Betaworks Ventures

This VC firm focuses on investing in AI, Augmentation, LLMs, NLP, web3, and applied machine learning startups.

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Jan 22, 2026 ·

About

Betaworks invests, accelerates, and builds companies and projects from scratch : our focus right now is on AI and Augmentation, LLM's, NLP, web3 rails and applied machine learning.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Oct 1, 2025	Tycho AI	$10.0M Series A	—	Adjacent, Contrary Capital, Factorial, FirstMark Capital, Gaingels, Hustle Fund, Leadout Capital, Metaplanet, Round One Capital, Shrug Capital, Splash Capital, Ulu Ventures, Derrick Li, Eric Ries, Jaan Tallinn, Joe Greenstein, Karen King, Mark Cuban, Mark Pincus, Matthew Dellavedova, Ron Pragides, Sheila Vashee, Tim Kendall
Sep 1, 2025	Camera Intelligence	$2.0M Seed	—	7percent Ventures
Jul 1, 2025	Coverflow	$5.0M Seed	—	Adjacent, Contrary Capital, Factorial, FirstMark Capital, Gaingels, Hustle Fund, Leadout Capital, Metaplanet, Round One Capital, Shrug Capital, Splash Capital, Ulu Ventures, Eric Ries, Jaan Tallinn, Joe Greenstein, Karen King, Mark Cuban, Mark Pincus, Matthew Dellavedova, Ron Pragides, Sheila Vashee, Tim Kendall
Jun 1, 2025	Gecko Robotics	$130.0M Series D	—	Acrew Capital, DCM, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lobby Capital, Lux Capital, Next47, Prime Movers Lab, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, True Ventures, Yes VC, Alex Pattis, Curtis Lee, Varsha Rao
Jun 1, 2025	Veris AI	$9.0M Seed	—	Acrew Capital, Decibel Partners, Lobby Capital, Pioneer Fund, True Ventures, Yes VC, Thomas Tull
Mar 1, 2025	Ditto	$82.0M Series B	—	Acrew Capital, E1 Ventures, Founder Collective, Greycroft, K2 Global, Lobby Capital, Point72 Ventures, Snowpoint Ventures, True Ventures, Virginia Venture Partners, Yes VC, Amr Awadallah, Catherine Wood, Natasha Ahmed, Sahin Boydas, Shivon Zilis, Thomas Tull
Oct 1, 2024	Sapien	$11.0M Seed	—	Accel, Aleph VC, Alumni Ventures, Bam Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Browder Capital, Coatue, Company Capital, Corner Ventures, Craft Ventures, Davidovs VC, Divergence Ventures, First Round Capital, Frontline Ventures, General Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Haystack, Kamran Ansari, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Insight Partners, Intuit Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Lainy, LGF, LocalGlobe, MMC Ventures, NEO, Next Play Capital, Otherwise Fund, Point Nine Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Sarah Smith Fund, Seedcamp, Seguin Ventures, SOSV, SRB Ventures, Stellar Capital, Stride VC, Vera Equity, Vibe Capital, Bartek Pucek, Charlie Songhurst, Harsh Sinha, Julia Kagan, Karim Atiyeh, Max Mullen, Ron Pragides, Sahil Lavingia, Scott Banister, Siqi Chen, Sri Batchu, Tekin Salimi, Tikhon Bernstam, Youcef Es-skouri, Zander Lurie
Apr 1, 2024	Scheduler AI	$3.0M Seed	—	11 Tribes Ventures, Act One Ventures, Addition, Anthemis Group, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, Browder Capital, Buckley Ventures, CapitalX, Coelius Capital, Composite Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Kevin Ding, Drive Capital, Founders Fund, General Atlantic, Highbury Group, Lytical Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Scott Sandell, Pareto Holdings, Revolution Growth, SCOR Ventures, SignalFire, Springdale Ventures, The Hit Forge, Clark Landry, Daren Cotter, Jiake Liu, Lev Ekster, Ryan Wyatt, Sahil Lavingia, Scott Belsky
Mar 1, 2024	Activeloop	$11.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, General Catalyst, Haystack, Kamran Ansari, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Next Play Capital, Redpoint Ventures, SRB Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Max Mullen, Ron Pragides, Scott Banister, Siqi Chen, Sri Batchu, Zander Lurie
Feb 1, 2024	Permit.io	$8.0M Series A	—	11.2 Capital, A Capital, Addition, AIX Ventures, AllegisCyber Capital, E1 Ventures, Factorial, Grotech Ventures, Lux Capital, Otherwise Fund, Paladin Capital Group, Scale Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Summit Partners, SYN Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures, WestCap, Augusto Marietti, Brad Bitler, Charles Zedlewski, Clement Benoit, Florian Douetteau, Greg Brockman, Ronny Conway, Thibaud Elziere
Dec 1, 2023	Gecko Robotics	$100.0M Series C	—	11k Ventures, 645 Ventures, 8VC, Acrew Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Cubit Capital, DCM, Drive Capital, E1 Ventures, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Goat Capital, Insight Partners, Lobby Capital, Lux Capital, Next47, Prime Movers Lab, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, True Ventures, Trust Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund, Y Combinator, Yes VC, Aaron Peterman, Alex Pattis, Curtis Lee, Emil Lee, Gokul Rajaram, Joshua Reeves, Louis Beryl, Mark Cuban, Natasha Ahmed, Nick Sinai, Thomas Tull, Varsha Rao, Vivek Patel, Zachary Hargreaves
Nov 1, 2023	Bezi	$13.0M Series A	—	2.12 Angels, 8VC, Adverb Ventures, AirAngels, Alt Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Jana Messerschmidt, Benchmark, Ben Taft's Genius Ventures, Coatue, Craft Ventures, First Round Capital, Fuel Capital, General Catalyst, Haystack, Kamran Ansari, Index Ventures, LGF, Long Journey Ventures, Matrix, Mayfield, Next Play Capital, Preston-Werner Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Shunwei Capital, SRB Ventures, Uncork Capital, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, Daniel Kan, Fareed Mosavat, Guillaume Luccisano, Max Mullen, Nate Matherson, Ron Pragides, Scott Banister, Sri Batchu, Stewart Butterfield, Zander Lurie
Aug 1, 2023	Highlight	$18.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, General Catalyst, Haystack, Kamran Ansari, Next Play Capital, Redpoint Ventures, SRB Ventures, Max Mullen, Ron Pragides, Scott Banister, Siqi Chen, Sri Batchu, Zander Lurie
Aug 1, 2023	Grit	$7.0M Seed	—	186 Ventures, 8VC, 9Yards Capital, Abstract Ventures, Accomplice VC, Alumni Ventures, Anti fund, Arrive, Bam Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Boston Seed Capital, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, Friends & Family Capital, General Catalyst, Haystack, Kamran Ansari, Impellent Ventures, Insight Partners, Khosla Ventures, Multicoin Capital, NextGen Venture Partners, Next Play Capital, NextView Ventures, OMERS Ventures, Operator Collective, Predictive VC, Redpoint Ventures, Sherpalo Ventures, SRB Ventures, The Hit Forge, Ulu Ventures, Village Global, VitalStage Ventures, Y Combinator, David Chang, Jeff Seibert, Jennifer Lum, Konstantin von Unger, Matteo Franceschetti, Max Mullen, Ron Pragides, Ryan Holiday, Scott Banister, Siqi Chen, Sri Batchu, Wayne Chang, Zander Lurie, Guillermo Rauch
Apr 1, 2023	Ditto	$45.0M Series A	—	Acrew Capital, E1 Ventures, Founder Collective, Greycroft, K2 Global, Lobby Capital, Point72 Ventures, Snowpoint Ventures, True Ventures, Virginia Venture Partners, Yes VC, Amr Awadallah, Catherine Wood, Natasha Ahmed, Sahin Boydas, Shivon Zilis, Thomas Tull
Jan 1, 2023	Goldenset Collective	$10.0M Seed	—	A Capital, Addition, AIX Ventures, E1 Ventures, Factorial, FirstMile Ventures, Hustle Fund, Leawood Venture Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Lux Capital, Matchstick Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Sequoia Capital, Serena Ventures, Summit Partners, Thirty Five Ventures, Augusto Marietti, Brad Bitler, Charles Zedlewski, Clement Benoit, Florian Douetteau, Greg Brockman, Ronny Conway, Thibaud Elziere
Jan 1, 2023	Speakeasy	$7.0M Seed	—	Act One Ventures, Addition, Anthemis Group, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, Browder Capital, Buckley Ventures, CapitalX, Coelius Capital, Composite Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Kevin Ding, Drive Capital, Founders Fund, General Atlantic, Highbury Group, Lytical Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Scott Sandell, Pareto Holdings, Revolution Growth, SCOR Ventures, SignalFire, Springdale Ventures, The Hit Forge, Clark Landry, Daren Cotter, Jiake Liu, Lev Ekster, Ryan Wyatt, Sahil Lavingia, Scott Belsky
Jan 1, 2023	Cymbal	$19.0M Seed	—	Act One Ventures, Addition, Anthemis Group, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, Browder Capital, Buckley Ventures, CapitalX, Coelius Capital, Composite Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Kevin Ding, Drive Capital, Founders Fund, General Atlantic, Highbury Group, Kleiner Perkins, Lytical Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Scott Sandell, Pareto Holdings, Revolution Growth, SCOR Ventures, SignalFire, Springdale Ventures, The Hit Forge, Clark Landry, Daren Cotter, Jiake Liu, Lev Ekster, Neil Hunt, Sahil Lavingia, Scott Belsky, Tom Steyer
Nov 1, 2022	Seeds	$3.0M Seed	—	Anorak Ventures, Babel Ventures, DuContra Ventures, Foundry Group, General Catalyst, Montage Ventures, Portage Ventures, Rebel Fund, Social Leverage, Howard Lindzon, Techstars, True Ventures, Roger Ehrenberg, Ron Pragides
Oct 1, 2022	Scheduler AI	$1.0M Seed	—	11 Tribes Ventures, Act One Ventures, Addition, Anthemis Group, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, Browder Capital, Buckley Ventures, CapitalX, Coelius Capital, Composite Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Kevin Ding, Drive Capital, Founders Fund, General Atlantic, Highbury Group, Lytical Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Scott Sandell, Pareto Holdings, Revolution Growth, SCOR Ventures, SignalFire, Springdale Ventures, The Hit Forge, Clark Landry, Daren Cotter, Jiake Liu, Lev Ekster, Ryan Wyatt, Sahil Lavingia, Scott Belsky
Oct 1, 2022	Start Left® Security	$3.0M Seed	—	Act One Ventures, Addition, Anthemis Group, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, Browder Capital, Buckley Ventures, CapitalX, Coelius Capital, Composite Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Kevin Ding, Drive Capital, Founders Fund, General Atlantic, Highbury Group, Lytical Ventures, Matchstick Ventures, Scott Sandell, Pareto Holdings, Revolution Growth, SCOR Ventures, SignalFire, Springdale Ventures, The Hit Forge, Clark Landry, Daren Cotter, Jiake Liu, Lev Ekster, Ryan Wyatt, Sahil Lavingia, Scott Belsky
Sep 1, 2022	CropConex	$2.0M Seed	—	Adjacent, Animo Ventures, Contrary Capital, Factorial, FirstMark Capital, Gaingels, Hustle Fund, Leadout Capital, LombardStreet Ventures, Metaplanet, Round One Capital, Shrug Capital, Speedinvest, Splash Capital, Ulu Ventures, Derrick Li, Eric Ries, Erik Bovee, Jaan Tallinn, Joe Greenstein, Karen King, Mark Cuban, Mark Pincus, Mathias Ockenfels, Matthew Dellavedova, Ron Pragides, Sheila Vashee, Tim Kendall
Aug 1, 2022	Draftea	$20.0M Series A	—	A Capital, Addition, AIX Ventures, E1 Ventures, Factorial, Lux Capital, Otherwise Fund, Sequoia Capital, Summit Partners, Thirty Five Ventures, Augusto Marietti, Brad Bitler, Charles Zedlewski, Clement Benoit, Florian Douetteau, Greg Brockman, Ronny Conway, Thibaud Elziere
Jul 1, 2022	Holey Grail Donuts	$9.0M Series A	—	7percent Ventures, Addition, Audrey Capital, C2 Investment, Flex Capital, Foundry Group, Greylock, IVP, LGF, Montage Ventures, Passion Capital, Positive Sum VC, Howard Lindzon, Techstars, True Ventures, Unusual Ventures, Claire Hughes Johnson, Elad Gil, John Collison, Ligaya Tichy, Roger Ehrenberg, Tom Blomfield, Tony Hawk, Zehan Wang
Jul 1, 2022	Stadium Live Studios	$10.0M Series A	—	50 Partners Impact, A Capital, Addition, AIX Ventures, A'Z Angels, Bombas, Diaspora Ventures, E1 Ventures, Factorial, KB Partners, Left Lane Capital, Lux Capital, Origins, Otherwise Fund, Reshape Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Singular, Slow Ventures, Summit Partners, Thirty Five Ventures, TQ Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Augusto Marietti, Brad Bitler, Celine Lazorthes, Chad Stender, Charles Zedlewski, Clement Benoit, Eric Feng, Eric Wu, Florian Douetteau, Greg Brockman, Kevin Lin, Leore Avidar, Nik Sharma, Ronny Conway, Roxanne Varza, Scott Belsky, Thibaud Elziere, Tony Hawk

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Betaworks Ventures.

Leadership Team

Key people at Betaworks Ventures.

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Betaworks Ventures is a New York City–based venture capital firm and startup studio that focuses on investing in and building early-stage companies in cutting-edge technology sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP), web3, and applied machine learning. Its mission is to combine investment with active company building, leveraging a hybrid model that blurs the line between investor and operator to accelerate innovation in network-focused media and consumer technology startups. Betaworks Ventures supports startups that augment human capabilities and create new digital experiences, contributing significantly to the startup ecosystem by nurturing both internally built companies and external investments that have gone on to achieve major exits and market impact[3][4][7].

Origin Story

Founded in 2007 by John Borthwick, a veteran of the New York tech scene with leadership roles at AOL, Time Warner, and Fotolog, Betaworks was created to address the innovation bottlenecks Borthwick observed in large corporations. Along with co-founder Andy Weissman (who left in 2011), Borthwick envisioned a nimble, adaptable startup studio and venture firm that could sustain continuous innovation by building companies internally and investing externally. Betaworks has evolved from a pure startup studio into a hybrid model that includes a seed and Series A venture fund, thematic accelerator programs, and a builder network. Key partners now include John Borthwick, Matt Hartman, and Peter Rojas, among others[1][3][4][6].

Core Differentiators

Hybrid Model: Betaworks uniquely combines a startup studio that builds companies internally (e.g., Giphy, Bitly, Chartbeat) with a venture fund that invests in early-stage startups (e.g., Twitter, Kickstarter, Hugging Face).
Network Strength: The firm leverages a broad network of founders, engineers, and investors, including venture fellows with deep operational experience from companies like Pinterest and Electric Objects.
Track Record: Betaworks has a strong history of successful exits, including Giphy’s $400 million acquisition by Meta and Tweetdeck’s acquisition by Twitter.
Operating Support: Beyond capital, Betaworks provides hands-on support through its studio model, accelerator programs, and a collaborative environment that fosters rapid experimentation and iteration.
Focus on Frontier Tech: The firm emphasizes investments in AI, LLMs, NLP, web3, and applied machine learning, positioning itself at the forefront of emerging technology trends[3][4][5][6].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Betaworks rides the wave of increasing interest and innovation in AI-driven augmentation, decentralized technologies (web3), and advanced machine learning applications. The timing is critical as these technologies are reshaping how people interact with digital content and services. Betaworks influences the broader ecosystem by acting as both a builder and investor, accelerating the development of foundational tools and platforms that enable new forms of media, communication, and interaction. Its hybrid approach helps bridge the gap between idea generation and market execution, fostering a culture of continuous innovation that counters stagnation seen in larger tech incumbents[3][4][6].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Betaworks Ventures is likely to deepen its focus on AI and machine learning startups, especially those leveraging large language models and NLP to create new user experiences and augment human capabilities. The firm’s integrated studio and venture model positions it well to capitalize on the convergence of AI and web3 technologies. As the startup ecosystem evolves, Betaworks’ influence may grow as a key enabler of early-stage innovation, helping founders navigate complex technological frontiers while providing operational expertise and capital. Its continued success will depend on maintaining its unique builder-investor hybrid approach and expanding its network of founders and technologists[4][5][7].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Hybrid Model: Betaworks uniquely combines a startup studio that builds companies internally (e.g., Giphy, Bitly, Chartbeat) with a venture fund that invests in early-stage startups (e.g., Twitter, Kickstarter, Hugging Face).
Network Strength: The firm leverages a broad network of founders, engineers, and investors, including venture fellows with deep operational experience from companies like Pinterest and Electric Objects.
Track Record: Betaworks has a strong history of successful exits, including Giphy’s $400 million acquisition by Meta and Tweetdeck’s acquisition by Twitter.
Operating Support: Beyond capital, Betaworks provides hands-on support through its studio model, accelerator programs, and a collaborative environment that fosters rapid experimentation and iteration.
Focus on Frontier Tech: The firm emphasizes investments in AI, LLMs, NLP, web3, and applied machine learning, positioning itself at the forefront of emerging technology trends[3][4][5][6].