Floodgate

Floodgate Fund is a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investments in technology companies.

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Updated: Feb 17, 2026 ·

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Sep 1, 2025	Valence	$50.0M Series B	—	8VC, Autotech Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator
Jul 1, 2025	Firestorm	$35.0M Series A	—	Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Craft Ventures, DN Capital, Giant Ventures, Harpoon, IDG Ventures, LAUNCH, McCarthy Capital, Aaron Jacobson, New Enterprise Associates, Alexander Rosen, Scout Ventures, SignalFire, Slow Ventures, Y Combinator, Drew Houston, Emmett Shear, Kyle Vogt
Jul 1, 2025	AirGarage	$23.0M Series B	—	Abstract Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, DCM, Felicis Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Maniv Mobility, Next47, Scribble Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Thrive Capital, Toyota Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Uncork Capital, Austin Ogilvie, Chris Bennett, Dylan Field, Jacob Kerzner, Justin Mateen, Prescott Watson, Sri Batchu
Jul 1, 2025	Rune Technologies	$24.0M Series A	—	Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Caffeinated Capital, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Founders Fund, Taylor Brandt, Lux Capital, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Stash Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, Harry Hurst, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Rob Meyerson
Jul 1, 2025	Hadrian	$110.0M Series C	—	2048 Ventures, Afore Capital, Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomic, Caffeinated Capital, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Daft Capital, Felicis Ventures, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, One Way Ventures, Paradox Capital, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Stash Ventures, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Virginia Venture Partners, Austin Ogilvie, Harry Hurst, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mattia Astori, Rob Meyerson, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Sohila Zadran, Vineet Jain, William Miller
Jul 1, 2025	Ambience Healthcare	$240.0M Series C	—	Accel, Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Buckley Ventures, General Catalyst, Greylock, Haystack, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, LGF, Lux Capital, Matrix, Next Play Ventures, Oak HC/FT, Open AI Startup Fund, Tribe Capital, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, Bradley Horowitz, Elad Gil, Gokul Rajaram, Henry Kravis, Justin Mateen, Nico Rosberg, Paul Graham
Jul 1, 2025	Ramp	$500.0M Series E	—	8VC, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Caffeinated Capital, Canvas Ventures, Chemistry VC, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Contrary Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Diaspora Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Industry Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Launch House Ventures, LGF, Lux Capital, Pareto Holdings, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Stash Ventures, Susquehanna Capital, The House Fund, Thrive Capital, Bradley Horowitz, Catherine Wood, Chafic Kazoun, Eduardo Alcalay, Harry Hurst, Javaughn Lawrence, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Lucas Medola, Mark Casady, Rob Meyerson, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin, Zachary Hargreaves
Jul 1, 2025	Monumental Labs	$9.0M Seed	—	Craft Ventures, Giant Ventures, LAUNCH, Slow Ventures, Y Combinator, Drew Houston, Emmett Shear, Kyle Vogt
Jul 1, 2025	Varda	$190.0M Series C	—	01 Advisors, 11k Ventures, 8VC, Abstract Ventures, Afore Capital, Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Anorak Ventures, Ballistic Ventures, Bedrock Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Champion Hill Labs, Cubit Capital, Daft Capital, DCM, Drive Capital, E1 Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Goat Capital, Khosla Ventures, LGF, Lux Capital, Marlinspike, Next47, Outliers Fund, Paradox Capital, Prime Movers Lab, Rabben Hood Ventures, Saga, Sequoia Capital, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Virginia Venture Partners, XYZ Venture Capital, Y Combinator, Austin Ogilvie, Emil Lee, Fanny Surjana, Gokul Rajaram, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Joshua Reeves, Justin Mateen, Louis Beryl, Mark Cuban, Mattia Astori, Mircea Pasoi, Natasha Ahmed, Richard Cooperstein, Sahin Boydas, Sohila Zadran, Sri Batchu, Stephen Romanoff, Thomas Tull, Vineet Jain, Vivek Patel, William Miller, Zachary Hargreaves
Jun 1, 2025	GridFree AI	$5.0M Seed	—	Craft Ventures, Giant Ventures, LAUNCH, Slow Ventures, Y Combinator, Drew Houston, Emmett Shear, Kyle Vogt
Jun 1, 2025	Ramp	$200.0M Series E	—	8VC, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Caffeinated Capital, Canvas Ventures, Chemistry VC, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Contrary Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Diaspora Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Industry Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Launch House Ventures, LGF, Lux Capital, Pareto Holdings, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Stash Ventures, Susquehanna Capital, The House Fund, Thrive Capital, Bradley Horowitz, Catherine Wood, Chafic Kazoun, Eduardo Alcalay, Harry Hurst, Javaughn Lawrence, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Lucas Medola, Mark Casady, Rob Meyerson, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin, Zachary Hargreaves
Jun 1, 2025	Warp	$10.0M Series A	—	ACME Capital, Addition, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Basecamp Fund, Bee Partners, Blue Bear Capital, Bond, Contrary Capital, Craft Ventures, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Giza Polish Ventures, Greylock, Frederique Dame, Haystack, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Klossy, LAUNCH, Lux Capital, Makers Fund, Maniv Mobility, Matrix, Menlo Ventures, Next Play Ventures, Hans Tung, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Slow Ventures, The General Partnership, The House Fund, Toyota Ventures, Tribe Capital, Ultratech Capital Partners, Ulu Ventures, UP.Partners, Venture Highway, Volition Capital, Workday Ventures, Y Combinator, Adam Back, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Catherine Lu, Ding Zhou, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Emmett Shear, Gokul Rajaram, Henry Kravis, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kelvin Beachum Jr., Kevin Weil, Kyle Vogt, Manish Chandra, Marc Benioff, Nico Rosberg, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Tony Xu
Apr 1, 2025	Plug	$7.0M Seed	—	100X.VC, DFJ, Greylock, LAUNCH, The Hit Forge, Vishal Rao
Apr 1, 2025	Potato	$7.0M Seed	—	ACME Capital, Alumni Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Draper Associates, Generative Ventures, Hustle Fund, LGF, Lightbank, Maveron, Pioneer Square Labs, Preface Ventures, Silicon Valley Connect, Stash Ventures, The Fintech Fund, Viola Ventures, Working Capital Fund, Gloria Baeuerlein, Jeff Hammerbacher, Justin Mateen, Koen Bok, Paul Veugen, Russell Smith, Sean Behr, Shervin Pishevar, Stewart Butterfield, Tuomas Artman
Mar 1, 2025	X (formerly Twitter)	$1.0B Venture Round	—	01 Advisors, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Bond, CRV, DFJ, DST Global, Insight Partners, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lowercarbon Capital, Spark Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, SV Angel, The Hit Forge, True Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Joi Ito, Tim Ferriss
Mar 1, 2025	Rerun	$17.0M Seed	—	500 Emerging Europe, Air Street Capital, Alt Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Craft Ventures, Creandum, Davidovs VC, Flex Capital, Founder Collective, LGF, Moonfire Ventures, Next Level Ventures, Point Nine Capital, Rebel Fund, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Saga, Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, Zeno Ventures, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Aston Motes, DJ Patil, Greg Brockman, Harry Hurst, Kulveer Taggar, Leore Avidar, Marius Istrate, Mathilde Collin, Oliver Cameron, Ott Kaukver, Rubin Ritter, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Torsten Reil, Guillermo Rauch
Feb 1, 2025	Saronic	$600.0M Series C	—	8VC, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Anorak Ventures, Avalanche VC, Battery Ventures, Bling Capital, BR Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, CVS Health, Kelly Chen, Dunce Capital, Equal Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, High Alpha, Hyde Park Venture Partners, IVP, Lazerow Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, Maven 11 Capital, Not Boring Capital, Picus Capital, Pillar VC, Ravelin Capital, Runa Capital, Saga, Spark Capital, Stash Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, Village Global, Y Combinator, Bradley Horowitz, Esther Dyson, Harry Hurst, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Kyle Vogt, Nick Sinai, Rob Meyerson, Trent McConaghy, Yoshua Bengio
Feb 1, 2025	Rune Technologies	$6.0M Seed	—	Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Caffeinated Capital, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Stash Ventures, Harry Hurst, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Rob Meyerson
Feb 1, 2025	Teneo Protocol	$3.0M Seed	—	ACME Capital, Cowboy Ventures, Draper Associates, Generative Ventures, LGF, Lightbank, Maveron, Silicon Valley Connect, Stash Ventures, The Fintech Fund, Viola Ventures, Gloria Baeuerlein, Justin Mateen, Koen Bok, Paul Veugen, Russell Smith, Shervin Pishevar, Stewart Butterfield, Tuomas Artman
Jan 1, 2025	Fazeshift	$4.0M Seed	—	Alloy Fund, Arrive, Craft Ventures, Giant Ventures, Gradient Ventures, LAUNCH, Mischief Venture Capital, Slow Ventures, Y Combinator, Drew Houston, Emmett Shear, Kyle Vogt, Michael Stoppelman, Ran Makavy
Jan 1, 2025	Gumloop	$17.0M Series A	—	Vijaya Gadde, Jett Fein, K9 Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Logos Labs, NextView Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Operator Collective, Pioneer Fund, Shaan's All Access Fund, SRB Ventures, Cristina Cordova, Evan Williams, Scott Belsky, Tuomas Artman
Jan 1, 2025	Hestus	$2.0M Seed	—	Craft Ventures, Giant Ventures, LAUNCH, Rock Yard Ventures, Slow Ventures, Y Combinator, Drew Houston, Emmett Shear, Kyle Vogt
Dec 1, 2024	Fiddler AI	$19.0M Series B	—	Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, General Catalyst, Greylock, Haystack, Insight Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed India Partners, Lux Capital, March Capital, Matrix, Sorenson Ventures, Tribe Capital, Venture Highway, Bradley Horowitz, Elad Gil, Henry Kravis, Nico Rosberg
Dec 1, 2024	Lava	$10.0M Series A	—	Kevin Hartz, AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Founders Fund, GV, Hanabi Capital, Hardware Club, Heroic Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, LGF, NEO, Pareto Holdings, Quiet Capital, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital, Sherpalo Ventures, Sovereign Internet and Identity, The Hit Forge, Anthony Pompliano, Eric Wu, Gabriel Jarrosson, James Corden, Mark Pincus, Sahin Boydas, Stanley Druckenmiller, Steve Lee
Nov 1, 2024	New Lantern	$19.0M Series A	—	Alt Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Craft Ventures, Flex Capital, Founder Collective, Greylock, LGF, Lobby Capital, Scott Sandell, Next Level Ventures, Robot Ventures, Saga, Sequoia Capital, SmartStart Fund, SNR, Tiger Global Management, Aston Motes, DJ Patil, Greg Brockman, Guillermo Rauch, Harry Hurst, Jim Pitkow, Leore Avidar, Matt Mazzeo, Oleg Rogynskyy, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Stacy Brown-Philpot

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Floodgate.

Chief of Staff, Associate

Leadership Team

Key people at Floodgate.

Chief of Staff, Associate

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Floodgate Fund is a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments in technology companies, primarily at the pre-seed and seed stages. Their mission centers on being "Your First True Believers," meaning they focus on backing extraordinary founders early on, providing not only capital but also strategic guidance and resources to help startups grow and succeed. Floodgate’s investment philosophy emphasizes small, deliberate investments that bridge the gap between angel funding and larger venture rounds, supporting innovative ventures across sectors such as AI, consumer technology, fintech, enterprise software, Web3/crypto, and healthcare. By focusing on early-stage companies, Floodgate plays a critical role in shaping the startup ecosystem, nurturing foundational innovation that often leads to transformative technology companies[1][2][5][6].

Origin Story

Founded in 2006 by Mike Maples Jr. and Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate began as Maples Investments before rebranding in 2010. Mike Maples Jr., a seasoned entrepreneur with two startup IPOs, identified a growing group of founders seeking smaller initial investments (under $1 million) due to declining startup costs and the rise of lean startup methodologies. Floodgate pioneered the "micro-VC" model, deliberately focusing on small funds and small initial checks to support these overlooked founders. Over time, Floodgate evolved to maintain its entrepreneurial approach despite increasing competition from angel investors, crowdfunding, and traditional VCs entering seed rounds. The firm has backed notable companies such as Twitter, Lyft, Okta, and Twitch, demonstrating early traction and pivotal investments that helped shape Silicon Valley’s tech landscape[3][4][5].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Floodgate pioneered the micro-VC approach, focusing on small, strategic investments ($100K to $1M) at the earliest stages, filling a critical funding gap between angels and larger VCs[4][5].
Network Strength: Led by experienced partners like Mike Maples Jr. and Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate leverages deep Silicon Valley connections to provide startups with access to influential networks and follow-on funding[3][4].
Track Record: Early investments in iconic companies such as Twitter, Lyft, and Okta highlight Floodgate’s ability to identify and support high-potential startups[3][6].
Operating Support: Beyond capital, Floodgate offers founders frameworks and guidance to navigate growth challenges and fundraising dynamics in a competitive market[4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Floodgate rides the trend of democratizing early-stage startup funding, capitalizing on technological advances that lower startup costs and enable leaner company launches. The timing of their micro-VC model was critical as it addressed a previously underserved segment of founders needing smaller, more flexible capital injections. Market forces such as increased competition among investors and the proliferation of alternative funding sources have made early-stage investing more dynamic, with founders gaining more leverage. Floodgate’s influence extends beyond capital; by shaping early-stage investment norms and supporting foundational technology companies, they help drive innovation cycles and ecosystem growth in Silicon Valley and beyond[4][5].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Floodgate is likely to continue refining its entrepreneurial VC approach, adapting to evolving startup funding landscapes and emerging technology trends such as AI, Web3, and biotech. Their deep expertise and early-stage focus position them well to capitalize on new waves of innovation and maintain influence as a key first believer for transformative startups. As competition intensifies, Floodgate’s ability to provide strategic support and leverage its network will be critical to sustaining its role as a leading micro-VC firm. Their ongoing commitment to small, impactful investments will likely keep them at the forefront of early-stage venture capital[1][4][5].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Floodgate pioneered the micro-VC approach, focusing on small, strategic investments ($100K to $1M) at the earliest stages, filling a critical funding gap between angels and larger VCs[4][5].
Network Strength: Led by experienced partners like Mike Maples Jr. and Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate leverages deep Silicon Valley connections to provide startups with access to influential networks and follow-on funding[3][4].
Track Record: Early investments in iconic companies such as Twitter, Lyft, and Okta highlight Floodgate’s ability to identify and support high-potential startups[3][6].
Operating Support: Beyond capital, Floodgate offers founders frameworks and guidance to navigate growth challenges and fundraising dynamics in a competitive market[4].