Kindred Ventures

Quick read

Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage VC firm founded in 2014 by Steve Jang, headquartered in San Francisco, CA. With $600M AUM across four funds, it backs pre-seed and seed founders at the earliest possible stage — often before a company formally exists. It has invested in 168+ companies, including early bets on Uber, Coinbase, and Perplexity, with an aggregate portfolio market cap exceeding $200 billion.

Key facts

Founded

2014

Founders

Steve Jang

Employees

2-10

Sectors

generalist, ai, fintech, healthcare, consumer, crypto, climate

Website

kindredventures.com

Investment thesis

Kindred backs visionary founders at the earliest possible stage — pre-seed and seed — across frontier technologies including AI, crypto, fintech, and digital health. The firm also co-creates companies from scratch by partnering with entrepreneurs before formation, helping assemble teams and sharpen ideas without taking studio-level equity.

Recent activity

• Jun 2026fundraise
  Kindred Ventures announced $355M across two new vehicles: Kindred Ventures IV (early-stage, pre-seed and seed) and Kindred Selector II (early-growth, designed to concentrate follow-on capital into top portfolio companies). This is the firm's largest raise to date. Steve Jang appeared on Bloomberg TV with Caroline Hyde to discuss the funds and the AI market. fundmomentum.vc
• Jun 2026investment
  Kindred co-led Creatify's $15.5M Series A alongside WndrCo, with participation from Comcast Ventures. Creatify builds an AI-powered generative ad platform with built-in testing and feedback loops. kindredventures.com
• Jun 2026investment
  Fearn raised a $5.5M Seed round with Kindred Ventures, Designer Fund, and Andreessen Horowitz participating. Fearn is building tools to address the two-tier patent system. tracxn.com
• Jun 2026press
  Kindred's first AI-focused fund (deployed 2022–2025, approximately $200M) reached a $1 billion gross market value as of June 2026, placing it in the top 1% of its vintage. linkedin.com
• Jun 2026investment
  fal closed a $140M Series D led by Sequoia Capital. Kindred described this as "quadrupling down" on its position in the portfolio company. linkedin.com
• May 2026investment
  District raised a $14.7M Seed round with Kindred Ventures participating. District is building next-generation online commerce infrastructure. crunchbase.com
• Mar 2026press
  Sandbar secured a $23M Series A for its AI note-taking ring. Kindred also hosted an AI Media + Gaming event at GDC, featuring portfolio companies Dedalus Labs, fal, Iconic, Mem0, and Overworld. f4.fund
• Jan 2026investment
  Kindred announced investments in Overworld (real-time world models for the edge) and Corgi (AI insurance carrier). Corgi was subsequently reported at a $2.6B valuation in a later funding round. f4.fund
• Jun 2026fundraise
  Kindred Ventures closed $355M in new capital across its latest seed and early-growth funds. Steve Jang appeared on Bloomberg TV with Caroline Hyde to discuss the raise and AI market dynamics. linkedin.com
• Jun 2026press
  The Wall Street Journal covered Kindred's $355M fundraise. The firm's prior $200M Fund III, deployed 2022–2025, reached over $1B in gross fair market value as of June 2026, placing it in the top 1% of its vintage. linkedin.com
• Jun 15, 2026investment
  Kindred posted an announcement tagged AI – Tools & Infrastructure on its website. kindredventures.com
• Jun 10, 2026investment
  Kindred posted a second announcement tagged AI – Tools & Infrastructure on its website. kindredventures.com

Notable investments

• FearnSeedJun 2026tracxn.com
• CreatifySeries AJun 2026kindredventures.com
• falSeries DJun 2026linkedin.com
• DistrictSeedMay 2026crunchbase.com
• ParasailSeedApr 2026crunchbase.com
• SandbarSeries AMar 2026f4.fund
• OverworldSeedJan 2026f4.fund
• CorgiSeedJan 2026f4.fund
• Nexa (AI analytics platform)Pre-Seed ($1M)2024linkedin.com
• OverworldPre-SeedJan 2026f4.fund
• Mem0SeedMar 2026kindredventures.com
• falSeedMar 2026kindredventures.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Steve Jang · Founder & Managing Partner
• Kanyi Maqubela · Partner

Sources

• Kindred Ventures — Home
• Kindred Ventures — Investment Thesis & Preferences
• Everything Startup — Kindred Ventures New VC Funds
• Kindred Ventures — 2026 Investor Profile (Tracxn)
• Bloomberg Tech — Kindred Ventures Founder on CES Investing Trends
• Kindred Ventures — Crunchbase Profile
• Kindred Ventures — VC Fund Breakdown
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevejang1
• https://ngntipkolamrenang.twstalker.com/KindredVentures
• https://fundmomentum.vc/blog/kindred-ventures-355m-funds-iv-selector-ii-age-of-intelligence-2026
• https://kindredventures.com/announcement/creatify-seriesa-announcement/
• https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/kindred-ventures/__BwhJi9F2CqoMQ2GOqb5E0rXA3175m3jrE3i3cfDstJQ
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/kindredventures
• https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kindred-ventures-2/news_and_analysis

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