# Preface Ventures

> Preface Ventures is a New York early-stage firm run by solo general partner Farooq Abbasi that writes first checks into technical founders building enterprise infrastructure - the unglamorous software that keeps developer teams, security stacks, hospitals and payment rails running. It backs repeat and immigrant founders before the pitch deck exists, often before there is even a bank account to wire the money into, and its $23M institutional fund has already produced a billion-dollar exit in DX, sold to Atlassian.

- **Founded:** 2020
- **Headquarters:** New York, United States
- **Founders:** Farooq Abbasi (Founder and General Partner)
- **Team size:** ~12
- **Products:** First-check / pre-seed and seed capital, Frontier Enterprise thesis investing, Klarman sourcing engine, Founder support and platform
- **Notable:** DX, in which Preface was the only primary institutional investor from inception, was acquired by Atlassian for $1B in 2025 - Atlassian's largest acquisition to date - after raising just $2.8M in preferred equity., Portfolio includes at least one prior unicorn and multiple exits; earlier Abbasi-backed companies include Remitly (NASDAQ) and Auto1., First institutional check in roughly 80% of deals, with about half made before the founders had a company bank account.

## Products & services

- **First-check / pre-seed and seed capital** — Meaningful checks of roughly $500K-$2M into pre-seed and seed rounds of enterprise infrastructure startups. Preface is the first institutional investor in about 80% of its deals.
- **Frontier Enterprise thesis investing** — Concentrated investing across four enterprise themes: software development automation (DevOps, CI/CD, developer productivity), security orchestration (cybersecurity, identity, zero-trust), unlocking healthcare data toward value-based care, and frictionless financial infrastructure (fintech, payments, insurance tech).
- **Klarman sourcing engine** — A proprietary sourcing algorithm named after investor Seth Klarman that tracks roughly 8,000 engineering and product professionals across stealth startups and major tech companies to identify founders early.
- **Founder support and platform** — Hands-on, high-conviction support for a concentrated portfolio of roughly 20 companies per fund over three years, emphasizing founder-first partnership from the earliest stage.

## Achievements

- DX, in which Preface was the only primary institutional investor from inception, was acquired by Atlassian for $1B in 2025 - Atlassian's largest acquisition to date - after raising just $2.8M in preferred equity.
- Portfolio includes at least one prior unicorn and multiple exits; earlier Abbasi-backed companies include Remitly (NASDAQ) and Auto1.
- First institutional check in roughly 80% of deals, with about half made before the founders had a company bank account.
- Portfolio composition: about 56% immigrant-founded, 59% of founders aged 35+, and 70% repeat founders.
- Raised roughly 90% of Fund II entirely over Zoom during the pandemic.

## Latest updates

- **2025-11** — DX, Preface's portfolio company and only primary institutional investor from inception, closed its $1B acquisition by Atlassian.
- **2025-09** — Atlassian announced its agreement to acquire developer-productivity platform DX for $1B, its largest acquisition to date.
- **2021-04** — Preface announced Fund II, a $23M inaugural institutional fund focused on Frontier Enterprise infrastructure.

## Links

- Website: https://prefaceventures.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/preface-ventures
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/prefaceventures

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/preface-ventures
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-16