# K9 Ventures

> K9 Ventures is a Palo Alto venture capital firm founded by Manu Kumar in 2009. It backs technical founders at the pre-seed stage, usually as their first institutional investor, with initial checks of $250,000-$750,000, priced equity rounds and close involvement in company building.

- **Founded:** 2009
- **Headquarters:** Palo Alto, United States
- **Founders:** Manu Kumar (Founder and Chief Firestarter)
- **Products:** Pre-seed equity investment, Company-building support, Follow-on capital, The Kennel
- **Notable:** First fund backed companies including Twilio, Lyft and Carta., Portfolio includes Auth0, acquired by Okta, and Gradescope, acquired by Turnitin., Raised a $40 million second fund in 2012 and a $42 million third fund in 2017.

## Products & services

- **Pre-seed equity investment** — Published initial investment range of $250,000-$750,000, with a sweet spot near $400,000; priced equity rather than SAFEs or convertible notes.
- **Company-building support** — Board participation and guidance on product, pricing, recruiting, fundraising and other operating decisions.
- **Follow-on capital** — Reserves for later financings in companies K9 already backed.
- **The Kennel** — Free, optional, invite-only shared workspace described in the 2017 fund announcement; current availability is unverified.

## Achievements

- First fund backed companies including Twilio, Lyft and Carta.
- Portfolio includes Auth0, acquired by Okta, and Gradescope, acquired by Turnitin.
- Raised a $40 million second fund in 2012 and a $42 million third fund in 2017.

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — HiHello published a New to Venture podcast feature with Kumar on K9, early investing and building HiHello.
- **2023-10** — Kumar published State of Venture in Fall 2023, sharing his perspective from that year’s LP meeting.
- **2023-04** — Kumar wrote about lessons from running HiHello and screening engineering candidates.

## Links

- Website: https://www.k9ventures.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/k9-ventures
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/K9Ventures
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/k9ventures

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/k9-ventures
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-27