studiedfrom 29 founders with education data
Stanford University ×5Duke University ×4Harvard University ×3Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi ×2The Wharton School ×2Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology ×2University of Toronto ×2
What their founders studiedfrom 26 founders with field-of-study data
Computer Science ×13Physics ×5Engineering ×2Humanities ×2Mathematics & Statistics ×2
Where their founders worked beforefrom 32 founders with career history
OpenAI ×10Google ×9Microsoft ×3Stanford University ×3Zapier ×3Stripe ×2World Economic Forum ×2
8 founders hold a PhD · 3 hold an MBA (of 32 with degree data)
Investments · 16 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2025 · 12023 · 12021 · 13 dated
Revolutionizing space technology to make life multi-planetary
Hawthorne, US
Elon Musk(Founder)inBret Johnsen(Executive Officer)inGwynne Shotwell(Executive Officer, Director)Tom Mueller(Founder)
BoardAntonio Gracias(Director)inSteve Jurvetson(Director)in
Co-investors1/1 Capital137 Ventures1802 Ventures2080 Ventures3Spoke Capital4DX Ventures+211 more
3Y Health provides business setup and compliance infrastructure for healthcare practitioners, handling licensing, registration, and regulatory requirements so practitioners can launch their practice with minimal administrative burden.
Digital HealthFintechHealthtechSaaS
Co-investorsFounders FundSound Ventures
Anthropic is an AI safety research company that builds reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Dario Amodei(Founder)inDaniela Amodei(Founder)inTom Brown(Founder)inJack Clark(Founder)inJared Kaplan(Founder)inChris Olah(Founder)in
Co-investors3Comma Capital7BC Venture Capital7GC & CoA.Capital VenturesAccelAkka+151 more
Assort provides voice AI agents for healthcare that use deep patient interaction data to proactively guide patients through their care journey, orchestrating tasks from intake and scheduling to billing and care gap closure.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtech
Jeffery Liu(Founder)inJon Wang(Founder)inJeff Liu(Founder)inJonathan Wang(Founder)Jonathan Wang Jeffery Liu(Founder)
Co-investorsAlumni VenturesavraChemistryCoho DeeptechCollective LiquidityFelicis Ventures+19 more
Berry Street provides credentialing, billing, administrative, and referral support to independent dietitians, enabling them to accept insurance and serve patients seeking nutrition therapy.
Digital HealthHealthtechBrooklyn, US
Noah Kotlove(Founder)inYury Yakubchyk(Director)in
BoardJesse Rose(Founder)Wendy Xiao(Director)in
Co-investorsA-Force VenturesMarketplaceNorthzoneVillage GlobalFJ Labs
Blank Street operates specialty coffee shops with a small-footprint model, serving high-quality specialty coffee and locally-sourced food at affordable prices.
ConsumerFoodTechRetail TechBrooklyn, US
Issam Freiha(Founder)inBerk Emir Ildiz(Executive Officer)Ignacio Llado Alvarez-Salas(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardJason Fiedler(Director)inHisham Elhaddad(Director)inJoel Cutler(Director)in
Co-investorsBase10 PartnersCapital B Private HoldingsFJ LabsGeneral CatalystGood FriendsHOF Capital+11 more
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Careerist helps job seekers discover tech careers that match their personality and interests through a personality quiz matching system.
EdTechFintechFuture of WorkSan Francisco, US
Ivan Tsybaev(Founder)inMax Glubochansky(Co-Founder \u0026 CBO)inMax Gusakov(Founder)in
Co-investorsSmart Partnership CapitalVenture SolutionsY CombinatorA.partnersCathexis VenturesGrant Park Ventures+4 more
FINOM provides business accounts for companies, offering banking services such as SEPA transfers, deposits, and ATM withdrawals via a physical card across Europe.
Fintech
Andrew Petrov(Founder)inAndrey Petrov(Founder)inKonstantin Stiskin(Founder)Kos Stiskin(Founder)Oleg Laguta(Founder)Yakov Novikov(Founder)
Co-investorsAZURO CAPITAL VENTURESBegin CapitalCogito Capital PartnersEntrée CapitalFJ LabsGeneral Catalyst+9 more
Glean provides an AI-powered workplace search and knowledge management platform that connects company data across documents, messages, tickets, and systems to help teams access information and complete work.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSilicon Valley, US
Arvind Jain(Founder)inTony Gentilcore(Founder)inT.R. Vishwanath(Founder)inPiyush Prahladka(Founder)inTR Vishwanath(Founder)Vishal Gupta(Founder)
Co-investorsAdvaita CapitalCategory VenturesCoatue ManagementCraft VenturesDash VCFoundation Capital+31 more
Grow Therapy provides online mental health therapy services designed to be more accessible, affordable, and user-friendly than traditional therapy.
B2B MarketplacesHealthtechMental HealthSaaS
Jake Cooper(Founder)inManoj Kanagaraj(Founder)inAlan Ni(Founder)in
Co-investorsBCIEvio VCMenlo VenturesPLUS CapitalReshapeSequoia Capital+6 more
AI company developing a medical search engine used by physicians for clinical decision support.
Daniel Nadler(Founder)inZachary Ziegler(Founder)Daniel Nadler Zachary Ziegler(Founder)Zack Ziegler(Founder)
Co-investorsAlkeon InnovationAmity VenturesAndreessen HorowitzBas1s VenturesBond Capital ManagementBreyer Capital+26 more
Phia is an AI shopping assistant that compares prices across the web and secondhand marketplaces so shoppers can build their closet at the best price.
New York, US
Sophia Kianni(Founder)inPhoebe Gates(Founder)in
BoardAnnie Case(Director)in
Co-investorsDuke Capital PartnersKleiner PerkinsMento vcNotable CapitalScribble VenturesSoma Capital+2 more
PsiQuantum builds fault-tolerant quantum computers using photonic qubits and semiconductor manufacturing processes.
Deep TechHardwareQuantum ComputingSemiconductorsMoreton Bay, AU
Prof. Terry Rudolph(Co-founder & Chief Architect)Dr. Pete Shadbolt(Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer)inProf. Mark Thompson(Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer)Jeremy O'Brien(Founder)inVictor Peng(Chief Executive Officer)inMark Thompson(Founder)
Co-investorsAtomicoBlackbird VenturesC4 VenturesFOG VenturesFounders FundFPV+38 more
Runlayer builds a trust and safety layer that enables enterprises to deploy AI agents and integrations across their organizations securely.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
Andy Berman(Co-founder)inTal Peretz(Founder)inVitor Balocco(Founder)inAndrew Berman(Founder)
Co-investorsFelicis VenturesKhosla Ventures
Vercel is an infrastructure platform for building and deploying applications, with emerging support for agentic capabilities that allow AI agents and humans to collaborate in software development.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSan Francisco, US
Guillermo Rauch(CEO and Founder, Vercel)inNaoyuki Kanezawa(Founder)Tony Kovanen(Founder)
BoardGeoff Lewis(Director)inDaniel Levine(Director)inReid Christian(Director)in
Co-investors8VCAccelBedrockBeyond CapitalCoatue ManagementCRV (Charles River Ventures)+35 more
x.ai builds frontier AI reasoning models, real-time voice AI, and generative media systems.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwarePalo Alto, US
Yuhuai (Tony) Wu(Founder)inDennis Mortensen(Executive Officer, Director)Alex Poon(Director)Greg Yang(Founder)inGuodong Zhang(Founder)inIgor Babuschkin(Founder)in
Co-investors7percent VenturesAbstract VenturesAccess Ventures (New York)Aglae VenturesAmity VenturesAndreessen Horowitz+71 more
Exits · 2
1 IPOs · 1 acquisitionsPortfolio news
latest coverage across their companies
Anthropic · Anthropic Newsroom · Aug 4, 2026
Assort Health · prnewswire.com · Jun 25, 2026
Runlayer · securityweek.com · Jun 25, 2026
Grow Therapy · growtherapy.com · Mar 3, 2026
xAI · techcrunch.com · Jan 6, 2026
Open Evidence · techcrunch.com · Oct 20, 2025
Finom · techcrunch.com · Jun 23, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Cold Start Ventures made?
- Cold Start Ventures has 16 tracked investments, 2 of which have exited, including 1 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does Cold Start Ventures invest at?
- Cold Start Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
- What sectors does Cold Start Ventures focus on?
- Cold Start Ventures focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Consumer, Fintech, Healthtech, LegalTech, Marketplaces, Quantum Computing, Robotics, SaaS, Space Tech.
- Where is Cold Start Ventures located?
- Cold Start Ventures is headquartered in New York, US.
- Does Cold Start Ventures lead rounds?
- Cold Start Ventures typically participates in rounds rather than leading them.
- Who does Cold Start Ventures co-invest with?
- Cold Start Ventures most often shares deals with General Catalyst, Coatue Management, Kleiner Perkins, among 135 tracked co-investors.
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