Foothill Ventures

Foothill Ventures is a technology-focused venture fund in Los Altos, California, that invests in early-stage startups led by technical founders. It was previously known as Tsingyuan Ventures. Its latest fund concentrates on frontier technology.

What Foothill Ventures does

• Early-stage investment: backs companies at pre-seed, seed and A-round stages, with seed the preferred entry point.
• Sector coverage: invests in software, life science and deep tech, with current attention on infrastructure and AI applications.
• Founder support: works with portfolio teams on strategy, financing and hiring.
• Technical differentiation focus: favours companies whose future advantage rests on technical or product superiority.

Customers and markets

The fund puts the quality of the founding team first. It looks for strong technologists with a record of leadership, and says it has done well backing immigrant, female and PhD founders. It also leans towards teams with diverse founders and towards areas where two disciplines meet.

Key facts

• Based in: Los Altos, California
• Former name: Tsingyuan Ventures
• Stages: pre-seed, seed and A-round
• Sectors: software, life science, deep tech, AI and infrastructure