/Investor DB

Focal Ventures

Venture capitalActively deployingoperating company · company profile

Miami · Pre-Seed–Seed · 3 people tracked

Also known as Darling Ventures · focal

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Investment thesis

Focal exclusively backs AI-native, technical founders at the earliest stage, positioning itself as the founder's first lead investor. It looks for teams pursuing highly asymmetric AI opportunities, with at least one technical builder who ships fast, and a hunger to win. The firm is sector-agnostic across industries, with two non-negotiables: it must be the company's first financing and the startup must be based in the US or Canada. Every check is a core position rather than an option; Focal moves quickly, sometimes from first meeting to investment in days. Beyond capital, it supports early go-to-market through The GTM Circle, an invite-only network of 200+ revenue operators.

Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.

Stage
Pre-Seed–Seed
Check
$250K – $750K
HQ
Miami, Florida, US
Leads rounds
Leads
Instruments
Equity
Founded
2020
Tracked investments
71
Unicorns
1
IPOs
1
Acquisitions
2

Team · 3 people

from the firm's website & public directories

Founder mafia

2 people who came through Focal Ventures went on to found or lead other companies.

What they invest in

from 55 of 71 portfolio companies

AI & Machine Learning ×40SaaS ×29Enterprise Software ×20Healthtech ×11Developer Tools ×9Fintech ×8Data & Infrastructure ×6Digital Health ×6

HQs:United States×22Canada×1

Who they back

founder profiles across 23 portfolio companies
61%
solo founders
14 of 23 mapped founding teams
46%
repeat founders
of 28 founders with career history

Founding team size:solo founder×142 founders×63 founders×14+ founders×2

Where their founders studiedfrom 27 founders with education data

Imperial College London ×3Massachusetts Institute of Technology ×2Stanford University ×2University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ×2

What their founders studiedfrom 27 founders with field-of-study data

Engineering ×11Computer Science ×10Business & Management ×5Finance & Accounting ×4Economics ×3Mathematics & Statistics ×2

Where their founders worked beforefrom 28 founders with career history

ADP ×2Glispa Global Group ×2JP Morgan Chase ×2National Guard of Cyprus ×2Uber ×2University of Michigan ×2

Accelerator rootsportfolio companies that came through a program

Y Combinator ×3

2 founders hold a PhD · 4 hold an MBA (of 31 with degree data)

Investments · 71 tracked

founders shown can be your intro path

By year:2025 · 12018 · 12015 · 13 dated

Weavegetweave.comin𝕏NYSE: WEAV

Weave offers team communication and collaboration tools for healthcare practices, including messaging, scheduling, and patient management features accessible from desktop and mobile apps.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkHealthtechSaaSLehi, US

Brandon Rodman(CEO)inJared Rodman(Founder/CCO)inClint Berry(CTO)inMarcus Bertilson(Executive Officer)inBrett White(Chief Executive Officer)inJason Christiansen(Executive Officer)in

Co-investorsA.Capital VenturesBessemer Venture PartnersBYU Cougar CapitalCrosslink CapitalFundersClubIA Seed Ventures+18 more

Alchemyalchemy.bio

Unobio licenses promising pharmaceutical assets from academia, biotech, and pharma companies and builds them into focused US-based companies by pairing programs with dedicated operators and capital to advance them through development stages that do not depend on the science itself.

AI & Machine LearningBiotechDeep Tech

Altanaacceldata.ioin

Acceldata provides a unified platform for building, governing, and scaling data and AI workloads with end-to-end observability across pipelines.

AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwarePalo Alto, US

Rohit Choudhary(Founder)inAshwin Rajeeva(Founder)inSatish Krishnamurthy(Executive Officer, Director)Maram Nagendraprasad(Executive Officer, Director)Gaurav Nagar(Founder)in

BoardDev Khare(Director)in

Co-investorsDrive CapitalEMERGENT VENTURESFelicis VenturesForesite CapitalGeneral CatalystInsight Partners+23 more

Altira Healthaltirahealth.comin

Altira provides AI-powered patient engagement and guidance to healthcare systems, combining clinical expertise with adaptive artificial intelligence to improve health outcomes and reduce unnecessary care utilization.

AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtech

Co-investorsCoalition OperatorsHomebrewStone Mountain VenturesWireframe Ventures

Arkivearkive.net

Arkive is a decentralized, member-curated physical museum that acquires artifacts chosen by community votes recorded on-chain.

Thomas McLeod(Founder)in

Co-investorsCoinbase VenturesInterlace VenturesParade VenturesAmity VenturesAwesome People VenturesChainforest+10 more

Avocarrotavocarrot.com

Programmatic native ad for mobile publishers (exited)

Co-investorsOdyssey Venture Funds LPAscension VenturesEntrepreneur FirstNFT Ventures

Balthazarbltzr.gg

Balthazar is a blockchain gaming infrastructure DAO focused on onboarding non-crypto-native users into Web3 gaming.

Co-investorsCapitalTRising CapitalYolo InvestmentsAntlerDigital Asset Capital

Beam Healthbeam.healthin𝕏

Beam Health develops AI-powered workflow software that automates administrative tasks across the patient journey for specialty clinics and medical practices, including intake, documentation, billing, and care coordination.

AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtechSaaSHolmdel, US

Sas Ponnapalli(Founder & CEO)inRanga Jayawardena(Executive Officer)in

BoardShawn Merani(Director)in

Co-investorsChaos VenturesGreen Egg VenturesJoyance PartnersSocial StartsTechstarsDarling Ventures+2 more

Boundless Mindboundless.aiin𝕏

Boundless (Thrive) offers a personalized digital health app that helps users adopt small daily behavior changes across five areas — food, movement, sleep, stress management, and social connection — through baseline assessments and tailored daily guidance.

AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtechWellness & Fitness

Arianna Huffington(Founder & CEO)in

Co-investorsIVP (Institutional Venture Partners)Joyance PartnersNew York Venture PartnersRevolutionSocial StartsAtaraxia VC

Brackettbrackett.ai

Brackett builds AI agents that automate business operations by learning from demonstrations of how teams perform their work, capturing exceptions and rules that define each organization's unique processes.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaS

Jaideep Sarkar(Founder)in

Bridgefy_bridgefy.me

Mexican software company building Bluetooth mesh-networking technology for offline mobile messaging apps and SDKs.

Co-investorsAvalancha VenturesEmbryo VenturesMaC Venture CapitalMGV CapitalSpringTime Ventures

Briqbriq.com

Bassem Hamdy(Founder)in

Co-investorsAlumni VenturesEniac VenturesEastward Capital Partners

CatalyzeXcatalyzex.com

CatalyzeX runs a search platform that helps developers find machine learning techniques and their code implementations.

Co-investorsAlumni VenturesVibe CapitalAbstraction CapitalAVVBasecamp FundBinh Tran+4 more

Chingona Ventureschingona.ventures

Chingona Ventures is a venture capital firm.

Sector Agnostic

Samara Mejia Hernandez(Founding Partner)in

Co-investorsFoundry50 South CapitalInsight PartnersNorwest Venture PartnersPayPal VenturesPivotal Ventures+1 more

Conquest Labsconquestlabs.com

Conquest Labs builds AI models to discover and develop cancer therapies by engineering multi-drug combinations that guide biological systems from diseased to healthy states.

AI & Machine LearningBiotechMedical Devices

Coworker AIcoworker.aiin𝕏

Coworker.ai provides AI agents that automate product-management workflows such as synthesizing user feedback, monitoring competitors, tracking feature requests, and syncing roadmaps and documentation.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkSaaSSan Francisco, US

Alex Calder(Founder)inBradford Church(Founder)in

Co-investorsAbstract VenturesEniac VenturesOperator CollectiveTriatomic Capital

Diagraphicsshape.exchange

ShapeX AI rebuilds architectural drawings and plans into structured digital frames.

AI & Machine LearningConstruction Tech

Diviniadivinia.aiin𝕏

Divinia builds video generation and search solutions for e-commerce businesses.

AI & Machine LearningE-commerceMarketing TechSaaS

Co-investorsAlumni Ventures

Drafterdrafterinc.comin𝕏

Drafter builds software that automates the creation of 2D mechanical drawings, reducing manual drafting work for mechanical engineers in design and manufacturing.

Advanced ManufacturingDeveloper ToolsHardwareSaaS

Co-investorsBee PartnersOmni Ventures

Easycodeeasycode.ai

EasyCode is an AI assistant for software developers that provides contextual answers, code suggestions, and real-time feedback on code quality within the developer workflow.

AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsFuture of Work

Eclipseeclipseperf.com

Eclipse provides real-time muscular insight through wearable technology for athletes during training and competition, enabling proactive injury prevention.

HardwareHealthtechSports Tech

Ben Carlson(Co-Founder & CEO)inJohnny Chen(Co-Founder & CTO)in

Finch Claimsfinchclaims.comin

Finch is a claims management platform that automatically extracts and structures claim-related information from email, documents, and attachments for public adjusters and claims firms.

AI & Machine LearningInsurTechSaaS

Tom M.(Founder)in

Co-investorsTipTop VenturesVeridical Ventures

Findfundingfindfunding.vc

FindFunding.vc is a searchable directory of venture capital firms, listing details such as investment stage, check size, lead/follow preference, sector focus, location, fund size, and partner names.

Data & InfrastructureFintechSaaS

Flamingoflamingo.runin

Flamingo builds an open, AI-powered platform for managed service providers (MSPs) to deliver IT services using open tools and automation, aiming to replace closed, bloated vendor tools.

AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS

Michael Assraf(Founder)in

Co-investorsArray Ventures Management LlcExpansion Venture CapitalVertex Ventures IsraelVertex Ventures

Flare FSflarefs.comin𝕏

Chicago fintech offering an all-in-one financial operating system for nonprofits, covering accounts, expenses, bill pay and planning.

FintechChicago, US

Co-investorsAsia Africa Investment & Consulting (AAIC)Techstars

Geminusgeminus.aiin𝕏

Geminus builds physics-native AI systems that understand, predict, and optimize complex industrial infrastructure in real time by combining physics-based simulation with real-world data and uncertainty-aware reasoning.

AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDefense TechEnergyEnterprise Software

Karthik Duraisamy(Dr.)inAlex Gorodetsky(Dr.)in

Co-investorsSentiero VenturesThe HiveThird Derivative

Gleamjoingleam.comin𝕏Seed

Gleam is an AI-assisted data entry tool designed for clinical research sites to move data from source systems into electronic data capture systems faster and with higher accuracy.

AI & Machine LearningBiotechEnterprise SoftwareHealthtechSaaSSan Francisco, US

Oliver Keh(Founder)inEmeka Itegbe

Co-investorsY Combinator1984 Ventures Management, LlcHustle FundLiquid Ventures

Gridiumgridium.comin𝕏

Gridium provides software and analytics that turn commercial building energy data into insights for building teams, helping them identify savings opportunities, create budgets, simplify reporting, and meet energy regulations.

EnergyPropTechSaaSMenlo Park, US

Adam Stein(Executive Officer, Director)inThomas Arnold(Executive Officer, Director)

BoardTravis Putnam(Director)in

Co-investorsNavitas Capital

Growthunhingedgrowthunhinged.comin

Growth Unhinged is a newsletter offering practical guidance on startup marketing, pricing, and growth, including playbooks and case studies.

Marketing TechMedia & Entertainment

Kyle Poyar(Founder)in

Harmonyzeharmonyze.comin𝕏

Harmonyze offers an AI-driven performance coaching platform for franchise brands that consolidates operational data—POS, financials, reviews, field notes, and training—into prescriptive guidance so each location knows what to do next.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaS

Gary Liskovich(Founder)inJonny Greenspan(Founder)in

Co-investorsBowery Capital

Hedgeyhedgey.finance𝕏Acquired

Hedgey provides onchain token infrastructure for crypto teams, including token vesting, investor lockups, grants, airdrops, and distributions for employees, investors, and communities.

Crypto & Web3Data & InfrastructureFintech

Lindsey Winder(Co-founder)inAlex Michelsen, CFA(Founder)in

Co-investorsBollinger Investment GroupConsenSys MeshFlori VenturesGraph Paper Capital

Jasmine Energyjasmine.energyin𝕏SeedDefunct

Jasmine Energy is a technology company focused on the energy sector.

AI & Machine LearningCleantechEnergyEnterprise SoftwareSaaSWashington, US

Nathalie Capati(Founder)inDalton Combs(CPO)inMatt Mayberry(Founder)in

Co-investorsAlumni VenturesAtmos capitalY CombinatorCerulean VenturesClimate CapitalCollaborative Fund+4 more

Kaidenkaiden.aiJan 2025 · $1M

Kaiden AI provides an AI-powered training platform for law enforcement agencies that uses hyper-realistic AI personas to deliver scenario-based practice and evaluation across the training lifecycle, from basic academy through in-service training.

AI & Machine LearningEdTechGovTech

Co-investorsDarling VenturesFocalHustle Fund

Keragonkeragon.comin

Keragon offers a no-code platform for healthcare organizations to build HIPAA-compliant workflow automations, aimed at clinical and operations teams.

AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtechSaaS

George Eracleous(Founder)inPanos Papageorgiou(Founder)inConno Christou(Founder)inGeorge Makkoulis(Founder)

Co-investors25MadisonAfore CapitalUpfront VenturesDarling VenturesFocal

Kintsugikintsugihealth.comin𝕏Defunct

Kintsugi develops voice biomarker AI that analyzes short speech samples to detect and measure the severity of behavioral health conditions, integrating into clinical workflows and call centers for health systems and insurers.

AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthMental HealthWellness & FitnessBerkeley, US

Grace Chang(Founder)inRima Seiilova-Olson(Founder)

Co-investorsAtas VCCitta CapitalHDS CapitalInsight PartnersLink VenturesTechstars+2 more

Kyndikyndi.comin𝕏Jul 2015

Kyndi (presented via Qlik Answers) offers a natural-language agentic AI assistant that combines an analytics engine with large language models to generate insights from both structured analytics and unstructured content.

AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareRedwood City, US

JAMES RYAN WELSH(Executive Officer, Director)

BoardTIMOTHY CONNORS(Director)ARUN MAJUMDAR(Director)

Co-investorsDarling VenturesIntel CapitalPIVOTNORTH

L2 Labsl2labs.ai

L2 Labs builds AI systems that autonomously map, translate, and maintain enterprise data flows, with a focus on EDI and B2B integration.

AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise Software

Lightswitchgetlightswitch.com

Lightswitch is an embedded operations partner that builds automations and systems for fast-growing consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, handling tasks like parsing purchase orders, order processing, inventory reconciliation, and shipment tracking inside the tools clients already use.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareLogistics & Supply ChainSaaS

Benton Atchison(Founder)inSunny Israni, CFA(Founder)in

Masthead Datamastheadata.comin

Masthead provides cost optimization and data observability tools for Google BigQuery, enabling data teams to monitor pipelines, detect anomalies, and reduce spending across their data infrastructure.

Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureSaaS

Co-investorsDEPO VenturesFocalSMOK Ventures

Maxedmaxed.lifein

Maxed is a unified platform for CPA firms that replaces their fragmented software stack with a single AI-agent-powered system for tasks like client portals, document management, and workflow automation.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS

Fifi Siddiqui(Founder & CEO)in

Co-investorsFocal

MSPilotmspilot.ioinSeed

MSPilot provides a platform for managed service providers to build, deploy, and monetize AI agents across their SMB client base.

AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US

Paul Li(Founder)inJames Jiang(Founder)in

Co-investorsY CombinatorFounders FactoryGlobevestorPascal CapitalWadstein Capital

Mybusinessflowmybusinessflow.comin𝕏

MyBusinessFlow provides an AI voice agent that answers incoming calls for home service businesses, filters spam, qualifies leads, and automatically books jobs into the business's calendar or scheduling software.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkSaaSSales Tech

Ombreombrelab.comin

Ombre Lab offers at-home microbiome testing powered by AI, providing personalized microbiome reports and targeted probiotic recommendations based on DNA sequencing and proprietary bioinformatics.

AI & Machine LearningConsumerHealthtechWellness & FitnessHermitage, US

Co-investorsJoyance PartnersRelevance VenturesTMV

On Meonme.comin

On Me is a digital gifting platform that lets people send personalized gifts wrapped in photos, videos, and shared memories, while giving recipients freedom to choose from a curated set of brands and gift cards across categories like fitness, travel, and adventure experiences.

ConsumerE-commerceFintechSaaSSan Francisco, US

Sitar Harel(Founder)inDarragh Meaney(Founder)in

Co-investorsLerer HippeauNFXDarling VenturesFocal

Openbuildertheopenbuilder.com

OpenBuilder provides a backend platform and visual debugging tools for developers to build applications without per-message costs.

Cloud ComputingDeveloper Tools

Precurionprecurion.comin𝕏

Precurion is an underwriting platform for real estate acquisition teams that turns transaction documents (OMs, rent rolls, T-12s, leases, financing docs) into investment-ready financial models, calculating outputs like NOI, cap rate, IRR, debt yield, and DSCR with source traceability.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintechPropTechSaaS

Ian Smith(CEO/Founder)

Prescientprescientai.comin𝕏Oct 2018

Prescient provides a standardized marketing measurement platform for holding companies managing multiple brands, using tailored marketing mix models that enable portfolio-level comparison and budget optimization across brands.

AdTechAI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSCuyahoga Falls, US

Michael True(Founder)inCody Greco(Founder)inEdward Willard Lowe, Jr(Executive Officer)Will Holtz(Interim CEO)inJose Orue(Head of Product)inMike True(Founder)

Co-investorsBlumberg CapitalGreen Egg VenturesMaccabee VenturesOutbound VenturesDarling VenturesHeadline

Pump.copump.coin𝕏Seed

Pump provides discounted AWS cloud computing for early-stage startups through collective purchasing and automated optimization, with no setup or engineering required.

AI & Machine LearningFintechSaaSSan Francisco, US

Spandana Nakka(CEO)inShri B(Founding Engineer)Luis Vale(Business Associate)Paul Russo(Chief of Staff)Sharvin Manjrekar(Business Associate)Stuart(Business Associate)

Co-investorsDe Fi Alliance HoldingsDG Daiwa VenturesPioneerY CombinatorFailup VenturesFocal+2 more

SendHubsendhub.comin𝕏Acquired

SendHub provides SMS automation software that sends text messages automatically based on triggers, schedules, or customer behavior patterns.

Developer ToolsEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkMarketing TechSaaSSan Francisco, US

Ash Rust(CEO)inGarrett JohnsoninJohn Fallonein

Co-investors500 GlobalFundersClubHinge CapitalKapor CapitalY Combinator11-11 Ventures+12 more

Solderablesolderable.dev𝕏

Solderable provides PCB design, schematic review, PCB layout, component sourcing, manufacturing support, and AI-assisted component intelligence tools for hardware teams.

Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsHardware

Starkgetstark.coin𝕏

Stark provides an end-to-end accessibility platform with integrated tools for design, development, and compliance that helps teams find and fix accessibility issues from initial design through live product.

Developer ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS

Cat Noone(Founder)in

Co-investorsAdvent InternationalAlumni VenturesBlueYard CapitalProject A VenturesSequoia Capital201 Ventures+3 more

Takeoff AItakeoff41.comin

Takeoff41 builds TPN2.0, an AI-guided total parenteral nutrition (TPN) ordering system for neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) that integrates with EHR systems to track fluids and nutrition and generate safe, compoundable prescriptions.

AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtech

Co-investorsSarah SmithStartX

Tenvostenvos.comin

Tenvos provides an AI-based voice assessment system that detects worker impairment and fatigue in high-risk industries to prevent workplace injuries.

AI & Machine LearningHealthtechSaaS

Rima Seiilova-Olson(Founder)in

Thorasthoras.aiin𝕏

Thoras provides predictive autoscaling software for Kubernetes environments, using machine learning to forecast workload demand and automatically right-size CPU and GPU resources.

AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSan Francisco, US

Nilo Rahmani(Founder)

Co-investorsNorthside VenturesSINEWAVE VENTURESStorytime CapitalWellington Management

Threadwisethreadwise.aiin

ThreadWise provides AI-powered message routing and triage for service agencies, automatically classifying inbound work as sales or service requests and routing them to the appropriate team member with relevant context.

AI & Machine LearningSaaS

Trelenttrelent.net

Trelent is a private AI platform that runs in a customer's own environment to automate workflows involving sensitive information, such as client onboarding, compliance and risk assessment from financial statements, and document review.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS

Unobiounobio.comin

Unobio is a biotech company running drug discovery programs that begin with patient data and validate candidates against patient biology at each stage, aiming to improve translation rates from preclinical work to clinical trials.

AI & Machine LearningBiotechDeep Tech

Weaveweave.inDefunct

Weave generates automated professional introductions for users on a weekly basis to facilitate networking connections.

AI & Machine LearningConsumerHR TechSan Francisco, US

Brian Ma(Founder)inElpizo Choi(CTO)inClint Berry(CTO)in

Co-investorsEast 11 VenturesY CombinatorEastlink Capital PartnersFlorence Venture CapitalFuel CapitalIndex Ventures+5 more

Withewithe.coin𝕏

Withe provides a platform software for organizing and managing career fairs, enabling organizers to coordinate employer-candidate connections and report outcomes to stakeholders.

Future of WorkHR TechSaaS

Other

Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.

1derdoxxnetEngoodenEvallosGleamcareGlide HealthOmniSubstackcdn

Exits · 3

1 IPOs · 2 acquisitions · showing 1

WeaveNYSE: WEAV

Portfolio news

latest coverage across their companies

Frequently asked questions

How many investments has Focal Ventures made?
Focal Ventures has 71 tracked investments, 3 of which have exited, including 1 dated in the last 24 months.
What stage does Focal Ventures invest at?
Focal Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
What is Focal Ventures's typical check size?
Focal Ventures typically writes checks of $250K – $750K.
What sectors does Focal Ventures focus on?
Focal Ventures focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Consumer, Data & Infrastructure, Enterprise Software, Media & Entertainment, Retail Tech, SaaS, Sector Agnostic.
Where is Focal Ventures located?
Focal Ventures is headquartered in Miami, US.
Does Focal Ventures lead rounds?
Yes, Focal Ventures leads investment rounds.
Who does Focal Ventures co-invest with?
Focal Ventures most often shares deals with Joyance Partners, Y Combinator, Array Ventures Management Llc, among 84 tracked co-investors.

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