SignalFire
SignalFire is an SEC-registered venture capital firm with approximately $3 billion in assets under management, investing pre-seed through Series B across seven vertical practices using its proprietary Beacon AI platform that tracks 650 million-plus professionals for sourcing and portfolio support.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What SignalFire does
SignalFire is an SEC-registered venture capital firm (SignalFire Management Services, LLC) headquartered in San Francisco with a New York City office established in 2021. The firm invests across pre-seed through Series B stages in seven vertical practices — Healthtech and Pharmatech, Cybersecurity, Enterprise AI and Vertical SaaS, Fintech and Payments Infrastructure, Consumer and Creator Economy, and AI/ML Infrastructure and Developer Tools — and had grown to approximately $3 billion in assets under management as of April 2025 following a $1 billion LP capital close.
The firm's central technical asset is the proprietary Beacon AI Platform, an AI/ML system that tracks more than 650 million professionals in real time across structured and unstructured data sources (LinkedIn histories, employer rosters, funding records). Beacon AI powers three lines of portfolio service: an elite talent search engine, competitive intelligence, and sales lead data. It is operated by a dedicated technology organization including a CTO (Ilya Kirnos), a Machine Learning Engineer (Zachary Hoffman), and a Head of Research (Asher Bantock), and underpins both deal sourcing — reportedly surfacing founders months before shared databases like PitchBook — and ongoing portfolio support averaging ~47 interactions per company per quarter with 100% of portfolio companies participating in a SignalFire program within six months.
SignalFire earns revenue as a traditional venture capital firm through management fees on committed AUM and carried interest on successful exits. It does not publicly disclose fee terms and does not commercialize Beacon AI as a standalone priced product; the platform is offered as part of portfolio services. The firm is led by Managing Director/Founder Chris Farmer, with sector-specialist partners (Tony Pezzullo, Yuanling Yuan, Jonathan Lim) and a Specialist Network of former operators contributing go-to-market, recruiting, and product guidance to founders. Recognition includes Forbes 30 Under 30 (2024), Fast Company Most Innovative Companies (2024), and Business Insider Rising Stars of Venture Capital (2024).
SignalFire firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- SignalFire
- Legal name
- SignalFire Management Services, LLC
- Website
- http://www.signalfire.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- SignalFire is an SEC-registered venture capital firm with approximately $3 billion in assets under management, investing pre-seed through Series B across seven vertical practices using its proprietary Beacon AI platform that tracks 650 million-plus professionals for sourcing and portfolio support.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
SignalFire industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Venture Capital Services
- NAICS
- Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (52394), Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525)
- SIC
- Investment Advice (6282)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B) (FSANAAAB)
Keywords
Where SignalFire is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
SignalFire business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Management Fees: Recurring management fees on assets under management (~$3 billion AUM). SignalFire closed over $1 billion in new capital in April 2025, bringing total AUM to ~$3 billion, with commitment to founders at pre-seed through Series B stages.
- Carried Interest (Investment Gains): Carried interest on the fund's investment returns. SignalFire operates as an SEC-registered investment adviser (SignalFire Management Services, LLC) and earns carried interest on successful portfolio exits alongside capital gains on direct equity stakes.
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels6 records
SignalFire product offering
Product offeringCore offering
SignalFire is an SEC-registered venture capital firm that invests in seed through Series B companies across healthtech, cybersecurity, enterprise AI, fintech, consumer, vertical SaaS, and AI/ML infrastructure sectors, deploying approximately $3 billion in assets under management. The firm combines capital investment with its proprietary Beacon AI Platform (tracking 650+ million professionals in real time) and a Portfolio Success as a Service program delivering operational support across go-to-market, recruiting, leadership development, data science, PR, and fundraising to portfolio companies.
Product overview
SignalFire operates a platform-plus-modules architecture: its core product is the proprietary Beacon AI Platform (an AI-powered talent and go-to-market intelligence engine that tracks 650+ million professionals), which sits alongside a Portfolio Success as a Service advisory offering (go-to-market, recruiting, leadership, PR, fundraising) and a Developer Hub with the Portfolio Job Board and Elevated Engineering newsletter. Data publications — including the State of Tech Talent Report, Unicorn Origins Report, and investment theses like the Built Economy/Vertical AI thesis and Expert Data thesis — extend the platform with proprietary research. The Beacon AI Platform underpins the firm's investing process and its portfolio support, while the Developer Hub and Job Board (powered by Getro) operationalize the engineering-talent and content offerings.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Beacon AI: SignalFire's proprietary AI/ML platform that tracks the world's talent and key go-to-market insights, serving as the firm's central data engine for sourcing and portfolio support. Beacon tracks 650+ million professionals and supports competitive intelligence and sales lead data.
- SignalFire Job Board
Products and services
- Beacon AI Platform A proprietary AI/ML platform that tracks 650+ million professionals in real time to identify high-potential founders before they incorporate and provides portfolio companies with elite talent search engine, competitive intelligence, and sales lead data capabilities.
- Portfolio Success as a Service Operational support program offering expert guidance and scalable programs across go-to-market, leadership development, recruiting, data science, PR, and fundraising for SignalFire portfolio companies, averaging 47 support interactions per company per quarter.
- SignalFire Portfolio Job Board A job board powered by Getro that aggregates 1,003+ open roles across SignalFire's portfolio companies, with filters for location, seniority, salary, and remote work options, distributed to candidates for self-serve talent discovery.
- State of Tech Talent Report Annual data-driven research publication analyzing tech hiring, AI lab retention (Anthropic 80%, DeepMind 78%, OpenAI 67%), and shifting US tech talent hubs, published as Beacon AI-supported Data Reports.
- Unicorn DNA / Unicorn Origins Report Data-driven analysis of 2,000+ founders behind ~800 U.S. unicorns (founded 2010-2024, valued over $1B by end of 2025), covering top universities, employer mafias, prior roles, and founder archetype trends.
- Elevated Engineering Developer Newsletter Monthly AI Engineering Newsletter delivering events, workshops, and Elevated Engineering content to developers and engineering talent in SignalFire's network.
- SignalFire Developer Hub A community hub for developers featuring a blog, YouTube content, curated job listings of portfolio engineering roles, events, and the Mastering Engineering newsletter signup.
Quantifiable outcome
- 85 NPS from portfolio founders (data as of March 2022, based on internally conducted surveys of 34 SignalFire founders)
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use SignalFire
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
SignalFire technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability8 records
Feature5 records
SignalFire partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core operational infrastructure provider for signalfire's portfolio jobs board., operational analytics infrastructure provider for signalfire's job board. and operational ai infrastructure and reference customer for beacon-style gtm agent patterns..
- Getro Inc.core operational infrastructure provider for signalfire's portfolio jobs board.Getro Inc. operates the SignalFire portfolio job board at jobs.signalfire.com, providing the technical platform that powers company listings, job alerts, and the talent network feature. SignalFire's job board displays 1,003 portfolio jobs and operates with cookie and privacy policies managed by Getro on SignalFire's behalf, with personal data processed under SignalFire's Privacy Policy.
- Segment (Twilio Segment)operational analytics infrastructure provider for signalfire's job board.Segment powers analytics for SignalFire's job board at jobs.signalfire.com, recording visitor counts, identifying unique users, and associating events with users and their network's traits across the site. Cookies used include ajs_group_id, ajs_anonymous_id, ajs_user_id, ajs_user_traits, and _tld for session and persistent statistics tracking.
- PostHogoperational analytics infrastructure provider for signalfire's job board.PostHog analytics software tracks how visitors interact with the SignalFire job board at jobs.signalfire.com, helping improve user experience, understand user behavior, and enhance site performance. The data collected does not personally identify individual visitors and is used to generate statistical data on job board usage.
- Together AIoperational ai infrastructure and reference customer for beacon-style gtm agent patterns.Together AI is referenced extensively as a customer and infrastructure reference across SignalFire's Practitioner Perspective content, particularly in the 'Build or buy? Navigating the new era of GTM AI Agents' post co-authored with SignalFire mentor Namrata Ram (VP of Revenue Strategy & Ops at Together AI). Together AI's APIs for open models (DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen) are cited as tools SignalFire-adjacent operators use to build GTM agents.
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
SignalFire competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Lightspeed Venture Partners: Multi-stage venture capital firm with deep enterprise, consumer, and fintech franchises. Comparable to SignalFire for early-stage AI/vertical SaaS investing, sector-specialist coverage, and partnership-driven approach at similar AUM scale.
- Lux Capital: Deep-tech and science-focused venture capital firm investing in early-stage AI, frontier tech, and hard-tech startups with a thesis-driven approach. Comparable to SignalFire for its specialized, research-intensive model and focus on AI/ML at seed and Series A.
- Bessemer Venture Partners: Long-tenured cloud and enterprise venture capital firm with a data-driven approach (BVP State of the Cloud, Anti-Portfolio). Comparable to SignalFire for its enterprise SaaS and applied AI focus, multi-stage deployment, and reputation as a data-led VC platform.
- Index Ventures: Early-stage venture capital firm investing in enterprise SaaS, fintech, and AI/ML across the US and Europe. Comparable to SignalFire for stage focus (seed through Series B), applied AI orientation, and partnership-driven model.
- Accel: Early-stage venture capital firm with a strong track record in enterprise SaaS, security, and AI infrastructure. Comparable to SignalFire for seed/Series A focus, enterprise-AI investment posture, and global LP-backed fund structure.
- Greylock Partners: Early-stage enterprise venture capital firm investing in AI infrastructure, SaaS, and cybersecurity. Comparable to SignalFire for early-stage AI/enterprise focus, founder support model, and similar AUM scale.
- General Catalyst: Multi-stage venture capital firm with a strong early-stage franchise across AI, fintech, and healthcare. Comparable to SignalFire for applied AI investing, sector specialist teams, and portfolio support infrastructure.
- IVP (Institutional Venture Partners): Late-stage venture capital firm investing in enterprise, consumer, and AI categories. Comparable to SignalFire as a co-investor (Solace Health lead, alongside SignalFire) and for its enterprise/AI deployment posture at growth stages.
Broad incumbents
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Large, multi-stage venture capital firm with significant AI investment focus and an extensive platform/portfolio support model (a16z bio, growth, infrastructure). Comparable to SignalFire for early-stage AI deployment and hands-on portfolio services, though at much larger scale.
- New Enterprise Associates (NEA): Large, multi-stage venture capital firm with significant enterprise, healthcare, and AI exposure. Comparable to SignalFire as a co-investor in multiple portfolio companies (Horizon3.ai, Qualified Health) and for its broad early-stage AI orientation.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
SignalFire social profiles
Digital presenceSignalFire financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
SignalFire leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
SignalFire funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
SignalFire M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments324 records
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about SignalFire
What does SignalFire do?
SignalFire is an SEC-registered venture capital firm that invests in seed through Series B companies across healthtech, cybersecurity, enterprise AI, fintech, consumer, vertical SaaS, and AI/ML infrastructure sectors, deploying approximately $3 billion in assets under management. The firm combines capital investment with its proprietary Beacon AI Platform (tracking 650+ million professionals in real time) and a Portfolio Success as a Service program delivering operational support across go-to-market, recruiting, leadership development, data science, PR, and fundraising to portfolio companies.
Is SignalFire a public or private company?
SignalFire is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was SignalFire founded?
SignalFire was founded in 2013. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is SignalFire based?
SignalFire is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does SignalFire make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Management Fees are the primary driver. The others are carried Interest (Investment Gains).
Who are SignalFire's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Accel, Greylock Partners, General Catalyst and IVP (Institutional Venture Partners). Broad incumbents are Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
Does SignalFire have an API?
No public API is recorded for SignalFire.
What industry is SignalFire in?
SignalFire's product category is Venture Capital Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSANAAAB, Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B). Its NAICS code is 52394 and its SIC code is 6282.