Foothill Ventures
Los Altos, California · Invests in US; Asia; Europe · Website
Check size
$250K-$10M
Thesis
Back technical teams working on breakthrough products. We invest in seed stage companies that demonstrate technical differentiation - meaning technical or product-level superiority is a major reason for future success. We pursue investments from application layer (AI/ML) through software infrastructure to hardware layers (semiconductors, photonics).
Likely not a fit for
Avoid consumer apps without technical differentiation, pure hardware plays without software, and non-technical founding teams
How they invest
- Lead or follow
- Usually leads
- Typical decision
- ~1 week
- Warm intro
- Not required
- Involvement
- Takes a board seat
- Fund status
- Actively deploying
- Decision process
- Partnership vote
Partners & team
9 contacts on file
Phoebe Fan
Operating Partner · Primary contact
John Matheny
Partner
Xuhui Shao
General Partner
Jinlin Wang
General Partner
Eric Rosenblum
General Partner
Michael Jin
General Partner
Charles Ling
Deep Tech Investment Director
Sophia Yu
Software Investment Associate
Lu Wang
Life Sciences Investor
Portfolio
Neural Galaxy is a company focused on brain science and machine learning for medical brain imaging. Their research and development efforts involve machine learning and deep learning algorithms.
WeRide is a leading global commercial-stage company that develops autonomous driving technologies from Level 2 to Level 4, with a focus on transforming urban living through autonomous mobility solutions.
MemVerge provides solutions for memory-centric computing, focusing on AI and data management through its Memory Machine product line.
Metalenz is a fabless semiconductor optics company revolutionizing optical sensing through its innovative metasurface (metalens) technology, enabling advanced sensing capabilities in consumer electronics, automotive, and smart robotics.
Stellar Cyber provides an unifying security operations platform that integrates AI-driven SIEM, Network Detection and Response (NDR), and Open XDR capabilities to enhance cybersecurity operations.
Visionular is a leading company in AI-driven video compression technology, offering solutions for video encoding and enhancement that reduce storage and delivery costs while maintaining high video quality.
BioEclipse Therapeutics is a clinical-stage oncology company that develops next-generation immuno-oncology therapeutics using proprietary allogeneic and autologous technologies to target and destroy cancer cells while enabling the patient’s immune system to recognize and clear cancer.
Synfini is revolutionizing small molecule drug discovery with its AI Cloud Foundry — a platform that integrates artificial intelligence, chemistry automation, and cloud-native workflows to generate better molecules, faster.
Ryght AI is a clinical trials AI software company that accelerates clinical trial site selection and feasibility processes for pharmaceutical sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs).
Bubble is a visual no-code platform for building web and mobile apps without coding. It combines AI and visual tools to launch real apps.
Otter is the AI Notetaker that builds your knowledge base and powers your workflow with transcription, automated summaries, AI Chat, and more. It creates smart voice notes that combine audio, transcription, speaker identification, inline photos, and key phrases, helping business people, journalists, and students to be more focused, collaborative, and efficient in meetings, interviews, lectures, and wherever important conversations happen.
Buildkite is a configurable orchestration engine designed for continuous integration (CI) that provides teams with the speed to ship software at scale. It focuses on clarity, reliability, and autonomy in CI workflows.
Recent activity
- Jan 2026
Aether Fuels
Series A · Lead
- Dec 2025
NeuraWorx
Seed · Participated
- Dec 2025
South 8
Series B · Participated
- Dec 2025
Lucidean
Seed · Lead
- Dec 2025
Novolinc
Seed · Lead
- Jul 2025
Synfini
Seed · Lead
- Jun 2025
Ryght AI
Seed · Lead
Foothill Ventures in the news
Business Wire
Federal Court Repeatedly Validates TSVC’s Claims Against Foothill Ventures, Rejects Attempts to Use Prior Arbitration to Avoid Liability for False Advertising
15 days ago
The Weekly Notable Startup Funding Report: 6/22/26
1 month ago
Nervonik Announces $52.5 Million Series B Financing to Advance Peripheral Nerve Stimulation Therapy
2 months ago
Ineffable's $1.1b seed, Vinted's secondary, and the NBA's $10b entry price.
2 months ago
Temasek-backed AI venture firm Xora Innovation appoints Eric Rosenblum as General Partner
3 months ago
Lucidean Raises Series Seed Funding to Accelerate Next-Gen Coherent Optical Links for Data Centers; Announces Dr. James Raring as Chief Executive Officer
7 months ago
NovoLINC Raises Round Led by Fathom Fund and TDK Ventures
7 months ago
Startup Funding: Q2 2025
Jul 2025
dakota.com
Report: Tech VC Foothill Closes Third Fund Above Target at $110M
Jan 2025
Tsingyuan Ventures rebrands to Foothill Ventures - 2021 - Articles
Aug 2021
Foothill Ventures collects $100m for fund
Aug 2021
Foothill Ventures Doubles Down on Immigrant Founders With New Fund
Aug 2021
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