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Key people at Moore Venture Partners.
Moore Venture Partners was founded in 2010 by Terry Moore (Founder and Managing Partner).
Moore Venture Partners functions as a venture capital firm, investing in early, growth, and expansion-stage technology and life science companies. It provides capital and strategic support, applying deep industry knowledge to cultivate promising ventures. The firm’s approach prioritizes enterprises demonstrating significant market impact and innovation.
Terry Moore founded the firm in 2010 and serves as its Managing Partner. Before establishing Moore Venture Partners, Moore founded Morrison & Foerster’s Venture Network and was a Managing Director at HamiltonTech Capital Partners, a specialized tech and med-tech venture firm. His engineering background from General Atomics provided a strong foundation in technological innovation.
Moore Venture Partners primarily supports founders building high-potential technology and life science companies. The firm envisions identifying and nurturing groundbreaking enterprises from early stages, providing essential backing to accelerate development. They aim to be a critical partner in advancing next-generation solutions across targeted industries.
Moore Venture Partners was founded in 2010 by Terry Moore (Founder and Managing Partner).
# Moore Venture Partners: A Regional VC Powerhouse in Technology and Life Sciences
Moore Venture Partners (MVP) is a traditional venture capital firm specializing in early, growth, and expansion-stage investments across technology and life science companies.[1][2] Founded with a mission to back category-defining companies that positively impact millions of lives, MVP operates with a distinctly entrepreneur-friendly philosophy, emphasizing transparency and approachability in its dealings with founding teams.[1]
The firm's investment thesis centers on underserved regions, particularly San Diego and Southern California, where it has cultivated deep local expertise and networks.[1] MVP typically deploys capital across pre-seed through Series D stages, with check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $5 million, though the firm is most active in pre-seed through Series A rounds.[2] The firm reviews over 500 companies annually but maintains a disciplined approach, investing in only four to five promising startups each year.[2] MVP's portfolio has generated hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars in market value, with notable exits and successful companies including Cloudbeds, Events.com, Avidity Biosciences, Chromacode, Whitefox Defense, and Daylight Solutions.[1]
Moore Venture Partners was founded in 2010 (with some sources indicating 2011) and is headquartered in the San Diego area, initially operating from Carlsbad, California, with offices in Coronado.[1][2] The firm emerged during a period when venture capital was increasingly concentrating in coastal tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston, leaving regional markets underserved. Terry Moore, the firm's founder and chairman, recognized this gap and established MVP to serve the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southern California.
Beyond venture investing, Moore has been instrumental in building the broader VC community through his founding and leadership of The VC Roundtable, a private, invitation-only organization that has operated for over two decades.[2] This organization brings together general partners, limited partners, corporate strategic VCs, and angel organization leaders throughout California for deal flow discussions, networking, and education. The VC Roundtable also hosts the annual "VC Regatta," which provides local companies exposure to venture capitalists, demonstrating Moore's commitment to ecosystem development beyond individual fund performance.
MVP's primary differentiator is its concentrated focus on San Diego and Southern California, where it has built unparalleled relationships and operational expertise.[1] Rather than competing nationally or globally, the firm has chosen to become the dominant regional player, allowing it to develop proprietary deal flow and deep knowledge of the local entrepreneurial landscape.
The firm is backed by extensive expertise in private equity and technology sectors, with the management team having successfully executed over 100 transactions.[4] MVP's team comprises not just investors but also operators, engineers, and scientists, along with a network of world-class partners, advisors, and technical experts.[1] This composition enables the firm to provide meaningful operational support beyond capital deployment.
MVP's selectivity—investing in only 4-5 companies annually despite reviewing 500—reflects a quality-over-quantity philosophy.[2] This disciplined approach allows the firm to provide meaningful follow-on support and maintain high conviction in its portfolio companies.
Through The VC Roundtable and related initiatives, MVP has positioned itself as a convener and thought leader in the regional venture ecosystem, creating value for its limited partners and portfolio companies through network effects and community engagement.[2]
MVP operates at an interesting inflection point in venture capital's evolution. As mega-funds increasingly dominate Silicon Valley and concentrate capital in a handful of coastal metros, regional venture firms like MVP are experiencing renewed relevance. The firm's focus on underserved regions reflects a broader market trend: the geographic democratization of venture capital, driven by remote work normalization, rising costs in traditional tech hubs, and the emergence of strong entrepreneurial ecosystems outside Silicon Valley.
San Diego, in particular, has developed into a meaningful biotech and software hub, with particular strength in life sciences, defense technology, and hospitality software—sectors where MVP has built notable expertise.[1] The firm's dual focus on technology and life sciences positions it well to capture value from the convergence of computational biology, digital health, and biotech innovation.
MVP's emphasis on transparency and entrepreneur-friendly terms also reflects a broader market shift. As founder-friendly terms become table stakes in competitive funding environments, MVP's historical positioning around these values has become a competitive advantage rather than a differentiator, allowing the firm to attract quality deal flow in a crowded market.
Moore Venture Partners has established itself as a credible, operator-backed regional venture firm with a proven track record of backing successful companies and building ecosystem value. The firm's fourth fund launch in 2021 signaled continued growth and investor confidence in its model.[2]
Looking forward, MVP's trajectory will likely be shaped by several forces: the continued strength of San Diego's biotech and software ecosystems, the sustainability of remote work enabling distributed entrepreneurship, and the firm's ability to scale its operational support model as fund sizes grow. The firm's deep roots in life sciences position it well to capture value from the ongoing convergence of biology and technology, while its technology focus ensures relevance in AI, fintech, and emerging digital trends.
The key question for MVP's evolution is whether its regional, operator-first model can scale beyond San Diego without losing the local expertise and relationships that define its competitive advantage. If the firm can maintain its disciplined investment approach while selectively expanding its geographic footprint or sector focus, it could emerge as a template for how regional venture firms compete in an increasingly bifurcated venture capital landscape—one where mega-funds dominate mega-rounds, but smaller, specialized regional firms capture outsized returns through deep expertise and founder alignment.
Moore Venture Partners has 5 tracked investments across 4 companies. The latest tracked deal is $28.0M Series C in ChromaCode in December 2019.
Key people at Moore Venture Partners.
