Sozo Ventures

Sozo Ventures is a cross-border venture fund focusing on assisting US-based technology start-ups in global expansion.

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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)
Jun 1, 2025	Kargo	$18.0M Venture Round	—	Founders Fund, Matter Venture Partners, Saga
Apr 1, 2025	Hydrolix	$80.0M Series C	—	AV8 Ventures, Decibel Partners, Equal Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, L'ATTITUDE Ventures, Mayfield, Nyca Partners, QED Investors, Ribbit Capital, S3 Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, Jett McCandless, Manish Patel, Will Szczerbiak
May 1, 2024	Hydrolix	$35.0M Series B	—	AV8 Ventures, Decibel Partners, L'ATTITUDE Ventures, Mayfield, QED Investors, S3 Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, Manish Patel
Jun 1, 2023	Hydrolix	$20.0M Series A	—	AV8 Ventures, Decibel Partners, Mayfield, QED Investors, S3 Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, Manish Patel
May 1, 2023	Odyssey	$15.0M Series A	—	Andreessen Horowitz, C2 Investment, Equal Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, The Hit Forge, Union Square Ventures, Charlie Cheever, Jett McCandless, Tobias Lutke, Will Szczerbiak
Mar 1, 2023	Plus One Robotics	$53.0M Series C	—	Afore Capital, Basecamp Fund, BMW i Ventures, Cedar Capital Group, Convective Capital, Curie.Bio, Designer Fund, Emerald Technology Ventures, Founder Collective, Gradient Ventures, Ironspring Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, MZ, Operator Partners, Playground Global, Scale Venture Partners, Schematic Ventures, Soma Capital, Stellar Capital, Tribe Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, WorkLife Ventures, Andrew Maywah, Ben Porterfield, Larry Gadea, Michael Ma
Jan 1, 2023	Journey Clinical	$9.0M Series A	—	Beckley Waves, Equal Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Fifty Years, Mystic Ventures, PsyMed Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Edvard Engesæth, Jett McCandless, Will Szczerbiak
Oct 1, 2022	GoodShip	$2.0M Seed	—	Equal Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Union Square Ventures, Will Szczerbiak
Jun 1, 2022	Indicina	$3.0M Seed	—	Equal Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Target Global, Union Square Ventures, Brandon Krieg, Jett McCandless, Oliver Jung, Tom Blomfield
Apr 1, 2022	SmartHop	$30.0M Series B	—	Alumni Ventures, Amplo, BoxGroup, Cathay Innovation, Curie.Bio, Defy Partners, Equal Ventures, Gradient Ventures, IA Ventures, Jetstream, Lux Capital, Maveron, Next Coast Ventures, Hans Tung, Operator Partners, Playground Global, Schematic Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sonder Capital, Stage 2 Capital, Susa Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Vast Ventures, Voyager Ventures, WGI Group, Anne Wojcicki, Josh Abramowitz, Kiran Bhatraju, Steve Martocci, Teddy Citrin, Tom McInerney
Mar 1, 2022	Legal.io	$12.0M Series A	—	Boon Fund, Real Ventures, Tiger Global Management
Mar 1, 2022	Kargo	$25.0M Series A	—	Correlation Ventures, Forum Ventures, Founders Fund, F Prime Capital, Hack VC, Matter Venture Partners, Saga, Surface Ventures, SV Angel, Valar Ventures
Mar 1, 2022	Hadrian	$90.0M Series A	—	Afore Capital, Also Capital, Altai Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomic, Caffeinated Capital, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Daft Capital, Felicis Ventures, Floodgate, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Matter Venture Partners, Paradox Capital, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Stash Ventures, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Virginia Venture Partners, Zigg Capital, Alex Adelman, 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
Feb 1, 2022	Leaf Logistics	$37.0M Series B	—	Bluestein Ventures, Goat Capital, Kin Ventures, Playground Global, proChain Ventures, Schematic Ventures, Seven Seven Six, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator, Chris Fanini, Elizabeth Iorns, Emmett Shear
Jan 1, 2022	RenoRun	$140.0M Series B	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Boon Fund, Greylock, Lobby Capital, Scott Sandell, Real Ventures, Robot Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Greg Brockman, Jim Pitkow, Matt Mazzeo, Scott Belsky, Stacy Brown-Philpot
Dec 1, 2021	Supergreat	$20.0M Series B	—	9Yards Capital, Accel, Adjacent, Amazon Alexa Fund, Archetype, Benchmark, Converge Venture Partners, Convoz, Craft Ventures, Frontier Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Paradigm, Plug & Play Ventures, Ravelin Capital, Ribbit Capital, Sound Ventures, TQ Ventures, Verified Capital, Brad Lewthwaite, Colin Carrier, Demi Lovato, Jared Leto, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Justin Timberlake, Kevin Colas, Kevin Weil, Oskar Hartmann, Ron Pragides, Scott Belsky, William Miller
Nov 1, 2021	Odyssey	$5.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Avalanche VC, Bling Capital, BR Capital, Dunce Capital, Equal Ventures, High Alpha, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Lazerow Ventures, Maven 11 Capital, Not Boring Capital, Ravelin Capital, Runa Capital, Tusk Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, Village Global, Y Combinator, Bradley Horowitz, Guillermo Rauch, Kyle Vogt, Trent McConaghy, 8VC, Anorak Ventures, Austin Ogilvie, Balaji Srinivasan, BITKRAFT Ventures, Buckley Ventures, CRV, Data Point Capital, DeNA, Dilpesh Parmar, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Ground Up Ventures, Ivan Markman, J2 Ventures, Jack Smith, Jenny Fielding, Jen Rubio Butterfield, Jett McCandless, Kohala Ventures, Larry Braitman, Lawrence Braitman, Ludlow Ventures, Lux Capital, Octopus Ventures, Paul Heydon, Polygon, Scott Hartley, Surojit Chatterjee, Sweet Capital, Volt Capital, Will Szczerbiak, XFactor Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital
Aug 1, 2021	SentiLink	$70.0M Series B	—	305 Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Accel, Adjacent, Archetype, Arrive, Benchmark, Bora&Sons, Bullpen Capital, Casa Verde Capital, Converge Venture Partners, Cosmic Venture Partners, Craft Ventures, Draper Associates, Elefund, FPV Fund, Frontier Ventures, Index Ventures, Koch Fund, KRM Interests LLC, Lainy, LAUNCH, Moonshots Capital, Neotribe Ventures, Scott Sandell, Offline Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Paradigm, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital, Howard Lindzon, Sound Ventures, Summit Partners, Susa Ventures, Susquehanna Capital, Thrive Capital, Venture Development Partners, Verified Capital, Aaron Levie, Jared Leto, Todd Corenson, Yajur Sehgal
Jul 1, 2021	Algolia	$150.0M Series D	—	9Yards Capital, Accel, Adjacent, Archetype, Arrive, Benchmark, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Converge Venture Partners, Dreamers VC, Footprint Coalition, Frontier Ventures, General Catalyst, GV (Google Ventures), Heroic Ventures, Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital, Sound Ventures, Verified Capital, Munish Varma
Jul 1, 2021	Fireblocks	$310.0M Series D	—	9Yards Capital, Accel, Adjacent, Archetype, Benchmark, Converge Venture Partners, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Frontier Ventures, Paradigm, Pioneer Fund, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital, Sound Ventures, Verified Capital, Y Combinator, Koen Koeppen, Kulveer Taggar
Apr 1, 2021	Cape.ai	$20.0M Series A	—	.406 Ventures, 645 Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Accel, Adjacent, Afore Capital, AllegisCyber Capital, Archetype, Basecamp Fund, Benchmark, Boldstart Ventures, Cedar Capital Group, Convective Capital, Converge Venture Partners, Curie.Bio, Designer Fund, Endeavor Catalyst, Evolution Equity Partners, Expa, Flex Capital, Founder Collective, Foundry Group, Freestyle Capital, Frontier Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Joe Kraus, Liquid 2 Ventures, MZ, Operator Partners, Paradigm, Recursive Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Ridgeline Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Soma Capital, Sound Ventures, Stellar Capital, Trajectory Ventures, Tribe Capital, True Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Verified Capital, WorkLife Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Porterfield, Jevon MacDonald, Joi Ito, Larry Gadea, Marcos Galperin, Mark Pincus, Michael Ma, Mike Krieger, Sundeep Madra, Thomas Noonan, Tim Jurka
Mar 1, 2021	Chainalysis	$100.0M Series D	—	9Yards Capital, Kevin Hartz, Accel, Addition, Adjacent, Adverb Ventures, Archetype, Awesome People Ventures, Banana Capital, Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, Converge Venture Partners, Ali Tamaseb, Electric Capital, ENIAC Ventures, Euclid Ventures, First Star Ventures, FJ Labs, Frontier Ventures, Golden Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Infinite Niches, Khosla Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Jeff Richards, Paradigm, Precursor Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Social Capital, Sound Ventures, Verified Capital, Adam D'Angelo, Andy Coravos, Anthony Pompliano, Charlie Feng, Dylan Field, Jen Rubio Butterfield, Julia DeWahl, Julia Hartz, Mark Cuban, Matt Mazzeo, Scott Belsky, Tom Williams, Tonio DeSorrento
Mar 1, 2021	Fireblocks	$130.0M Series C	—	33N Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Accel, Addition, Adjacent, Afore Capital, Archetype, Base Partners, Bedrock Capital, Benchmark, C2 Investment, Converge Venture Partners, Cyberstarts VC, DNX Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, Founders Fund, Frontier Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Paradigm, QED Investors, Ribbit Capital, Saga, Sands Capital, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Sound Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Verified Capital, Colin Carrier, Eric Wu, John Collison, Kelvin Beachum Jr., Max Mullen, Nicolas Berggruen, Sam Altman, Shlomo Kramer
Feb 1, 2021	Kargo	$6.0M Seed	—	Founders Fund, Matter Venture Partners, Saga
Feb 1, 2021	Titan	$13.0M Series A	—	305 Ventures, 75 & Sunny, 9Yards Capital, Kevin Hartz, A* Capital (A Star Capital), Accel, Addition, Adjacent, Altimeter Capital, Alumni Ventures, Alven, Andreessen Horowitz, Jana Messerschmidt, Archetype, Banana Capital, Benchmark, Bond, Buckley Ventures, C2 Investment, Coatue, Contrary Capital, Converge Venture Partners, Daybreak Partners, Drive Capital, Scott Hartley, Founders Fund, Frontier Ventures, Future Shape, General Catalyst, Goodwater Capital, GSV Acceleration, Human Capital, IrishAngels, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Motivate Ventures, NextView Ventures, Paradigm, Pioneer Fund, Playground Global, Portal Ventures, Precursor Ventures, RareBreed Ventures, Rebel Fund, Ribbit Capital, S28 Capital, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Smash Capital, Social Capital, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Sound Ventures, SQN Venture Partners, Sunset Ventures, SV Angel, ThirdLove, Tiger Global Management, Tribe Capital, Uncork Capital, Verified Capital, Visionaire Ventures, Wollef Ventures, WorkLife Ventures, Y Combinator, Alexis Bonillo, Alice Zhang, Antoine Martin, Biz Stone, Derrick Li, Guillaume Luccisano, Jared Leto, John Collison, Julia Hartz, Justin Mateen, Louis Beryl, Mark Cuban, Peter Reinhardt, Phil Libin, Rashaun Williams, Seth Goldman, Zander Lurie

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Sozo Ventures.

Managing Director and General Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at Sozo Ventures.

Managing Director and General Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Sozo Ventures is a cross-border venture capital firm founded in 2012 that focuses on supporting US-based technology startups in their global expansion, particularly into Asian markets such as Japan. Their mission is to create meaningful global impact by investing in and accelerating technology-enabled ventures that are category leaders in sectors like advanced data technologies, ecommerce, enterprise cloud, fintech, IoT, and healthcare IT. Sozo Ventures emphasizes hands-on support beyond capital, providing market knowledge, strategic advice, sales channels, hiring assistance, and entity formation guidance to help startups scale internationally. They invest across multiple financing stages, from seed to pre-IPO, targeting companies at a "Readiness Stage"—those with strong management, credible customers, and organizational structures prepared for international growth[1][2][4].

Origin Story

Sozo Ventures was established in 2012 with a clear focus on bridging US startups to global markets, leveraging offices in San Francisco and Tokyo to facilitate cross-border expansion. The firm was founded by partners with deep experience in venture capital and international business development, aiming to fill a niche in supporting technology companies through the complexities of internationalization. Over time, Sozo has evolved to become a long-term partner for its portfolio companies, engaging early in their expansion strategies and maintaining active involvement throughout their growth journey. Their approach includes making strategic introductions, helping build local teams, and navigating foreign business environments, as seen in their work with companies like Fastly, Neurotrack, and Opower in Japan[2][3][4].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Sozo invests in companies at the "Readiness Stage," focusing on those prepared for international expansion rather than just early-stage startups, allowing tailored support aligned with global growth needs.
Network Strength: The firm leverages deep connections across venture, startup, and corporate landscapes in both the US and Asia, facilitating introductions to customers, distributors, and strategic partners.
Track Record: With over 60 investments and a $1 billion fund under management, Sozo has demonstrated success in helping portfolio companies scale globally, particularly in Japan.
Operating Support: Beyond capital, Sozo provides hands-on assistance including market entry strategy, entity formation, hiring, and sales channel development, often engaging before formal investment to maximize impact.
Cross-Continental Team: Operating across two continents and multiple time zones, Sozo has developed efficient processes and a collaborative culture to support startups internationally[1][2][3][4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Sozo Ventures rides the growing trend of globalization in technology startups, recognizing that many innovations—especially in blockchain, fintech, and cloud computing—are inherently global and require early internationalization strategies. The timing is crucial as markets like Japan and broader Asia present significant growth opportunities for US tech companies seeking scale beyond domestic saturation. Market forces such as increasing cross-border digital commerce, demand for advanced data solutions, and the rise of enterprise cloud adoption favor Sozo’s model of deep, hands-on global expansion support. By facilitating cross-border connections and helping startups navigate complex foreign markets, Sozo influences the broader ecosystem by accelerating the international footprint of emerging tech leaders[2][3][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Sozo Ventures is poised to continue scaling its impact by expanding its investment team and capital base, with recent moves toward a $500 million Fund IV indicating strong investor confidence. Trends shaping their journey include increasing globalization of technology markets, the rise of Asia as a critical innovation hub, and the growing complexity of international expansion requiring specialized support. Sozo’s influence is likely to deepen as it refines its model of early and sustained engagement with portfolio companies, potentially expanding into new geographies and sectors. Their ability to connect startups with global customers and partners will remain a key differentiator, reinforcing their role as a premier cross-border venture partner[3][5].

This comprehensive approach ties back to Sozo’s founding mission: not just investing capital but actively enabling US technology startups to thrive on the global stage.

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Sozo invests in companies at the "Readiness Stage," focusing on those prepared for international expansion rather than just early-stage startups, allowing tailored support aligned with global growth needs.
Network Strength: The firm leverages deep connections across venture, startup, and corporate landscapes in both the US and Asia, facilitating introductions to customers, distributors, and strategic partners.
Track Record: With over 60 investments and a $1 billion fund under management, Sozo has demonstrated success in helping portfolio companies scale globally, particularly in Japan.
Operating Support: Beyond capital, Sozo provides hands-on assistance including market entry strategy, entity formation, hiring, and sales channel development, often engaging before formal investment to maximize impact.
Cross-Continental Team: Operating across two continents and multiple time zones, Sozo has developed efficient processes and a collaborative culture to support startups internationally[1][2][3][4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Quick Take & Future Outlook

This comprehensive approach ties back to Sozo’s founding mission: not just investing capital but actively enabling US technology startups to thrive on the global stage.