VC Firms

Portfolio Companies

14

Gritt

ClimateJul 21, 2026

Infrastructure robotics company deploying robots for grid-scale solar array construction and maintenance.

Announcement

Pascal

Series AWeb3Jul 16, 2026

Prediction market exchange built for traders, led by Union Square Ventures. Launched in private beta with 2M+ organic contracts processed.

Announcement

Generalist

AI / MLJun 4, 2026

Foundational robotics models company with GEN-1 model achieving 99% success rates. USV investment announced.

Announcement

Suno

Series DAI / MLJun 3, 2026

AI music generation platform enabling non-musicians to create finished music. Series D financing with USV participation.

Announcement

Anon

Dev ToolsMay 28, 2026

Platform providing user agent infrastructure for AI applications to programmatically access sites and services on behalf of users, handling authentication and account management.

Announcement

Flow

$725MWeb3Mar 14, 2026

Flow raises $725M to fund blockchain's growth and development initiatives.

Announcement

Efficient Computer

Series ADev ToolsFeb 18, 2026

Creating energy-efficient general-purpose processors (Electron E1 chip) for AI, edge computing, and physical world applications using Fabric architecture.

Announcement

Forerunner

$39MSaaSFeb 9, 2026

Forerunner secures $39 million funding round

Announcement

Tutor Intelligence

Series A$34MAI / MLDec 1, 2025

AI-powered warehouse robot workers platform raises Series A to scale operations

Announcement

Somos Internet

Series A$18MOtherSep 1, 2025

Somos Internet raised $18M in Series A funding

Announcement

The Clearing Company

Seed$15MFintechAug 29, 2025

The Clearing Company raised $15M in seed funding

Announcement

Ephemera

Series B$20MWeb3Jul 16, 2025

Crypto messaging app raises $20M Series B at $300M valuation

Announcement

Volteras

Series A$11MSaaSJun 2, 2025

Volteras raises $11.1M in Series A funding

Announcement

Ghost

Series AJul 18, 2022

Ghost raised Series A funding led by Union Square Ventures

Announcement

Recent Articles

30

Obliterate, Don’t Automate

Union Square Ventures revisits a framework first articulated by partner Fred Wilson in 2015, rooted in a 1990 Harvard Business Review essay by Michael Hammer. USV's investment thesis favors startups that do not merely digitize or automate existing market processes, but fundamentally disrupt and rebuild them from the ground up. The post notes this "obliterate, don't automate" principle remains a defining filter in USV's current assessment of prospective portfolio companies, distinguishing transformative ventures fr…

7/22/2026

Gritt

Union Square Ventures has announced an investment in Gritt, a robotics company focused on automating the construction of grid-scale solar arrays. Gritt has already deployed robots on tens of megawatts of installations and has secured contracts covering 2.8 gigawatts of future work from major U.S. construction firms. USV frames the investment around a broader thesis that robotics is expanding from controlled factory environments into complex outdoor infrastructure settings, addressing critical labor shortages in en…

7/21/2026

Pascal

Union Square Ventures outlines its bullish view on prediction markets, which have grown rapidly over the past two years. USV argues that prediction markets extend well beyond sports betting, offering value through information aggregation, improved forecasting accuracy, and more efficient pricing that can support real-economy hedging. The firm cites Kalshi, which navigated years of regulatory challenges to offer U.S. event contracts, and Polymarket, which built a large global user base, as proof that the category h…

7/16/2026

Data At The Edge

Union Square Ventures has published an investment thesis arguing that affordable hardware and edge AI are unlocking data loops in the physical world—covering environments, human activity, and infrastructure—that software alone could never reach. USV has already backed companies across robotics, sensor networks, and edge computing, including Tutor Intelligence, Sofar Ocean, Viam, and Efficient Computer. The firm signals additional unannounced investments are forthcoming, targeting infrastructure monitoring, weather…

7/8/2026

Alqem

Union Square Ventures has backed Alqem, a startup applying AI to accelerate the discovery of new materials. The potential materials space is effectively infinite—combining even a small subset of elements at varying ratios yields billions of candidates—yet humanity has synthesized only a tiny fraction to date, largely through trial and error. Alqem uses AI's ability to detect structure in high-dimensional spaces to navigate this vast landscape more efficiently, aiming to unlock novel materials that traditional brut…

7/6/2026

The Rebel Alliance

Union Square Ventures published a post titled "The Rebel Alliance," though the publicly available excerpt is limited in detail. Based on the title and USV's established pattern of publishing perspective pieces on technology, markets, and portfolio themes, the post appears to articulate a contrarian or independent viewpoint on industry dynamics. The cautious read is that USV is signaling a thematic investment or cultural stance, but the full argument requires reading the complete post directly on the USV website.

6/25/2026

Consumer Rebellion

Union Square Ventures argues that intensifying competition at the AI model layer — from both closed frontier models and rapidly advancing open-source alternatives — is enabling a new generation of agentic consumer applications to emerge independent of dominant incumbents. USV's thesis centers on a "rebel alliance" of open tools, orchestrators, and harnesses that give independent builders compounding advantages. The firm sees a significant opportunity for breakout consumer apps and platforms built on this open stac…

6/23/2026

Fomo

6/22/2026

Generalist

USV announces investment in Generalist, a robotics company whose GEN-1 model achieves 99% success rates at 3x speed, up from 64%. Foundational robotics models are entering a scaling law era, enabling faster task-specific training with less data.

6/4/2026

Suno

USV joins Suno's Series D funding. Suno has revolutionized music creation with AI, enabling non-musicians to make music easily. Unlike YouTube or TikTok, users create music purely for fun—a new behavior called 'creative entertainment.'

6/3/2026

Board

An article titled 'Board' published by Union Square Ventures, discussing topics related to board governance or board membership in the context of venture capital and startups.

6/2/2026

USV Analyst Program 2026

5/28/2026

Our Investment in Anon

A16z invests in Anon, a startup restoring user agency online. Anon provides infrastructure for AI apps to access sites on behalf of users without open APIs, handling authentication, security, and account management via an embeddable SDK.

5/28/2026

USV Analyst Program 2026: Heads Up

Union Square Ventures announces a heads up regarding their Analyst Program for 2026, signaling an upcoming opportunity for prospective candidates interested in joining the venture capital firm.

5/12/2026

Glif

Glif v2 is an AI creative orchestration agent that selects models, applies learned techniques, and manages production pipelines based on insights from millions of creator workflows, becoming a personalized creative partner over time.

4/23/2026

Joining Union Square Ventures

The author shares their journey from pitching USV for their podcasting startup Anchor to joining the firm, highlighting USV's collegial culture, deep curiosity, and reputation among founders and LPs.

4/14/2026

Welcoming Mike Mignano to the USV Partnership

USV welcomes Mike Mignano as a new partner. Known for founding Anchor and later joining Lightspeed, Mike is valued for his idea-driven, early-stage investment approach, curiosity, and passion for exploring what's next.

4/14/2026

Tasklet

Union Square Ventures published a post about Tasklet, suggesting an investment or notable interest in this venture or product related to task management or productivity.

4/7/2026

Modeling The AGI Economy

Explores the debate between pessimistic and optimistic views of AGI's economic impact, arguing that competitive markets and income redistribution policies are both crucial for ensuring broad participation in an AI-driven economy.

3/26/2026

Meet the Agents at USV: Arthur, Ellie, Sally, and Friends

USV explores how AI agents enable custom software development, drawing parallels to MIT's adaptable Building 20. Teams like Stripe, Ramp, and Coinbase are creating internal coding agents to fit their workflows.

3/25/2026

AI Bubble or Not?

While AI shows bubble-like valuations similar to dotcom era, it differs with unlimited demand and recursive self-improvement potential. The real challenge isn't demand but unit economics, as companies subsidize tokens heavily.

3/24/2026

Flow Raises $725M To Fund Blockchain’s Growth - Blockworks

Flow blockchain platform secures $725 million in funding to accelerate its growth and development in the blockchain ecosystem.

3/14/2026

History Rhymes?

History shows a pattern: new technologies start with closed "walled gardens" controlled by few players, but open protocols eventually emerge and win due to permissionless innovation creating more experiments and possibilities.

3/13/2026

The Future of Programmable Everything Runs on Efficient Energy: Efficient Computer’s Series A

USV invests in Efficient Computer, whose Electron E1 chip offers unprecedented energy efficiency for general-purpose computing, enabling new AI applications in physical world scenarios previously limited by power constraints.

2/18/2026

Forerunner Secures $39 Million Funding Round - The SaaS News

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2/9/2026

Automated Software: Some Implications

The author traces their coding journey from calculators to modern AI-assisted programming, arguing we've entered an era where software creation is faster and easier through natural language prompting, leading to more software creation but lower profit margins.

2/8/2026

As Silicon Alley turns 30, New York is building its own tech mecca - Fortune

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2/2/2026

The Weekly Notable Startup Funding Report: 12/8/25 - AlleyWatch

AlleyWatch's weekly report covering notable startup funding rounds and investment activities for the week ending December 8, 2025.

12/8/2025

Tutor Intelligence raises $34M to scale fleet of AI-powered warehouse robots - SiliconANGLE

Tutor Intelligence secured $34 million in funding to expand their AI-powered warehouse robotics fleet, focusing on scaling automated warehouse solutions for improved logistics efficiency.

12/1/2025

Tutor Intelligence Raises $34 Million Series A to Scale Its AI-Powered Fleet of Warehouse Robot Workers - Business Wire

Tutor Intelligence secures $34 million in Series A funding to expand its AI-powered warehouse robotics fleet, aimed at scaling automated warehouse operations and robot worker deployment.

12/1/2025

Investment Signals

20
OpinionSaaS80%

USV uses the 'Obliterate, Don't Automate' principle as a defining characteristic in their startup assessment methodology, suggesting a preference for transformative over incremental innovation.

Source: Obliterate, Don’t Automate
ThesisSaaS85%

USV's investment thesis favors companies that fundamentally transform markets rather than simply automating existing processes. They seek startups that obliterate old business models entirely rather than incrementally improving them.

Source: Obliterate, Don’t Automate
TrendEnterprise80%

Robotics technology is advancing to solve large-scale infrastructure challenges including solar array construction and maintenance of aging infrastructure systems.

Source: Gritt
ThesisEnterprise85%

Infrastructure maintenance and construction represents a major civilizational challenge addressable through robotics transitioning from controlled factory environments to complex outdoor infrastructure conditions.

Source: Gritt
InvestmentEnterprise95%

Union Square Ventures invested in Gritt, a robotics company automating grid-scale solar array construction with deployed robots handling tens of megawatts and 2.8 gigawatts in contracted projects.

Source: Gritt
TrendFintech88%

Prediction markets have grown rapidly over 24 months and become embedded in social/economic fabric, with potential to extend far beyond sports betting.

Source: Pascal
ThesisFintech92%

Prediction markets are in early innings with room for multiple large players; later entrants with novel approaches can capture significant market share by serving underserved segments.

Source: Pascal
InvestmentFintech95%

Union Square Ventures led Series A financing for Pascal, a prediction market exchange built for professional traders with focus on superior UX, API quality, and capital efficiency.

Source: Pascal
TrendEnterprise85%

Reinforcement learning in robotics is advancing rapidly, transitioning from learning to reinforcement learning to continuous learning models that improve as they interact with physical environments.

Source: Data At The Edge
ThesisEnterprise88%

Physical world data opportunities are enabling previously impossible use cases like infrastructure observability, weather modeling, and autonomous transportation at new economic scales.

Source: Data At The Edge
InvestmentEnterprise90%

Portfolio companies Generalist, Tutor Intelligence, Sofar Ocean, Viam, and Efficient Computer are enabling the physical world data flywheel through robotics, sensor infrastructure, and edge computing.

Source: Data At The Edge
InvestmentEnterprise92%

USV is investing across the physical world data stack including robotics, sensor networks, and edge AI infrastructure with several unannounced investments to come.

Source: Data At The Edge
ThesisEnterprise95%

Data loops are forming in physical world applications through converging forces of abundant intelligence, cheaper hardware, and ubiquitous sensors, creating market-shifting opportunities in robotics, infrastructure monitoring, and autonomous systems.

Source: Data At The Edge
TrendEnterprise88%

Explosive demand for electric motors and actuators driven by electric vehicle adoption and billions of robots requires breakthrough materials innovation in magnet manufacturing.

Source: Alqem
ThesisAI / ML92%

AI's ability to discover structures in high-dimensional spaces enables discovery of novel materials across vast chemical composition spaces that are computationally intractable for humans.

Source: Alqem
InvestmentEnterpriseSeed95%

Union Square Ventures backed Alqem, an AI-driven materials discovery company developing rare-earth-free magnetic materials for electric motors and actuators.

Source: Alqem
OpinionAI / ML85%

USV believes small, nimble builders with fresh ideas can outcompete large incumbents in consumer AI applications despite their resources and organizational advantages.

Source: Consumer Rebellion
TrendAI / ML89%

Agentic consumer applications and experiences are emerging as a major opportunity driven by open-source competition, new developer toolkits, and high consumer appetite for novel AI-powered tools.

Source: Consumer Rebellion
ThesisAI / ML92%

USV believes open-source model competition and alternative toolkits enable independent builders to create breakout agentic consumer applications outside incumbent control.

Source: Consumer Rebellion
TrendAI / ML88%

AI platforms are enabling a new participatory creativity trend where the barrier between imagination and creation becomes nearly zero across multiple mediums.

Source: Suno

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