Upfront Ventures
Los Angeles · Seed–Series A · 2 people tracked
Investment thesis
Upfront positions itself as a connector between Los Angeles and San Francisco startup ecosystems, investing in early-stage companies. The firm takes long-term partnership approaches with founders and has recent activity in health infrastructure sectors, including financial infrastructure for healthcare, benefits platforms, and specialty pediatric systems.
Source: firm website, verified Jul 20, 2026.
Team · 2 people
from the firm's website
Mark Suster sold two startups, the second to Salesforce, before joining Upfront Ventures in 2007 and eventually leading the firm as managing partner. He is one of Los Angeles tech's most active champions, hosting the annual Upfront Summit and writing the long-running blog Both Sides of the Table. His posts on fundraising and board dynamics have been passed between founders for more than fifteen years.
What they invest in
from 27 of 36 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×13SaaS ×10Enterprise Software ×8Consumer ×6Data & Infrastructure ×5Deep Tech ×4Healthtech ×3Marketplaces ×3
HQs:United States×16
Investments · 36 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathEndgame helps sales teams develop buyer trust and advisory relationships through AI-powered insights and guidance. The platform is designed for B2B sellers seeking to move beyond transactional outreach.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSales Tech
Alex Bilmes(CEO and co-founder)
1up provides an AI-powered sales platform that answers customer questions and delivers accurate information to go-to-market teams in real time. The product is used by sales teams across various industries to accelerate their sales processes.
AI & Machine LearningSaaSSales TechNew York City, US
Toka develops intelligence and force protection technology for government militaries, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance, counter-terrorism, and defense operations. The company focuses on signals intelligence and operational capabilities for trusted allied governments.
CybersecurityDefense TechGovTechMaryland, US
Gregg Smith(Global CEO)Kfir Waldman(Co-Founder, President & CEO Israel)
Apeel Sciences develops plant-based coatings derived from fatty acids and glycerides—ingredients naturally found in plant peels and seeds—that are applied to fresh fruits and vegetables to extend shelf life, preserve flavor and nutrients, and reduce reliance on refrigeration, pesticides, waxes, and plastics. The company serves produce suppliers and retailers seeking sustainable solutions to reduce food waste across the supply chain.
Circular EconomyCleantechFoodTech
LuizJamesLouJenny
Bevy is a community engagement platform that enables organizations to manage forums, events, groups, and community member interactions through a unified interface with AI-powered tools and analytics. The platform serves enterprise and brand community leaders seeking to reduce operational complexity and improve member engagement.
AI & Machine LearningSaaS
Canvas Medical develops a customizable and extensible electronic medical record (EMR) platform for ambulatory clinics, featuring developer tools, APIs, and AI capabilities like clinical co-pilots to automate workflows in scheduling, charting, and billing.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthHealthtechMedical DevicesSaaS
Andrew Hines(Founder)Beau Gunderson(Founding Engineer)
Cordial is a cross-channel marketing platform that enables marketing teams to send personalized messages via email, SMS, and mobile apps from a single interface. The platform provides audience segmentation, real-time personalization, and campaign orchestration tools for ecommerce and online businesses.
Data & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaS
Density develops Waffle, a radar-based sensor system that provides real-time anonymous people count for offices, meeting rooms, and workspaces. The hardware and software platform enables facility managers to monitor space utilization with plug-and-play installation and sub-second data latency.
Future of WorkIoTSaaSSan Francisco, US
Density AI designs custom AI accelerators optimized for frontier-scale large language model inference, combining near-memory compute architecture with high-bandwidth memory density. The company builds silicon-to-software solutions tailored for production inference workloads.
AI & Machine LearningDeep Tech
Elastic provides endpoint security software that detects, investigates, and responds to threats using AI-driven analytics and behavior-based prevention. The platform offers ransomware and malware protection with extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityEnterprise Software
Daft is a data processing platform that transforms raw multimodal data (video, images, audio, sensor data) into training-ready datasets in a single pipeline. It provides Pandas/Spark-like operations with native support for GPU inference, embeddings, and model serving at scale.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeep TechEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Tony Wang(Founder)Patrick Ames(Founder)Ritvik Kapila(Founder)Maurice Weber(Founder)
Eventual offers Premium Lock® Guarantee, a three-year price guarantee product for homeowners that reimburses policyholders if their insurance premiums rise above forecasted levels. The product is sold through independent insurance agents across all 50 U.S. states for admitted-lines homeowners policies.
InsurTech
Eventual develops data infrastructure for teams building physical AI, particularly focused on handling video and sensor data at scale. Their product MultiBase enables semantic indexing and querying of fleet perception data to optimize model training and GPU efficiency.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeep Tech
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GOAT Group operates a suite of e-commerce platforms for buying and selling authentic sneakers, apparel, and accessories, serving a global community across multiple brands.
ConsumerDirect to ConsumerMarketplacesLos Angeles, US
HopSkipDrive operates a marketplace and software platform connecting students and other individuals needing support to vetted caregivers for transportation, while providing school districts with tools like RouteWise AI to optimize their transportation operations. The company focuses on supplemental school transportation to improve educational access and equity.
B2B MarketplacesEdTechLogistics & Supply ChainMobility & TransportationSaaSLos Angeles, US
Three working moms (names not provided)
Jiko provides banking infrastructure for corporate cash management backed by U.S. Treasury bills, enabling liquidity, settlement, and custody without lending or balance sheet risk. The platform serves institutional clients, digital asset companies, and treasurers seeking alternatives to traditional bank deposits and money market funds.
Data & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareFintech<UNKNOWN>, US
Modern Animal operates a network of veterinary clinics providing primary care, urgent care, 24/7 virtual consultations, and pharmacy services for pet owners. The company serves dog and cat owners across multiple U.S. locations primarily in California, Texas, Colorado, and Arizona.
ConsumerHealthtechLos Angeles, US
Neon is a mobile app platform that lets users monetize their phone call data by sharing it with AI companies for model training, while maintaining control over their personal information.
AI & Machine LearningConsumer
Alex Kiam(Founder)
Parachute provides AI governance and compliance software for hospitals, automating the evaluation, deployment, and monitoring of clinical AI systems to reduce risk and accelerate pilot programs. The platform helps healthcare organizations manage bias, drift, and privacy issues while maintaining regulatory compliance and audit trails.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareHealthtechNew York City, US
Waldo.ai is a registered investment adviser for accredited investors offering investment management and portfolio services. The company is regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Fintech
Waldo is a photo-finding platform that uses facial and object recognition combined with location awareness to automatically identify and deliver photos of users and their families taken by others. The service targets schools, summer camps, youth sports organizations, weddings, resorts, and other events through mobile and web delivery.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerMarketplacesMedia & Entertainment
Rodney Rice(Founder & CEO)
Trakstar builds talent development and people management software for HR leaders and companies, offering hiring, performance communication, and employee development tools.
HR TechSaaS
Zeitview provides advanced inspection software for high-value infrastructure assets including solar, wind, properties, telecom, and utility infrastructure. The platform uses aerial imagery and inspections to help operators monitor asset condition and performance throughout their lifecycle, enabling better decision-making and cost efficiency in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningCleantechConstruction TechDeep TechEnterprise SoftwareRoboticsSaaSLos Angeles, US
Dan Burton(Founder and CEO)in
Board seats · per SEC filings · 2
what is this? ⓘ$12.4M raise · filed Dec 2025 · via Aditi Maliwal
$5M raise · filed May 2025 · via Aditi Maliwal
Inferred from directors named on each company's SEC Form D — public regulatory data, not a portfolio list published by the firm.
Frequently asked questions
- What stage does Upfront Ventures invest at?
- Upfront Ventures invests at the Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Upfront Ventures focus on?
- Upfront Ventures focuses on Sector Agnostic.
- Where is Upfront Ventures located?
- Upfront Ventures is headquartered in Los Angeles, US.
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