Emergent Ventures

Emergent Ventures is a San Mateo, California-based venture capital firm established in 2021 by two highly experienced operators and investors, Lachy Groom and Mike Vernal. The firm primarily focuses on seed-stage software and artificial intelligence (AI) startups. Their investment thesis centers on identifying and supporting promising founders who may be overlooked by traditional venture capital, leveraging their extensive backgrounds in building and scaling successful products and companies.

Lachy Groom brings a wealth of experience as a prolific angel investor, having already invested in over 100 companies as an angel prior to co-founding Emergent, including notable successes like Figma, Notion, and Ramp. Mike Vernal complements this with his background as a former Vice President of Product at Facebook and a Partner at Sequoia Capital, one of the world's leading venture capital firms. This blend of deep operational expertise and investment acumen allows Emergent Ventures to provide significant strategic guidance and support to their portfolio companies beyond just capital.

The firm typically writes initial checks ranging from $1 million to $5 million, aiming to be a high-conviction, value-add partner to their early-stage companies. Their small, focused team emphasizes a founder-friendly approach, leveraging their collective experience from companies like Stripe, Facebook, and Sequoia to help startups navigate critical early growth stages. Emergent Ventures has quickly established itself as a significant player in the seed-stage ecosystem, particularly for innovative software and AI solutions.