About Cowboy Ventures
Cowboy Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2012. It is primarily based out of Palo Alto, United States. As of May 2026, Cowboy Ventures is an active investor, having invested in 97 companies, with 3 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 Consumer and Retail. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series A round of Basata Overall, Cowboy Ventures portfolio has seen 4 unicorns and 36 acquisitions including key companies like August, Tenor and Ironclad. A lot of funds co-invest with Cowboy Ventures, with names like First Round Capital sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Cowboy Ventures has team of 13 people including 2 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 2 more
Portfolio Soonicorns
Cowboy Ventures' List of Top Investments
Cowboy Ventures has a portfolio of 97 companies, including 4 unicorns. Their most notable investments are in Landing and Crunchbase.Their portfolio spans across United States, Hungary and United Kingdom. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, Consumer, Retail and 22 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A and 2 more. Here is the list of top investments by Cowboy Ventures:
1. August
August is a provider of a smart lock and access system. It is a lock and access system that allows homeowners to grant access to trusted people for specific periods of time. It also offers a mobile application through which activity monitoring can be done for preventing threats.
Key facts about August
- Founded Year: 2012
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $73.1M
- Employee Count: 65 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Qualcomm Ventures, Scale Up Venture Capital and 34 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Jul 13, 2017, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
2. Crunchbase
Provider of network access denial services based on content categorization. The system restricts access to online material deemed inappropriate according to predefined user group policies. The service is designed to prevent users from accessing content that violates organizational guidelines. Network managers can configure and manage the access restrictions.
Key facts about Crunchbase
- Founded Year: 2007
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series D
- Total Funding till date: $100M
- Employee Count: 243 as on Jul 31, 2026
- Investors: Salesforce Ventures, Felicis Ventures and 19 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series D, Jul 20, 2022, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
3. Tenor
GIF keyboard platform bringing personality to conversations through animated content. It is a platform where users can explore, discover, and share animated GIFs to express themselves. It offers a vast library of reaction GIFs and trending content, accessible through its GIF Keyboard on Android. The platform partners with content creators, movie studios, TV networks, game publishers, and sports leagues to enhance mobile communication. It provides APIs, including the Tenor GIF API and Unity AR SDK, for integration into other applications. The company aims to define a new visual language for mobile users, making it easy to find and share the right GIF across devices. It is a B2C tech company offering a software solution for enhancing digital conversations.
Key facts about Tenor
- Founded Year: 2014
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $32M
- Employee Count: 66 as on Jun 30, 2026
- Investors: Tenaya Capital, OCA Ventures and 7 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, 2017, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
4. Homebase
Homebase is a workforce scheduling and time tracking software. Features include employee scheduling and time sheets, time tracking, overtime, manage shifts and breaks, labor and sales forcasting, reports and more. Industries include restaurants, retail etc. Pricing based on a freemium model.
Key facts about Homebase
- Founded Year: 2014
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series D
- Total Funding till date: $189M
- Employee Count: 1,924 as on Jul 31, 2026
- Investors: Akkadian Ventures, Forerunner Ventures and 20 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series D, Apr 03, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
5. Aviso
AI powered predictive analytics platform. It is a predictive analytics software to help sales organizations optimize the performance. It uses advanced machine learning and portfolio management frameworks to quantify risks and predict outcomes. It uses pattern matching amongst new prospects and matches with existing customers. It is available on a subscription-based pricing policy.
Key facts about Aviso
- Founded Year: 2012
- Location: Redwood City (United States)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $31M
- Employee Count: 379 as on Jul 31, 2026
- Investors: Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and 8 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Feb 17, 2017, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Cowboy Ventures' Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Cowboy Ventures has invested in 97 companies over the last 14 years, with an average of 5 new investments annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 1 investment, while as of May 2026, it has made 3 investments in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in Basata and most recent follow-on round was in Homebase.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 3 | 0 | 3 |
2025 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2024 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
2023 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2022 | 2 | 6 | 8 |
2021 | 8 | 10 | 18 |
2020 | 5 | 5 | 10 |
2019 | 8 | 4 | 12 |
2018 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
2017 | 6 | 5 | 11 |
Cowboy Ventures' Investments by Stage
Cowboy Ventures has made 44 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $3.53M, 25 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $10.3M, 8 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $15.6M and 1 investment in Series C stage with an average round size of $70M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 44 |
Series A | 25 |
Series B | 8 |
Series C | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Cowboy Ventures' Investments by Sector
Cowboy Ventures has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, Consumer, Retail, FinTech and Vertical SaaS. Notably, it has invested in 89 Tech companies, 61 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 59 Software companies and at least 42 companies focusing on Consumer (B2C).Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 38 |
Consumer | 28 |
Retail | 15 |
FinTech | 12 |
Vertical SaaS | 11 |
Others | 74 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Cowboy Ventures' Investments by Geography
Cowboy Ventures has made most investments in United States (77), followed by Hungary where it has made 1 investment.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 77 |
Hungary | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Cowboy Ventures' recent investments
Cowboy Ventures has made 3 investments in 2026 so far. Basata and Petual are the latest among them.Here are the most recent investments by Cowboy Ventures:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 08, 2026 | United States | Series A | 6240 | [+3] | |
Apr 23, 2026 | United States | Series A | 4331 | [+2] | |
Mar 12, 2026 | United States | Seed | 8013 | [+11] | |
May 28, 2025 | United States | Series A | 6324 | [+9] | |
Nov 13, 2024 | United States | Seed | 7920 | [+2] |
Unicorns in Cowboy Ventures' Portfolio
Cowboy Ventures has 4 unicorns in its portfolio - Ironclad, Drata, Guild and others. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is Ironclad. It became a unicorn in 2022, 4 years before Cowboy Ventures first invested in it.Here is a list of unicorns in Cowboy Ventures' portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
70 | Platform offering contract lifecycle management software | 2014 | San Francisco | Series E | o{atwtj | ||
67 | Risk assessment and management solutions for enterprises | 2020 | San Diego | Series C | xnfaxab | ||
66 | Provider of corporate training solutions | 2015 | Denver | Series F | lwcivux | ||
66 | Cloud based marketing optimization platform for deep linking | 2014 | Palo Alto | Series F | vndlomx |
Acquired companies in Cowboy Ventures' Portfolio
36 companies from Cowboy Ventures' portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Uplimit in Jun 2026 by Handshake for $*****.Here are Cowboy Ventures' portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 30, 2026 | Jul 24, 2024 | Series A | 2404 | |
Jun 17, 2026 | Jul 23, 2019 | Series A | 6634 | |
Jun 10, 2026 | Mar 20, 2015 | Series C | 8155 | |
May 06, 2026 | - | - | 4723 | |
Aug 04, 2025 | Feb 18, 2015 | Series B | 1604 |
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Team profile of Cowboy Ventures
Cowboy Ventures has a team of 13 members including 2 Partners located in United States. Cowboy Ventures' team sits on the board of 2 companies.Co-investors of Cowboy Ventures
Over the past 14 years, 479 investors have co-invested in Cowboy Ventures's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Cowboy Ventures: Y Combinator, Menlo Ventures and 47 others have invested in rounds before Cowboy Ventures. There are 3 companies where Y Combinator has invested before Cowboy Ventures and 2 companies where Menlo Ventures has invested before Cowboy Ventures.
- Top Co-investors of Cowboy Ventures: 242 investors entered a company along with Cowboy Ventures. These include investors like First Round Capital (7 companies).
- Invested after Cowboy Ventures: A total of 188 investors have invested in Cowboy Ventures's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Iconiq Capital (5 companies), Emerson Collective (3 companies) and Notable Capital (3 companies).
Recent News related to Cowboy Ventures
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Compliance firm Eisen secures $18.5 million in fundingFinextra•May 19, 2026•Eisen, Restive, Homebrew, Index Ventures and 3 others
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Basata Secures $21M Series A to Automate Healthcare OperationsHIT Consultant•May 11, 2026•Basata, Basis Set Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Zenda and 1 other
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Petual Raises $20M in FundingFinSMEs•Apr 23, 2026•Petual, Andreessen Horowitz, Cowboy Ventures, First Round Capital
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Pillar raises $20m in new fundingFinTech Collective•Apr 17, 2026•Pillar, Andreessen Horowitz, Petual, First Round Capital and 2 others
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Standard Kernel Raises $20M to Automate GPU Software OptimisationVentureburn•Mar 11, 2026•CoreWeave, Essence VC, Link Ventures, Felicis Ventures and 5 others
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Palla Raises $14.5M for Cross-Border PaymentsFinextra•May 29, 2025•Palla Financial, Revolution, Y Combinator, Cowboy Ventures and 6 others
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Artico Search Completes Search for Cowboy VenturesHunt Scanlon•Jan 30, 2025•Cowboy Ventures, Construct Capital
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London-based Forest Secures €15.3 Million in Series B Round FundingStartup Rise EU•Jan 23, 2025•Forest, Fintex, Skarper, Cowboy Ventures
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New Syndicate One fund joins Belgium’s small-but-punchy tech ecosystemTechCrunch+•Dec 13, 2024•Syndicate One, Collibra, Deliverect, DataCamp and 7 others
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Continuum Nets $4M in Investment RoundModern Distribution Management•Nov 14, 2024•Continuum, Cowboy Ventures, Clocktower Ventures
