What Rebel Fund does

Rebel Fund is a privately held, California-LLC venture capital fund founded in 2019 by Managing Partner Jared Heyman. The fund invests exclusively in seed-stage startups emerging from Y Combinator, targeting the top 10% of YC companies (equivalent to the top 0.06% of YC applicants). Its core product is a proprietary machine-learning algorithm called Rebel Theorem, currently in version 4.0, which is trained on a proprietary database of millions of data points spanning every YC company and founder in history to score and predict which startups are most likely to deliver outsized investor returns. The fund reports a nearly 100% deal win rate on its targeted top-decile YC startups, typically closing investments pre-Demo Day. Rebel Theorem has progressed through multiple major versions (2.0, 3.0, 4.0) and incorporates custom feature engineering, including a founder-product fit module added in mid-2025.

The fund is supported by a network of high-profile YC alumni investing partners — Steve Huffman (Reddit), Daniel Kan (Cruise), Max Mullen (Instacart), Trip Adler (Scribd), Sebastian Mejia (Rappi), Dan Siroker (Optimizely), and Jonathan Hirsch (Paradigm) — whose companies are valued at over $100B in aggregate. A small internal leadership team (Managing Partner Jared Heyman, Managing Director Luis Fortuño, Principal Justin Hilliard, and Portfolio Development Alexandra Espinal) operates the fund and maintains the proprietary YC database and ML infrastructure.

As a venture capital fund, Rebel Fund generates revenue through standard VC economics: management fees on committed LP capital and carried interest on realized gains from its portfolio of 250+ seed-stage investments. LP terms (management fee, carry, minimum commitments, fund size) are not publicly disclosed. Limited Partners are engaged through annual programming including an AGM in San Francisco and LP Wine & Olive Oil Tasting events in Napa Valley, both running continuously from 2022 through 2026. The fund's go-to-market is community-led, leveraging YC alumni networks and founder referrals rather than paid acquisition. Recent disclosed capital deployment has been consistent, with participation in approximately ten seed and Series A rounds between March 2025 and May 2026 across AI infrastructure, fintech, healthcare, supply chain, and quick commerce verticals in the US, Brazil, Nigeria/Ghana, and Spain.

Name

Rebel Fund

Legal name

Rebel Fund Management, LLC

Website

https://rebelfund.vc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Rebel Fund is a California-based venture capital firm that invests exclusively in seed-stage Y Combinator startups, using a proprietary ML algorithm (Rebel Theorem 4.0) and a network of YC alumni partners to select and back the top decile of YC companies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Early-Stage Venture Capital

NAICS

Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525), Other Investment Pools and Funds (5259)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

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

Keywords

• Venture capital fund
• Seed-stage investing
• AI-driven investment
• Startup portfolio management
• Y Combinator investments

Headquarters

HQ city

Calabasas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Venture Capital Returns: As a venture capital fund, Rebel Fund generates revenue through capital appreciation and exits from its portfolio of 250+ Y Combinator seed-stage startup investments. Returns are generated when portfolio companies achieve liquidity events (acquisitions, IPOs) or via secondary sales, with a large diversified portfolio strategy (70+ companies). The fund also references 'top-decile portfolio returns' indicating carried-interest-style economics typical of early-stage VC funds.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Rebel Fund is a venture capital fund that invests exclusively in seed-stage Y Combinator-backed startups, typically pre-Demo Day, with a target of the top 10% of YC startups (top 0.06% of applicants). The fund deploys capital across a diversified portfolio of 70+ companies per batch using Rebel Theorem 4.0, a proprietary ML algorithm trained on millions of YC data points, to validate and screen investments. Limited Partners commit capital to the fund and receive access to differentiated LP programming including AGMs, webinars, and Napa Valley wine/olive oil tasting events.

Product overview

Rebel Fund is a single, unified venture-fund offering — an AI/ML-driven seed-stage fund (Rebel Fund) that invests exclusively in Y Combinator-backed startups. Its deal-flow engine is the proprietary Rebel Theorem ML algorithm, with Rebel Theorem 4.0 being the current production model that validates and screens potential investments, supported by prior-generation models Rebel Theorem 3.0 and Rebel Theorem 2.0. The fund is wrapped with two service modules for its investor base and portfolio: a data-driven Knowledge / Blog series publishing insights on YC startup success and Rebel Theorem methodology, and an LP Programming & Events module offering virtual sessions, webinars, an Annual General Meeting in San Francisco, and Napa Valley wine/olive oil tasting events. Together, Rebel Theorem, the knowledge series, and LP programming form the differentiated offering versus other YC-focused seed funds.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Rebel Fund Core venture capital fund that invests exclusively in seed-stage Y Combinator-backed startups (top 10% of YC companies / top 0.06% of applicants) with a diversified portfolio of 70+ companies per batch and a nearly 100% deal win rate, typically pre-Demo Day. Limited Partners commit capital to the fund and receive access to differentiated LP programming (AGMs, webinars, Napa Valley events).
• Rebel Fund LP Programming & Events Year-round LP engagement service for Rebel Fund investors, including virtual sessions, webinars, an Annual General Meeting in San Francisco, LP Excursions, and wine/olive oil tasting events in Napa Valley. Differentiated as 'virtual sessions and programming' versus other YC-focused funds and cited by portfolio founders as a meaningful differentiator.

Named customers13 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature3 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Andreessen Horowitz is a broad incumbent venture firm with an early-stage seed strategy that frequently invests in YC startups alongside Rebel. Comparable as a major capital provider to the same target companies, though a16z operates across all stages and sectors.
• Sequoia Capital: Sequoia Capital's Scout program and seed funds invest across YC and broader early-stage startups. As a broad incumbent with a multi-stage mandate, it overlaps with Rebel at the seed layer of YC-backed companies but offers a much wider portfolio.
• Y Combinator (Continuity Fund): Y Combinator's Continuity Fund follows on into YC startups and is the implicit anchor investor across the entire Rebel portfolio. While not a true competitor (Y Combinator sets the ecosystem Rebel depends on), it is the most relevant incumbent relationship and a co-investor in nearly every Rebel deal.

Direct peers

• Hustle Fund: Hustle Fund is a pre-seed and seed venture fund investing in Y Combinator and other early-stage startups, with a community-driven LP model similar in ethos to Rebel's network-led approach. It is a directly comparable seed-stage peer with overlapping target companies.
• Kindred Capital: Kindred Capital is a seed-stage venture fund that has co-invested with Rebel Fund in YC startups (e.g., Sohar Health's $3.8M seed round) and operates a similar community/partner-driven model. Directly comparable as a co-investor and seed-stage peer.
• Cherry Ventures: Cherry Ventures is a European seed-stage venture fund that frequently co-invests with Rebel Fund in YC startups (e.g., Sphinx's $7.1M seed round). Directly comparable as a co-investor and seed-stage peer.
• Pioneer Fund: Pioneer Fund is a Y Combinator-focused seed-stage venture fund that explicitly invests in YC startups and frequently co-invests with Rebel Fund (e.g., Didit's $7.5M seed round). It is the most directly comparable peer along product offering, target market, and business model.
• Right Side Capital Management: Right Side Capital Management is a seed-stage fund that invests in large numbers of early-stage startups using a quantitative, portfolio-based approach with multiple-check diversification. Comparable to Rebel's diversified top-10% YC strategy.
• Correlation Ventures: Correlation Ventures is a data-driven seed and early-stage venture fund that uses quantitative methods to construct broadly diversified portfolios, similar to Rebel's Rebel Theorem-driven diversification strategy. Comparable in model (data-augmented seed investing) though it is not YC-exclusive.

Emerging players

• SignalFire: SignalFire is an AI-native early-stage venture firm that uses a proprietary data platform (Beacon) to source and support portfolio companies. Comparable to Rebel in its ML-driven deal sourcing approach, though SignalFire invests more broadly than just YC.

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rebel-fund

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments440 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Rebel Fund