Afore Capital

Quick read

Afore Capital is a pre-seed venture capital firm founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. It pioneered the institutionalized pre-seed category and claims $500M AUM, making it the largest fund by dollars deployed exclusively at pre-seed. The firm backs founders before product, traction, or revenue—sometimes before a company entity even exists—writing $500K–$2M+ checks and running a formal Founder-in-Residence program.

Key facts

Founded

2016

Founders

Gaurav Jain, Anamitra Banerji

Employees

27

Sectors

generalist, saas, fintech, healthcare, ai, enterprise

Website

afore.vc

Investment thesis

Afore backs founders at the absolute earliest stage—pre-product, pre-revenue, often before a company exists—writing $500K–$2M+ checks with conviction in the person rather than the plan. The firm focuses on product-oriented, technical founders and actively helps them form companies through its Founder-in-Residence program, targeting a path to Series A.

Recent activity

• Apr 2026investment
  Afore participated in Noon's $44M seed round alongside First Round Capital, Scribble Ventures, SV Angel, Elevation Capital, and Homebrew. Noon is rebuilding product design workflows. tracxn.com
• Feb 2026investment
  Loop AI raised a $14M Series A with Afore participation, demonstrating the firm's follow-on capability alongside its pre-seed mandate. f4.fund
• Jan 2026investment
  Afore invested in TakeTwo at the pre-seed stage. f4.fund
• 2026product
  Afore and Gamma launched the $10M 'Ideas to Reality' fund, backing 10 teams at the pre-product, pre-revenue stage with up to $1M each. No warm intro required. Afore had originally backed Gamma at day zero; Gamma is now a $2B company with 70M+ users. afore.vc
• Feb 2025fundraise
  Afore closed Fund IV at $185M, its fourth fund and a strong LP conviction milestone. Fund III had been fully deployed across 100+ companies. f4.fund
• 2025investment
  Afore made 17 new pre-seed investments across the year, continuing its pace as the most active dedicated pre-seed fund. f4.fund
• 2025investment
  Arvo raised a $2.2M round led by Afore Capital. The company automates meeting prep, notes, and CRM logging for investment bankers and investors. linkedin.com

Notable investments

• NoonSeedApr 2026tracxn.com
• Loop AISeries AFeb 2026f4.fund
• TakeTwoPre-seedJan 2026f4.fund
• ArvoPre-seed2025linkedin.com
• GammaPre-seed2020afore.vc
• HightouchPre-seedhub.waveup.com
• BetterUpPre-seedhub.waveup.com
• Neo FinancialPre-seedhub.waveup.com
• Modern HealthPre-seedsvppro.com
• Cult.fit (Curefit)Pre-seedhub.waveup.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Gaurav Jain · Co-Founder & Managing Partner
  LinkedIn
• Anamitra Banerji · Co-Founder & Managing Partner
  LinkedIn
• Jack McClelland · Investor
  LinkedIn
• Derrick Li · Team Member
  LinkedIn
• Joseph Cardini · Investor / Builder
  LinkedIn

Sources

• Afore Capital — Official Website
• Afore x Gamma $10M Ideas to Reality Fund
• Afore Capital — Investment Thesis & Preferences
• Afore Capital — VC Fund Breakdown
• Afore Capital Fund Profile — Waveup Copilot
• Afore Capital — Tracxn Profile
• Anamitra Banerji — VCSheet
• How Afore Capital uses Vessel
• Gaurav Jain Podcast — Grace Gong / SVP Pro

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• Greylock Partners · Early-stage VC, Menlo Park

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