Oyster Ventures
Venture capitalSan Francisco · Pre-Seed–Seed · 2 people tracked
Investment thesis
The firm invests at the earliest stage in founders who have found a narrow 'wedge' — a specific, painful entry point that hides a much larger market shift. It distinguishes a wedge from a niche: the wedge is small because reality needs an entry point, not because ambition is small. It favors software that alters operating details such as settlement, distribution, compliance, liquidity, or coordination, so that a product eventually becomes a market default. It looks for technically excellent founders with real leverage and a clear 'why now'. The firm is deliberately lean, using automation and better systems rather than headcount, treating that operating model as part of its investment thesis.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 2 people
from public directories
What they invest in
from 50 of 97 portfolio companiesFintech ×21SaaS ×20Enterprise Software ×18AI & Machine Learning ×14Crypto & Web3 ×8Data & Infrastructure ×7Developer Tools ×6Climate Tech ×5
HQs:United States×37India×3Canada×1France×1United Kingdom×1Malaysia×1
Investments · 97 tracked
founders shown can be your intro path
EquipmentShare provides construction equipment rentals and fleet management technology for builders and contractors.
Construction TechIoTPropTechSaaSColumbia, US
Brad Siegler(Founder)inJeff Lowe(Founder)inJabbok Schlacks(Founder)inWilliam Schlacks(Founder/President)in
Allure Systems develops generative AI technology that produces product images for fashion retailers, allowing brands to generate variations of apparel photos on different models and sizes without requiring physical photoshoots.
AI & Machine LearningE-commerceEnterprise SoftwareNew York City, US
Alpaca provides brokerage infrastructure APIs that enable fintechs and financial institutions to build investing applications and platforms with access to stocks, options, crypto, and other asset types.
Data & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsFintechSaaSSan Francisco, US
Yoshi Yokokawa(Co-founder & CEO)inHitoshi Harada(Founder/CTO)inBen Jackson(Director)Eddie Branchaud(Director)Karen Borchert(Executive Officer, Director)
AngelList's investor management platform provides tools for venture capital and private equity firms to streamline LP interactions, automate fund operations, and deliver reporting and portfolio updates through a branded digital experience.
Enterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS
Avlok Kohli(CEO)
Autopilot provides global payment infrastructure for cross-border companies, enabling them to handle complex payment operations across multiple markets while reducing operational costs.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintech
Reston, US
Timothy Francis Sheridan(Executive Officer, Director)Justin Taylor Potts(Executive Officer, Director)
Canary Technologies provides digital management software for hotels, replacing traditional paper-based administrative and operational workflows used across the hospitality industry.
Enterprise SoftwareSaaSNew York City, US
Cityfurnish is a furniture and appliances rental service operating in India that offers subscription-based access to home furnishings at affordable costs.
B2B MarketplacesCircular EconomyConsumerE-commerceFintechMarketplacesNew Delhi, IN
Clipboard Health operates a staffing marketplace connecting healthcare facilities with qualified professionals to fill open shifts, covering long-term care, home health, hospitals, and dental practices across the U.S.
HealthtechHR TechMarketplaces
CoinList operates a platform for token sales, pre-IPO stocks, equities, and funds, serving as infrastructure for financial markets and payments onchain.
Crypto & Web3Data & InfrastructureFintech
Destiny Tech100 is a proposed exchange-traded fund designed to provide everyday investors access to a diversified portfolio of the top 100 venture-backed private technology companies.
Fintech
Wilmington, US
Adeo Ressi(Executive Officer, Director)Mihnea Suprovici(Executive Officer, Director)
Firstbase builds an all-in-one business operations platform that automates back office tasks for founders globally, including company incorporation, management, and growth services.
Enterprise SoftwareSaaSNew York City, US
Mark Milastsivy(Founder)in
Forge Global operates a private marketplace for buying and selling shares in late-stage, venture-backed private companies, serving individuals and institutional investors.
Data & InfrastructureFintechMarketplaces
Kelly Rodriques(CEO)in
Green Canopy NODE Capital is a fund manager providing investor and capital management services focused on impact investments addressing housing, environmental sustainability, and climate challenges in high-growth cities.
CleantechClimate TechConstruction TechFintechHardwareImpact & Social GoodPropTechSeattle, US
Bec Wilder(Founder)inDon Bunnell(Founder)inSam Lai(Executive Officer, Director)Andrew Wolverton(Executive Officer)Aaron Fairchild(Executive Officer, Director)
Handle builds a construction data platform that unifies fragmented invoices, projects, payments, and documents into a single data graph.
AI & Machine LearningConstruction TechData & InfrastructurePropTechSan Francisco, US
Blake Robertson(Founder)inChris Woodard(Founder)inPatrick Hogan(Founder)in
Hedera is a permissioned distributed ledger platform designed for enterprise applications, offering fast transaction finality, regulatory compliance, and institutional governance.
Crypto & Web3Enterprise SoftwareFintechRichardson, US
Mance Harmon(Chief Executive Officer, Manager)Leemon Baird(Manager)
Hemster operates a technology-enabled platform for garment tailoring and alterations, connecting customers with professional tailors to achieve custom fits.
Circular EconomyMarketplacesRetail TechNew York, US
Allison Lee(Executive Officer, Director)Ann Lai(Director)
Boston, US
Venkatachalam Sankaranarayanan, Jr.(Executive Officer)Sean O'Reilly(Executive Officer)James Bordewick, Jr.(Executive Officer)Andrew Gordon(Executive Officer)Howard Schneider(Executive Officer)Cecilia Lenk(Director)
Mezmo provides an intelligence layer for production AI that enables platform engineering and SRE teams to deploy reliable AI-powered workflows in production.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSMiami, US
Lee Liu(Founder)inChris Nguyen(Founder)inTucker Callaway(Chief Executive Officer)in
Nectome provides cryogenic preservation of the human body and brain shortly after legal death, aiming to preserve neural structure in sufficient detail that future revival may become theoretically possible.
BiotechDeep TechHealthtechLongevitySan Francisco, US
Aurelia Song(Founder/CEO)in
Numerai operates a quantitative global equity market-neutral hedge fund built on a data science tournament, where participants build machine learning models on obfuscated financial data to predict market targets.
AI & Machine LearningCrypto & Web3FintechSan Francisco, US
Andrew Weissman(Director of the Issuer.)Richard Craib(Managing Member of the Issuer.)
Oasis Labs develops privacy-preserving data analytics and AI tools using differential privacy, homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proofs for organizations that need to analyze sensitive data while protecting individual privacy.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityData & InfrastructurePalo Alto, US
Dawn Song(Founder & CEO)Robert Gilchrist Jaros(Executive Officer)
Observant develops driver attention monitoring systems for autonomous vehicle safety.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareHardwareIoTMobility & TransportationSaaSSan Francisco, US
Daniel DeCovnick(Founder/CTO)in
Origin Protocol is a decentralized finance platform that provides yield-generating staking and asset management products, including OETH (an Ethereum staking derivative) and OGN governance tokens, designed for users to earn passive income through cryptocurrency staking and liquidity provision.
Crypto & Web3Fintech
Patlytics builds AI-powered tools for intellectual property professionals to support patent and IP strategy, analysis, and management.
AI & Machine LearningLegalTechSaaSNew York, US
Fei-Yang Jen(Executive Officer, Director)Paul Lee(Co-founder)Arthur Jen(Co-founder)
BoardMatthew Cowan(Director)
Frequently asked questions
- What stage does Oyster Ventures invest at?
- Oyster Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
- What is Oyster Ventures's typical check size?
- Oyster Ventures typically writes checks of $25K – $200K.
- What sectors does Oyster Ventures focus on?
- Oyster Ventures focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Data & Infrastructure, Developer Tools, Enterprise Software, Fintech, SaaS, Sector Agnostic.
- Where is Oyster Ventures located?
- Oyster Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco, US.
- Does Oyster Ventures lead rounds?
- Oyster Ventures typically participates in rounds rather than leading them.
Co-investors · 66
Digital Currency Group (DCG) is a long-standing investor and operator focused exclusively on the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, holding equity, fund, and token positions across the sector.
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Andreessen Horowitz's Strategic Partnerships page describes collaborations that connect its portfolio companies with established institutions to help scale and deploy their technology.
DCVC (Data Collective) is a venture capital firm that backs founders building companies which apply technology to major challenges across areas such as energy, biotech, agriculture, and machine learning.
Streamlined Ventures is an early-stage venture firm that partners with founders and invests at the seed stage to help build large-scale companies.
Locus Ventures is an early-stage venture firm run by a team of makers and entrepreneurs focused on helping founders build companies.
Blockchain Capital is a venture firm that has partnered with crypto builders since 2013, investing across the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem.
Winklevoss Capital is an investment firm that backs founders working on hard problems in critical, frontier technology domains.
Techstars is a startup accelerator and early-stage investor that funds ambitious founders and provides capital, mentorship, and access to a global network of investors, operators, and corporate partners.
FJ Labs is a venture capital firm specializing in marketplaces and network-effect businesses, having built a large portfolio of marketplace startups with over 30 becoming unicorns.
Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in companies at their earliest, most formative stages, with a strong belief in the transformative power of design.
SciFi VC is an early-stage generalist venture fund founded by Max and Nellie Levchin that backs founders tackling hard problems requiring curiosity, intellectual depth, and often science.
AMINO Capital is a global venture capital firm based in Palo Alto that invests around the theme of data moat and network effects, focusing on big data, machine learning, and exceptional products.
▶54 more co-investors
Founders FundLong Journey VenturesInsight PartnersUnion Square Ventures (USV)FundersClubHack VCBase10 PartnersSocial LeverageKindred VenturesMatrixTribe Capital FirstlookAngelPadFuel Venture CapitalBetter Tomorrow VenturesZetta Venture PartnersCrunchFundLombardstreet VenturesAmplify.LATunitas VenturesSequoia CapitalUnknown VenturesUberEverywhere VenturesKrakenB Capital GroupQuiet CapitalGoat CapitalLiquid VenturesUpHonest CapitalOak HC/FTFreestyle CapitalSoma CapitalParadigmPear VCWingTSVCPrimary Venture Partners7percent VenturesPolychain CapitalDragonflyUnpopular VenturesCP VenturesHouse305 VenturesUnstoppable DomainsWndrCoFYRFLY Venture PartnersDimension CapitalEvolve VC FundsRebel FundNKM CapitalFirst Star VenturesConnectivity VenturesLeonis Capital
Firms observed investing alongside Oyster Ventures, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Oyster Ventures's recorded portfolio.
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