Otherwise Fund

ActiveVenture Capital

Website

Updated: Jan 6, 2026 ·

About

Otherwise is a network of founders investing in founders.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Oct 1, 2025	Unikraft	$6.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Designer Fund, Heavybit, Hummingbird Ventures, Y Combinator, Guillermo Rauch
Oct 1, 2025	Reducto	$75.0M Series B	—	Alt Capital, Amplify Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, First Round Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital Partners, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi, Kulveer Taggar, Ralph Gootee, Tracy Young
Oct 1, 2025	Interfere	$3.0M Seed	—	AIX Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Designer Fund, Fellows Fund, Hummingbird Ventures, Rebel Fund, Roble Ventures, The Hit Forge, Threshold Ventures, Y Combinator, Guillermo Rauch, James Isilay, Jared Leto, Michael Stoppelman, Peter Kazanjy, Steve Chen, Tom Blomfield, Wayne Crosby
Oct 1, 2025	David AI	$50.0M Series B	—	50 Partners, Alt Capital, Amplify Partners, Boldstart Ventures, Footwork, Insight Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Qiming Venture Partners, Tectonic Capital, Y Combinator, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Ben Porterfield, Justin Mateen, Liu Jiang, Nigel Wray, Scott Belsky, Sean Rad
Sep 1, 2025	Channel3	$500K Seed	—	Felicis Ventures, Greylock, Nexus Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Paul Graham
Sep 1, 2025	Inversion	$27.0M Seed	—	6th Man Ventures, Adjacent, Day One Ventures, DST Global, Embedded Ventures, Emergence Capital, Aniq Kassam, Felicis Ventures, Flex Capital, Friends & Family Capital, Global Founders Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Iterative, Kohala Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Matrix, Paradigm, Spark Capital, Summit Partners, SV Angel, Theory Forge Ventures, Tribe Capital, Y Combinator, Andrew Steinwold, Azeem Azhar, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Tossell, Kulveer Taggar, Kyle Vogt, Mathilde Collin, Paul Graham, Paul Stahura, Siqi Chen, Thijn Lamers
Sep 1, 2025	Cognition	$400.0M Series C	—	Alkeon Capital, Conviction Partners, Founders Fund, Gaingels, Indeed.com, LGF, Paradigm, Pear VC, Stellar Capital, bill weathersby, Elad Gil, John Collison, Karim Atiyeh, Konstantin von Unger, Tony Xu
Sep 1, 2025	Nox Metals	$5.0M Seed	—	Pioneer Fund, Y Combinator
Aug 1, 2025	The Clearing Company	$15.0M Seed	—	Craft Ventures, Furqan Rydhan
Aug 1, 2025	Chai Discovery	$70.0M Series A	—	8VC, Alkeon Capital, C2 Investment, Gaingels, Indeed.com, Innovation Endeavors, LGF, Menlo Ventures, Paradigm, Stellar Capital, Thrive Capital, Y Combinator, Elad Gil, John Collison, Konstantin von Unger, Patrick Collison
Jul 1, 2025	Vanta	$150.0M Series D	—	Adverb Ventures, Chloe Sladden, Jana Messerschmidt, Haun Ventures, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Trajectory Ventures, Wellington Management, Akshay Kothari, Andy Coravos, Charlie Cheever, Jared Leto
Jul 1, 2025	Ashby	$50.0M Series D	—	Alkeon Capital, Bee Partners, Blue Bear Capital, Contrary Capital, Gaingels, General Catalyst, Greylock, Indeed.com, LGF, Next Play Ventures, Sequoia Capital, UP.Partners, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, John Collison, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Konstantin von Unger, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Vivek Patel
Jul 1, 2025	ZeroEntropy	$4.0M Seed	—	Day One Ventures, DST Global, Emergence Capital, Felicis Ventures, Flex Capital, Friends & Family Capital, Global Founders Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Initialized Capital, Matrix, Pioneer Fund, Runa Capital, Spark Capital, Summit Partners, SV Angel, Theory Forge Ventures, XFactor Ventures, Y Combinator, Aayush Phumbhra, Azeem Azhar, Ben Tossell, Chris Smoak, Klaus von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Krishna Mehra, Kulveer Taggar, Mathilde Collin, Paul Graham, Paul Stahura, Siqi Chen, Thijn Lamers
Jul 1, 2025	Olto	$5.0M Seed	—	Ahead VC, Felicis Ventures, Greylock, Nexus Venture Partners, The General Partnership, Y Combinator, Paul Graham
Jun 1, 2025	Turnstile	$23.0M Series A	—	Kevin Hartz, Andreessen Horowitz, BITKRAFT Ventures, Coatue, Convective Capital, Coughdrop Capital, CRV, Daft Capital, Flex Capital, Founders Fund, Goat Capital, Infinite Niches, Invariantes Fund, Jetstream, MS&AD Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Pioneer Fund, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, The Hit Forge, Thirty Five Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Tribe Capital, Y Combinator, YOBE Ventures, Andre Iguodala, Bradley Horowitz, Jonathan Swanson, Joshua Reeves, Joshua Webster, Ryan Shea, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Suhail Doshi
Jun 1, 2025	Glean	$150.0M Series F	—	Kevin Hartz, Addition, Amplify Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, Battery Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures, CapitalG, Cedar Capital Group, Coatue, Convective Capital, Coughdrop Capital, CRV, Daft Capital, Day One Ventures, DST Global, Emergence Capital, Felicis Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Flex Capital, Founders Fund, Friends & Family Capital, General Catalyst, Global Founders Capital, Goat Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Greylock, Dave Munichiello, Infinite Niches, In-Q-Tel, Insight Partners, Invariantes Fund, IVP, Jetstream, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis VC, Matrix, MS&AD Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Pioneer Fund, QBE Ventures, Ride Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Singular, Snowflake Ventures, Spark Capital, Summit Partners, SV Angel, Telescope Partners, The Hit Forge, Theory Forge Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Tribe Capital, Wellington Management, Y Combinator, YOBE Ventures, Andre Iguodala, Azeem Azhar, Ben Tossell, Bradley Horowitz, Brandon Philips, Jonathan Swanson, Joshua Reeves, Joshua Webster, Kulveer Taggar, Mathilde Collin, Paul Graham, Paul Stahura, Ryan Shea, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Siqi Chen, Suhail Doshi, Thijn Lamers
Jun 1, 2025	Antimetal	$20.0M Series A	—	AirAngels, AngelList, C2 Investment, Founder Collective, Greylock, Homebrew, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Preston-Werner Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Spark Capital, Spero Ventures, Aaron Levie, Adrian Aoun, Akshay Kothari, Amjad Masad, Andrew Berman, Arash Ferdowsi, Ben Tossell, Ben Uretsky, Charlie Cheever, Charlie Songhurst, Christina Cacioppo, David Lieb, Ding Zhou, Frederic Kerrest, Howie Liu, Jeremy Stoppelman, Karim Atiyeh, Kyle Vogt, Matteo Franceschetti, Max Mullen, Mike Hudack, Mike Krieger, Neha Narkhede, Sam Blond, Siqi Chen, Tobias Lutke
Jun 1, 2025	Delphi	$16.0M Series A	—	ACME Capital, AirAngels, C2 Investment, Frederique Dame, Homebrew, IVP, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Hans Tung, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Spero Ventures, The General Partnership, The House Fund, Ulu Ventures, Workday Ventures, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Charlie Songhurst, David Lieb, Ding Zhou, Karim Atiyeh, Kevin Weil, Marc Benioff, Mike Hudack, Mike Krieger, Tobias Lutke
Jun 1, 2025	Fleet Device Management	$27.0M Series B	—	AirAngels, Blu Venture Investors, C2 Investment, CapitalX, CRV, Homebrew, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Moonfire Ventures, Seedcamp, Shield Capital, SNR, Spark Capital, Spero Ventures, Amjad Masad, Augusto Marietti, Charlie Songhurst, David Kalt, David Lieb, Dylan Field, Gerhard Eschelbeck, Guillermo Rauch, Jeremy Yap, Karim Atiyeh, Mike Hudack, Mike Krieger, Nico Waisman, Tobias Lutke, Zack Kanter
Jun 1, 2025	Polar	$10.0M Seed	—	Accel, AirAngels, Blu Venture Investors, C2 Investment, CapitalX, CRV, Cyberstarts VC, Designer Fund, Glilot Capital Partners, Homebrew, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Moonfire Ventures, Scale Asia Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Spark Capital, Spero Ventures, Tamar Technology Ventures, Team8, Amjad Masad, Augusto Marietti, Benny Schnaider, Charlie Songhurst, Christian Reber, David Kalt, David Lieb, Dylan Field, Efi Cohen, Gerhard Eschelbeck, Guillermo Rauch, Karim Atiyeh, Mario Götze, Mike Hudack, Mike Krieger, Nico Waisman, Niklas Jansen, Scott Belsky, Zack Kanter
Jun 1, 2025	Interfere	$2.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Designer Fund, Felicis Ventures, Fellows Fund, Greylock, Hummingbird Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Rebel Fund, Roble Ventures, Y Combinator, Guillermo Rauch, James Isilay, Michael Stoppelman, Paul Graham, Peter Kazanjy, Tom Blomfield, Wayne Crosby
Jun 1, 2025	Harmony (tryharmony.ai)	$2.0M Seed	—	Alt Capital, Browder Capital, Day One Ventures, DST Global, Emergence Capital, Felicis Ventures, Flex Capital, Founders Fund, Friends & Family Capital, FTX Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Matrix, Meritech Capital Partners, Mischief Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Saga, Spark Capital, Summit Partners, SV Angel, TCV, The Hit Forge, Theory Forge Ventures, Y Combinator, Azeem Azhar, Ben Tossell, Christina Cacioppo, Dharmesh Shah, Dylan Field, Fidji Simo, Immad Akhund, Jason Lemkin, Jonathan Neman, Joshua Reeves, Julian Shapiro, Justin Mateen, Kulveer Taggar, Mathilde Collin, Max Mullen, Parker Conrad, Paul Graham, Paul Stahura, Scott Belsky, Sean Rad, Siqi Chen, Thijn Lamers
Jun 1, 2025	Alta	$11.0M Seed	—	50 Partners, AirAngels, Andreessen Horowitz, C2 Investment, Giza Polish Ventures, Goat Capital, Greylock, Hanabi Capital, Homebrew, Klossy, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona Ventures, Makers Fund, Menlo Ventures, NEO, Ann Bordetsky, Obvious Ventures, Outrun Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Spero Ventures, Stellar Capital, Stellation Capital, Vibe Capital, Volition Capital, Y Combinator, Amjad Masad, Charlie Songhurst, David Lieb, Jeff Seibert, Karim Atiyeh, Kelvin Beachum Jr., Kevin Weil, Manish Chandra, Mike Hudack, Mike Krieger, Ron Pragides, Thibaud Elziere, Tobias Lutke, Tony Xu, William Levy
Jun 1, 2025	YieldClub	$3.0M Seed	—	AirAngels, C2 Investment, Homebrew, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Spero Ventures, Amjad Masad, Charlie Songhurst, David Lieb, Karim Atiyeh, Mike Hudack, Mike Krieger, Tobias Lutke
May 1, 2025	Tesseral	$3.0M Seed	—	10100, Evolution Equity Partners, Felicis Ventures, Greylock, Rick Yang, Nexus Venture Partners, Pioneer Fund, Race Capital, Zain Rizavi, Scale Asia Ventures, Y Combinator

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Otherwise Fund.

Terrence Rohan

Managing Director

Leadership Team

Key people at Otherwise Fund.

Terrence Rohan

Managing Director

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Otherwise Fund is a California-based venture capital firm that operates as a network of founders investing in founders, with a mission to give founders more power in the startup ecosystem. Its investment philosophy centers on backing early-stage startups—primarily at the pre-seed and seed stages—with a strong emphasis on founder agency, founder-friendly terms, and non-traditional support structures. The fund focuses on technology-driven companies across sectors like AI/ML, developer tools, infrastructure, and next-generation software platforms, often in markets where founders are rethinking entrenched models. By combining capital with a tight-knit, operator-led network, Otherwise Fund aims to be a more aligned and flexible partner for founders navigating the early, high-risk phases of company building.

In the broader startup ecosystem, Otherwise Fund plays the role of an enabler for underrepresented or non-traditional founder profiles, often stepping in where traditional institutional capital may be hesitant. Its relatively small fund size and founder-centric ethos allow it to move quickly and support companies with both capital and strategic access, contributing to a more distributed and founder-empowered venture landscape.

Origin Story

Otherwise Fund was founded in the late 2010s, with its first institutional fund, Otherwise Fund I, closing in June 2019. The firm emerged from a network of experienced founders and operators who wanted to create a more founder-aligned alternative to traditional venture capital. Rather than positioning itself as a top-down institutional player, Otherwise was built as a collaborative, network-driven fund where successful founders actively invest in and support the next generation.

The firm is based in Mill Valley, California, and has grown its presence through a series of early, high-conviction bets on technical founders building in emerging areas like AI and infrastructure. Over time, Otherwise has evolved from a single fund into a multi-vehicle strategy, including special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and secondary opportunities, allowing it to support founders across different stages and liquidity needs. This evolution reflects a deliberate shift toward flexible, founder-friendly financing beyond standard equity rounds.

Core Differentiators

Founder-Led Network Model: Otherwise is structured as a network of founders investing in founders, which creates strong alignment and trust with portfolio companies. This operator-first lens informs both sourcing and support.

Flexible, Non-Traditional Financing: Beyond standard venture rounds, Otherwise offers alternative structures such as SPVs, secondaries, and non-traditional instruments, giving founders more options to retain control and manage dilution.

Early-Stage Focus & Speed: The fund specializes in pre-seed and seed investments, often leading or co-leading rounds. Its smaller size and founder-native decision-making enable fast, founder-friendly terms without heavy bureaucracy.

Strategic Co-Investment Network: Otherwise frequently partners with top-tier early-stage funds (e.g., Andreessen Horowitz, BoxGroup, Refactor Capital, Precursor Ventures), amplifying its reach and credibility while maintaining a lightweight, high-signal approach.

Operator-Led Support: Because many of its partners and LPs are active or former founders, Otherwise provides practical, hands-on guidance on product, hiring, and go-to-market—not just capital.

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Otherwise Fund is riding a broader trend toward democratization and decentralization in venture capital, where founder-led funds and syndicates are challenging the dominance of traditional, institutional GPs. As the cost of building software and AI startups has dropped and distribution has become more accessible, there’s growing demand for capital that understands technical founders and non-linear growth paths. Otherwise is well-positioned in this shift, particularly in sectors like AI infrastructure, developer tools, and vertical SaaS, where technical founders are building foundational layers rather than chasing short-term growth metrics.

The firm also benefits from the rise of alternative financing models and the increasing sophistication of founder-investors. By embracing SPVs and secondary-like structures, Otherwise helps founders manage liquidity and cap table complexity in a more nuanced way—something that’s increasingly valuable in a market where exits are less predictable and founder retention is critical. In this context, Otherwise isn’t just a capital provider but a node in a more distributed, founder-centric innovation ecosystem.

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Otherwise Fund is likely to deepen its focus on AI-native infrastructure and tools, where founder-led, technical teams are building the next generation of platforms. As the venture landscape continues to fragment and founder expectations evolve, Otherwise’s network-driven, flexible model could become even more attractive—especially for founders who prioritize control, speed, and alignment over sheer check size.

The firm may also expand its use of non-traditional vehicles, potentially moving into more structured secondaries or founder liquidity solutions, further blurring the line between traditional VC and alternative asset strategies. If it continues to back breakout companies while maintaining its founder-first ethos, Otherwise could become a blueprint for a new class of nimble, operator-native funds that shape how early-stage capital flows in the coming decade. In a world where “otherwise” is increasingly the new normal, Otherwise Fund is betting that the most powerful startups are built not by institutions, but by founders—backed by other founders.

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Founder-Led Network Model: Otherwise is structured as a network of founders investing in founders, which creates strong alignment and trust with portfolio companies. This operator-first lens informs both sourcing and support.

Flexible, Non-Traditional Financing: Beyond standard venture rounds, Otherwise offers alternative structures such as SPVs, secondaries, and non-traditional instruments, giving founders more options to retain control and manage dilution.

Early-Stage Focus & Speed: The fund specializes in pre-seed and seed investments, often leading or co-leading rounds. Its smaller size and founder-native decision-making enable fast, founder-friendly terms without heavy bureaucracy.

Strategic Co-Investment Network: Otherwise frequently partners with top-tier early-stage funds (e.g., Andreessen Horowitz, BoxGroup, Refactor Capital, Precursor Ventures), amplifying its reach and credibility while maintaining a lightweight, high-signal approach.

Operator-Led Support: Because many of its partners and LPs are active or former founders, Otherwise provides practical, hands-on guidance on product, hiring, and go-to-market—not just capital.