Austin’s tech scene, also known as “Silicon Hills,” has been attracting talent and money for decades.
The city is home to some of the nation’s top VC firms, renowned for their focus on early-stage investments, hands-on mentorship, and tailored resources designed to help startups thrive. Finding the right match is about more than just capital—seed-stage VCs offer strategic partnerships that guide founders through critical growth phases and position their startups for long-term success.
Below are the top 6 early-stage investor VCs located and operating in Austin.
Austin Ventures
Austin Ventures is a venture capital and private equity company that specializes in partnering with talented executives and entrepreneurs to build companies. It was founded in 1984 and headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Austin Ventures (“AV”) has worked with talented entrepreneurs to build valuable companies for over 30 years. With $3.9 billion of capital raised, AV is one of the most established venture capital firms in the nation. AV invests in early stage and middle market companies, and its strategy is to partner with talented executives and entrepreneurs to build industry-leading companies predominantly in Texas.
Year of Inception: 1984
Investment Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Private Equity, Seed
Sectors of Interest: Software, Enterprise Software, Internet, Information Technology
Funding Range: from $500K at seed stage to $75M in middle market deals, with growth-stage financings reaching up to $40M and lifecycle commitments as high as $80M
Portfolio Highlights: Ambiq Micro, Eagle Eye Networks, Sailpoint, Onit
Sapphire Ventures
Sapphire is a global software venture capital firm and has partnered with management teams and venture funds to back companies of consequence. Since its founding, Sapphire has invested in companies globally, resulting in Public Listings and acquisitions. The firm’s investment strategies — Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners, and Sapphire Sport — are focused on scaling companies and venture funds, elevating them to become category leaders. Sapphire’s Portfolio Growth team of operators delivers a strategic blend of value-add services, tools, and resources designed to support portfolio company leaders as they scale.
Year of Inception: 1996
Investment Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Venture
Sectors of Interest: Software, Enterprise Software, Information Technology, SaaS
Funding Range: $5M–$50M in growth-stage companies, with the ability to commit up to $100M in later-stage rounds
Portfolio Highlights: Glean, Elise AI, Integral Ad Science, FalconX
Silverton Partners
Founded in 2006, Silverton Partners is focused on funding and mentoring early-stage startups led by founders who share in our commitment to disrupt growth markets and build enduring companies. Headquartered in Austin, we are the most active venture capital investor in Texas.
Our investment approach is people-driven which leads us to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are committed to attacking growth markets with proprietary products or services. We back teams who not only have the talent to identify exciting opportunities but can also execute the numerous mid-course corrections that are inevitably required for an early stage company to become a market leader. Our investments are primarily focused on opportunities where technology can be used to build significant barriers over time.
Year of Inception: 2006
Investment Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed
Sectors of Interest: Software, Enterprise Software, SaaS
Funding Range: $500,000 to $5,000,000 in early-stage deals (Seed / Series A)
Portfolio Highlights: Ontic, WP Engine, Living Security, Scorability
Karman Ventures
An early-stage venture firm built to serve founders.
Our LPs are founders, operators, and late-stage investors who have built some of the most iconic companies of our generation. By bringing them together, our goal is simple: to put our collective experience and networks at the service of the founders we partner with. We focus on pre-seed and seed, typically writing $100K–$500K checks. We like to invest early and are often the first to do so.
Year of Inception: 2018
Investment Stages: Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed, Venture
Sectors of Interest: Software, AI Intelligence, Information Technology, SaaS
Funding Range: $250,000 to $1,000,000 in early-stage (seed to Series A) rounds
Portfolio Highlights: Figure, Eight Sleep, Pepper, Zoe Financial
Moonshots Capital
Moonshots Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in extraordinary leadership.
Great leaders are hard to come by. We believe the best ones are military-trained or trial-by-fire entrepreneurs who have the ability to motivate others to action, inspire trust, and plan heuristically. We invest with conviction when those attributes are present.
Moonshots Capital was founded by a team of veterans in 2017. We have collectively founded and operated 15 companies, and have personally invested in more than 100 ventures. Beyond capital, we deploy our military and entrepreneurial experience and network to help world-changing companies grow.
Year of Inception: 2014
Investment Stages: Convertible Note, Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed, Venture
Sectors of Interest: Software, Information Technology, Internet, SaaS
Funding Range: $500,000 to $3,000,000 in Seed to early Series A rounds
Portfolio Highlights: Id.me, Robinhood, Pacaso, Carta
GTMfund
GTMfund is an early-stage fund focused on investing in hyper-growth B2B SaaS companies. The fund is comprised of 260+ go-to-market executives from the fastest-growing companies on the planet (Snowflake, DocuSign, Okta, Salesforce, Twilio, Square, Procore, etc). Our operators have been there, done that, from zero to IPO. We support our founders with everything GTM - from strategy to hiring and execution.
Year of Inception: 2020
Investment Stages: Early Stage Venture, Seed
Sectors of Interest: Software, AI Intelligence, Information Technology, SaaS
Funding Range: writes checks of $500,000 to $1.5 million for early‐stage B2B SaaS startups (pre-seed / seed / occasionally Series A)
Portfolio Highlights: Writer, Roam, Paid, Vanta
