What Felicis does

Felicis is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2006 by Aydin Senkut, headquartered in San Francisco. Over 20 years it has raised ten flagship venture funds (FV I through FV X) plus a $300M Focus Fund I, growing cumulative assets under management from $4M (FV I, 2006) to approximately $4.1B by 2026. The firm invests predominantly at Seed and Series A stages (94% of investments) and leads or co-leads 83% of its rounds, targeting four focus areas: Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity & Defense, Global Resilience & Energy, and Health & Bio. Notable historical investments include Shopify, Canva, Adyen, Notion, Supabase, Mercor, Runway, n8n, and Tines, with 50+ portfolio unicorns and $285B+ in aggregate portfolio market value reported. The firm's portfolio references indicate 300+ companies across 40+ countries, with 80% of new investments sourced through portfolio referrals.

Felicis operates a standard venture capital revenue model: management fees on committed and invested AUM across its fund vehicles, plus carried interest on successful exits. Around its funds, the firm wraps a platform of value-added services for portfolio founders, including the Founder Pledge (committing 1% of every first check to founder coaching and support), a formalized Founders-First Voting Policy pledging zero board votes against founders, AI-native investment operations (overseen by a dedicated Head of AI), and structured talent pipelines including AI Fellows, VC Fellows, the Felicis Scholars research program in partnership with MIT CSAIL, and Stanford sponsorships. The firm is independently owned by its partners (Sundeep Peechu as Managing Partner; Peter Deng, Viviana Faga, James Detweiler, Jake Storm as General Partners; Feyza Haskaraman, Tobi Coker, Eric Flaningam as Partners; Katie Riester as Managing Director & GP, Fund of Funds Investing), with an operating team led by CMO Elisa Schreiber and Operating Partner Michelle Delcambre. Reported differentiators include rapid decision velocity (first meeting to term sheet in 24 hours), high lead-investor rate, and a self-described 100% "world-positive" LP base.

Name

Felicis

Legal name

Felicis

Website

https://felicis.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Felicis is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2006 that invests primarily at Seed and Series A across AI, Cybersecurity & Defense, Global Resilience & Energy, and Health & Bio, managing approximately $4.1B AUM across ten funds.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Early-Stage Venture Capital

akta.pro primary industry

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Pre-Seed/Seed) (FSANAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B) (FSANAAAB)

Keywords

• Venture capital investing
• Early-stage funding
• Seed series A
• Startup investment
• Founder development

Headquarters

HQ city

Menlo Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Management Fees on AUM: Felicis generates revenue primarily through management fees on assets under management across its 10 funds (totaling $4.1B AUM). Standard venture capital management fee structure with limited partners.
2. Carried Interest on Fund Returns: Standard VC model: carried interest from successful exits in portfolio companies. Track record includes Shopify IPO, Canva, Adyen IPO, Fitbit IPO, Twitch (acquired by Amazon), Ring (acquired by Amazon), and many others.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Core offering

Felicis manages ten early-stage venture capital funds (FV I through FV X) with approximately $4.1B in cumulative assets under management, primarily investing at Seed and Series A stages across four focus areas: Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity & Defense, Global Resilience & Energy, and Health & Bio. The firm also runs a $300M Focus Fund I for follow-on investments and wraps the funds with value-add programs (AI Fellows, VC Fellows, Felicis Scholars, and a 1% Founder Pledge) that support founders with coaching, recruiting help, and governance commitments.

Product overview

Felicis is a venture capital firm — not a traditional SaaS or product company — whose core offering is a series of ten early-stage venture capital funds (FV I through FV X, totaling approximately $4.1B in cumulative AUM) plus a $300M Focus Fund I for follow-on investments. Around these funds, Felicis wraps a platform of value-add services for founders, including the AI Fellows Program, VC Fellows Program, Felicis Scholars Program (in partnership with MIT CSAIL), the 1% Founder Pledge (which commits 1% of every first check to founder performance and support), and a Portfolio Jobs board (jobs.felicis.com). Investment activity is organized across four explicit focus areas — Artificial Intelligence (with AI Applications, AI Infrastructure, and Models sub-domains such as Mercor, Runway, Supabase, Skild AI, Periodic Labs, Sooth Labs, and Ricursive Intelligence), Cybersecurity & Defense (with Cybersecurity, Physical Security, and Defense Tech sub-domains including Tines, Verkada, Semgrep, Vannevar Labs, Artemis, Corridor, Ent, Smack, and Observo.ai), Global Resilience & Energy (with Global Resilience and Energy sub-domains including Flexport, Crusoe, Armada, Revel, Zipline, Exowatt, and Endurance Energy), and Health & Bio (including Midi Health, Prenuvo, Assort Health, and Adaptive Innovations). The portfolio page enumerates over 300 individual portfolio companies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• FV X Fund Felicis's flagship $900M venture capital fund (FV X) for Seed and Series A investments across the firm's four focus areas: AI, Cybersecurity & Defense, Global Resilience & Energy, and Health & Bio. Closed in 2025, it is the firm's largest fund to date.
• FV IX Fund $825M Seed and Series A venture capital fund launched in 2023, the predecessor to FV X.
• FV VIII Fund $600M Seed and Series A venture capital fund launched in 2021, with notable investments including n8n Series A and Semgrep Series B.
• Focus Fund I $300M follow-on focused fund launched in 2021 to provide concentrated additional capital to Felicis-backed portfolio companies.
• FV VII Fund $510M Seed and Series A venture capital fund launched in 2020.
• FV VI Fund $302M Seed and Series A venture capital fund launched in 2018, the first fund to formalize the 1% Founder Pledge. Notable exits during this period included the Adyen, Guardant Health, and Pluralsight IPOs.
• AI Fellows Program A week-long, fully immersive deep dive into startups for ambitious ML and computer engineering undergraduate students, held in San Francisco and culminating in a hackathon with non-dilutive cash prizes.
• VC Fellows Program Program supporting community-building efforts of select students at top technical universities, including events, sponsorships, and hackathons, culminating in a weekend in San Francisco learning from Felicis's team about the VC model, investment theme development, and founder identification.
• Felicis Scholars Program In partnership with MIT's CSAIL lab directed by Daniela Rus, Felicis selects five AI researchers each year to receive $200,000 over two years to pursue deep research on frontier topics, with the second year including direct support from the Felicis team to translate research into products.
• Founder Pledge Felicis's formal commitment to allocate 1% of every first check to founder performance and support, including coaching, personal development for leaders, and resources to help founders become unbreakable. Formalized in 2018 as part of the firm's founder-first principles.

Quantifiable outcome

• $4.1B AUM across 10 funds over 20 years
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered flagship - long-term research partnership, flagship - multiple sponsorships and flagship - ecosystem partner.

• MIT CSAIL (Daniela Rus)flagship - long-term research partnershipStrategic or Co-development PartnerFelicis partners with MIT CSAIL and Daniela Rus to select five AI researchers each year as Felicis Scholars, receiving $200,000 for two years to pursue frontier AI research. The partnership bridges academia and venture.
• Stanford University (Multiple Programs)flagship - multiple sponsorshipsStrategic or Co-development PartnerFelicis sponsors Stanford's Mayfield Fellows House (2026 cohort), Stanford Scaling Intelligence Lab, SEAMS at Stanford's Center for Human Centered Intelligence, Friends & Family nonprofit, and Stanford's 2026 Senior Project Showcase.
• Y Combinatorflagship - ecosystem partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerFelicis was the first investor in Y Combinator (2006). Long-standing ecosystem partnership providing Felicis access to YC's startup pipeline, and co-investment opportunities in seed-stage startups.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Index Ventures: Transatlantic venture firm with deep Seed/Series A roots and a comparable Europe-U.S. investing footprint. Recently co-led rounds (e.g., Revel $150M Series B) alongside Felicis, indicating overlapping deal selection.
• Khosla Ventures: High-conviction early-stage venture firm investing across AI, sustainability, and frontier tech. Recently co-invested in Runlayer's Series A alongside Felicis, with similar thematic overlap.
• Founders Fund: Early-stage venture firm investing in frontier-tech and defense, recently co-led Endurance Energy's Series A alongside Felicis. Comparable in thematic bets on frontier technology.
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Multi-stage venture firm with significant Seed/Series A activity in AI, bio, and crypto. Overlaps directly with Felicis in AI infrastructure and application themes, and competes for the same founder relationships.
• Greylock Partners: Long-tenured early-stage venture firm focused on enterprise and consumer software, with comparable Seed/Series A concentration and similar portfolio-construction philosophy.
• NEA (New Enterprise Associates): Large multi-stage venture firm with deep Seed/Series A pipeline and similar AI/enterprise focus. Comparable scale, stage breadth, and LP base to Felicis.
• Benchmark: Premier Seed/Series A investor known for high-conviction, partner-led investing. Comparable to Felicis in lead/co-lead ratio and emphasis on early-stage ownership in transformative companies.
• Sequoia Capital: One of the most storied venture capital firms in the U.S., actively investing across seed, early, and growth stages with comparable founder-led brand and tier-1 portfolio outcomes. Directly comparable to Felicis in deal-stage focus and LP positioning.
• Accel: Early-stage-focused venture firm known for leading rounds in category-defining companies (Facebook, Slack, Spotify). Strong overlap with Felicis's Seed/Series A focus and similar global LP base.
• Lightspeed Venture Partners: Multi-stage venture firm with strong Seed/Series A activity in enterprise, consumer, and fintech. Overlaps with Felicis in stage and global LP base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/felicis
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@felicis_ventures
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/felicis-ventures
• Instagraminstagram.com/felicis
• Facebookfacebook.com/FelicisVentures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles17 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments838 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Felicis