OVO Fund

What OVO Fund does

OVO Fund is a Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm founded in 2014 that specializes exclusively in pre-seed investments in early-stage technology startups. The firm targets the "negative one to zero" stage — writing checks before product-market fit, before customers, and often before founders have a fully formed narrative — with typical check sizes of $250,000 to $750,000. OVO currently invests out of a $52 million third fund and maintains a 3:1 follow-on ratio through Series A, allowing it to provide continued capital support as portfolio companies scale.

The firm's portfolio spans 117 companies across seven stated verticals: Applied AI, Enterprise Tech, Fintech, Digital Health, Web3, Consumer, and SaaS. Notable investments include 8 unicorns (Payjoy, Sourcegraph, Addepar, Everlaw, Juniper Square, and others) and 2 companies that have completed successful IPOs, collectively representing $32 billion in portfolio value created and supporting over 12,500 jobs. Portfolio companies have raised over $5.7 billion in aggregate follow-on capital, and select logos include category-defining names such as Palantir and Wish. The firm is led by Managing Partner Eric Chen and Partner Gianfranco Filice, supported by Partner Emeritus Jiggs Davis and a bench of sector-specialist advisors covering B2B SaaS, applied AI, healthcare, fintech, and consumer.

OVO generates revenue through conventional venture capital economics — management fees on committed fund capital and carried interest on realized gains. The firm operates with a small team of 1-10 employees and distributes capital through direct founder relationships, referrals from existing portfolio companies, and its public-facing website. Its go-to-motion is conviction-driven pre-seed investing with hands-on founder partnership, positioning OVO as the founder's "first call" through every pivot and milestone rather than a transactional capital provider.

Name

OVO Fund

Legal name

OVO Fund

Website

https://ovofund.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

OVO Fund is a Menlo Park-based pre-seed venture capital firm investing $250k–$750k in early-stage technology startups. Operating from a $52M third fund, it backs 117 portfolio companies across AI, fintech, healthcare, and SaaS, producing 8 unicorns and 2 IPOs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (52394)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

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 funding
• Pre-seed investments
• Early-stage startups
• Startup capital
• Seed stage funding

Headquarters

HQ city

Palo Alto

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, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

OVO Fund is a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm that invests at the pre-seed stage of early-stage startups, typically writing checks of $250,000 to $750,000 from its $52 million third fund. The firm specializes in the 'negative one to zero' stage, providing equity capital and hands-on founder partnership to companies before product-market fit, with a 3:1 follow-on reserve ratio supporting portfolio companies through Series A. Its portfolio spans Applied AI, Enterprise Tech, Fintech, Digital Health, Web3, Consumer, and SaaS sectors.

Product overview

OVO Fund is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California, that specializes in pre-seed investments for early-stage startups. The firm operates as a single unified investment service, providing capital and partnership to founders at the 'negative one to zero stage,' before product-market fit or formal institutional backing. Their portfolio spans Applied AI, Enterprise Tech, Fintech, Digital Health, Web3, Consumer, and SaaS sectors, with a track record of 8 unicorns and 2 IPOs among their investments totaling over $5.7 billion raised by portfolio companies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Venture Capital Investment Services OVO Fund provides pre-seed venture capital funding to early-stage startups, typically investing $250,000 to $750,000 in the first institutional tranche of funding with a 3:1 follow-on ratio reserved for subsequent rounds through Series A. The firm invests out of its third fund of $52 million and is currently deploying capital across Applied AI, Enterprise Tech, Fintech, Digital Health, Web3, Consumer, and SaaS sectors.

Named customers15 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Y Combinator: The preeminent pre-seed/seed accelerator. YC writes the first institutional check for thousands of early-stage startups and operates a similar 'earliest-stage' investment model to OVO, with check sizes ($500K standard SAFE) overlapping OVO's $250k-$750k range.
• SV Angel: A long-standing San Francisco-based pre-seed and seed investor with a similar thesis of writing small first checks into high-conviction founder teams. Directly comparable in stage, geography, and check size.
• Precursor Ventures: A San Francisco-based seed fund that invests at the pre-seed and seed stages with similar check sizes. Operates with a similarly lean team and a founder-first thesis that mirrors OVO's approach.
• Lerer Hippeau: A New York-based early-stage seed fund that invests across consumer and enterprise with check sizes in OVO's range. Comparable stage and founder-support model, though geographically complementary rather than overlapping.
• Pioneer Fund: A pre-seed and seed venture fund that invests in founders at the earliest stages with checks comparable to OVO's $250k-$750k. Similar thesis on founder conviction and follow-on reserve ratios.
• First Round Capital: A seed-stage fund with a strong founder-community platform and pre-seed/seed check sizes overlapping OVO's. Comparable in stage focus, though typically with larger average checks and a more developed community/portal infrastructure.
• Floodgate: A Palo Alto-based seed fund that invests at the earliest stages with a conviction-driven, founder-first thesis similar to OVO's. Directly comparable in stage, geography, and check-size philosophy.
• Boost VC: An early-stage fund (founded by Adam Draper) that invests at pre-seed in frontier technologies, including Web3 — one of OVO's stated verticals. Comparable in stage and thesis around bold, early technical bets.
• Antler: A global pre-seed investor and founder generator that explicitly invests at the 'negative one to zero' stage before product-market fit. Directly comparable to OVO's core thesis on the earliest-stage conviction investing.

Broad incumbents

• 500 Global: A much larger global seed-stage accelerator and fund that invests pre-seed through Series A across 75+ countries. Comparable in stage but operates at materially larger scale than OVO's Menlo Park-focused practice.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ovofund
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ovo-fund

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments50 records

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

Frequently asked questions about OVO Fund