Amplo VC

Amplo VC Research

Investment Thesis

Amplo is a global early-stage venture capital firm built around the mission of "helping support entrepreneurs building globally ambitious companies that matter." Founded in 2017 by Sheel Tyle, the firm backs technical and mission-driven founders across fintech, AI, healthcare, and enterprise software, with a stated preference for companies solving large, structural problems rather than incremental ones. Amplo is now the dedicated early-stage venture arm of Collective Global, a multi-strategy investment platform launched in November 2023 with more than $1B in committed assets under management, co-owned by institutional LPs including the Orange County Employees Retirement System, the City of San Jose Retirement System, and UK pension fund Railpen. Within Collective Global, Amplo sits alongside Elevate (a GP-stakes strategy) and Tactica (an opportunistic late-stage mandate), giving the firm access to permanent, patient capital uncommon among seed and Series A funds.

Stage Focus

Amplo invests primarily at Seed and Series A, with occasional pre-seed and growth-stage follow-ons into existing portfolio companies. Partner Sam Garcia, who leads much of the day-to-day sourcing since joining in 2018, is explicitly focused on Seed/Series A.

Check Size

Check size is not disclosed publicly on Amplo's website or in secondary sources reviewed. Given the seed/Series A focus and board-level involvement in companies like Lightyear, Axion Ray, and Tradespace, checks likely fall in a typical seed-to-Series-A institutional range, but this figure should be treated as unconfirmed.

Lead Tendency

Mixed signal. Sam Garcia sits on the boards of several portfolio companies (Lightyear, Flume, Kredi, Wizehire, Steno, Axion Ray), which is consistent with a lead or co-lead role in those rounds. However, the two most recent 2026 disclosed investments — Tradespace's Series A and Osmo's Series B — show Amplo as a participating investor alongside other leads (AVP led Tradespace; Two Sigma Ventures led Osmo). Lead tendency is best characterized as "both" pending more granular deal-level data.

Recent Activity

Amplo/Amplo VC has been active in 2026 as a participant in growth rounds for existing portfolio and thesis-adjacent companies:

• January 2026: Participated in Tradespace's $15M Series A (AI-native IP/patent platform), alongside Eniac Ventures and Scrum Ventures.
• February 2026: Participated in Osmo's $70M Series B (AI-powered digital scent/olfaction technology), alongside Two Sigma Ventures, Valor, and Atreides.

Two portfolio companies saw major structural events in the past year:

• October 2025: Portfolio company Kriya (UK embedded-finance/SME lending fintech) was acquired by Allica Bank.
• April 2026: Portfolio company ReMatter (scrap-metal recycling software) merged with GreenSpark Software to form ReSpark, combining two of the leading platforms in the metal recycling software space.

Fund status is best classified as "actively deploying," backstopped by Collective Global's permanent-capital structure rather than a traditional fixed-term, fixed-size fund.

Portfolio Highlights

Amplo's portfolio spans 25+ companies across six continents and includes several marquee names and exits:

• Robinhood — consumer fintech/brokerage (major name-brand investment, though a minority/early check)
• Intercom — customer messaging/support platform
• Ironclad — enterprise contract lifecycle management
• BharatPe — Indian fintech/payments
• TravelPerk — corporate travel management (Spain-based)
• Andela — global technical talent marketplace
• Legalpad — immigration/visa software, acquired by Deel (2022)
• Mark43 — public safety / law enforcement software
• Sharesies — New Zealand consumer investing app
• Parsley Health and Two Chairs — functional medicine and mental health care delivery
• Fair Square Medicare — Medicare plan comparison, acquired by Senior Market Sales (Jan 2026)
• Whip Around, Doxel, Axion Ray, Rematter — vertical AI/software for fleet, construction, manufacturing quality, and industrial recycling operations

Team

• Sheel Tyle — Founder & CEO. Stanford graduate at 19, Forbes 30 Under 30 (2013), JD from Harvard Law School. Board member of Andela; angel investor in Casper, Flutterwave, Robinhood, and The Wing prior to founding Amplo. Now also Co-CEO of Collective Global.
• Sam Garcia — Partner. Joined Amplo in 2018, focused on Seed/Series A sourcing and diligence. Sits on the boards of Lightyear, Flume, Kredi, Wizehire, Steno, and Axion Ray. University of Texas Austin and Harvard Law School graduate; published author of three bestselling books.
• Julia Gillard AC — Board Partner. 27th Prime Minister of Australia (first woman in the role). Chairs the Global Partnership for Education and is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Brookings.
• John Key — Board Partner. 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand (2008–2016); background in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and Bankers Trust.
• Peter Sands — Board Partner. Executive Director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; former Group CEO of Standard Chartered PLC.
• Alec Ross — Board Partner. NYT bestselling author ("The Raging 2020s," "The Industries of the Future"); former Senior Advisor for Innovation to the U.S. Secretary of State under the Obama administration.
• Leymah Gbowee — Board Partner. 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate; founder/president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa.
• Whitney Wolfe Herd — Brand Partner. Founder and CEO of Bumble; co-founder and former VP Marketing of Tinder.
• Ian Carnevale — Design Partner. Co-founder of Andela; previously co-founded Fora, an African university digital-infrastructure venture.
• Dennis Thankachan — Venture Partner. CEO and co-founder of portfolio company Lightyear; previously a technology investor at PointState Capital and investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

Decision Process

Amplo operates as a small partnership (Founder/CEO plus a Partner leading sourcing) supplemented by an unusually high-profile bench of Board Partners (former heads of state, a Nobel laureate, bestselling authors) and Brand/Design/Venture Partners drawn from its own founder network. Day-to-day investment decisions likely run through Tyle and Garcia, with the extended partner network providing diligence, brand, and network value rather than voting authority — consistent with a "partnership" decision process rather than a solo-GP or formal IC model.

Founder Preferences

Amplo's own portfolio and team bios suggest a preference for technical or domain-expert founders tackling large, often global or emerging-market problems (BharatPe, Nala, Sokowatch, Sharesies), plus a recurring pattern of backing founders building vertical AI/software for unglamorous, operationally intensive industries (scrap recycling, fleet management, construction, industrial quality).

Geographic Focus

Global. Amplo explicitly markets itself as "helping build globally ambitious companies" and its portfolio spans the US, UK, India, New Zealand, and multiple African markets (BharatPe – India; Sokowatch, Nala – Africa; Sharesies – New Zealand; TravelPerk, Kriya – Europe). No single-region concentration is evident from the public portfolio list.