Motive Force
Venture capitalActively deployingSan Francisco · Seed–Series A
Also known as MOTIVE FORCE MANAGEMENT, LLC
Investment thesis
The firm invests in founders driven by internal motivation and obsession refined into purpose, rather than external pressure. It emphasizes software built with care and design excellence as a compound advantage, attracting talent and creating passionate users. The investor seeks founders with taste and uncompromising standards who understand that constraints demand ingenuity. By connecting founders with mentors and experts who have solved similar problems, the firm aims to help teams achieve sustainable growth without compromising on craftsmanship or product quality.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 18, 2026.
What they invest in
from 13 of 15 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×11Developer Tools ×9Cloud Computing ×6Enterprise Software ×5SaaS ×5Data & Infrastructure ×2Cybersecurity ×1Digital Health ×1
HQs:United States×4
Investments · 15 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathCharm builds open-source tools and libraries for creating user interfaces and applications in the terminal, including command-line interface frameworks, markdown readers, and components for developers.
Developer Tools
Co-investorsNAPKhosla VenturesNew Enterprise Associates (NEA)OrbiMed
HealthLeap builds data-driven safety systems that identify patients in need of clinical care, helping healthcare providers reach patients who might otherwise be missed.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtech
Jemima(Founder, Clinical Dietitian)Josiah(Founder, AI-focused entrepreneur)
Co-investorsHummingbird Ventures
Honeycomb provides observability and monitoring software that helps engineering teams understand how their software behaves in production.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Charity Majors(Co-founder & CTO)inChristine Yen(CEO & Co-founder)in
Co-investorsAfore CapitalMerian VenturesOMERS VenturesStorm VenturesDCVC (Data Collective)
Inngest is an execution layer for agents and workflows that helps engineers build and optimize event-driven workflows without manual retry logic or queue management.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsRoyal Oak, US
Tony Holdstock-Brown(CEO & Founder)Dan Farrelly(CTO & Founder)inDaniel Farrelly(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardJamin Ball(Director)Dan Cahana(Director)in
Co-investorsAfore CapitalAndreessen HorowitzNotable CapitalPreston-Werner VenturesAltimeter CapitalBanana Capital
MaintainX provides an AI-powered computerized maintenance management system and asset management platform designed for deskless frontline workers in industrial and operational settings.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareIoTSaaSSan Francisco, US
Chris Turlica(CEO and Co-Founder)Hugo Dozois-Caouette(CTO and Co-Founder)Stefan Cristian Turlica(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardCharles Reim(Director)Byron Deeter(Director)inDavid Hornik(Director)in
Co-investorsAmity VenturesAugust CapitalBain Capital VenturesBessemer Venture PartnersCategory VenturesCrew Capital+8 more
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzDreamers VCFloodgateShrug CapitalUnusual Ventures
Observe.AI builds an AI agent platform that enables businesses to deploy specialized autonomous agents to handle customer conversations, support frontline teams, and optimize contact center operations.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkSaaSSales TechSan Francisco, US
Swapnil Jain(Founder/CEO)in
Co-investorsMenlo VenturesScale Venture PartnersNexus Venture Partners01 AdvisorsCommon OceanEMERGENT VENTURES+7 more
OpenComputer is an open durable runtime for AI agents, running each session on a persistent virtual machine with full OS access that hibernates when idle and resumes with state intact after crashes or redeploys.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper Tools
Overmind is a platform that simulates the live production environment to show engineers the blast radius, dependencies, and risks of infrastructure changes before a pull request is merged.
Cloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Co-investorsOperator Collective
Plural is a developer-focused company building around Kubernetes and related technologies (Elixir, Go, React) to enable collaboration among developers.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Samuel Weaver(Founder)in
Co-investorsPrimary Venture PartnersSignalFire
Poolside builds open-weight foundation models and agentic coding models, including the Laguna family, along with the systems and infrastructure needed to train, refine, and improve these models.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper Tools
Jason Warner(Founder & CEO)inEiso Kant(Founder)
Co-investors7GC & CoAbstraction CapitalAir Street CapitalB Capital GroupB4 CapitalBain Capital Ventures+17 more
Zuplo builds an API management and gateway platform designed to fit into developers' existing tools and workflows.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingCybersecurityDeveloper ToolsSaaSRedmond, US
Nathan Totten(Executive Officer, Director)inJonjo Twist(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardYuval Neeman(Director)
Co-investorsTrilogy Equity Partners
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesCharm · daytondailynews.com · Jul 24, 2026
MaintainX · newmarketpitch.com · Jul 13, 2026
Poolside · datacenterdynamics.com · Jun 18, 2026
Inngest · notablecap.com · Oct 5, 2025
Observe.AI · reuters.com · Jul 30, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Motive Force made?
- Motive Force has 15 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited via acquisition or IPO.
- What stage does Motive Force invest at?
- Motive Force invests at the Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Motive Force focus on?
- Motive Force focuses on SaaS.
- Where is Motive Force located?
- Motive Force is headquartered in San Francisco, US.
- Who does Motive Force co-invest with?
- Motive Force most often shares deals with Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, among 59 tracked co-investors.
Images
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