Supporting world-changing startups and kindred spirits who create them. Started in 2014 by
@stevejang
, joined by
@km
in โ18, and focused on the earliest stages.
Hello! a little bit of news from us today....
we are happy to announce our latest fund:
$100M for seed stage founders who want to build the future โจ๐
Congratulations to
@stevejang
for debuting at
#45
on the
@Forbes
Midas List! Thank you to all of the bold and brilliant companies who are building the future we at
@KindredVentures
want to live in.
Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting our LPs for our Annual Summit โ our first in person! โ at Mister Jiuโs in the historic Four Seas building of San Franciscoโs Chinatown.
It was a moment to reflect with our team on what we have built to-date, and where we are headed.
We gathered builders & friends at historic R&G Lounge in Chinatown for a lunch โn learn about applied AI.
Over Cantonese ๐ฆ๐๐ฅฌ, we talked API documentation, agents in specialized fields, open source vs closed source models, enterprise security, etc.
Come join us next time. โก๏ธ
.
@holyn
is a prolific writer. Ask her about AI, creators, commerce, crypto, or any other trending topic; she's likely published an essay on it and believes the technology matters even if it makes a 3% difference.
"Kindred Ventures foresees a 'massive explosion of startups' courtesy of AI"
excerpts from a conversation about the our new fund and the hot topic of AI and startups, between partners
@stevejang
and
@km
with
@TechCrunch
's connie loizos (
@cookie
) โฌ๏ธ
Inaugural founder summit done! โจ
We held an off-the-record series of fireside chats and panels, coaching presentations, and one of our favorites โ speedrun demos from 10 portfolio companies.
Heโs written tokenomics whitepapers for several crypto projects, co-founded a DeFi protocol, started an investment DAO, and actively trades tokens and NFTs.
@theevanchen
is active
#onhere
and occasionally posts on Substack, hoping to educate people about technology and web3.
Congratulations to founder/managing partner
@stevejang
for his second consecutive appearance on the
@Forbes
Midas List!
Steve and
@km
have partnered with companies deeply and early across technology waves for two decades, with many more to come!
shout out new york. ๐ฝ
we had a special time the last few days. with our founders and their friends, we set up shop to host a few roundtable and salon style talks.
๐งต
Finally, weโre pleased to have hired our inaugural Research Associates:
@holyn
and
@theEvanChen
! They bring experience from startups, DAOs, big tech, and finance. They will lead research across theme areas including crypto/web3, AI, fintech, digital health, climate, and more.
1/ Congrats to
@deform
&
@base
for a high-energy hackathon, to the over 50 builders who braved the ๐ง๏ธ๐ง๏ธย to hack and build on-chain dev, to
@jessepollak
and
@zizzamia
for inspiration, and to
@coinbase
for the much needed ๐ and technical guidance
we hosted a salon with our friends
@scottbelsky
and
@kocienda
, who talked about the human parts of deep learning, the opportunity for creators in generative A.I., and the interfaces that will usher in this new wave.
we're still here in SF and fired up to build out here even more for founders - both local and visiting! - and the community.
new technology frontiers and founder energy, like many cycles before it, start here. come join or visit us ๐ ๐ค
more from
@stevejang
in the video below:
"Part of what we do in venture is to pay it forward to new founders, to help them build out their vision. I also think we should be doing that with our community."
Great video profile of Midas List newcomer
@stevejang
, who remains long SF -- and its arts.
synthetic media technologies have the potential to not only change the nature of virtual worlds and social media, but also how we communicate B2B/B2C in various industries.
thrilled to back the
@HourOneAI
team on exploring this new frontier!
We kicked off our first Founders and Funders event in NYC. We discussed corporate partnerships and digital health โ๏ธ๐ฅ๐ฒ, joined by players across the health ecosystem.
Thank you to our panelists from
@heartbeathealth
,
@Optum
,
@Davita
, and our co-host
@rebeccakaden
of
@usv
. โจ
.
@theEvanChen
is an engineer & finance nerd, and has worked across functions at
@Microsoft
on Xbox, Azure, Power Platform business applications, and Treasury teams. After Microsoft, he worked as a Data Engineer at a Series B fintech co while beginning his crypto journey.
Our Ops Manager, Frances Choi, arrived by way of OpenAI and Twitch, and brings operational excellence to our day-to-day. Sheโs worked with the most novel and fast-moving teams in video, gaming, and AI, and uses that knowledge to develop scalable and engageable programs.
next wednesday, weโll be in NYC hosting an off-the-record discussion on AI with a friend of the firm. โจ
DM if youโre building in the space and would like to join!
Holyn worked at
@Twitter
and helped scale global content partnerships across revenue, product, health & safety, and more.
She launched a social token $HOLLA โ naturally, she left to join
@FWBtweets
treasury team and advise web3/consumer startups.
Really excited to share that we raised $5M in seed funding led by
@KindredVentures
and
@Initialized
to begin our mission of eliminating manual workflows and empowering businesses to scale using AI. Checkout the news on Fortune's Term Sheet:
Our latest investment to announce, made a year ago and launching today!
Introducing
@heartbeat
โค๏ธ
Prevention-focused heart health, leveraging the latest technology, proven clinical services, and a growing network of licensed cardiologists.
๐๐ฝ
1/ Three years ago, during my chief year at Columbia, I began to challenge some of the assumptions I had made about my path toward becoming an academic cardiologist...
our first seed investment in japan:
fun, social, and informed stock market investing via
@woodstockclub
๐ฏ๐ต๐ฏ๐๏ธ๐ด๐คณ
congrats to this awesome ex-
@coinbase
-
@twitter
team led by
@JaehunYun
! ๐
Delighted to back
@o1_labs
on their mission to build
@CodaProtocol
// A secure, accessible, fast, and scalable currency, made for payments.
โก๏ธโก๏ธโก๏ธโก๏ธโก๏ธ
Itโs been part of our mission at
@KindredVentures
to stay small in team size and tightly knit to focus our energy on our incredible founders. But the time is right to grow for our next phase. If you have experience in VC in legal, finance, or ops, weโd love to hear from you. ๐ซ
Please meet our Director of Finance,
@TsomooJ
.
TJ focuses on finance, investment operations, compliance & digital asset management. Previously, he worked at DFJ Growth and Threshold Ventures and started his career as an investment analyst at a boutique credit fund in SF.
Diagnosed behavioral conditions drive 41% of healthcare spending.
Weโve spent the last year diving into neurotech, psychedelics, and specialized care and are excited to continue exploring and investing in the space:
DeFi is enabling a more transparent, accessible, and equitable financial system. Builders continue innovating in the space as TVL continues to return on-chain.
@theevanchen
is tracking the space. Follow along here:
Want to get ahead of the web3 game during the bear market to 100x when the market comes roaring back?
BTC is back above $30k, ETH is back above $2k.. are you ready anon?
A DeFi map and long thread to kickstart your journey or round out your knowledge ๐๐ซก
as the COVID public health emergency expires, we heard from
@jwessler
,
@ellenjdasilva
and
@mattangriffel
about what that means for digital health services.
TL;DR: the genie is out of the bottle. digital health is here to stay.
Thrilled to share that
@KindredVentures
led the $14.1M seed round for
@Extropic_AI
!
Since we first met this team, weโve been so energized to work with them on their mission to the frontier of generative AI and physics to build an AI supercomputer.
Led by
@GillVerd
and
Congrats to the entire
@o1_labs
team on their development progress and new set of backers
@Accomplices
@prdgm
@coinbase
! Proud to serve as an early supporter of their important work to establish a scalable, efficient, yet secure blockchain.
Our Investment in DeForm: Building an On-chain CRM.
Read on for an interview Q&A with โฆ
@deformapp
โฉ founders โฆ
@unhappiimochii
โฉ and โฆ
@keikumata
โฉ ๐ซ๐ซ๐ซ
As founders and investors, we appreciate visionary teams who learn quickly and ship often. Thrilled to continue our support of the
@RadarRelay
team and their upcoming roadmap! ๐๐ฝ
Weโre excited to announce our Series A financing led by
@blockchaincap
and a group of investors that are living in the future with us. Read more here:
Today, we're unveiling the new
@italic
โ a revolutionary new membership model fulfilling the original promise of direct-to-consumer retail.
Members access 1000+ products from the same manufacturers as top brands at prices where we don't profit whatsoever.
It's quality, at cost.
We love seeing hack culture in action, right in the heart of SF at our office!
So fun to host this hackathon with
@deformapp
and
@base
๐ป๐ฒ๐ฉโ๐ป
Thread below ๐๐
What happens when you put together:
๐ป the craziest builders in SF
โจ the latest web3 consumer social innovation
๐ฟ the most aesthetic venue
โ the largest storm of the season
?
Recap thread on SF Frames hackathon by
@deformapp
,
@base
,
@KindredVentures
๐
Our partners,
@stevejang
and
@km
, gave our investors โ who had come from around the ๐ to join us โ updates across our portfolio, the capital markets, and our strategy moving forward.
TL;DR: we have never been more excited about early stage.
[podcast] The multi-talented
@tferriss
and Kindred's
@stevejang
went to Seoul and live recorded a podcast episode on the Korean Wave, culture x technology diaspora, and more. An intense listen and you will come out ๐ง๐ฐ๐ท๐คฏ๐ก
NEW podcast episode is up!
Live from South Korea โ Steve Jang on Koreaโs Exploding โSoft Power,โ The Poverty-to-Power Playbook, K-Pop, โHanโ Energy, Must-See Movies, Export Economies, and Much More
cc:
@stevejang
Please enjoy! ๐
so fun to talk about the present and future of web3 with todayโs most dynamic builders. decentralized social, data pipelines, smart contract wallets, and the secret widening spread of NFTs.
the real ones are moving faster than ever. Focus, clear eyes, full hearts.
Investor Stanley Druckenmiller talks about his investment in AI platform Perplexity and says, "It's unbelievable. It's an answer machine. Nothing like I've ever seen."
Itโs been an incredible year for generative images, but video dominates the internet. To realize AIโs full potential, we must build powerful text-to-video models and products.
We spent this year diving into generative video & audio. Here is our research:
incredible technology, solving for the hidden cost of electrifying the physical world: noise.
๐คซ silent propulsion for drones, air taxis, and leaf blowers will usher in the future we all grew up imagining.
as always, if you are a startup founder or VC operator with experience in finance, legal, or portfolio services, please reach out. weโd love to hear from you!
A little over 3 years ago following the big launch in Japan, we flew to Seoul to secretly scout locations. After much research and building a skilled passionate team locally, Blue Bottle Coffee has opened yesterday in Seoul with a new roastery, cafe, and training lab! โ๏ธ๐๐ฐ๐ท
so good to be back in real life. thank you to
@KindredVentures
LPs and some of our founders for coming together! โจ
*the morning calm yesterday at
@MoongateLounge
๐
tonight in SF!
if you love the art and technology, please join us for a special premiere screening of โNam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TVโ. honored to host this for our founders and the local arts community! ๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ฟ
Congratulations to our portfolio company,
@Color
, on their selection by
@WEF
. Wonderful to see them receive recognition for their global mission to inform people and fight cancer using genomics!
We're excited to announce that Color has been selected by the World Economic Forum
@wef
as a 2018 Technology Pioneer.
#techpioneers18
@techpioneers
Read more:
[podcast] making early cancer assessments available to millions of people requires several things: 1) simple-to-use technology, 2) highly scalable network of doctors and care advisors, 3) working with employers and government. Listen to co-founder of
@Color
,
@othman
, below! ๐๐ฝ
๐๏ธNEW episode alert! On this week's Podnosis,
@HeatherLandi
chats with Othman Laraki, the CEO of
@Color
about strategies for increasing access to cancer screenings and a new partnership with the
@AmericanCancer
Society.
Our latest investment! Nearly half of the worldโs electricity passes through electric motors today. Yet there has been little innovation on the electric motor itself in recent decades.
Enter
@LinearLabsInc
and their new electric motor system.
itโs an honor and always exciting to be in support of you,
@donnie
&
@jatescher
! congratulations to the entire
@bitski
team of five!
join them here:
We're excited to announce our Series A raise today! Bitski is grateful to be backed by a brilliant team of investors that support our relentless efforts to evolve the way we interact with digital content
Our team has grown, our enthusiasm for the market has not abated, and we have continued our concentrated, patient, investing this year, even as many others have pulled back.
Looking to replace your smartphone? Humane hopes to. The startup launched its new Ai Pin, a standalone screenless device you can pin to your clothes, in November.
@CarolineHydeTV
takes a look at the latest in AI hardware
getting to welcome new team members to
@Humane
every Monday is the best!
this team is not only insanely talented + experienced, but also filled with so much joy + kindness. really proud of what we have all built.
check out the new roles + join us:
After a day of founder-to-founder sessions and talks, we enjoyed outdoor activities in the sunny and scenic Carmel Valley area including hiking, swimming, pickleball, tennis, and even falconry and archery!
go
@dydxprotocol
!
the first decentralized exchange on layer 2 ethereum is hereโก๏ธโก๏ธโก๏ธ
and congrats to the team on $5,000,000,000 in trading volume to date! ๐
#defi
#eth
#layer2
Introducing our new cross-margined Perpetuals, now live on Layer 2 powered by
@starkwareltd
. Read the announcement, and sign up for the alpha to start trading โ
We're excited to announce our Series A raise today! Bitski is grateful to be backed by a brilliant team of investors that support our relentless efforts to evolve the way we interact with digital content
kudos to the current and past team and the founders at
@Uber
! 12 year story of bold ideas, growth, wild ups and downs along the way, and to profitability. ๐๐ฝ
"What Uber has proven now with two straight quarters of growth in EBITDA and free cash flow is that you can achieve growth and profitability, you can create a mobility-and-logistics network that is increasingly profitable," says $UBER angel investor
@KindredVentures
@stevejang
"the medium is the message"*
fired up to share
@KindredVentures
led
@gethumanq
's seed round!๐ฅ
humanQ is a highly-vetted marketplace and interface for video-based group coaching. their customers include Microsoft, VMware, Chobani, Gojek, and Stanford U.
Proud of the
@Color
team for fighting the good fight...giving underserved communities around the world the access to the very best genetics counseling. ๐ฌ๐งฌ๐ฉ๐ฝโ๐ฌ
Founded 8 years ago this week it's only fitting that this Earth Day we celebrate by becoming a public company and accelerating the biofacturing revolution.
#WeMakeTomorrow
๐ฅ Otis (
@withotis
) launches today! Every generation has an asset class and we believe ours is culture. We're democratizing access to participate in this new kind of co-ownership.
Download our app, browse our upcoming drops and sign-up to get notified!
We launched a new mobile experience for the Bitski Wallet and a new Bitski Browser Extension today! Super proud of the team for shipping one of the best mobile wallet experiences out there.
Sharing some thoughts on where I think the next generation of wallets is going.
Today, there is no shortage of options for easy, hosted online services for our personal data and content. From your personal email and contacts to all those memorable family photos, weโve trusted these hosts to keep our information private and secure consistently
We are thrilled to announce that Ai Pin will start shipping in March 2024.
All of us here at Humane canโt wait for you to experience your Ai Pin, the worldโs first wearable computer powered by Ai. Weโre incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm and support, especially from our
p.s. we _love_ re-investing in our past founders and employees from our past portfolio companies. so cool to back team members from
@dYdX
@coinbase
@Uber
again in their Web3 mission at
@MagicEden
. โจ