About 1517 Fund
1517 Fund is a venture capital firm founded in 2015. It is primarily based out of San Francisco, United States. As of Sep 2026, 1517 Fund is an active investor, having invested in 109 companies, with 2 new investments in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Seed round in United States based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to High Tech and Consumer. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series C round of Positron Overall, 1517 Fund portfolio has seen 3 unicorns and 8 acquisitions including key companies like Fountain, Luminar Technologies and Deepgram. A lot of funds co-invest with 1517 Fund, with names like General Catalyst sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. 1517 Fund has team of 13 people including 4 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 1 more
Portfolio Acquisitions
Portfolio Soonicorns
Deals in last 12 months
1517 Fund's List of Top Investments
1517 Fund has a portfolio of 109 companies, including 3 unicorns. Their most notable investments are in Office Otter and JobPixel.Their portfolio spans across United States, Canada, France and 2 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Consumer and 30 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A and 1 more. Here is the list of top investments by 1517 Fund:
1. Fountain
Provider of a platform for streamlining and automating high volume hiring. The platform offers tools for talent acquisition, onboarding, compliance, and workforce scheduling. It integrates with HR technology and uses AI to automate tasks. The platform provides solutions for industries including retail, manufacturing, and logistics.
Key facts about Fountain
- Founded Year: 2014
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Last Known Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $185M
- Employee Count: 200 - 499 as on Mar 01, 2026
- Investors: Salesforce Ventures, First Round Capital and 21 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Jun 15, 2022, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
Developer of LiDAR-based sensors for autonomous vehicles. It develops hardware and proprietary software-enabled LiDARs, which can be configured with multiple sensors for autonomous driving. It comprises fiber lasers, scanners, receivers, and processing electronics. It offers a slim designed roofline attached to customized sensors. It provides hardware-integrated perception software for object detection. It offers features like the detection and classification of objects in a long-range, and the detection of the velocity of an object in 3D.
Key facts about Luminar Technologies
- Founded Year: 2012
- Location: Orlando (United States)
- Annual Revenue: $50M - $100M as on Dec 31, 2025
- Last Known Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $306M
- Employee Count: 353 as on Mar 31, 2026
- Investors: 10x Group, G2 Venture Partners and 31 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Post IPO, Jan 17, 2022, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
Developer of positioning, navigation, and timing infrastructure for connected systems. The company delivers a new layer of precision and resilience to power systems. It offers a software development kit designed for developers and compatible with receivers and chipsets. The company provides secure positioning for applications ranging from geospatial to IoT.
Key facts about Xona Space Systems
- Founded Year: 2019
- Location: Burlingame (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $320M
- Employee Count: 162 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Space Capital, MaC Venture Capital and 37 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Mar 24, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
4. Deepgram
Provider of AI-based speech transcription software. It uses deep learning-enabled and custom-trained speech models to process voice data. Its features include speech-to-text, real-time streaming, multi-language support, as well as on-premise deplorability. It has applications in monitoring sales and support calls. Caters to the Finance, Government, and Software industries.
Key facts about Deepgram
- Founded Year: 2015
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $229M
- Employee Count: 377 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Salesforce Ventures, Princeville Capital and 30 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Dec 05, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
5. Loom
Developer of software for recording and sharing screen video messages. This application enables users to capture screen activity and camera footage for communication purposes. The software includes editing tools for trimming clips and adding visual annotations. It integrates with various productivity platforms to facilitate the distribution of video content. Users can manage privacy settings and access transcripts for recorded media. The system supports the creation of documentation and technical reports by converting video content into written formats.
Key facts about Loom
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Last Known Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $214M
- Employee Count: 295 as on Aug 31, 2026
- Investors: Salesforce Ventures, Edelweiss Ventures and 24 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, May 14, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
1517 Fund's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
1517 Fund has invested in 109 companies over the last 11 years, with an average of 5 new investments annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 8 investments, while as of Sep 2026, it has made 5 investments in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in Arcturus Technologies and most recent follow-on round was in Positron.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 2 | 3 | 5 |
2025 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
2024 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
2023 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
2022 | 9 | 3 | 12 |
2021 | 6 | 2 | 8 |
2020 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
2019 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
2018 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2017 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
1517 Fund's Investments by Stage
1517 Fund has made 39 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $3.83M, 12 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $16.7M and 2 investments in Grant (prize money) stage with an average round size of $1K.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 39 |
Series A | 12 |
Grant (prize money) | 2 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
1517 Fund's Investments by Sector
1517 Fund has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the High Tech, Enterprise Applications, Consumer, Life Sciences and Sustainability Tech. Notably, it has invested in 94 Tech companies, 64 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 50 Software companies and at least 43 companies focusing on Consumer (B2C).Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
High Tech | 21 |
Enterprise Applications | 19 |
Consumer | 8 |
Life Sciences | 8 |
Sustainability Tech | 7 |
Others | 61 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
1517 Fund's Investments by Geography
1517 Fund has made most investments in United States (42), followed by Canada where it has made 7 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 42 |
Canada | 7 |
India | 2 |
France | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
1517 Fund's recent investments
1517 Fund has made 5 investments in 2026 so far. Positron and Arcturus Technologies are the latest among them.Here are the most recent investments by 1517 Fund:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sep 10, 2026 | United States | Series C | 1721 | ||
Jun 30, 2026 | United States | Seed | 1237 | [+3] | |
Mar 25, 2026 | India | Seed | 8377 | [+4] | |
Mar 16, 2026 | United States | Seed | 3417 | [+1] | |
Jan 16, 2026 | United States | Series B | 5532 |
Unicorns in 1517 Fund's Portfolio
1517 Fund has 3 unicorns in its portfolio - Positron, Deepgram and Lambda AI. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is Positron. It became a unicorn in 2026.Here is a list of unicorns in 1517 Fund's portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
59 | Developer of purpose-built hardware to accelerate multimodal AI | 2023 | Reno | Series C | qomtisl | ||
66 | Provider of AI-based speech transcription software | 2015 | San Francisco | Series C | jlkcxao | ||
62 | Provider of supercomputers, clusters, and instances for artificial intelligence development | 2012 | San Jose | Series E | xozvlov |
Acquired companies in 1517 Fund's Portfolio
8 companies from 1517 Fund's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Luminar Technologies in Dec 2025 by Quantum Computing for $*****.Here are 1517 Fund's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec 15, 2025 | Apr 13, 2017 | Seed | 6516 | |
Dec 09, 2025 | - | - | 4241 | |
Apr 02, 2025 | Nov 14, 2018 | Series A | 2304 | |
Oct 12, 2023 | Feb 19, 2019 | Series A | 3345 | |
May 26, 2020 | Apr 12, 2016 | Seed | 8343 |
Team profile of 1517 Fund
1517 Fund has a team of 13 members including 4 Partners and 2 Venture Partners located in United States and Canada. 1517 Fund's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Here is a list of top team members in 1517 Fund:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | San Francisco | - | ||
Partner | Fort Wayne | - | ||
Partner | United States | - | ||
Partner | San Jose | - | ||
Venture Partner | Toronto | - | ||
Venture Partner | Austin | - |
Co-investors of 1517 Fund
Over the past 11 years, 445 investors have co-invested in 1517 Fund's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before 1517 Fund: Thiel Foundation, Y Combinator and 35 others have invested in rounds before 1517 Fund. There are 3 companies where Thiel Foundation has invested before 1517 Fund and 2 companies where Y Combinator has invested before 1517 Fund.
- Top Co-investors of 1517 Fund: 187 investors entered a company along with 1517 Fund. These include investors like General Catalyst (3 companies).
- Invested after 1517 Fund: A total of 221 investors have invested in 1517 Fund's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Crescent Cove Advisors (3 companies), Nvidia (3 companies) and Tiger Global Management (3 companies).
Recent News related to 1517 Fund
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Arcturus Secures $8M Seed Funding to Revolutionize Metals with Carbon NanomaterialsMiningstockeducation•Jun 30, 2026•Initialized Capital, Arcturus Technologies, Wireframe Ventures, 1517 Fund and 2 others
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Reprogram Biosciences Closes $6M Seed FinancingMassinvestor•May 27, 2026•Reprogram Biosciences, Narya, 1517 Fund, Unshackled Ventures
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Positron AI Nets $230 Million Series BMassinvestor•Feb 05, 2026•1517, Resilience Reserve, Positron, AWM and 15 others
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Astrus Secures $8M USD to Accelerate AI-Driven Microchip DesignFinancial Post•Sep 09, 2025•Astrus, Khosla Ventures, Juniper Networks, Alumni Ventures and 2 others
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Positron AI Gets $51.6M in Series A to Boost Inference-Optimized HardwareYahoo•Jul 28, 2025•Positron, Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, DFJ Growth and 2 others
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Rainmaker Technology Raises $25M in Series A FundingFinSMEs•May 05, 2025•Rainmaker, Lowercarbon, Starship Ventures, 1517 Fund and 1 other
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Miist Therapeutics Announces $7m In Funding To Develop Instant-acting Medicineintelligence360•Feb 21, 2025•Miist Therapeutics, Refactor Capital, 1517 Fund, FreeFlow and 2 others
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San Jose AI cloud compute rental startup Lambda raises $480 millionThe Business Journals•Feb 20, 2025•Lambda Labs, Andra Capital, SGW Global, ARK Investment Management and 12 others
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Lambda raises $480M to expand AI cloud platformSDxCentral•Feb 19, 2025•Lambda Labs, Andra Capital, Nvidia, ARK Investment Management and 25 others
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Lambda Raises $480M to Expand AI Cloud PlatformBusiness Wire•Feb 19, 2025•Lambda Labs, Nvidia, KHK & Partners, In-Q-Tel and 13 others
