Seed-stage VC, US

Kindred Ventures

Venture capital firm · San Francisco · Founded 2014

Quick read

Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage VC firm founded in 2014 by Steve Jang, headquartered in San Francisco, CA. With $600M AUM across four funds, it backs pre-seed and seed founders at the earliest possible stage — often before a company formally exists. It has invested in 168+ companies, including early bets on Uber, Coinbase, and Perplexity, with an aggregate portfolio market cap exceeding $200 billion.

Key facts

Founded
2014
Founders
Steve Jang
Employees
2-10
Sectors
generalist, ai, fintech, healthcare, consumer, crypto, climate
Website
kindredventures.com

Investment thesis

Kindred backs visionary founders at the earliest possible stage — pre-seed and seed — across frontier technologies including AI, crypto, fintech, and digital health. The firm also co-creates companies from scratch by partnering with entrepreneurs before formation, helping assemble teams and sharpen ideas without taking studio-level equity.

Recent activity

  • Jun 2026fundraise
    Kindred Ventures closed $355M across two new vehicles — Kindred Ventures IV (pre-seed/seed) and Kindred Selector II (early-growth follow-on) — its largest raise to date, targeting AI, compute, robotics, and agentic software. everythingstartups.com
  • Jun 2026investment
    Kindred Ventures led Hydra Host's $100M Series A at a reported ~$800M valuation. Co-investors included Nvidia, ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Magnetar, and Flume Ventures. Hydra Host connects buyers to underused AI server capacity at independent data centers. techstartups.com
  • Jun 2026investment
    Portfolio company Messari exited on June 12, 2026, marking Kindred's most recent portfolio exit per CB Insights. cbinsights.com
  • Jul 2026investment
    Kindred Ventures participated in Assured's $19M Series A on July 22, 2026. Assured builds provider platform software to automate healthcare administration. cbinsights.com
  • Feb 2025fundraise
    Kindred Ventures filed with the SEC on February 6, 2025 to raise $200M for Kindred Ventures IV, its fourth flagship fund. The predecessor Fund III closed at $312M combined with a first opportunity fund. dakota.com
  • Undatedinvestment
    Kindred Ventures led a $24M seed round for Architect Labs, which is building AI to accelerate co-design of custom chips. x.com
  • Jun 2026fundraise
    Kindred Ventures announced $355M across two new vehicles: Kindred Ventures IV (early-stage, pre-seed and seed) and Kindred Selector II (early-growth, designed to concentrate follow-on capital into top portfolio companies). This is the firm's largest raise to date. Steve Jang appeared on Bloomberg TV with Caroline Hyde to discuss the funds and the AI market. fundmomentum.vc
  • Jun 2026investment
    Kindred co-led Creatify's $15.5M Series A alongside WndrCo, with participation from Comcast Ventures. Creatify builds an AI-powered generative ad platform with built-in testing and feedback loops. kindredventures.com
  • Jun 2026investment
    Fearn raised a $5.5M Seed round with Kindred Ventures, Designer Fund, and Andreessen Horowitz participating. Fearn is building tools to address the two-tier patent system. tracxn.com
  • Jun 2026press
    Kindred's first AI-focused fund (deployed 2022–2025, approximately $200M) reached a $1 billion gross market value as of June 2026, placing it in the top 1% of its vintage. linkedin.com
  • Jun 2026investment
    fal closed a $140M Series D led by Sequoia Capital. Kindred described this as "quadrupling down" on its position in the portfolio company. linkedin.com
  • May 2026investment
    District raised a $14.7M Seed round with Kindred Ventures participating. District is building next-generation online commerce infrastructure. crunchbase.com

Notable investments

Key people

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

  • Steve Jang · Founder & Managing Partner
  • Kanyi Maqubela · Partner

Sources

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Frequently asked

What is Kindred Ventures?+

Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage VC firm founded in 2014 by Steve Jang, headquartered in San Francisco, CA. With $600M AUM across four funds, it backs pre-seed and seed founders at the earliest possible stage — often before a company formally exists.

Where is Kindred Ventures headquartered?+

Kindred Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.

When was Kindred Ventures founded?+

Kindred Ventures was founded in 2014 by Steve Jang.

What sectors does Kindred Ventures invest in?+

Kindred Ventures focuses on generalist, ai, fintech, healthcare, consumer, crypto, climate. They primarily invest in these sectors.

How do I prepare for a meeting with Kindred Ventures?+

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Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources. Last updated August 21, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

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