Obvious Ventures

Name

Obvious Ventures

Legal name

Obvious Management Services, L.L.C.

Website

https://obvious.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital

NAICS

Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525), Other Investment Pools and Funds (5259), Other Financial Vehicles (52599), Other Financial Vehicles (525990)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industries

Sector-Focused Venture Capital (Vertical Specialists) (FSANAAAD), SDG / Thematic Sustainable Investment Funds (FSANAJAN)

Keywords

• Venture capital investing
• Early-stage venture funds
• Thematic impact investing
• Growth equity backing
• Limited partner fund management

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Fund management fees and carried interest: As a venture capital firm, Obvious Ventures earns revenue primarily through management fees on assets under management across its thematic venture funds (most recently OV5 at $360,360,360), supplemented by carried interest / performance returns from successful portfolio exits such as Beyond Meat (IPO), Planet Labs (SPAC), Recursion (IPO), Proterra (IPO), and Lilium (IPO).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Core offering

Obvious Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that raises capital from limited partners and invests it in early-stage "world positive" companies across three thematic pillars: Planetary Health, Human Health, and Economic Health. The firm's current vehicle is the OV5 / Obvious 360 Fund, sized at $360,360,360, which deploys capital into category-defining startups such as Planet Labs, Beyond Meat, Recursion, Zanskar, FleetZero, and Inductive Bio. Surrounding the fund, Obvious offers supporting programs including the annual World Positive Report, the Obvious Ideas editorial platform, an ESG evaluation framework, and the Obvious Champions advisor network.

Product overview

Obvious Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm (not a traditional software product company) that operates a single unified investment offering — themed venture funds — across three thematic pillars: Planetary Health, Human Health, and Economic Health. Its current vehicle is the OV5 / Obvious 360 Fund ($360,360,360), which deploys capital into a portfolio of category-creating companies such as Planet, Recursion, Beyond Meat, Diamond Foundry, Zanskar, Inceptive, and Inductive Bio. Surrounding the core fund offering, Obvious operates supporting public-facing offerings: the World Positive Report (annual thought-leadership publication), Obvious Ideas (editorial content hub), the ESG Policy & Evaluation Framework (governance overlay applied to portfolio companies), the Obvious Champions advisor network, and an LP Portal (FundPanel) for limited-partner reporting. There is no software platform product, API, or AI product offered directly by Obvious Ventures itself — the firm's "products" are its funds, frameworks, and publications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Obvious 360 Fund: Fifth core venture capital fund (OV5) of $360,360,360, branded the 'Obvious 360 Fund,' representing a 360-degree view across planetary, human, and economic health.

Products and services

• Obvious 360 Fund (OV5) Obvious Ventures' fifth and current core venture capital fund, themed around a 360-degree view across Planetary Health, Human Health, and Economic Health. Backs early-stage founders building breakthrough solutions across clean energy, healthcare/biopharma, and economic inclusion; the primary product through which the firm earns management fees and carried interest.
• World Positive Report (2026 edition) Annual publication defining 'change agents' — people, technologies, and movements challenging the status quo — and showcasing Obvious Ventures' portfolio and thesis across planetary, human, and economic health. Published annually via Issuu.
• Obvious Champions Network Curated bench of 16+ senior operators and experts who advise Obvious Ventures' portfolio companies and serve as a referral pipeline for new deals. Members include former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra, MIT's Yet-Ming Chiang, iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, and others.
• ESG Policy & Evaluation Framework Formal ESG evaluation process covering nine research areas (greenhouse gas reduction, resource use reduction, pollution/toxicity reduction, human physical & mental health, employee development, financial security & safety nets, team & board diversity, stakeholder inclusion, investor oversight). Includes an ESG Intentionality clause embedded in portfolio company term sheets.

Quantifiable outcome

• Beyond Meat IPO (NASDAQ: BYND) in May 2019 — first major public plant-based protein company
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Carnegie Mellon UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 May 2026Academic origin for Gray Swan, the AI security company in Obvious Ventures' portfolio. Gray Swan is a CMU spinout founded by university researchers, and Obvious's investment is partly grounded in this academic pipeline.
• A.P. Moller-Maersk (Maersk Growth)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 January 2026Strategic shipping-industry backer participating alongside lead investor Obvious Ventures in Fleetzero's $43 million Series A. Maersk's involvement signals commercial validation of Fleetzero's electric marine propulsion for the global shipping industry.
• AMDminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 November 2025AMD collaborated with portfolio company OpenHands (an Obvious investment via the firm's AI thesis) to improve agent performance on its Lemonade Server open-source platform. This is a partner relationship in Obvious's broader portfolio ecosystem rather than a direct Obvious Ventures commercial deal.
• Obvious Champions network (16 named advisors)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCurated bench of senior advisors including Glenn Kelman (Redfin CEO), Sachin Jain (SCAN Group CEO), Sue Siegel (Illumina board), Aneesh Chopra (former US CTO, CareJourney President), Rodney Brooks (iRobot/Rethink/Robust.AI co-founder), Yet-Ming Chiang (MIT), Joanne Bradford (former Honey/SoFi), Eric Ryan (method/OLLY co-founder), Vivek Murthy (former US Surgeon General), Amy Abernethy MD, Julie Blunden (Plus Power), Phil Edmundson (Corvus founder), Shereef Elnahal (former VA Under Secretary), Brett Hurt, Brian Hamilton, Richelle Parham, Rene Lacerte, and Michele Catasta. Champions advise portfolio companies and serve as a referral pipeline for new deals.
• eBayminorStrategic or Co-development PartnereBay is an early adopter customer of Obello, an AI graphic design platform in Obvious Ventures' portfolio. Obvious's investment thesis supports brand-side adoption of AI creative tooling.
• RitualminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRitual is an early adopter customer of Obello, an AI graphic design platform in Obvious Ventures' portfolio, signaling portfolio customer validation in the consumer brand segment.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Breakthrough Energy Ventures: Bill Gates-backed venture fund investing in climate and sustainability technologies across multiple stages. Direct peer to Obvious Ventures given shared focus on planetary health, large single-fund sizes, and co-investment track record (co-invested in Fleetzero).
• Khosla Ventures: Sector-focused early-stage venture firm with deep exposure to clean energy, healthcare, and frontier tech. Highly comparable to Obvious given similar thematic breadth across planetary and human health, large fund vintages, and willingness to back hard-tech and science-driven founders.
• Lux Capital: Sector-focused VC investing in emerging science and technology companies at the intersection of biology, health, energy, and deep tech. Direct thematic peer to Obvious's Generative Science and Electrification theses; co-invested alongside Obvious in Inductive Bio.
• Lowercarbon Capital: Climate-focused venture fund backing founders across decarbonization, carbon removal, and clean energy. Direct peer to Obvious's Planetary Health pillar; both target similar early-stage, science-driven climate founders with thesis-led sourcing.
• Congruent Ventures: Early-stage venture fund investing in companies that address climate change, sustainable infrastructure, and resource efficiency. Direct thematic peer in the planetary health / climate-tech investing space, with similar check sizes and stage focus.
• DCVC (Data Collective): Deep-tech venture firm investing in computational and engineering breakthroughs across life sciences, energy, and materials. Comparable to Obvious on the science-driven, founder-led, large-market thesis; both back category-defining hard-tech companies at seed and Series A.
• Prelude Ventures: Early-stage climate tech venture fund focused on decarbonization across mobility, energy, buildings, and industry. Direct peer on the planetary health thesis and a comparable size and stage of investment.
• Madrona Venture Group: Early- and growth-stage venture firm focused on AI, cloud, and science-driven companies, headquartered in Seattle. Direct co-investor with Obvious (Gray Swan), and shares a thesis-led, founder-friendly orientation with sector depth in AI and life sciences.

Broad incumbents

• Emerson Collective: Laurene Powell Jobs's impact-focused investment and philanthropy organization backing mission-driven companies across education, immigration, climate, and health. Comparable to Obvious on impact-first mandate and willingness to invest at intersection of social and commercial returns.
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Large multi-stage venture firm with broad sector coverage including a dedicated Bio + Health franchise. Comparable as a co-investor (a16z Bio + Health co-invested in Inductive Bio), though substantially larger and more generalist than Obvious.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/obviousvc
• Facebookfacebook.com/Obvious-Ventures-240587659675882
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/obvious-ventures

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A1 record

Investments211 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Obvious Ventures