Redbud VC

ActiveVenture Capital

Website LinkedIn X

Updated: Jan 22, 2026 ·

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Jun 1, 2025	Row64	$4.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Autopilot Fund, Builders, DNX Ventures, Elevate Ventures, Fifth Wall, Hustle Fund, The General Partnership, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Davenport, Charlie Feng
Jan 1, 2025	Hone Health	$33.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, Autopilot Fund, Builders, DNX Ventures, Elevate Ventures, Fifth Wall, Hawke Ventures, Hustle Fund, Magma Partners, Ravelin Capital, Shaan's All Access Fund, The General Partnership, Tribe Capital, Vine Ventures LP, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Davenport, Charlie Feng, Nik Sharma, Paul Rabil, Sam Parr
Sep 1, 2024	Trestle	$2.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Darling Ventures, ENIAC Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, MetaProp Ventures, Unless, White Star Capital, Aaron Block, Alexander Algard, Alexander Weiss
Aug 1, 2024	The Network	$3.0M Seed	—	Accel, Alt Capital, Alumni Ventures, Autopilot Fund, Builders, C2 Investment, CapitalX, DNX Ventures, Elevate Ventures, EQT Ventures, Fifth Wall, foobar.vc, Frontline Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Gradient Ventures, Hustle Fund, Kepler Operator’s Fund, Khosla Ventures, monashees, Northzone, Glenn Solomon, Pareto Holdings, Race Capital, S28 Capital, Saga, Sarona Ventures, The Club, The General Partnership, TrueSight Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Village Global, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Anthony Pompliano, Arash Ferdowsi, Ben Davenport, Charlie Feng, Christian Reber, D’Arcy Coolican, Dharmesh Shah, Drew Houston, Elad Gil, Eric Wu, Job Van Der Voort, Koen Bok, Mark Cummins, Mathilde Collin, Niklas Jansen, Portman Wills, Robert Muñoz, Sahil Lavingia, Sam Altman, Shane Curran, Stanley Tang, Tim Griffin, William Hockey
Jul 1, 2024	Heyboss	$4.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Autopilot Fund, Builders, DNX Ventures, Elevate Ventures, Fifth Wall, Hustle Fund, The General Partnership, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Davenport, Charlie Feng
Dec 1, 2022	Pylon	$9.0M Seed	—	AAF Management Ltd., Addition, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Audrey Capital, Autopilot Fund, Avalanche VC, Bain Capital Ventures, Balderton Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Bling Capital, BR Capital, Builders, Conversion Capital, Daffy, Decibel Partners, Deciens Capital, DNX Ventures, Dunce Capital, Elevate Ventures, Endure Capital, Equal Ventures, Fifth Wall, Flex Capital, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, High Alpha, Humba Ventures, Hustle Fund, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Industry Ventures, Infinity Ventures, Lazerow Ventures, Maven 11 Capital, Mischief Venture Capital, Not Boring Capital, Nyca Partners, QED Investors, Ravelin Capital, Runa Capital, Sherpalo Ventures, The General Partnership, The Hit Forge, Tusk Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, Venture Catalysts \| India's First Integrated Incubator, Village Global, Y Combinator, Anthony Pompliano, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Davenport, Bob Young, Bradley Horowitz, Charlie Feng, Emil Michael, Gaurav Munjal, Girish Mathrubootham, Gokul Rajaram, Immad Akhund, Jason Lemkin, Jeff Hammerbacher, Keri Gohman, Kunal Shah, Kyle Vogt, Louis Beryl, Matias Woloski, Othman Laraki, Pedro Arnt, Rodrigo Teijeiro, Spencer Kimball, Trent McConaghy, Vaibhav Kapoor, Youcef Es-skouri, Zak Kukoff
Sep 1, 2022	Trestle	$1.0M Seed	—	Lerer Hippeau, MetaProp Ventures
Jul 1, 2022	Phaidra	$25.0M Series A	—	7percent Ventures, Audrey Capital, C2 Investment, Collaborative Fund, Flex Capital, Greylock, LGF, Passion Capital, Positive Sum VC, Unusual Ventures, VU Venture Partners, Apoorva Ruparel, Claire Hughes Johnson, Do Kwon, Elad Gil, John Collison, Tom Blomfield, Zehan Wang
May 1, 2022	Kabata	$2.0M Seed	—	Daffy, DNX Ventures, Eunoia Capital Partners, FJ Labs, Flucas Ventures, Geek Ventures, Gutter Capital, Operator Ventures, Quiet Capital, Red Swan Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Shrug Capital, T-Bird Capital, The Hit Forge, Trajectory Ventures, VTF Capital, Weekend Fund, Abe Burns, Adam Neumann, Gokul Rajaram, James Beshara, Kintan Brahmbhatt, Manik Gupta, Neil Parikh, Todd Rovak
Mar 1, 2022	Alfred	$50.0M Venture Round	—	Ligature, New Enterprise Associates, Pareto Holdings, Sam Parr
Feb 1, 2022	Aperture Finance	$5.0M Seed	—	CrunchFund, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Framework Ventures, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Pantera Capital, Rarestone Capital, Seed Club Ventures, VU Venture Partners, Apoorva Ruparel, Do Kwon, Mariano Conti, Mark Cuban, Mona El Isa, Simon Cant, Stani Kulechov
Jan 1, 2022	Seashell	$6.0M Seed	—	Acequia Capital, A'Z Angels, Cadenza Capital Management, Goat Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, OP Crypto, Paradigm, Picus Capital, Pioneer Fund, QED Investors, Sapphire Ventures, sequel, Musaab Hakami, Russell Cook
Aug 1, 2021	Workstream	$48.0M Series B	—	20VC, Addition, Adverb Ventures, AirAngels, Airtree Ventures, Alt Capital, American Express Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, ARCH Venture Partners, Arrive, Ascend Vietnam Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Bond, Coatue, CRV, Daffy, Felix Capital, Fenway Summer, First Round Capital, F-Prime Capital Partners, Great Oaks Venture Capital, David Schenkein, IA Ventures, Indeed.com, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Khosla Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Tiffany Luck, Hans Tung, Not Boring Capital, Outcast Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Peterson Partners, SciFi VC, Soma Capital, Spark Capital, StartHer, Greg Bettinelli, Vera Equity, Webb Investment Network, Abhinav Asthana, Adam Blitzer, Akshay Kothari, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Amit Agarwal, Arash Ferdowsi, Barr Moses, Bernard Arnault, Brandon Deer, Charley M, Christina Cacioppo, Claire Hughes Johnson, Frederic Kerrest, Gokul Rajaram, Jacqueline Reses, Jeffrey Wald, Jenna Hannon, Kimberly Vogel, Manik Gupta, Mathilde Collin, Max Mullen, Ron Pragides, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Shishir Mehrotra, Theresa Johnson, Tony Xu, Zander Lurie
May 1, 2021	Phaidra	$4.0M Seed	—	VU Venture Partners, Apoorva Ruparel, Do Kwon
May 1, 2020	Workstream	$10.0M Series A	—	AirAngels, Alt Capital, Amplify.LA, Andreessen Horowitz, ARCH Venture Partners, Arrive, Ascend Vietnam Ventures, Asylum Ventures, AV8 Ventures, Bam Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, B Capital Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Bond, Bonfire Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, Coatue, Construct Capital, CRV, Daffy, ENIAC Ventures, Fenway Summer, Fika Ventures, First Round Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Founders Fund, F-Prime Capital Partners, FundersClub, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Greycroft, David Schenkein, Highland Capital Partners, IA Ventures, Indeed.com, iNovia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Kohala Ventures, KW Angel Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Aaron Jacobson, Tiffany Luck, Norwest Venture Partners, Hans Tung, One Way Ventures, Outcast Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Peterson Partners, Picus Capital, Pitbull Ventures, Rebel Fund, S28 Capital, Saga, SciFi VC, Scribble Ventures, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Soma Capital, Susa Ventures, SV Angel, Greg Bettinelli, Techstars, Tribe Capital, Trinity Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Vera Equity, XYZ Venture Capital, Y Combinator, Zintinus, Aaron King, Amit Agarwal, Arash Ferdowsi, Ashish Bhatia, Bernard Arnault, Claire Hughes Johnson, Clark Landry, Dan Wright, David Chang, Frederic Kerrest, Gokul Rajaram, Immad Akhund, Jacqueline Reses, Jason Robins, Jeffrey Wald, Jeff Seibert, Jenna Hannon, Joe Caruso, Jon Runyan, Kimberly Vogel, Mathilde Collin, Matt Brezina, Michael Ma, Moshe Lifschitz, Ryan Chan, Sahin Boydas, Shishir Mehrotra, Theresa Johnson, Tony Xu, Trevor Wright, Wayne Chang
Apr 1, 2020	Previse	$11.0M Venture Round	—	75 & Sunny, FJ Labs, Hambro Perks, Moonshots Capital, Next47, Summit Partners, Clark Landry
Sep 1, 2018	Domicile	$6.0M Seed	—	75 & Sunny, FJ Labs, Hambro Perks, iNovia Capital, Moonshots Capital, Next47, OMERS Ventures, Ben Huh, Revolution Ventures, Wind Ventures, Clark Landry, Dan Shapiro, Dharmesh Shah, Peter Kern
Aug 1, 2018	Previse	$7.0M Series A	—	75 & Sunny, FJ Labs, Hambro Perks, Moonshots Capital, Next47, Summit Partners, Clark Landry
Aug 1, 2018	New Knowledge	$11.0M Series A	—	75 & Sunny, FJ Labs, Hambro Perks, Moonshots Capital, Next47, Clark Landry
Jul 1, 2018	Skillshare	$20.0M Series C	—	75 & Sunny, BlueYard Capital, FJ Labs, Hambro Perks, Moonshots Capital, Next47, Union Square Ventures
Jun 1, 2018	Claroty	$60.0M Series B	—	75 & Sunny, Aster Capital, Bee Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Clearvision Ventures, Drive Capital, Engineering Capital, FJ Labs, Hambro Perks, Hitachi Ventures, Illuminate Financial Management, Jude Gomila Rolling Fund, Jump Crypto, KRM Interests LLC, Moonshots Capital, MoreVC, Next47, Ponte Partners, Team8, Tekfen Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Virta Ventures, Wealthing VC Club, Y Combinator, Clark Landry, Immad Akhund, Jeremy Yap, Marty Weiss
Oct 1, 2017	Home61	$4.0M Seed	—	75 & Sunny, All Iron Ventures, Ballistic Ventures, First Round Capital, FJ Labs, Foundation Capital, Hambro Perks, Long Journey Ventures, Montage Ventures, Moonshots Capital, Next47, Primitive Ventures, Quiet Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Clark Landry, Ellen Pao
Jul 1, 2017	Previse	$3.0M Seed	—	75 & Sunny, FJ Labs, Hambro Perks, Moonshots Capital, Next47, Summit Partners, Clark Landry
Jul 1, 2016	PayJoy	$18.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, Autopilot Fund, BoxGroup, Brewer Lane Ventures, Builders, C2 Investment, Coatue, Collaborative Seed & Growth Partners, DNX Ventures, Drummond Road Capital, eFounders, Electric Capital, Elevate Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Fifth Wall, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital, Highbury Group, Hustle Fund, Index Ventures, LGF, LombardStreet Ventures, New Stack Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Sherpalo Ventures, Shine Capital, The General Partnership, The Hit Forge, Third Kind Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Zigg Capital, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Davenport, Boris Hageney, Charlie Feng, Christian Reber, Elad Gil, J.D. Fagan, Josh Abramson, Matt Macinnis, Mike Vernal, Scott Belsky, Thibaud Elziere, Tom Williams
Apr 1, 2015	Color	$15.0M Series A	—	75 & Sunny, 8-Bit Capital, Kevin Hartz, ACME Capital, Afore Capital, Alsop Louie Partners, Altos Ventures, Alumni Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Amplify Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, #ANGELS (Hashtag ANGELS), Arbor Ventures, Autopilot Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, Benchmark, Big Sky Health, BoxGroup, Builders, C2 Investment, Caffeinated Capital, Casa Verde Capital, Catapult Capital, Cisco Investments, Coelius Capital, Comal Ventures, Company Capital, David Namdar, Craft Ventures, DNX Ventures, Electric Capital, Elevate Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Fifth Wall, First Round Capital, Forefront Venture Partners, Founder Collective, FounderPartners, Founders Fund, Goat Capital, Greylock, Hardware Club, Heretic Ventures, Homebrew, Hustle Fund, Ignition Partners, LAUNCH, Lowercarbon Capital, Matrix, Maven Ventures, Morado Venture Partners, Moxxie Ventures, NKM Capital, Nyca Partners, Pareto Holdings, Partners Resolute, PS Investments, Quiet Capital, RET Ventures, RRE Ventures, Saga, SciFi VC, Sequoia Capital, Signia Venture Partners, Slow Ventures, South Park Commons, Spark Capital, SV Angel, The General Partnership, Thrive Capital, Tribe Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, XFactor Ventures, Y Combinator, Adam Goldstein, Anthony Pompliano, Bob Pasker, Bradley Horowitz, Charlie Feng, Colin Carrier, Emmett Shear, Erik Blachford, Greg Brockman, Jacob Kerzner, Jared Leto, Jeremy Stoppelman, John Collison, Karl Mehta, Karl Peterson, Kenny Van Zant, Laszlo Bock, Mark Pincus, Matt Mazzeo, Michael Abramson, Osama Bedier, Pete Cashmore, Philip Kaplan, Ran Makavy, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Scott Belsky, Shervin Pishevar, Tikhon Bernstam, Travis Vanderzanden, Yishan Wong

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Redbud VC.

Brett Calhoun

General Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at Redbud VC.

Brett Calhoun

General Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Redbud VC is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests both monetary and social capital in tech founders, particularly those who have demonstrated resilience through struggle. Their mission is to partner with founders at the earliest stages—from idea or patent through prototype to early revenue—helping them build massive tech companies globally. They invest broadly across sectors including hardware, software, fintech, proptech, construction tech, SaaS, consumer, transportation, and robotics, without restrictions on founder pedigree or intro path. Redbud typically writes checks ranging from $50K to $200K, often being the first institutional investor in over 60% of their portfolio companies. Their value-add extends beyond capital to mentorship from unicorn operators, recruiting support, investor introductions, and assistance with storytelling, finance, and sales[1][3][4].

Origin Story

Founded by the team behind EquipmentShare—a multi-billion dollar tech company and one of Y Combinator’s top 25 companies—Redbud VC leverages deep operating experience to support early-stage founders. The firm is based in Columbia, Missouri, and was established by operators who have built and scaled companies generating over $4 billion in revenue. Key partners include Brett Calhoun (General Partner), Jai Malik (Venture Partner), and Willy Schlacks (General Partner). The firm evolved from its original name Scale VC to Redbud VC, maintaining a focus on removing barriers for founders by providing both capital and operational expertise[4][5][6].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focus on founders "strengthened by struggle," investing at the earliest stages including idea and pre-seed rounds.
Network Strength: Access to mentorship from unicorn operators and a broad network that has helped raise over $150 million with Redbud’s support.
Track Record: First institutional investor in over 60% of portfolio companies, with a portfolio spanning diverse tech sectors.
Operating Support: Hands-on assistance with recruiting, fundraising, storytelling, finance, and sales, leveraging experience from building billion-dollar companies.
Inclusive Approach: Invests regardless of founder pedigree or traditional introductions, emphasizing talent discovery and support[1][3][4][5].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Redbud VC rides the trend of democratizing venture capital by focusing on underrepresented founders and those outside traditional tech hubs, particularly in the Midwest and broader North America. Their timing is significant as early-stage tech innovation increasingly emerges from non-coastal regions, and founders seek more than just capital—they need operational guidance and networks to scale. By combining capital with social capital and operational expertise, Redbud helps level the playing field, fostering innovation in hardware, software, and emerging tech sectors. This approach supports the decentralization of tech ecosystems and accelerates the growth of category-defining companies beyond traditional VC strongholds[3][4][5].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Redbud VC is poised to deepen its influence by continuing to identify and back resilient founders early, expanding its portfolio across North America. Trends such as increased startup activity in the Midwest, growth in hard tech and proptech, and demand for inclusive venture capital models will shape their journey. Their blend of capital and operational support positions them to be a key player in nurturing the next generation of tech leaders outside traditional hubs. As they scale, their impact on democratizing access to venture capital and building diverse, category-defining companies is likely to grow, reinforcing their role as a catalyst for innovation in emerging tech ecosystems[3][4][5].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focus on founders "strengthened by struggle," investing at the earliest stages including idea and pre-seed rounds.
Network Strength: Access to mentorship from unicorn operators and a broad network that has helped raise over $150 million with Redbud’s support.
Track Record: First institutional investor in over 60% of portfolio companies, with a portfolio spanning diverse tech sectors.
Operating Support: Hands-on assistance with recruiting, fundraising, storytelling, finance, and sales, leveraging experience from building billion-dollar companies.
Inclusive Approach: Invests regardless of founder pedigree or traditional introductions, emphasizing talent discovery and support[1][3][4][5].