Investor profile
Alumni Ventures
VC
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Alumni Ventures exists to give accredited individual investors access to the best possible venture deals by partnering with lead VCs, applying rigorous diligence, and making investing straightforward. AV is exclusively a co-investor — it does not lead rounds or take board seats — and co-invests alongside elite firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Bessemer, Y Combinator, Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins, and Khosla Ventures. The firm invests across all stages (pre-seed to pre-IPO), all geographies, and virtually all sectors, with a sweet spot check size of $1M–$3M and a range of $100K–$10M. Its ~45 funds include university alumni-branded funds (e.g., Green D Ventures for Dartmouth, Spike Ventures for Stanford, Castor Ventures for MIT) and thematic Focused Funds (AI, Deep Tech, Seed, Growth, Women's, Climate, etc.), enabling investors to build diversified, customized venture portfolios with as little as $10,000.
Notable quotes
“The key to our success was laser focus on the customer. The keys were (a) making investing easy and interesting, (b) co-investing alongside established VCs to always find their way into the best ventures, and (c) focusing on the long-term — we always try to do right by all our stakeholders — even if it's painful in the short term.”
“Our deal success formula: Networks, process, tech, and the wisdom of small crowds. Our ~40 investing professionals (broken into 10 teams of four) continually search for the very best deals and work hard to earn our way into their next financing.”
“We have a space guy, we have a cyber guy, we have three or four people doing AI infrastructure and they know the deals and they know everybody that's a lead. So it's really important to understand that these are the venture capitalists that get up every day within Alumni Ventures.”
Team
Sophia Zhao
Senior Principal
Drew Wandzilak
Principal, U.S. Strategic Tech Fund
Recent investments
| Company | Round | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groq | Series Unknown | — | 2021-04 |
| Cohere | Series Unknown | — | 2023 |
| Oura | Series Unknown | — | 2023 |
| Circle | Series Unknown | — | 2018-09 |
| Impulse Space | Series Unknown | — | 2023 |
| Xanadu | Series Unknown | — | 2023 |
| Precision Neuroscience | Series Unknown | — | 2024 |
| Function Health | Series Unknown | — | 2024 |
| Observe | Series Unknown | — | 2024-04 |
| RapidSOS | Series Unknown | — | 2023 |
Frequent co-investors
| VC firm | Deals together |
|---|---|
| Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) | 1 |
| Sequoia Capital | 1 |
| Y Combinator | 1 |
| Bessemer Venture Partners | 1 |
| Founders Fund | 1 |
| Khosla Ventures | 1 |
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