Sutter Hill Ventures

Sutter Hill Ventures primarily invests in technology-based start-ups.

ActiveVenture Capital

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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	Luminary Cloud	$72.0M Series B	—	Next47
Jul 1, 2025	Observe	$160.0M Series C	—	1984 Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Cisco Investments, Congruent Ventures, Ali Tamaseb, Giant Ventures, Initialized Capital, Madrona Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, SNR, Touchdown Ventures, Michael Dell, Oleg Rogynskyy
Jul 1, 2025	Sundial	$23.0M Series A	—	Accel, Alt Capital, Bee Partners, Blue Bear Capital, Browder Capital, Contrary Capital, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Founders Fund, Freestyle Capital, FTX Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Mischief Venture Capital, Next Play Ventures, Operator Collective, Redpoint Ventures, Saga, Sequoia Capital, South Park Commons, Summit Partners, TCV, The Hit Forge, UP.Partners, Vela Partners, Webb Investment Network, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Christina Cacioppo, Deborah Liu, Dharmesh Shah, DJ Patil, Don Dodge, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Fidji Simo, Howie Liu, Immad Akhund, Jason Lemkin, Jonathan Neman, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Joshua Reeves, Julian Shapiro, Justin Mateen, Koen Bok, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Max Mullen, Parker Conrad, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Scot Wingo, Sean Rad, Shishir Mehrotra, Siqi Chen, Tobias Lutke
Jul 1, 2025	Julius AI	$10.0M Seed	—	Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Axiom Partners, Bee Partners, Blue Bear Capital, C2 Investment, Contrary Capital, CRV, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, Next Play Ventures, Operator Collective, Sequoia Capital, South Park Commons, Stash Ventures, SV Angel, UP.Partners, Webb Investment Network, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Alexandre Prot, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Claire Hughes Johnson, Deborah Liu, DJ Patil, Don Dodge, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Eoghan McCabe, Fidji Simo, Gloria Baeuerlein, Gokul Rajaram, Guillaume Princen, Guillermo Rauch, Hanno Renner, Howie Liu, Jean Charles Samuelian, Job Van Der Voort, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Kevin Lin, Koen Bok, Kyle Vogt, Marc Benioff, Mike Volpe, Pawan Deshpande, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Sam Palmisano, Shishir Mehrotra, Tobias Lutke, Tom Blomfield
Mar 1, 2025	X (formerly Twitter)	$1.0B Venture Round	—	01 Advisors, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Bond, CRV, DFJ, DST Global, Floodgate, Insight Partners, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lowercarbon Capital, Spark Capital, SV Angel, The Hit Forge, True Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Joi Ito, Tim Ferriss
Aug 1, 2024	Rewst	$45.0M Series C	—	Blu Venture Investors, Forgepoint Capital, Hercules Capital, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Openview Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures
Jun 1, 2024	Nexus	$25.0M Series A	—	Dragonfly Capital Partners, Greylock, Griffin Gaming Partners, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, M13, Meritech Capital Partners, Offline Ventures, Pantera Capital, Sony Innovation Fund, Wilshire Lane Capital
Jun 1, 2024	Sila	$380.0M Series G	—	Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners
Jun 1, 2024	Astrocade	$12.0M Seed	—	Alt Capital, Anorak Ventures, FJ Labs, Fuel Capital, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, MaC Venture Capital, Mayfield, Meritech Capital Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, SignalFire, The Venture Reality Fund, Y Combinator, Zeno Ventures, Eric Wu, Gordon Wintrob, James Beshara, Kyle Vogt, Leah Busque, Mike Abbott
May 1, 2024	Apex	$7.0M Seed	—	Accel, Cyberstarts VC, General Catalyst, Greylock, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, LGF, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, Guy Podjarny, John Collison, Michael Fey, Scott Belsky, Vivek Patel
Apr 1, 2024	Anvilogic	$45.0M Series C	—	Alumni Ventures, Cervin Ventures, Cisco Investments, Foundation Capital, Madrona Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Underscore VC, Xerox Ventures, Daniel Warmenhoven, David Dubick, Michael Dell
Apr 1, 2024	Augment Code	$230.0M Series B	—	Alchemy Ventures, Alkeon Capital, Amazon Alexa Fund, AngelPad, CapitalG, Chalfen Ventures, Cisco Investments, Equal Ventures, Founders Fund, Tom Hulme, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, March Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Next47, Glenn Solomon, Paladin Capital Group, ParaFi Capital, Scale Venture Partners, The Hit Forge, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Anthony Pompliano, Arash Ferdowsi, Drew Houston, Ellie Wheeler, Kyle Vogt, Richard Fearn
Mar 1, 2024	Luminary Cloud	$15.0M Venture Round	—	Lightspeed Venture Partners
Mar 1, 2024	Observe	$150.0M Series B	—	1984 Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Cisco Investments, Congruent Ventures, Ali Tamaseb, Fusion Fund, Giant Ventures, Initialized Capital, Madrona Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, SNR, Touchdown Ventures, Michael Dell, Oded Hermoni, Oleg Rogynskyy
Feb 1, 2024	Clumio	$75.0M Series D	—	Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Sangeen Zeb, Modern Venture Partners, Operator Collective, Tiger Global Management, Wasabi Ventures, Catherine Lu
Dec 1, 2023	Rewst	$31.0M Series B	—	Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Openview Venture Partners
Dec 1, 2023	Augment Code	$25.0M Series A	—	Next47
Nov 1, 2023	EthXY	$2.0M Seed	—	Altos Ventures, Capital Factory, Flex Capital, Long Journey Ventures, Morado Venture Partners, The Hit Forge, Tribe Capital, Othman Laraki, Scott Banister, William Boebel
Oct 1, 2023	Observe	$50.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, Cisco Investments, Madrona Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Michael Dell
Jun 1, 2023	Paro	$25.0M Series C	—	Boldstart Ventures, Carao Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Madrona Ventures, Mango Capital, Neu Venture Capital, Next47, PS Investments, Qualcomm Ventures, Revolution, Sierra Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Touchdown Ventures, WestWave Capital, Anne Wojcicki
May 1, 2023	Sami	$18.0M Series B	—	Accel, Activant Capital, AIX Ventures, Alumni Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Luisa Sucre, CVS Health, Jenny Fielding, Everywhere Ventures (The Fund), Future Shape, Mundi Ventures, Nazca Ventures, SJF Ventures, Social Starts, Stellar Capital, Surface Ventures, Akhil Paul, Akshay Sriprasad, Austin Walters, Joanne Bradford, Marc Benioff
Jan 1, 2023	Chronosphere	$120.0M Series C	—	Accel, Addition, Altimeter Capital, Alumni Ventures, Arbor Ventures, Avalanche VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Blockchain Capital, Blossom Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Felicis Ventures, FirstHand Alliance, Founders Fund, General Atlantic, Geodesic Capital, Greylock, Sangeen Zeb, GV, Initialized Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Lux Capital, Modern Venture Partners, Operator Collective, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Spark Capital, Tiger Global Management, True Ventures, U&I Ventures, Wasabi Ventures, Amjad Masad, Bob Young, Catherine Lu, Jeff Hammerbacher
Jul 1, 2022	Tesorio	$17.0M Series B	—	Accomplice VC, Andreessen Horowitz, Carao Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, Madrona Ventures, Mango Capital, Maverick Capital, Neu Venture Capital, Next47, Prototype Capital, Revolution, The Hit Forge, Jake Zeller, Matias Woloski
May 1, 2022	Observe	$70.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, Cisco Investments, Madrona Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, Michael Dell
May 1, 2022	Aklivity	$4.0M Seed	—	468 Capital, AllegisCyber Capital, Altimeter Capital, Bee Partners, Dragoneer Investment Group, Emergence Capital, Sangeen Zeb, Insight Partners, Modern Venture Partners, Operator Collective, Oyster Ventures, Pear VC, Tiger Global Management, UpHonest Capital, Wasabi Ventures, Jaan Tallinn, Lily Sarafan, Rob May, Tom Williams

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Sutter Hill Ventures.

Sam Pullara

John Beatty

Entrepreneur in Residence

Leadership Team

Key people at Sutter Hill Ventures.

Sam Pullara

John Beatty

Entrepreneur in Residence

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Sutter Hill Ventures is one of the longest-running and most influential venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, with a mission to build market-leading technology companies by investing in and actively shaping early-stage startups. Their investment philosophy centers on deep involvement—not just capital, but hands-on company building—often originating or incubating companies themselves. Sutter Hill focuses on sectors including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data, enterprise software, developer tools, and healthcare technology. Their impact on the startup ecosystem is profound: they’ve backed iconic companies like Snowflake, Pure Storage, and LSI Logic, and have helped pioneer the model of venture capital as a builder, not just a financier.

Origin Story

Founded in 1964 by Bill Draper and Paul Wythes, Sutter Hill Ventures emerged during the dawn of Silicon Valley’s venture capital era. The firm quickly established itself as a pioneer, backing early innovators in computing and networking. Over the decades, Sutter Hill evolved from a traditional VC into a firm known for its unique approach to company creation. The pivotal shift came in 2008 with the arrival of Mike Speiser, who championed a new model: actively originating and building companies from the ground up. This approach led to the creation of Pure Storage and later Snowflake, both of which became landmark successes. Sutter Hill’s evolution reflects a broader trend in venture capital—moving from passive investing to active company building.

Core Differentiators

Company Origination Model: Sutter Hill doesn’t just invest; it builds. Roughly 25% of its portfolio consists of companies it helped found, often with in-house talent or “builders in residence.”
Evergreen Fund Structure: Unlike most VCs with time-bound funds, Sutter Hill operates with a single, evergreen fund, allowing for flexible, long-term capital deployment and strategic patience.
Hands-On Operating Support: The firm is deeply involved in company formation, strategy, and scaling, often taking board seats and providing operational guidance.
Selective, High-Conviction Investing: Sutter Hill makes fewer, larger bets—typically only 1–2 originations per year—ensuring intense focus and resource allocation.
Network Strength: With decades of relationships and a reputation for integrity, Sutter Hill attracts top entrepreneurs and co-investors.

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Sutter Hill Ventures is riding—and helping shape—the trend of venture capital as a builder, not just a financier. As the tech ecosystem matures, the value of hands-on, operational expertise is increasingly recognized. Sutter Hill’s model aligns with the growing demand for VCs who can help startups navigate complex technical and market challenges. Their focus on cloud, AI, and data infrastructure positions them at the heart of the digital transformation wave, where foundational technologies are being reimagined. By incubating and scaling companies in these sectors, Sutter Hill influences not just individual startups, but the trajectory of entire industries.

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Sutter Hill Ventures is poised to remain a quiet but powerful force in tech investing. As the lines between venture capital and company building continue to blur, their originator model will likely become even more relevant. The firm’s evergreen structure and operational depth give it a unique advantage in a market where speed, expertise, and long-term vision are critical. Looking ahead, Sutter Hill is well-positioned to shape the next generation of foundational tech companies, particularly in AI, cloud, and data infrastructure. Their legacy as builders—not just investors—will continue to influence how venture capital creates value in the digital age.

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Company Origination Model: Sutter Hill doesn’t just invest; it builds. Roughly 25% of its portfolio consists of companies it helped found, often with in-house talent or “builders in residence.”
Evergreen Fund Structure: Unlike most VCs with time-bound funds, Sutter Hill operates with a single, evergreen fund, allowing for flexible, long-term capital deployment and strategic patience.
Hands-On Operating Support: The firm is deeply involved in company formation, strategy, and scaling, often taking board seats and providing operational guidance.
Selective, High-Conviction Investing: Sutter Hill makes fewer, larger bets—typically only 1–2 originations per year—ensuring intense focus and resource allocation.
Network Strength: With decades of relationships and a reputation for integrity, Sutter Hill attracts top entrepreneurs and co-investors.