VU Venture Partners

VU Venture Partners is a multi-sector and multi-stage venture capital fund and is a scalable venture capital fund platform.

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)
Feb 10, 2026	Natilus	$28.0M Series A	Draper Associates	Flexport, Liquid 2 Ventures, New Vista Capital, Soma Capital, The Veteran Fund, Type One Ventures, Wave Function
Jul 1, 2025	Substack	$100.0M Series C	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Polychain Capital, Mike Kerns, TCG (The Chernin Group), The Hit Forge, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator, Audrey Gelman, Conor Bronsdon, Emmett Shear, Hari Lakshmanan, Kenji Niwa, Mark Pincus, Rich Miner
Jul 1, 2025	Replit	$250.0M Series C	—	Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Amino Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Bora&Sons, BoxOne Ventures, Craft Ventures, Founders Fund, Gaingels, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Harpoon, Hitachi Ventures, McCarthy Capital, Aaron Jacobson, Polychain Capital, Softbank Group, Streamlined Ventures, SV Angel, Mike Kerns, The Hit Forge, Trajectory Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Y Combinator, Audrey Gelman, Conor Bronsdon, Emmett Shear, Hari Lakshmanan, Jeff Bezos, Joshua Webster, Kenji Niwa, Madhu Chamarty, Mark Pincus, Mattia Astori, Matt Mazzeo, Paul Graham, Richard Branson, Sam Altman, Sathvik Bilakanti, Sue Xu, Vinay Hiremath
May 1, 2025	CrediLinq.Ai	$9.0M Series A	—	1982 Ventures, 500 Startups, Airbus Ventures, Dream Ventures VC, MS&AD Ventures, Saxena Capital, Starting Line
Mar 1, 2025	Tera AI	$8.0M Seed	—	8090 Industries, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Felicis Ventures, Founders Fund, Hanabi Capital, iNovia Capital, Lux Capital, M12, Marlinspike, NFX, Polychain Capital, Mike Kerns, The Hit Forge, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator, Ameet Patel, Amit Agarwal, Audrey Gelman, Conor Bronsdon, Emmett Shear, Eric Futoran, Hari Lakshmanan, Kenji Niwa, Mark Pincus, Ron Pragides, Yoshua Bengio
Jan 1, 2025	Degree Analytics	$5.0M Series A	—	7BC Venture Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Leawood Venture Capital, LiveOak Venture Partners
Dec 1, 2024	Schemata	$5.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Polychain Capital, Mike Kerns, The Hit Forge, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator, Audrey Gelman, Conor Bronsdon, Emmett Shear, Hari Lakshmanan, Kenji Niwa, Konstantin von Unger
Sep 1, 2024	Taxo	$500K Seed	—	7BC Venture Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Balderton Capital, Leawood Venture Capital, LiveOak Venture Partners, Vanessa Larco, Spark Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Y Combinator, Scott Belsky, Tony Jamous
Jan 1, 2024	Cargado	$3.0M Seed	—	Dream Ventures VC, Ironspring Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, Proeza Ventures, S3 Ventures, Saxena Capital, Starting Line, Urban Innovation Fund, Seth Goldstein
Dec 1, 2023	Mezcla	$4.0M Series A	—	Dream Ventures VC, MS&AD Ventures, Saxena Capital, Starting Line
Oct 1, 2023	Onton	$2.0M Seed	—	Album VC, Alumni Ventures, C2 Investment, CapitalX, Hustle Fund, Jared Hecht, Night Capital, Path Ventures, SV Angel, Trajectory Ventures, Vibe Capital, Joe Speiser, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Michael Olmstead, Sam Parr, Steve Barham
Apr 1, 2023	Replit	$97.0M Series B	—	AIX Ventures, Alt Capital, Amino Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bloomberg Beta, Bond, BoxOne Ventures, C2 Investment, Craft Ventures, Polychain Capital, Saga, Mike Kerns, The Hit Forge, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Amjad Masad, Audrey Gelman, Ben Silbermann, Biz Stone, Conor Bronsdon, Emmett Shear, Hari Lakshmanan, Joshua Webster, Kenji Niwa, Madhu Chamarty, Mark Pincus, Mattia Astori, Matt Mazzeo, Paul Graham, Sathvik Bilakanti, Spencer Kimball, Sue Xu, Vinay Hiremath
Feb 1, 2023	Portal	$5.0M Seed	—	1984 Ventures, 8VC, Band of Angels, Brainchild, Converge Venture Partners, Corazon Capital, Foundation Capital, Haun Ventures, Locus Ventures, Lux Capital, Q6 Capital, Rucker Park Capital, Slow Ventures, SOSV, The House Fund, Vibe Capital, Ash Rust, Gabriel Jarrosson, Kenji Niwa, Mathieu Guerville, Nirbhay Dhapodkar, Adam Wong, Balaji Srinivasan, Starship Ventures, Stephen Cole, The Hit Forge, Trammell Venture Partners, Y Combinator
Nov 1, 2022	Atmos	$13.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, Amasia, Arrive, Bain Capital, Ben Taft's Genius Ventures, Blu Venture Investors, Canary Ventures, CapitalX, CRV, General Catalyst, Hustle Fund, Kepler Operator’s Fund, Moderne Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, Andrew Schoen, Red Swan Ventures, Savano Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Stride VC, Trajectory Ventures, Vibe Capital, Y Combinator, Adam D'Angelo, Afraj Gill, Augusto Marietti, Bianca Ambrosini, Cory Levy, David Kalt, Gerhard Eschelbeck, Jonathan Wasserstrum, Michael Olmstead, Mike Krieger, Nico Waisman, Sri Batchu, Zack Kanter
Oct 1, 2022	Cruz Foam	$18.0M Series A	—	8090 Industries, At One Ventures, Goat Capital, Mayfield, Path Ventures, Regeneration.VC, SOSV
Sep 1, 2022	Wilya	$2.0M Seed	—	Amadeus Capital Partners, Element Partners, Karim Faris, In-Q-Tel, IrishAngels, Motivate Ventures, Schematic Ventures, Sweater Ventures, Dhruv Kaul, Thomas Tull
Aug 1, 2022	The Ethical Spirits	$1.0M Seed	—	AgFunder, Beyond Next 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, Redbud VC, Unusual Ventures, Apoorva Ruparel, Claire Hughes Johnson, Do Kwon, Elad Gil, John Collison, Tom Blomfield, Zehan Wang
Jun 1, 2022	Bunkyr	$1.0M Seed	—	8090 Industries, At One Ventures, Goat Capital, Mayfield, OP Crypto, Path Ventures, SOSV, Do Kwon
Feb 1, 2022	Aperture Finance	$5.0M Seed	—	CrunchFund, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Framework Ventures, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Pantera Capital, Rarestone Capital, Redbud VC, Seed Club Ventures, Apoorva Ruparel, Do Kwon, Mariano Conti, Mark Cuban, Mona El Isa, Simon Cant, Stani Kulechov
Feb 1, 2022	Sweater	$12.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Chicago Ventures, IrishAngels, Jump Capital, Motivate Ventures, NextView Ventures, Sweater Ventures, David Kalt, Dhruv Kaul
Dec 1, 2021	Replit	$80.0M Series B	—	01 Advisors, Adjacent, AirAngels, Amino Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Balderton Capital, Banana Capital, Bond, BoxOne Ventures, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Long Journey Ventures, Makers Fund, Meritech Capital Partners, Otherwise Fund, Pareto Holdings, Point Nine Capital, Polychain Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Roosh Ventures, Mike Kerns, The Hit Forge, TQ Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi, Audrey Gelman, Conor Bronsdon, Emmett Shear, Hari Lakshmanan, Jason Stomel, Joshua Webster, Kenji Niwa, Madhu Chamarty, Manuel Bronstein, Mark Pincus, Mattia Astori, Matt Mazzeo, Megan Quinn, Paul Graham, Sathvik Bilakanti, Scott Banister, Sue Xu, Vinay Hiremath
Dec 1, 2021	Pigeon	$400K Seed	—	7BC Venture Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Leawood Venture Capital, LiveOak Venture Partners
Nov 1, 2021	Stytch	$90.0M Series B	—	Atomico, Benchmark, Coatue, Contrary Capital, General Catalyst, Infinite Niches, Innovation Endeavors, Jetstream, Long Journey Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Quiet Capital, Saga, The Hit Forge, Tiger Global Management, Steve Krausz, Dylan Field, Emil Michael, Gokul Rajaram, Immad Akhund, Louis Beryl, Manik Gupta, Marc Benioff, Max Mullen, Scott Banister, Tony Xu
Nov 1, 2021	Cruz Foam	$3.0M Seed	—	8090 Industries, At One Ventures, Goat Capital, Mayfield, Path Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, SOSV

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at VU Venture Partners.

Venture Partner & Investor

Alessandra (Sandra) Habermann

Leadership Team

Key people at VU Venture Partners.

Venture Partner & Investor

Alessandra (Sandra) Habermann

Deep Dive

VU Venture Partners is a multi-sector, multi-stage global venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology companies across seven key verticals: Consumer, Enterprise, FinTech, Frontier (including AI, Robotics, SpaceTech), Healthcare, PropTech, and Web3. The firm focuses on sourcing and investing in the world's largest market opportunities that address significant challenges for humanity. It operates with a highly selective investment philosophy, reviewing approximately 20,000 companies annually but investing in only about 0.1%, which is 10 times more selective than typical VC funds. VU supports its portfolio companies not only with capital but also through active assistance in customer acquisition, partnerships, hiring, marketing, and exit strategies, leveraging a proprietary global network of over 70 investment professionals. This approach has yielded strong performance, including a 72% IRR for its 2018 fund and a growing number of unicorns in its portfolio[1][3][5].

Founded in 2018, VU Venture Partners was established by a team of three partners with over 45 years of combined venture capital experience, who have been early investors in more than 25 unicorn startups such as Uber, Facebook, and Palantir. The firm has evolved into a scalable venture capital platform with a large, diverse investment team and a global presence, including offices in San Francisco and Hong Kong. Its investment platform also includes Venture University, an investor accelerator program that trains individuals to become venture capitalists by involving them directly in deal sourcing and evaluation, further expanding VU’s ecosystem and deal flow[1][3][4].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Highly selective with a 0.1% investment rate from a massive deal flow of ~20,000 companies per year, enabling focus on top-tier opportunities.
Network Strength: A proprietary insider network with 70+ investors globally, providing deep industry expertise and operational support.
Track Record: Early investors in 25+ unicorns and 20+ multi-billion exits, with a 72% IRR on their 2018 fund and a 4x+ cash-on-cash return.
Operating Support: Active portfolio engagement in growth areas such as customer acquisition, partnerships, capital raising, and exit planning.

VU Venture Partners rides the wave of global technological innovation and digital transformation, capitalizing on trends like AI, FinTech, healthcare innovation, and Web3. The timing is favorable due to increasing startup activity worldwide and the growing need for specialized, scalable venture capital platforms that can provide both capital and operational expertise. By combining a large, expert investment team with a rigorous selection process and a global network, VU influences the broader ecosystem by accelerating the growth of high-potential startups and fostering innovation across multiple sectors[3][5].

Looking ahead, VU Venture Partners is positioned to continue expanding its portfolio with a focus on deep tech and frontier technologies, leveraging its scale and expertise to identify and nurture the next generation of unicorns. Trends such as AI, advanced materials, and digital health will likely shape its investment focus, while its investor accelerator program may further democratize access to venture capital careers and deal flow. The firm’s influence is expected to grow as it deepens its global reach and continues to outperform traditional VC benchmarks, reinforcing its role as a leading multi-sector venture capital platform[1][3][4][5].

Sources

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Highly selective with a 0.1% investment rate from a massive deal flow of ~20,000 companies per year, enabling focus on top-tier opportunities.
Network Strength: A proprietary insider network with 70+ investors globally, providing deep industry expertise and operational support.
Track Record: Early investors in 25+ unicorns and 20+ multi-billion exits, with a 72% IRR on their 2018 fund and a 4x+ cash-on-cash return.
Operating Support: Active portfolio engagement in growth areas such as customer acquisition, partnerships, capital raising, and exit planning.