Fathom Group

Fathom Capital (Fathom Group) Research Overview Fathom Capital (fathomcap.com), operating as Fathom Group in F4-OS, is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2017 by John Komkov, a former partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. The firm is based in San Francisco, CA with an additional office in Austin, TX. Operating with the tagline "Backing Deep Innovation," Fathom Capital focuses on enterprise software and developer infrastructure investments with a fund size of approximately $52–60M. Investment Thesis Fathom Capital targets deep innovation at the infrastructure and application layer of enterprise software. The firm backs companies building transformative developer tools, cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, and fintech platforms. John Komkov brings an unusual combination of backgrounds — Stanford Economics, Morgan Stanley Investment Banking, White House Council of Economic Advisers, Austin Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners — which informs a disciplined approach to evaluating both technical fundamentals and market dynamics. The firm's sweet spot is backing early-stage companies (Seed and Series A) that are building critical infrastructure for modern software development, enterprise operations, and financial services. The portfolio skews toward developer-first products where distribution follows adoption, not traditional enterprise sales. Stage Focus Fathom Capital focuses primarily on: Seed : 10 investments at average round size of ~$4.12M Series A : 7 investments at average round size of ~$11.9M Occasional participation at later stages (1 Series C recorded) The firm prefers to come in at first or early institutional rounds and follow the company through Series A. Check Size Based on fund size (~$60M) and portfolio composition (~20 companies): Estimated per-check: $250K–$3M Seed stage: ~$250K–$1M Series A: ~$1M–$3M Reserve ratio: estimated 30–50% of fund reserved for follow-ons Sector Focus The portfolio spans several enterprise and developer-focused verticals: Developer Tools & Infrastructure: Prisma (ORM), Clerk (auth/user mgmt), Gatsby (web framework, acquired), YourBase (build acceleration), LucidLink (cloud storage), Whereby (video API), ConductorOne (identity governance). Enterprise Software: Accelo (professional services automation, acquired by Bow River Feb 2024), Haus (marketing measurement), Cycle (product management), Elementary (data observability). Security & Identity: Panther Labs (security analytics, unicorn), ConductorOne (identity governance). FinTech: Alpaca Securities (stock trading API), Vyze (lending, acquired), Truv (income verification). Lead Tendency Given the fund size (~$60M) and portfolio composition, Fathom Capital participates in rounds across the spectrum. Evidence suggests they co-lead or participate at seed stage and participate (not lead) at Series A. Co-investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Baseline Ventures, Haystack, Andreessen Horowitz, Madrona, Insight Partners, Accel, Cherubic Ventures, BrightCap Ventures, and GovTech Fund. Recent Activity The firm's most recent recorded investment was in Haus (August 3, 2023), a marketing measurement company that raised $17M in a Series A led by Insight Partners. Prior to that: Clerk (authentication tools) — Seed ($6.2M, November 2022) and Series A ($15M, March 2023) ConductorOne (identity governance) — participated as existing investor in $15M Series A led by Accel (June 2022) Fund status : The last recorded investment was August 2023. No activity has been reported in 2024–2025, suggesting the fund may be between vehicles or slowing deployment from its current fund. Portfolio Highlights Active notable companies: Alpaca Securities (alpaca.markets): Stock trading and brokerage API platform; one of the firm's most notable investments Panther Labs (panther.com): Security analytics platform; unicorn status Elementary (elementary.data): Data observability platform; raised $30M Series B Clerk (clerk.com): Authentication and user management tools for developers ConductorOne (conductorone.com): Agentic identity governance and access management platform Truv (truv.com): Employment and income verification platform Prisma (prisma.io): Open-source ORM for Node.js and TypeScript (widely used in dev ecosystem) Whereby (whereby.com): Video conferencing API platform (Norway-based) LucidLink (lucidlink.com): Cloud-native file system for creative and media teams Haus (haus.io): Marketing measurement and incrementality testing Notable exits: Gatsby (gatsbyjs.com): Popular web framework platform — acquired Accelo (accelo.com): Professional services automation SaaS — acquired by Bow River Capital (February 2024) Vyze : Fintech lending platform — acquired Team John Komkov — Founder & Managing Partner LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnkomkov/ Background: Former Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners (2015–2017); previously Austin Ventures, Morgan Stanley Investment Banking, White House Council of Economic Advisers Education: Stanford GSB (MBA), Stanford University (BA History & International Relations) Investment focus: Developer tools, enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, fintech/API platforms Fathom Capital operates as a solo GP fund with John Komkov as the sole investment decision-maker. The lean structure enables fast decision-making. Decision Process Solo GP fund. John Komkov is the sole identified partner; decisions are made by one person. The firm can move quickly compared to multi-GP partnership models. Geographic Focus Primarily US-focused (17 of ~20 investments are US-based; headquarters in SF Bay Area). Selective European investments (e.g., Whereby, based in Norway). Offices in San Francisco and Austin, TX. Anti-Thesis Based on portfolio composition, the firm does not appear to invest in: Consumer-facing products Gaming or media Hardware or semiconductors Pre-product or idea-stage companies (prefers teams with working product)