Long Journey Ventures

Quick read

Long Journey Ventures is a seed and pre-seed VC firm founded in 2019 (formerly Edelweiss), headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The firm describes itself as the 'second believers' in unconventional founders, writing $500K–$2M checks into companies at the napkin stage. In March 2025 it closed Fund IV at $181.8M, doubling its AUM.

Key facts

Founded

2019

Founders

Cyan Banister

Employees

11-50

Sectors

generalist

Website

www.longjourney.vc

Investment thesis

Long Journey backs 'magically weird' founders at seed and pre-seed, writing $500K–$2M checks into companies — often before others see the idea as credible. The firm targets outliers across generalist sectors including AI, deep tech, robotics, and biotech, with a stated 6–7 year outlook to exit.

Recent activity

• Mar 2026investment
  Participated in Anchr's $5.8M raise to bring AI to food supply chain distribution. tracxn.com
• Mar 2026investment
  Joined the $6M raise for Monalee (rebranded as Artemis), alongside Coalition Operators and Palm Tree Crew. tracxn.com
• Mar 2025fundraise
  Closed Long Journey IV at $181,818,181.80 — doubling the firm's AUM. Scott Banister joined as Venture Partner alongside the close. longjourney.vc
• Jan 2026investment
  Backed FLORA's $42M Series A alongside Andreessen Horowitz and Menlo Ventures. tracxn.com
• Jan 2026investment
  Made a seed investment in Unusual (Seed VC - II round) on January 5, 2026 — the firm's most recent logged investment per CB Insights. cbinsights.com
• Dec 2025press
  Partner Arielle Zuckerberg published a post on what Long Journey looks for in founders, describing it as 'Rizz and Tizz.' longjourney.vc
• 2025investment
  Portfolio company Rainmaker Corp announced a $6.3M seed led by Long Journey, with co-investors including 1517 Fund, Starship VC, and angels Garry Tan and Balaji Srinivasan. x.com

Notable investments

• AnchrSeedMar 2026tracxn.com
• Artemis (fka Monalee)SeedMar 2026tracxn.com
• FLORASeries AJan 2026tracxn.com
• UnusualSeedJan 2026cbinsights.com
• SourcetableSeed2025crunchbase.com
• Rainmaker CorpSeed2025x.com
• Crusoe AIEarly stageearlierx.com
• CovariantEarly stageearlierdeep-tech-week.com

Key people

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

• Cyan Banister · General Partner & Founder
• Lee Jacobs · Partner
  LinkedIn
• Arielle Zuckerberg · Partner
• Brian Balfour · Partner
• Jonathan Bruck · Partner
• Pascal Levy-Garboua · Partner
• Elaine Wherry · Partner
• Scott Banister · Venture Partner

Sources

• Long Journey Ventures — Homepage
• Long Journey: Coming of Age — Fund IV Announcement
• Team — Long Journey Ventures
• News — Long Journey Ventures
• Long Journey Ventures — CB Insights
• Long Journey Ventures — Tracxn
• Long Journey Ventures — Crunchbase
• Long Journey Ventures — X (Twitter)
• Long Journey Ventures — Dealroom

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• Founders Fund · Contrarian VC, San Francisco·
• Khosla Ventures · Multi-stage VC, Menlo Park·
• Greylock Partners · Early-stage VC, Menlo Park

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