Say hello to our fifth fund, Ridge V! The $180M in total funding is the largest in our firm's history. Ridge V will support the next generation of Seed/early Series A #EnterpriseSoftware companies. Post-product. Pre-product-market fit. Experienced founders. Let the fun(d) begin!
Ridge Ventures
Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
San Francisco, California 5,168 followers
Fast, flexible and founder-focused early-stage venture capital.
About us
Founded in 2007, Ridge Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund investing in experienced founders redefining how the world interacts with software. We back companies delivering advanced technologies, new distribution models and incredible user experiences to market. Our approach - fast, flexible and founder-focused - creates the right relationship from the word “go” helping companies become market leaders quickly. Alignment matters. Here’s the proof: Krux, MindMeld, Sapho, Minted, Braze, ThirdLove, Fastly, for starters. Ridge Ventures was formerly IDG Ventures USA. To learn more, visit us at Ridge.VC
- Website
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http://ridge.vc/
External link for Ridge Ventures
- Industry
- Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
- Company size
- 2-10 employees
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California
- Type
- Partnership
- Specialties
- Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Technology, founders, and SaaS
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
San Francisco, California 94104, US
Employees at Ridge Ventures
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Alexander Rosen
Early stage technology investor in founder-led software companies. 70+ investments, 25 exits, 7 unicorns, $38B in exit value
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Riz Virk
Faculty Associate@ASU, Play Labs@ MIT, Investor@Griffin Gaming, Theta Labs, TapFish, Tapjoy, Books: Simulation Hypothesis, Startup Myths & Models
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Marc Vanlerberghe
CMO Algorand Foundation | Board Director | Advisor
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David Roman
Global CMO | Digital Transformation ~ Leading from C-Suite, Driving Innovation, Capturing Imagination
Updates
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Competing in the agentic era requires a new playbook. Here are some actionable tips from Alayzain (Zain) Rizavi on how #startups can differentiate themselves. 🚀
I've been toying with this notion for some time regarding how AI start-ups retain any sense of differentiation and, over time, "MOATs." With pre-training commoditized and scaling ubiquitous, early-stage companies face tough competition. Meanwhile, incumbents like Microsoft and Salesforce are moving like 20-person startups, leveraging decades of data, massive customer bases, and deep workflow knowledge. Startups, by contrast, are battling churn, "experimental ARR," and a crowded seed stage (10 competitors on average!). So, how do startups compete in the race to build agentic platforms 🤖—where software shifts from user-commanded to co-dependent? Signals and workflows are key, and incumbents have them in abundance. But here’s the potential play: buy the B2B agency. Agencies like MSSPs, marketing firms, and medical billing companies have spent years refining workflows and serving niche markets. These are treasure troves of data and insights—exactly what startups need to train models and build AI systems that compete with incumbents. Think of it as buying workflows and a treasure trove of consilient data for pre-training, not just building tech. We're starting to see this trend play out with companies like Landbase and Fyxer AI and several founders incubating ideas in adjacent segments like MSP/MSSP. Finally, I will put some thoughts on the hypothetical playbook and its rationale. Big thanks to Abhishek Dubey for the thoughtful edits and thoughts.
Agents + Agencies: Building Tomorrow's Moats
indiscretemusings.substack.com
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Ridge Ventures reposted this
Thank you, Monica Zent, for your time and collaboration. I appreciate all your insights and guidance. We continue to be excited about AI's potential to transform the legal industry.
Five predictions for legal tech in 2025 with Monica Zent
Yousuf Khan on LinkedIn
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📢 Calling all #Cybersecurity and #AI enthusiasts! 📢 Want the inside scoop on how AI is transforming the #enterprise security landscape? 🤔 Tomorrow (12/5), join OPEN Silicon Valley's webinar featuring a panel discussion with Alayzain (Zain) Rizavi (Ridge Ventures), CISO Omar Khawaja (Databricks), cybersecurity expert M.Nasir Khan (JPMC), and CISO Ali N. Khan (ReversingLabs). The webinar kicks off with a fireside chat between Ali N. Khan and CISO Rafae Bhatti (Tilia). Register here: https://lnkd.in/eyJvEihf See you there! 👋
🔐 Cybersecurity & AI in the Modern Enterprise 🌐 Join us for an engaging webinar at Open Silicon Valley, where thought leaders and innovators explore the intersection of cybersecurity and AI in today’s enterprises. 🔥 Fireside Chat Featuring: 💬 Ali N. Khan – Founder at PACE & Field CISO at RL 💬 Rafae Bhatti – Privacy Counsel & CISO at Tilia 💼 Panel Discussion 🎙️ Ali N. Khan – Founder at PACE & Field CISO at RL 🎙️ M.Nasir Khan – Cybersecurity Leader at JPMC 🎙️ Omar Khawaja – CISO at Databricks 🎙️ Alayzain (Zain) Rizavi (Zain) Rizavi – Principal at Ridge VC Let’s delve into how cutting-edge AI technologies are transforming enterprise security landscapes. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, network, and innovate! Date: December 5, 2024 Register Now: https://lnkd.in/eyJvEihf 📍 #Cybersecurity #AI #EnterpriseInnovation #OpenSV #RaiseTheBar #Leadership #ImpactInvesting Ridge Ventures J.P. Morgan Databricks
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ICYMI: We recently backed Prompt Security's Series A to protect #enterprise companies from #GenAI #security threats. 🔒 Here's how Prompt is securing the future of GenAI. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Prompt Security Bags $18M to Protect Against GenAI Vulnerabilities
medium.com
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Ridge Ventures reposted this
Forget about "Founder Mode." Heading into 2025, the only mode any startup needs to worry about is Customer Mode. Here are the seven key areas founders must develop and nurture to enter Customer Mode and gain traction in the market. #vestsidestories #customermode
Why “Customer Mode” is the only philosophy that really matters
Yousuf Khan on LinkedIn
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Ridge Ventures reposted this
We (Ridge Ventures) are excited to announce our participation in Prompt Security's Series A Financing and are honored and humbled to support Itamar Golan, Lior Drihem, and the rest of the Prompt team! 🚀 We've spent considerable time gaining comfort with the right approach for securing AI or, better yet, enabling it. From the onset, it was clear that Prompt Security was solving real problems enterprises faced. It starts by providing visibility into how employees engage with AI and helps mature enterprises deploy Generative AI internally and externally (customer-facing). We're excited to partner with Jump Capital, who led the round, in addition to the broader syndicate, including Hetz Ventures, Okta, and F5! Read the full announcement: https://lnkd.in/gdMib_s6 Some additional thoughts here: https://lnkd.in/gnUGSKUe
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With great #GenAI comes great (security) responsibility. Thanks to Prompt Security, #enterprise companies can use GenAI applications and mitigate shadow AI, jailbreaking, and other security risks. We're thrilled to back Prompt's Series A and team up with our friends at Jump Capital and Hetz Ventures, as well as Okta and even one of our own portfolio companies: F5! Big ups to everyone at Prompt Security on this huge milestone, including co-founders Itamar Golan and Lior Drihem. The future of GenAI is limitless and, now, secure! 🔒 More on today's announcement here: https://lnkd.in/dRME7J_b
Prompty Security Press | Prompt Security Raises $18M Series A to Accelerate Its Mission to Secure GenAI in Enterprises |
prompt.security
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Congrats to Dennis Thankachan, Ryan Schrack, and Team Lightyear on the new funding! We led Lightyear's Series A in 2021. Three years later, it's still light years ahead of other #telecom procurement and management solutions. 🚀 Hundreds of enterprises are singing Lightyear's praises, and for good reason—70%+ time savings and 20%+ cost savings! 💰
“Prior to Lightyear, and still today, most enterprises buy and manage their telecom with manual effort, spreadsheets, and email,” Thankachan told TechCrunch. “Lightyear is the first and only software product to digitize and automate this entire lifecycle.” Thank you to Kyle Wiggers for his exclusive piece on behalf of TechCrunch on Lightyear and our recent Series B! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/grds2bWz
Lightyear is on a mission to modernize network procurement | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com
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Ridge Ventures reposted this
Everyone, one of our companies is growing and hiring. Join their fantastic team and be part of an exceptional journey!! Open roles in the comment. Recall.ai Ridge Ventures
October was an incredible month for Recall.ai 🚀 ◆ Had our biggest new revenue month yet (again!) 💰 ◆ Shipped Output Media, enabling AI agents to join meetings, listen, and respond in real time ◆ Closed a deal one of the biggest players in conversation intelligence 💼 ◆ Continued to grow the team, bringing on another AE and engineer We're hiring and would love for you to join the team. Check out our open roles in the comments!
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