Fundraising Fox
Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels)
Venture capitalSanta Monica · Pre-Seed–Seed · 1 people tracked
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Investment thesis
Picks and Shovels practices a markets-first approach: it identifies promising, non-commoditized markets that other investors are overlooking, then backs deeply domain-expert founders who do not need hands-on help. It invests before a lead investor is in place and aims to introduce that lead. Current themes of interest include AI-enabled services, AI-enabled CPGs, computer infrastructure, and domain-specific agentic harnesses, with specific requests for startups in contraband intelligence for corrections, AI-native services for outdoor hospitality, and 'GitHub for GTM.' The firm frames itself as supporting the next generation of 'picks-and-shovels' founders moving from non-consensus to consensus.
Source: firm website, verified Oct 1, 2026.
Team · 1 people
from the firm's websiteWhat they invest in
from 28 of 35 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×14Enterprise Software ×12SaaS ×11Crypto & Web3 ×9Developer Tools ×9Fintech ×9Consumer ×3Data & Infrastructure ×3
HQs:United States×12Canada×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 21 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×142 founders×43 founders×24+ founders×1
What their founders studiedfrom 14 founders with field-of-study data
Computer Science ×5Business & Management ×3Engineering ×3Design & Architecture ×2Economics ×2Finance & Accounting ×2Law ×2
Where their founders worked beforefrom 16 founders with career history
Netlify ×3MainStreet ×2
Accelerator rootsportfolio companies that came through a program
Investments · 35 tracked
founders shown can be your intro path
Anon builds agentic AI solutions that deploy AI agents from prototypes to production systems for SMBs and Fortune 500 companies.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Daniel Mason(Founder)Daniel Mason Kai Aichholz(Founder)Kai Aichholz(Founder)Peter Nesbitt(Founder)
Co-investorsAbstract VenturesEx/AnteImpatient VenturesSpice CapitalUnion Square Ventures (USV)AI Seed+4 more
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Assistiv Labs provides browser-based tools that let web developers, QA engineers, designers, and accessibility specialists test their products on real assistive technologies (such as screen readers) across platforms.
Developer ToolsDigital HealthSaaSWhite Salmon, US
Weston Thayer(Founder)inAndrew Hedges(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)
Co-investorsZenda
Aviron manufactures interactive fitness equipment including rowing machines, exercise bikes, and treadmills that incorporate game elements and streaming entertainment to motivate workouts.
ConsumerGamingHardwareWellness & FitnessToronto, CA
Andy Hoang(Founder)in
Co-investorsBehind Genius VenturesBrighter CapitalPioneerRebel FundSamsung NextY Combinator+7 more
Biom makes plastic-free cleaning and personal-care wipes—including disinfecting, flushable, all-purpose, body, hand sanitizing, and baby wipes—using 100% plant-based fibers, along with refillable dispensers and shippable refills to reduce plastic waste.
Circular EconomyConsumerDirect to Consumer
Co-investorsBehind Genius VenturesCapital A PartnersPure VenturesSuperAngel.Fund
Cedar is a cross-border payments platform that uses stablecoins to enable businesses to send and collect funds across Africa and global markets, with next-day (T+1) settlement, multi-currency support (USD, EUR, GBP, AED, and African currencies), and compliance tooling.
Crypto & Web3Enterprise SoftwareFintech
Benjy Feinberg(Founder)in
Co-investorsQED InvestorsDigital Currency GroupLattice CapitalNIVNode CapitalZero Knowledge+3 more
Concrete provides on-chain financial infrastructure that generates yield on crypto assets across multiple blockchains, using automated vault strategies that allocate, rebalance, and compound returns across DeFi opportunities.
Crypto & Web3Fintech
Co-investorsHyperithmHypersphere VenturesAvalanche FoundationAwesome People VenturesHashedLightshift Capital+4 more
daydream provides organic search and AI visibility services, combining a defined methodology with AI agents and dedicated experts.
AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaSSan Francisco, US
Shravan Rajinikanth(Founder)in
Co-investorsBasis Set VenturesFirst Round CapitalHustle FundMoth FundSoma CapitalSouth Quad+1 more
Default unifies revenue and go-to-market data across tools, enabling AI agents to act on this data while coordinating work across sales and marketing teams.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSSales Tech
Nico Ferreyra(Founder)Victor Papyshev(Founder)
Co-investorsAdapt VenturesBoxGroupScribble Ventures8VCBase Case CapitalCraft Ventures+1 more
Eventual's Direct Bill is a financial reconciliation platform for insurance agencies that automates the matching of carrier statements to policy records and accounting systems, eliminating manual spreadsheet work and reconciliation delays.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintechInsurTechLogistics & Supply ChainSaaSSan Francisco, US
Mohit Chawla(CEO)in
Co-investorsBlank VenturesAlleyCorpArray Ventures Management LlcCaffeinated CapitalCRV (Charles River Ventures)ESSENCE VC+4 more
Flux develops a browser-based tool for hardware design collaboration that enables teams to work together efficiently.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsHardwareSan Francisco, US
Matthias Wagner(Founder)inLance Cassidy(Founder)in
Co-investors53 Stations8VCBain Capital VenturesBehind Genius VenturesCapital B Private HoldingsEssence Venture Capital+3 more
GitCafe is a git forge for hosting code, reviewing changes, and shipping software, including its own git implementation and a first-party CLI for managing pull requests and credentials.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US
Veronica C.(Founder)
Co-investorsVela PartnersY CombinatorPalm Drive CapitalPioneerTranspose Platform Management
Ion Protocol is a lending and borrowing platform that lets users lend and borrow against staked and restaked crypto assets without price-based liquidation risk.
AI & Machine LearningCrypto & Web3Fintech
Co-investorsCollider VenturesMaelstromBlockchain CapitalManifold VenturesNGC VenturesRobot Ventures+1 more
Litvue provides legal engineering as a service, using software and AI to produce case-file-based work product for law firms without requiring them to build platforms or hire technical teams.
AI & Machine LearningLegalTechSaaS
Seth Fenster(Founder & CEO)in
Masava is a platform for wine and spirits distributors that manages orders, inventory, pricing, and payments in one system of record.
Enterprise SoftwareLogistics & Supply ChainSaaS
Ajay Rai(Founder)in
Co-investorsMoth FundRecall Capital
Mastra is an open-source TypeScript framework for building AI agents.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Sam Bhagwat(Founder & CEO)inAbhi Aiyer(CTO)inShane Thomas(Co-founder & Chief Product Officer)in
Co-investorsY CombinatorSpark CapitalBroom VenturesGradient VenturesLombardstreet VenturesMoonfire Ventures+17 more
Morph is an AI platform that automates software development tasks including code generation, testing, documentation, and bug fixing.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Gil Arditi(Founder)in
Co-investorsRackhouse Venture Management LpGeneral Partnership
Olympix provides a security tool for smart contract development that deterministically analyzes Solidity code to detect and remediate vulnerabilities before audits and deployment.
AI & Machine LearningCrypto & Web3CybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Channi(Founder)
Co-investorsboldstart venturesDigital Currency GroupPEER VC
Olympix builds automated security tools for identifying vulnerabilities in smart contracts during development, enabling developers to detect and fix issues proactively before deployment or audit.
AI & Machine LearningCrypto & Web3CybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Channi(Founder & CEO)
Co-investorsCoalition Operators
Empowers business analysts to create their own data flows
Seattle, US
Pedro Pinto(Founder)in
Co-investorsBACKGROUND CAPITAL
Paxos Labs provides an integration and infrastructure stack that lets platforms embed onchain financial products such as branded stablecoins, native yield, and embedded credit.
Crypto & Web3Enterprise SoftwareFintechNew York, US
Charles Cascarilla(Executive Officer, Director)Bhaumik Kotecha(Executive Officer, Director)in
BoardYuan Han Li(Director)in
Co-investorsBlockchain CapitalCathay InnovationMaelstromRobot Ventures
Rivet is a tax, accounting, bookkeeping, and financial strategy firm that combines ex-Big Four accountants and former IRS staff with a platform consolidating filings, documents, messages, and deadlines.
FintechSaaS
Nick Abouzeid, EA(Founder)inKyle Christenson(Founder)in
Co-investorsSilent CapitalXYZ Venture CapitalCatalyst Investors
Silo is an investment platform for retail investors to hold and trade stocks, ETFs, and bonds while earning points redeemable for cash, travel, and experiences, with funds custodied at Interactive Brokers.
ConsumerFintechSaaS
Cosmos builds enterprise-grade blockchain technology and digital ledger solutions that enable businesses and governments to manage, scale, and adapt tokenization and banking services.
Crypto & Web3Data & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareFintechNew York City, US
Co-investorsMarin Digital VenturesReciprocal Ventures
Cosmos provides enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure and products designed for financial institutions and governments to build, launch, and scale tokenization, payments, and digital currency systems with interoperability and regulatory compliance.
Crypto & Web3Enterprise SoftwareFintechNew York, US
Maghnus Mareneck(Executive Officer, Director)Edward Barry Plunkett(Executive Officer, Director)
Co-investorsBain Capital CryptoBain Capital VenturesFactionFigmentReciprocal VenturesCanonical Crypto
Slingshot AI develops a foundation model for psychology designed to provide personalized mental health support using large language models that adapt to individual needs and respect user autonomy across multiple therapeutic approaches.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthMental HealthNew York City, US
Neil Parikh(Founder)in
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzAvenir Growth CapitalBoxGroupFelicis VenturesMenlo VenturesRadical Ventures+9 more
Stell builds cloud-based software for managing requirements, traceability, and compliance on aerospace and defense programs.
Deep TechDefense TechEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSpace TechSan Francisco, US
Malory McLemore(Founder)in
Co-investorsFulcrum VentureThird PrimeUrban InnovationLong Journey VenturesWischoff Ventures
Sunbeam offers an autonomous AI agent that manages SEO and AI-search optimization end-to-end, handling strategy, content creation, and technical SEO on behalf of companies.
AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaS
Vaporware is a decentralized, peer-to-peer internet computer built on a purely functional virtual machine ("ship") that combines cryptographic identity, large-scale file storage, encrypted networking, and full-stack web applications into a single framework.
Crypto & Web3Data & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Co-investorsBlockwall
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
ConcreteOsirisParalign LabsRunswitchboardSwitchboard
Exits · 1
1 acquisitionsSkip Protocolacq. by Interchain Foundation (Cosmos)
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesGitCafe · ycombinator.com · Aug 11, 2026
Paxos Labs · fintech.global · Apr 16, 2026
Mastra · mastra.ai · Apr 9, 2026
daydream · finsmes.com · Apr 2, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) made?
- Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) has 35 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited.
- What stage does Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) invest at?
- Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
- What is Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels)'s typical check size?
- Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) typically writes checks of $100K.
- What sectors does Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) focus on?
- Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Consumer, Crypto & Web3, Data & Infrastructure, Deep Tech, Developer Tools, Enterprise Software, GovTech.
- Where is Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) located?
- Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) is headquartered in Santa Monica, US.
- Does Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) lead rounds?
- Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) typically participates in rounds rather than leading them.
- Who does Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) co-invest with?
- Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels) most often shares deals with Behind Genius Ventures, Y Combinator, Bain Capital Ventures, among 81 tracked co-investors.
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