K9 Ventures
K9 Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm founded by Manu Kumar. They focus on very early-stage investments in technology companies, including healthcare and life sciences technology. Known for being one of the first investors in many successful startups.
Website
https://www.k9ventures.comLocation
Palo Alto, California, USA
Founded
2009
AUM
$50M+
Investment Range
$100K - $500K
Portfolio Companies
1
Focus
generalist
Fund Stages
seed
Investment Thesis
K9 Ventures invests at the earliest stages of company formation, often as the first institutional investor. They look for exceptional technical founders building innovative solutions across technology sectors, including healthcare data and computational biology.
Team
Partners / Managing Directors (Health & Bio Focus)
- Manu Kumar, PhD - Founder & Chief Firestarter
Focus Areas
- Seed-stage technology
- Healthcare data platforms
- Computational biology
- Enterprise technology
- Developer tools
- Data infrastructure
Notable Investments
- DNAnexus - $15M Series A (2011, cloud genomics platform)
- Lyft - Early investor
- Twitch - Early investor (acquired by Amazon)
Sources
- https://www.k9ventures.com
- https://www.k9ventures.com/team
- Crunchbase
- PitchBook
Portfolio Companies
| Name | Location | Founded | Categories |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNAnexus | Mountain View, California, USA | 2009 | genomicscloud-platform+3 |