How many investments has Santa Barbara Venture Partners made?

Santa Barbara Venture Partners has 9 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited, including 2 dated in the last 24 months.

What stage does Santa Barbara Venture Partners invest at?

Santa Barbara Venture Partners invests at the Growth stage.

What is Santa Barbara Venture Partners's typical check size?

Santa Barbara Venture Partners typically writes checks of $2M – $50M.

What sectors does Santa Barbara Venture Partners focus on?

Santa Barbara Venture Partners focuses on Consumer, Enterprise Software, Marketing Tech, SaaS, Sector Agnostic.

Where is Santa Barbara Venture Partners located?

Santa Barbara Venture Partners is headquartered in Santa Barbara, US.

Santa Barbara Venture Partners

Venture capital

Santa Barbara · Growth · 7 people tracked

★ Follow + Add to CRM ⤳ Find an introduction

Find your way into Santa Barbara Venture Partners

Paths you didn't know you had: your email and LinkedIn already hold routes to the Santa Barbara Venture Partners team. We find them for you
2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: the friend-of-a-friend routes that take hours to manually find through your inbox or LinkedIn
Answers now, not in days: momentum is everything in a raise. Skip asking around whether someone knows someone

Days of research, done the moment you sign in, with every route ranked by how warm it is.

✨ Fox Verdict

Investment thesis

SBVP differentiates itself through deep operational expertise in customer acquisition and marketing. Rather than acting solely as a capital provider, the firm embeds its sales, marketing, and customer-acquisition specialists alongside portfolio companies to drive revenue growth. The firm emphasizes being a high value-add investor, noting that portfolio CEOs often rank SBVP as their most valuable investor even when it is not their largest. This operator-led, growth-focused model reflects a belief that go-to-market execution is a critical determinant of startup success.

Invests inConsumer Enterprise Software Marketing Tech SaaSSector AgnosticSanta Barbara United States

Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.

Leave your own feedback

Stage

Growth

Check

$2M – $50M

Santa Barbara, California, US

Instruments

Equity

Founded

2020

Last 12 months

1 investment

AUM

$11M

Tracked investments

Acquisitions

Team · 7 people

from the firm's website & public directories

Dan Engel· Founder & Managing Partner· Santa Barbara, Californiain

Dan Engel is Founder and Managing Partner at Santa Barbara Venture Partners. He founded FastSpring, a fintech SaaS company that grew to become one of the fastest-growing companies in North America before its acquisition by Accel-KKR in 2018, and previously led online customer acquisition at Google (AdWords and AdSense) as well as revenue efforts for GoToMyPC/GoToMeeting and Picasa. He began his career as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Idealab incubator.

dan@santabarbaravp.com

Daniel Hedden· Partner· Santa Barbara, California, United Statesin

Dan Hedden is a Partner at Santa Barbara Venture Partners, where he helps source investment opportunities. He previously led business development teams across industries including B2B SaaS, semiconductor manufacturing, and residential real estate. He holds a Master of Technology Management from UC Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Environmental Management from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

danh@santabarbaravp.com

Andrea Hurtado· Marketing & Platform Lead· Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United Statesin

Christy Noay· Research Assistant

Jennifer Weisman· Fund Finances· Waltham, Massachusetts, United Statesin

Jennifer Weisman manages fund cash flow, limited partner accounts, and financial reporting at SBVP, handling capital call planning, reconciliation, payroll, internal controls, audit support, and compliance reporting. She began her career in audit at KPMG and holds a CPA license in Pennsylvania. She earned an MA in Applied Economics from San Diego State University and a BS in Accounting and Finance from Hawaii Pacific University.

Sarah Stark· Venture Capital Fund Operations· Fort Smith, Arkansas, United Statesin

Sarah Stark handles administrative operations at Santa Barbara Venture Partners. She previously worked with Dan at several of his prior companies on administrative operations, sales lead prospecting, and sales analysis. She started her career in the non-profit sector as a Children's Advocate at a domestic violence shelter.

Kevin Davis· Santa Barbara, Californiain

What they invest in

from 8 of 9 portfolio companies

AI & Machine Learning ×5SaaS ×4Climate Tech ×2Data & Infrastructure ×2Fintech ×2Logistics & Supply Chain ×2Mobility & Transportation ×2AgTech ×1

HQs:United States×6

Investments · 9 tracked

founders shown can be your intro path

By year:2026 · 1 2024 · 4 2022 · 1 2021 · 28 dated

Automotusautomotus.ai in 𝕏Jan 2026 · $9M

Automotus uses computer vision and AI to help cities and airports manage commercial vehicle traffic and reduce CO2 emissions.

AI & Machine LearningClimate TechGovTechMobility & TransportationSaaSLos Angeles, US

Harris Lummus(Executive Officer, Director)Jordan Justus(Founder)in Harris Lummis(Founder)in

BoardOliver Libby(Director)Tom Spengler(Director)Gabe Klein(Director)in

Co-investorsBand of Angels E8 Angels Emerging Ventures IrishAngels Keiki Capital Partnership Fund for NYC +6 more

BuyerCaddybuyercaddy.comDec 2024

Goleta, US

Craig Harris(CEO)Pawan Nachnani(Director)

Board John Greathouse(Director)in Mike Tucker(Director)in

Co-investorsScOp Venture Capital Rincon Venture Partners

Curricurri.com in 𝕏Series B

Curri provides logistics and delivery solutions for the construction and industrial materials supply chain.

AI & Machine LearningConstruction TechLogistics & Supply ChainPropTechSaaSLos Angeles, US

Brian Gonzalez(Founder)inMatthew Lafferty(Founder)inMattinMatt Lafferty(Founder)Samir Meghani(Advisor)inDavid Peredo(Engineering Manager, Driver Platform)

Co-investorsBessemer Venture Partners Brick Mortar Ventures Initialized Capital Rainfall Ventures Y Combinator Burst Capital +1 more

Hydrosathydrosat.com inNov 2021

Hydrosat converts satellite and ground data into actionable information for sustainable agriculture and water management.

AgTechAI & Machine LearningClimate TechData & InfrastructureSpace TechWashington, US

Pieter Fossel(CEO)inScott Alan Soenen(Executive Officer)Alan Royce Dalby(Executive Officer, Director)Yun Jin Kim(Executive Officer)

Board Andrew Robert Dearing(Director)in Adam Niewinski(Director)in

Co-investorsBlue Bear Capital Partners Expon Capital FREEFLOW Hemisphere Ventures LLC Industrious Ventures Nextwave [X] Partners +7 more

Jackpocketjackpocket.com in 𝕏Nov 2021 · $120MAcquired

Jackpocket is a licensed third-party lottery courier app that enables users to order official state lottery tickets via smartphone.

ConsumerFintechMarketplacesNew York, US

Peter J. Sullivan, III(Executive Officer, Director)Peter Sullivan(Founder)

BoardAdam Rothstein(Director)

Co-investors7GC & Co BlueRun Ventures Bullpen Capital Cerity Partners Ventures Clashmore Ventures Conductive Ventures +17 more

Orcaorcawater.life inMay 2024 · $23M

Orca Water builds a water monitoring and predictive leak detection system that uses ultrasonic sensors and machine learning to visualize and localize water use down to specific fixtures via an interactive dashboard.

AI & Machine LearningCleantechIoT

Co-investorsForesight Canada Innovation UBC Ankona Capital Brighton Park Capital Enza Capital MizMaa Ventures +2 more

Orcaorcainc.com in 𝕏May 2024 · $23M

Orca is a software platform that modernizes venture capital fund management by automating operations and streamlining workflows.

Enterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS

Shalom(CEO and Founder)Itzik(Head of Growth)Artem(Chief Product Officer)Meital(CFO)

Co-investorsF2 Venture Capital State of Mind Ventures Ankona Capital Brighton Park Capital Enza Capital MizMaa Ventures +2 more

Orca AIorca-ai.io inMay 2024 · $23M

Orca AI applies computer vision and deep learning to maritime shipping, providing situational awareness and automation tools to help commercial vessels navigate more safely and operate more efficiently.

AI & Machine LearningDeep TechLogistics & Supply ChainMobility & Transportation

Yarden Gross(Co-founder & CEO)in Dor Raviv(Co-founder & CTO)in Shoval Bolotin(VP Product / Operations)inFabrizio Ferraro(Global Sales Lead)inLirit(CFO)inAmit(VP R&D)in

Co-investorsAnkona Capital Brighton Park Capital Crosscourt Ventures Gaingels MizMaa Ventures OCV Partners +2 more

Spinspin.ai in 𝕏Aug 2022 · $16M

SpinOne is an agentless, API-based SaaS data protection platform that secures data across Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Salesforce, and Jira through unified backup, ransomware detection, posture management, and data loss prevention.

Cloud ComputingCybersecurityData & InfrastructureSaaSPalo Alto, US

Dmitry Dontov(CEO and Founder)inHELEN YEVTUSHENKO(Executive Officer, Director)

Co-investorsBlueprint Equity K1 Investment Management bValue Venture Capital D&FG Elements Enerdigm Ventures String Ventures +1 more

Portfolio news

latest coverage across their companies

Automotus Secures Growth Capital to Revolutionize Curb Management

Automotus · automotus.ai · Dec 19, 2025

Token-details - BuyerCaddy

BuyerCaddy · buyercaddy.com · Oct 22, 2025

Orca AI raises $72.5M to advance autonomous shipping - Orca AI

Orca AI · orca-ai.io · May 6, 2025

Frequently asked questions

How many investments has Santa Barbara Venture Partners made?: Santa Barbara Venture Partners has 9 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited, including 2 dated in the last 24 months.
What stage does Santa Barbara Venture Partners invest at?: Santa Barbara Venture Partners invests at the Growth stage.
What is Santa Barbara Venture Partners's typical check size?: Santa Barbara Venture Partners typically writes checks of $2M – $50M.
What sectors does Santa Barbara Venture Partners focus on?: Santa Barbara Venture Partners focuses on Consumer, Enterprise Software, Marketing Tech, SaaS, Sector Agnostic.
Where is Santa Barbara Venture Partners located?: Santa Barbara Venture Partners is headquartered in Santa Barbara, US.

Media · Podcasts & interviews

from their channel

Continuous Liquidity in Venture: Dan Engel on Exits, SPVs, and Marketing-Driven Value Creation

Santa Barbara Venture Partners

Images

Similar investors

Summit Partners

Summit Partners is a growth equity investment firm that partners with management teams across technology, healthcare & life sciences, and growth products & services sectors to build long-term value.

$10M – $500M

Movens Capital

Movens Capital is a multi-stage venture capital fund backing Central and Eastern European (and CEE diaspora) tech startups with global ambitions, from pre-seed through Series A and beyond.

$250K – $3M

Olive Tree Capital

Olive Tree Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in founders building at the technological frontier.

Union Tech Ventures

Union Tech Ventures is the technology investment arm of the Union Group, a family-owned Israeli holding company, focused on the digital disruption of traditional industries.

Second Alpha Partners

Second Alpha Partners provides secondary liquidity solutions for private companies and their shareholders, buying shares and convertible securities before company sales or IPOs.