Batch Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Batch Ventures runs specialized, community-driven venture funds. Its pitch is that investing has drifted into a numbers game of bigger funds and generalist approaches that sit far from founders and communities. Batch's answer is to stay specialized while operating at scale, by indexing into proven networks and verticals where the community already knows the domain. That gives portfolio diversification, domain expertise, and direct help for founders. The firm describes itself as "founded by builders, for builders."
Today it runs two funds, one built around Y Combinator and one around an exclusive network of CTOs and VPs of Engineering. The stated plan is to repeat the playbook in every vertical where a network or community can add real value, so more funds should follow.
Funds
- YC Fund: Invests across the top 10% of Y Combinator companies, using founder network insight. LinkedIn describes it as roughly 50 investments per year. It runs events for YC founders.
- CTO Fund: Capitalized by a community of 50+ engineering leaders (53 cited) who invest as LPs. LPs come from companies such as Coinbase, Stripe, Netflix, Intercom, Lyft, Discord and Coda. Portfolio companies get exposure to that community, including through in-person events and quarterly dinners in San Francisco. Focus is developer tools, infrastructure and enterprise software.
Stage Focus
Early stage. The YC Fund backs companies at or around the YC batch, so pre-seed and seed. The CTO Fund invests at the same early stages in technical founders' companies.
Check Size
Every partner lists a $100-200K check size across both funds.
Lead Tendency
Not stated. Checks of $100-200K suggest participation in larger rounds more than leading, so lead tendency is recorded as unknown.
Recent Activity
Since 2024 the firm says it has backed 135 companies, 107 through the YC Fund and 35 through the CTO Fund (some companies appear in both). The site's portfolio page lists 135 entries. No fund size or close announcement was found, so fund status is unknown.
Portfolio Highlights
The YC Fund portfolio is broad and skews to AI-native software. It also includes robotics, space, energy, health and defense. Names include Browser Use, Mastra, Conductor, Blaxel, Anara, Wordware, HUD, ZeroEntropy, Fintool, Harper, Maritime Fusion, Starcloud, Bucket Robotics and Ionworks. The CTO Fund portfolio is developer tooling and infrastructure. Names include Trigger.dev, Better Auth, Codemod, Sourcebot, Mendral, Archestra, Autosana, Inkbox and context.dev. A number of companies appear in both funds, including Mastra, ZeroEntropy, HumanLayer, Halluminate, Nozomio, Runtime and Limrun.
Team
- Robin Choy: Founder and Managing Partner. Founder of HireSweet (YC W20). Leads the YC Fund.
- Amadeo Pellicce: Partner, YC Fund. Founded OpenInt (YC W23), acquired by Replit, where he is Engineering Lead. Earlier founded the UK's first Bitcoin exchange, also acquired.
- Quang Hoang: Partner, CTO Fund. Founder and CEO who built a large CTO and VP Engineering community with his first company, Plato. Leads developer tools, infrastructure and enterprise software investments.
- Moataz Soliman: Partner, CTO Fund. Co-founder and CTO of Luciq (formerly Instabug), which reached 25,000+ apps and 2B+ devices. Leads developer tools and infrastructure investments.
Decision Process
Not published. Each fund has its own partners, and each partner lists the same check size, which points to partnership-style decisions inside each fund. Recorded as partnership with low confidence.
Founder Preferences
The YC Fund wants top-decile YC founders, and the partners lean on first-hand knowledge of the YC process and alumni network. The CTO Fund wants technical founders building for engineering teams, who benefit from access to the 50+ engineering leader LP base. Both funds reward founders who want community access, events and operator introductions.
Geographic Focus
Mostly the US, with San Francisco as the community hub for events. The portfolio includes some international YC companies (for example Karoo in Canada, GetAsap in Asia and Didit), because the YC network is global.