/Investor DB

Hillsven

Venture capital

San Francisco · Seed–Series A · 3 people tracked

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Investment thesis

Hillsven is a seed-stage venture capital firm in the San Francisco Bay Area that makes only two or three investments per year, sourced exclusively through trusted referrals. Investing without outside limited partners, it can bridge companies and price inside rounds, and it works closely with founders alongside other value-adding co-investors. Its portfolio has included Expensify, Bleacher Report, HoneyBook, and Stampli.

Invests inSan Francisco
Stage
Seed–Series A
HQ
San Francisco, CA, US
Instruments
Equity
Founded
2005
Tracked investments
13
IPOs
1
Acquisitions
3

Team · 3 people

from public directories
Boris Putanec· Managing Partner
Bobby Lent· Managing Partnerin𝕏

Bobby Lent cofounded Ariba. He currently serves as Managing Director at Hillsven, a $40M seed venture firm investing in internet, cloud, e-commerce, and mobile companies.

Kusum Chanrai

What they invest in

from 11 of 13 portfolio companies

Enterprise Software ×8SaaS ×7AI & Machine Learning ×4Fintech ×4Data & Infrastructure ×2AdTech ×1Cloud Computing ×1Developer Tools ×1

HQs:United States×6Australia×1

Investments · 13 tracked

founders shown can be your intro path

By year:2023 · 12022 · 12020 · 22016 · 12015 · 12014 · 12012 · 12009 · 12008 · 110 dated

Expensifyexpensify.comin𝕏NASDAQ: EXFY

Expensify offers a corporate expense management card and platform that issues Visa cards to employees, automatically syncs transactions, codes receipts, enforces spend controls, and integrates with accounting software.

Enterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS

David Barrett(Founder)inRyan Schaffer(Chief Financial Officer and Director)in

Co-investorsBaseline VenturesDelta-v CapitalNOMO VenturesPJCRedpoint Ventures

Metadatametadata.ioDec 2020SEC filingmedium confidence

Metadata builds a Marketing OS (operating system) for B2B marketers to automate manual and repetitive marketing tasks.

AdTechAI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSSan Francisco, US

Gil Allouche(Executive Officer, Director)inYan Manevich(Executive Officer, Director)

Board seatBoris PutanecBobby Lent· per SEC Form D · $2.5M raise · filed Dec 2020

Co-investors500 GlobalAcorn Pacific VenturesBeyond CapitalEmery CapitalGaingelsGFT Ventures+12 more

Codefreshcodefresh.io𝕏Jun 2020 · $27MAcquired

Octopus Deploy makes software for automating deployment and operations, aiming to give software teams repeatable, frequent, and reliable deployments.

Cloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareBrisbane, AU

Raziel Tabib(Founder)inPaul Stovell(Founder and CEO)inSonia Stovell(Co-founder)

Co-investorsInsight PartnersGaingelsRed Dot Capital PartnersUpWestVertex Ventures IsraelM12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund)+4 more

Formantformant.aiinOct 2023

Formant provides a governed operating layer that connects frontier AI models, heterogeneous robotics hardware, and enterprise operations to run physical AI deployments in production.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareIoTRoboticsSan Francisco, US

Jeff Linnell(Founder)inJames Turnshek(Co-Founder & Chief Architect)inTyler Johnston-Kent(Founder)Christopher Farmer(Director)Jean Kovacs(Director)

Co-investorsBMW i VenturesGoodyear VenturesIntel CapitalPICUS CAPITALSignalFireThursday Ventures+3 more

HoneyBookhoneybook.comin𝕏Seed · Oct 2012 · $250K

HoneyBook is a team collaboration platform that helps service-based businesses manage clients, projects, and team workflows with built-in invoicing and payment processing.

Enterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkSaaS

Oz Alon(Founder)inDror Shimoni(Founder)Naama Alon(Founder)

Co-investors01 AdvisorsAkkadian VenturesAlephArkin CapitalBattery VenturesBling Capital+13 more

INTURNinturn.comSeed · Apr 2015 · $4M

INTURN provides an inventory management platform that automates excess inventory allocation, order entry, and distribution workflows for enterprise brands managing their supply chains.

Logistics & Supply ChainRetail TechSaaS

Co-investorsFJ LabsB Capital Group

Peer5peer5.comin𝕏Seed · Jan 2014Acquired

Peer5 provides a peer-to-peer content delivery network that augments traditional servers to distribute video streams to viewers, reducing server load and improving playback reliability for publishers of live and on-demand content.

Data & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US

Hadar Weiss(CEO)inShachar Zohar(CTO)inEinat Ben David(Recruiter)

Co-investorsFundersClubUpWestY CombinatorZenStone Venture CapitalFoundryOriza Ventures+1 more

PreDxion Biopredxionbio.comSeedDefunct

PreDxion Bio develops rapid diagnostic tests using saliva samples and a scalable semiconductor-based platform, initially targeting SARS-CoV-2 detection for asymptomatic and presymptomatic individuals, with broader applications in monitoring immune response markers in critically ill patients and predicting complications from cell therapies.

HealthtechMedical DevicesSan Francisco, US

Walker McHugh(Founder)inTimothy Cornell(Founder)inCaroline Landau(COO)Steven Kaye(Vice President, Engineering)

Co-investorsY CombinatorAgrolimen VenturesInvest DetroitSignalFire

Stamplistampli.comin𝕏Seed · Sep 2016 · $3M

Stampli offers an accounts payable automation platform that centralizes invoice capture, coding, PO matching, approvals, and communication in an ERP-aligned system with a complete audit trail.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS

Eyal Feldman(Founder)inOfer Feldman(Founder)inIdo Peleg(Chief Operating Officer, Israel)in

Co-investorsBloomberg BetaInsight PartnersNimble PartnersSignalFireUpWestBlackstone

Stiltstilt.comin𝕏SeedAcquired

A financial technology platform that provides APIs for launching credit products, handling regulatory compliance, underwriting, loan servicing, credit reporting, and debt capital sourcing.

FintechSaaSSan Francisco, US

Rohit Mittal(CEO)inPriyank Singh(Founder)inNikhil Wason(Principal Engineer)Mohammed Aboobacker(Head of Marketing)inAnkit Tanwar(Head of Risk and Analytics)Lina Zhu(Senior Operations Specialist)

Co-investorsBragiel BrothersEarl Grey CapitalVibe CapitalY CombinatorFirebolt Ventures Management Company, LlcInvesto Capital+5 more

Tesoriotesorio.comin𝕏Series A · Jul 2022 · $17M

Tesorio provides a Connected Financial Operations platform that automates accounts receivable workflows including collections, cash application, forecasting, and payment management for finance teams at growing companies.

AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaSSan Francisco, US

Carlos Vega(CEO)inFabio Fleitas(Founder)inCarlos R. Vega(Founder)Chase DeHan(Lead Data Scientist)Peter Hadlaw(ML Engineer)Mari Ventura(Special Projects)

Co-investorsBAMCAPCarao VenturesFirst Round CapitalFloodgateFundersClubKube VC+16 more

Other

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

Mint BillsThreadbox

Rows marked “SEC filing” are inferred from directors named on the company's SEC Form D — public regulatory data, not a portfolio list published by the firm.

Exits · 4

1 IPOs · 3 acquisitions · showing 1

ExpensifyNASDAQ: EXFY

Portfolio news

latest coverage across their companies

IPO stake values · per SEC filings

Value of this firm's stake in each portfolio company at its IPO price, from the prospectus principal-stockholder table.

CompanyOwnedIPO priceAt IPOStake value
Expensify14.1%$27.00Nov 2021$256.2M

Source: SEC S-1 / 424B prospectus filings. Stake value = shares beneficially owned × the initial public offering price, as disclosed — a market value at IPO, not a return multiple (the firm's original cost is not disclosed).

Frequently asked questions

How many investments has Hillsven made?
Hillsven has 13 tracked investments, 4 of which have exited.
What stage does Hillsven invest at?
Hillsven invests at the Seed, Series A stages.
Where is Hillsven located?
Hillsven is headquartered in San Francisco, US.

Co-investors · 8

SignalFire

SignalFire is a seed-stage venture capital firm that combines a full-team support model with its data-driven Beacon AI platform to back founders.

$250K – $15M
NFX

NFX is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups and provides founders with proprietary software tools, educational content, and a founder network known as the NFX Guild.

Both backed · 1
$250K – $5M
Recursive Ventures

Recursive Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund backing US pre-seed and seed tech startups applying artificial intelligence to disrupt industries.

Both backed · 1
$100K – $1M
Bloomberg Beta

Bloomberg Beta is an early-stage venture fund that invests in companies focused on making business work better.

Both backed · 1
$25K – $1M
Forerunner Ventures

Forerunner Ventures is a venture capital firm that backs companies redefining consumer behavior, health, commerce, fintech, and AI-native products.

$1M – $20M
Venrock

Venrock is a venture capital firm investing across technology and healthcare, backing companies in fintech, developer infrastructure, life sciences, therapeutics, semiconductors, and consumer products.

$500K – $10M
F2 Venture Capital

F2 Venture Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that backs bold Israeli founders building companies from zero to one, offering guidance, network, and capital through its Operator Platform.

Blockchange Ventures

Blockchange Ventures is an early-stage fund investing in blockchain companies, backing founders building large blockchain-focused businesses.

Firms observed investing alongside Hillsven, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Hillsven's recorded portfolio.

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