What Rally Ventures does

Rally Ventures is a privately held, early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2012 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with a regional office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The firm invests exclusively in business-to-business technology companies at the seed, Series A, and follow-on stages, with concentrated theses in AI/ML, cybersecurity, fintech, and its proprietary "SaaS+" framework (software platforms that layer embedded fintech, insurance, payments, or other value-add products on top of core subscription revenue). As of mid-2026 the firm supports more than 100 portfolio companies spanning active, acquired, and exited statuses, including Braze (NASDAQ: BRZE, IPO November 2021 at an $8B valuation), UiPath (NASDAQ: PATH), Coupa, SportsEngine, Total Expert, and Allen Control Systems ($2.2B Series B, June 2026).

The firm's core products and platforms are three: (1) its primary early-stage venture capital investing service, with capital deployed directly and syndicated through 50+ co-investor relationships (Andreessen, Battery, Bessemer, CRV, General Catalyst, Insight, IVP, Meritech, Salesforce Ventures, SignalFire, and others); (2) "Rally Built," an internal company creation platform used to co-found and spin out startups (Revelstoke, Yardstik, JustiFi, Vertical Insure, Blank Metal, Ankored) alongside operating partners and the Tech Partners network; and (3) the "Rally Tech Partners" program, a curated nationwide network of more than 100 senior operators, technologists, founders, and investors (including Bill Magnuson of Braze, Noah Eisner of Coupa, Phil Soran of Compellent, and Ben Fried formerly of Google) who actively source, diligence, support portfolio companies, and personally invest in the fund. The firm also produces original thought leadership, including a multi-article SaaS+ series and case studies that establish category authority.

Rally's business model is standard venture capital fund economics—management fees on committed capital plus carried interest on profitable exits—augmented by equity stakes in Rally Built studio spin-outs. The firm generates no product or subscription revenue; rather, its "go-to-market" is a community-led, network-driven deal-sourcing engine operated by Managing Directors Jeff Hinck and Justin Kaufenberg, Venture Partners Tom Peterson, Zenas Hutcheson, Ben Fried, and Michael Jennings, and Operating Partners Liz Benz (joined April 2026) and Luke Zaientz (joined 2024). Rally reported that its portfolio companies have raised and returned "well in excess of a billion dollars" to investors over the last decade, and in 2025 the firm was recognized on TIME and Statista's inaugural list of America's Top Venture Capital Firms. The firm is independently owned and operated, with no parent company, no public listing, and no disclosed sale or recapitalization.

Name

Rally Ventures

Legal name

Rally Ventures

Website

http://www.rallyventures.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Rally Ventures is a privately held, early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2012 that invests in B2B technology companies across AI/ML, cybersecurity, fintech, and SaaS+, deploying capital directly and through syndications while providing operating support via a 100+ Tech Partners network and an internal company creation platform called Rally Built.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Early-Stage Venture Capital (B2B Technology)

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (52394)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industries

Late-Stage Venture Capital (Series C+) (FSANAAAC), Corporate Strategic Real Assets & Infrastructure Venture Investing (FSANAHAN), Secondary Venture Funds (VC Secondaries) (FSANAAAK)

Keywords

• Venture capital investing
• Early-stage B2B technology
• Startup company creation
• Technology venture funding
• Seed and Series A investing

Headquarters

HQ city

Menlo Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Early-Stage Venture Capital Fund Management: Rally Ventures manages a venture capital fund investing in early-stage business technology companies (seed, Series A and beyond) across AI/ML, cybersecurity, fintech, SaaS+ and related verticals. Revenue is generated through standard venture capital fund economics—management fees on committed capital plus carried interest on profitable exits. Rally has returned well in excess of $1B to investors over the last decade according to Managing Director Jeff Hinck's bio.
2. Co-Investment Syndication Revenue: Rally routinely co-invests alongside a broad network of 50+ co-investors (645 Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Battery, Bessemer, Costanoa, Craft, Crosslink, CRV, Eclipse, Emergence, Forum, General Catalyst, Insight, IVP, Meritech, Salesforce Ventures, Sands, SignalFire, Storm, Techstars, etc.). Successful exits and IPOs (e.g., Braze at $8B valuation, Coupa, UiPath, Compellent, Carbon Black, UiPath, Broadsoft) generate carried interest.
3. Company Creation / Studio Equity Stakes: Rally co-founds companies (Rally Built) and takes equity stakes, generating returns when these companies are funded, grow, or are acquired—e.g., Revelstoke acquired by Arctic Wolf (Oct 2023), Yardstik, JustiFi, Vertical Insure, Blank Metal.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Core offering

Rally Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in B2B technology companies across AI/ML, cybersecurity, fintech and SaaS+ sectors, from seed through Series B and beyond. Its capital is paired with hands-on operating support from a curated network of 100+ Tech Partners (senior executives and operators) and supplemented by Rally Built, an internal company creation platform used to co-found and spin out new portfolio companies such as Yardstik, JustiFi, Vertical Insure, Blank Metal, Revelstoke and Ankored. Revenue is generated through standard venture fund management fees on committed capital plus carried interest on profitable exits and liquidity events.

Product overview

Rally Ventures is a venture capital firm (not a traditional product company) founded in 2012 that provides a single integrated service offering: early-stage venture capital investment in B2B technology companies, complemented by an internal company creation platform (Rally Built) and a 100+ person Tech Partners advisory network. Rather than shipping its own SaaS product, Rally's named offerings are its core early-stage investing service, the Rally Built platform for creating and spinning out new companies (e.g., Revelstoke, Yardstik, JustiFi, Vertical Insure, Blank Metal), the Rally Tech Partners program that pairs portfolio companies with veteran operators, and the SaaS+ investment thesis and editorial series that articulates Rally's framework for backing SaaS platforms with embedded fintech and value-add layers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Rally Built: Rally Built is the firm's company creation platform, helping to develop and spin out new companies within the Rally ecosystem.
• Rally Toolkit
• Rally Tech Partners

Products and services

• Early-Stage B2B Technology Venture Capital Investing
• Rally Built (Company Creation Platform)
• Rally Tech Partners Program

Quantifiable outcome

• Braze scaled to more than $500M ARR and IPO'd at $8B valuation on NASDAQ in November 2021
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Liz Benz (Operating Partner)coreOthers · 7 April 2026Liz Benz joined Rally Ventures full-time as an Operating Partner on April 7, 2026 (transitioning from Technology Partner). Former Chief Sales Officer at Jamf (scaled $70M to $700M+ ARR); previously held senior sales leadership roles at Field Nation, Oracle and Digital River. Works with portfolio companies on AI-native go-to-market execution and supports Rally Built, the firm's company creation platform. Serves on board of Vertical Insure.
• Luke Zaientz (Operating Partner)coreOthers · 5 August 2024Joined Rally as an Operating Partner in 2024 (Tech Partner since 2023). Former Co-founder and CEO of Reigning Champs (acquired by IMG Academy/Endeavor in 2021 with $200M+ revenue; later sold to EQT in 2023). Prior executive roles at The Match Group, RMG Networks, BriteVision Media, i2 Technology. Serves on board of Influ2.
• Rally Tech Partners Network (100+ executives including Bill Magnuson/Braze, Noah Eisner/Coupa, Phil Soran/Compellent, Jon Saxe/Google, Tom Killalea/Amazon, Chris Heim/Fortra, Nick Schneider/Arctic Wolf, Beth Mayer, Jack Jia/Musely, and others)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCurated network of 100+ senior executives, technologists, CEOs, investors and entrepreneurs who actively source, diligence and support portfolio companies. Each Tech Partner is also an investor in the fund. Notable Tech Partners include Bill Magnuson (Braze CEO), Noah Eisner (Coupa founder), Phil Soran (Compellent founder), Greg Blasko (SportsEngine co-founder), Brian Bell, Elizabeth Benz, Rick Ehrman, Marc Parrish, Mark Ghermezian, Ben Fried, Eva Tsai (Google Cloud), and many more.
• Ben Fried (Venture Partner)coreOthersRally Venture Partner and former CIO at Google (2008-2022) and VP/New York office Site Lead. Previously Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. Currently serves on boards of Incept AI, pgEdge and ZOLA Electric; advisory board at Bugcrowd; editorial board of Communications of the ACM and Queue magazine.
• Tom Peterson (Venture Partner)coreOthersVeteran early-stage technology investor (30+ years) and founding member of El Dorado Ventures; joined Rally Ventures at its inception in 2012. Notable investments include Braze (NASDAQ: BRZE), Clinical Research IO, Earthlink (NASDAQ: ELNK), Efficient Networks, Jigsaw (Salesforce), MediaQ (NVIDIA), Rogue Wave (NASDAQ: RWAV), Scout Labs (Lithium), Swarm (Groupon). Serves on boards of 401GO, Appdome, Epoch and Rev.
• Zenas Hutcheson (Venture Partner)coreOthersRally Venture Partner with 30+ years of tech VC and operating experience; joined Rally at its inception in 2012. Co-founded Vesbridge Partners (2004); co-Managing Partner of SPVC/St. Paul Venture Capital. Notable investments include Acopia (F5), Granite Systems (Telcordia), Castle Networks (Unisphere), Corvil, VisiTrend (Carbon Black). Serves on the board of Ottometric.
• Michael Jennings (Venture Partner)coreOthers30+ years in IT and business development; former CEO of Secure-24 (acquired by NTT Communications 2018). Co-founder/CTO/SVP Business Development at Appshop. Chairman of 10thMagnitude (sold to Cognizant 2020). Board member of Bugcrowd, Gappify, Spec, Ostra, Protera and Zivian Health; board observer at Abstract Security.
• Charles Beeler (Co-Founder, in memoriam)coreOthersCo-founder of Rally Ventures; passed away unexpectedly in September 2024 after a battle with cancer. Veteran venture capitalist recognized for bringing together agility of a small firm with deep operational expertise.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Costanoa Ventures: Early-stage venture firm focused on enterprise/B2B SaaS and infrastructure, with comparable check size, stage focus, and Silicon Valley footprint. Co-invests alongside Rally in many rounds (per co-investor logo set).
• Emergence Capital: Specialist enterprise/SaaS early- and growth-stage investor known for deep operating partner model and category-defining thought leadership — closely analogous to Rally's SaaS+ thesis and Tech Partners network.
• SignalFire: Early-stage technology VC combining capital with a proprietary data platform and operating support for portfolio companies — comparable to Rally in stage focus and operator-led model.
• Scale Venture Partners: B2B SaaS-focused venture firm investing across early and expansion stages with an operator network; directly comparable to Rally's SaaS+ thesis and Silicon Valley orientation.
• Foundry Group: Early-stage venture firm investing in enterprise software, infrastructure, and emerging categories with a small core team and strong operating-leverage model — similar in size and approach to Rally.
• Sapphire Ventures: B2B technology-focused venture and growth firm with an operating partner network and enterprise SaaS thesis — directly comparable to Rally in category focus and operating-leverage model, though at a larger average check size.

Broad incumbents

• Bessemer Venture Partners: Large, established venture investor with deep B2B SaaS/cloud franchise (and the widely cited State of the Cloud report). Overlaps with Rally in early-stage SaaS, but operates at much greater scale and broader stage range.
• Battery Ventures: Long-tenured global tech VC investing across enterprise software, infrastructure, and applications from seed to growth. Comparable in B2B enterprise focus but materially larger and more diversified than Rally.
• Insight Partners: Large-scale software-focused investment firm spanning venture, growth, and buyout. Overlaps with Rally in B2B SaaS and cybersecurity at Series A/B but at materially larger check sizes and broader stage.
• General Catalyst: Multi-stage venture firm with deep enterprise/fintech franchises. Frequently co-invests with Rally (e.g., Ostra Security Series A) and competes for the same early-stage deals at significantly larger fund sizes.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/rallyvc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rallyventures

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

Investments160 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Rally Ventures