Eva Ho

Who they are

Eva Ho is General Partner at Fika Ventures — co-founded the LA-based seed fund with TX Zhuo and sits on the board of the Common Crawl Foundation, the open-web dataset that underpins much of modern AI.

Person

Eva took her BA from Harvard in 1994, then her MBA from Cornell Johnson in 1998 — a classic east-coast academic foundation before building a career on the west coast. Before Fika she held an Entrepreneur-in-Residence role and spent time at the City of Los Angeles, a public-sector stint that is unusual for a seed-stage GP and probably sharpened her instincts around systemic problems and civic scale. She joined Fika Ventures in October 2016 when it was a boutique seed fund focused on data, AI-enabled technologies, and automation — and has since co-built it into a firm that has backed 78 companies, produced 3 unicorns, and notched 9 acquisitions. Her board and advisory work extends beyond the fund: she joined the UCLA Technology Development Group board in March 2020, the Common Crawl Foundation board in March 2024, and the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs board in April 2026. Possibly — the Common Crawl seat reflects a genuine conviction about open data infrastructure, not just reputation-building. She appeared on the LA Venture Podcast and the CapStack Pod discussing seed investing themes — data, AI, automation, and backing founders solving systemic problems — and serves as a GP Advisor at Screendoor, supporting new and emerging VC managers.

Company

The most recent move: in May 2026, Fika participated in the $17 million Series A for Outmarket AI, an insurance AI platform — a clean signal of the firm's current fintech and AI focus. In January 2026, portfolio company SGNL was acquired by CrowdStrike for $740 million, Fika's most prominent exit to date, and Gabriella Brignardello was promoted to Partner after five years at the firm. Those two events in the same month mark a notable inflection: a flagship liquidity event and a team deepening happening simultaneously. The foundation was laid in September 2024 when Fika closed its $160 million Fund IV to back B2B software founders, with Arteen Arabshahi rejoining the team as General Partner. The firm's 2026 investment thesis centers on fintech operating at the intersection of money, regulation, and operational risk — emphasizing durable businesses over UX novelty.

Market

Fika competes in the early-stage B2B venture market alongside other seed and pre-Series A funds targeting vertical SaaS, fintech, commerce enablement, and AI-enabled software. The broader fintech VC environment in 2026 is more selective and disciplined, with capital concentrating around investors who bring regulatory knowledge and hands-on operational support — exactly the model Fika pitches with its weekly working sessions and embedded go-to-market help. Regulatory complexity, assertive enforcement, and geopolitical shifts are creating both headwinds and opportunities for the compliance- and risk-focused fintech companies Fika targets.

Network

Eva's named relationships span her portfolio, her board seats, and a mentor. Ulrich Aldag is cited as a personal mentor. Her portfolio engagement includes immigrant-entrepreneur-focused food-tech company Chowbus and AI/robotics company FieldAI, both of which she has publicly championed. Her GP Advisor role at Screendoor connects her to the emerging-manager VC community.

TX Zhuo· Co-founder, Fika Ventures
Arteen Arabshahi· General Partner, Fika Ventures
Gabriella Brignardello· Partner, Fika Ventures
Ulrich Aldag· Mentor to Eva Ho

How they likely show up

Long tenure at Fika since October 2016 — nearly a decade at the same fund → thinks in fund cycles and portfolio arcs, not quarter-to-quarter deal flow.
City of Los Angeles background before venture → probably comfortable with institutional complexity and stakeholder management, not just startup speed.
Board seats across UCLA Technology Development Group, Common Crawl Foundation, and Pat Brown Institute → operates across academic, civic, and tech institutions simultaneously; likely values breadth of context.
GP Advisor at Screendoor (supporting new VC managers) alongside running a fund → probably generous with craft knowledge, but expects reciprocity and genuine engagement in return.
Possibly — the Common Crawl board seat (open-web data infrastructure) alongside a fintech and AI investment thesis suggests a first-principles view of AI: she cares about what the models are trained on, not just what they output.
Public speaking themes (seed investing, data, systemic problems, founder support) are practitioner-level, not abstract → likely engages best in conversations grounded in specifics, not generalities.

Conversation tips

→ Reference the SGNL/CrowdStrike exit specifically — at $740 million it's Fika's flagship outcome and she'll have real texture on how that company was built.
→ Ask about the Common Crawl Foundation board role — it's an unusual seat for a seed GP and she almost certainly has a pointed view on open data and AI.
→ Come with a specific company or market thesis, not a category overview — her content themes show she backs founders solving systemic problems, so surface-level 'AI is big' framing will land flat.
→ The Pat Brown Institute seat (added April 2026) is brand new — worth asking what drew her to it, as it signals where her civic attention is pointing right now.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the SGNL acquisition — Fika's portfolio company was acquired by CrowdStrike for $740 million in January 2026, making it the firm's most visible exit; ask what she saw in SGNL at the seed stage that others missed.
Reference the Common Crawl Foundation board seat — she joined in March 2024, and it's a pointed choice: the open-web dataset that trains most large language models, held by a GP whose fund bets on AI-enabled software.
Lead with Fika's operator-first model — weekly working sessions, hands-on help with hiring and go-to-market — and ask how that model has had to evolve as portfolio companies scale toward the size that attracts a CrowdStrike.

Discovery questions

Fika's 2026 fintech focus is explicitly on companies where money, regulation, and operational risk intersect — what does a founder get wrong most often when they pitch you a fintech company?
You've been a GP Advisor at Screendoor supporting new VC managers — what's the one thing emerging managers underestimate about building a fund from scratch?
The Common Crawl board seat is an unusual choice for a seed GP — what's the through-line between that role and how you think about the AI companies you're backing at Fika?

Avoid

Don't pitch a consumer app or a B2C growth story — Fika is explicitly a B2B seed fund and she has consistently framed her thesis around systemic problems, durable businesses, and operator-embedded support, not consumer scale.

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