Builders VC Research
Investment Thesis
Builders VC is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2014 with a singular, repeatedly-stated thesis: the biggest venture returns come not from chasing the next hot trend, but from modernizing the antiquated, mission-critical infrastructure that essential industries still run on. Their published whitepaper, "The Evolution of Industries," argues explicitly that "while VCs seek the next hot thing, great returns will be realized from the revolution of existing industries." The firm targets sectors where complexity is the norm and legacy systems dominate — healthcare delivery, food and agriculture systems, the built environment (construction and real estate), and heavy industrials — believing that technology which becomes genuinely mission-critical (not peripheral) to these workflows creates durable competitive advantages, high switching costs, and lasting retention. Builders VC brands itself as "seasoned operators and investors" who back founders solving "messy, mission-critical problems that reshape the systems we all rely on," and positions its team as hands-on operational partners rather than passive capital.
Sector Focus
The firm's stated focus areas span:
- Construction and real estate: site management, project coordination, proptech (Fieldwire, Anori, PadSplit)
- Healthcare: behavioral health, telehealth, digital health infrastructure (Neuroflow, Carbon Health, Diagnostikare)
- Agriculture and food systems: livestock analytics, crop technology, biological agriculture inputs (Performance Livestock Analytics, Native Microbials, HarvestIQ)
- Industrials, mining, and autonomy: off-road autonomous vehicles, timber and materials marketplaces, industrial analytics (SafeAI/Pronto, Timbereye, Veerum, Stratum AI)
- Life sciences and synthetic biology: species restoration, biomaterials, biotech tooling (Colossal, Bolt Threads, FormBio, Checkerspot)
- Climate and industrial decarbonization: direct air capture, water technology (280 Earth, Gradiant)
- Modern money / fintech: consumer financial security platforms (Upside, Askari)
- Enterprise / govtech software: workflow and compliance software for legacy institutions (Pursuit, Camino, Change Engine)
They explicitly frame their edge as sector expertise plus operational support (via a dedicated Portfolio Support team and Venture Builders Studio) rather than passive capital deployment.
Stage Focus
Builders VC primarily invests at Seed through Series A, with the firm functioning as an early-stage lead investor. External aggregator data corroborates this: the firm "primarily invests in Series A round in United States based startups," providing "early-stage investment and operational support to founders building technology-enabled businesses in traditionally underserved industries." The firm also runs a Venture Builders Studio (led by Managing Partner Mark Goldstein) that incubates early-stage health and wellness companies from inception, and maintains a MENA-focused practice led by Partner Tarik Sultan.
Check Size
Reported check sizes cluster around $500K–$9M per investment, with the firm generally leading rounds. Some sources cite a tighter range of $100K–$2M for smaller initial checks, consistent with a firm that writes an initial check and reserves capital for follow-ons. With Fund II sized at $250M (closed December 2021) and total AUM cited at $400M+, Builders VC has meaningful reserves for follow-on participation in winners (e.g., 280 Earth's $50M Series B, Pursuit's $22M Series A).
Lead Tendency
Builders VC leads the substantial majority of its investments. Recent examples: Mike Rosengarten led Pursuit's $22M Series A (April 2026); the firm led SafeAI's Series A prior to its 2025 merger with Pronto; and it led 280 Earth's $50M Series B (2024). The firm participated (but did not lead) in Anori's $26M seed alongside Prologis and Series X Capital (March 2026), showing it will also join syndicates for strategically aligned deals, particularly ones sourced through its Alphabet X / moonshot-factory relationships.
Recent Activity
Fund status: actively deploying. Notable recent moves:
- April 2026: Led Pursuit's $22M Series A (govtech/SLED sales intelligence platform), alongside Bill Gurley and Jack Altman.
- March 2026: Participated in Anori's $26M seed, an Alphabet X spinout building AI-driven building-approval software.
- July 2025: Portfolio company SafeAI (autonomous off-road vehicle safety systems, Builders-led Series A) was acquired by/merged with Pronto Technologies, consolidating off-road autonomy leadership in mining and construction.
- 2024: Led 280 Earth's $50M Series B, a direct-air-capture company spun out of Google's X moonshot factory.
Portfolio Highlights
Builders VC has made 100+ investments since 2014 across construction, healthcare, agriculture, industrials, and climate. Notable names include Oscar (health insurance, IPO), Colossal Biosciences (synthetic biology unicorn), Fieldwire (construction software, acquired), Carbon Health (digital-first healthcare), Bolt Threads (biomaterials), FreightWaves (logistics data/media), PadSplit (co-living/affordable housing), Gradiant (water technology), and GoMotive (fleet management, per third-party trackers). Third-party aggregators (Tracxn/PitchBook) report the portfolio has produced 7 unicorns, 2 IPOs, and 13+ acquisitions to date.
Team
Builders VC runs a multi-partner investment team plus a dedicated portfolio-support and operations bench:
Core Investing
- Jim Kim — General Partner (founding member; previously General Partner at Khosla Ventures, Senior Partner at CMEA Capital, founder of Formation 8 and GE's venture capital effort; MIT, Columbia)
- Mike Rosengarten — General Partner (focus: B2B SaaS, Intelligent Enterprise, Applied AI, RegTech; co-founder/CEO of Camino, acquired by Clariti Software in 2023; former CTO of OpenGov, acquired by Cox for $1.8B)
- Jocelyn Doe — General Partner (focus: Modern Money, financial security platforms, special situations; ex-Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers investment banker; Stanford, UCLA Anderson)
- Amit Mehta — General Partner
- Alex Kinnier — General Partner (18 years building products; founder/CEO of Upside; former SVP Product at Opower, Partner at Khosla Ventures and NEA, product roles at Google/DoubleClick and P&G; Harvard MBA)
- Mark Goldstein — Managing Partner, Venture Builder (leads the Venture Builders Studio incubating early-stage health/wellness companies; 30-year serial entrepreneur across fintech, SaaS, e-commerce, green tech; former EIR at SoftBank and NEA)
- Mark Blackwell — Chief Operating Officer
- Tarik Sultan — Partner, Head of MENA
- Andrew Schmitt — Principal (B2B and AI investing across infrastructure, industrials, and data; previously at Bessemer Venture Partners and Smith Point Capital; earlier IB roles at J.P. Morgan and FT Partners on DoorDash/CrowdStrike/ZoomInfo IPOs)
- Cara Hu — Associate
- Avi Pradhan — Associate
- Declan Sander — Analyst
Portfolio Support: Johnny Chankhamany (Executive Director, Strategic Partnerships), Fernanda Braz (Director, Portfolio Growth & Expansion, MENA), Yousef Azzam (Analyst), Angelica Maestas (Director, Strategic Partnerships), Johnny Lalonde (Coaching), Isaac Dinner (Analytics)
Operations: Jeff Clark, CPA (VP Finance), Jason Reza, CPA (Accounting Manager)
Venture Partners: Jim Blome (Agriculture), Steve Dell'Orto (Construction), Matthew De Silva (Health), Tom Halbouty (Industrials), Ben Holland (Agriculture), Mun-Yew Wong (Singapore), Haitao Zhang (China)
Decision Process
Builders VC operates as a multi-GP partnership, with sector-specialist General Partners (Modern Money, B2B/Applied AI, health/wellness via the Venture Builders Studio) sourcing and leading deals within their domains, supported by principal/associate/analyst diligence staff and a large dedicated Portfolio Support bench for post-investment operational help — a structure consistent with "partnership" decision-making rather than a solo-GP or formal IC model.
Founder Preferences
The firm's language consistently signals a preference for "seasoned operators" — technical or domain-expert founders tackling genuinely complex, regulated, or infrastructure-heavy problems rather than trend-following consumer or lightweight SaaS plays. Several GPs (Rosengarten, Kinnier) are themselves former founders/operators (Camino, OpenGov, Upside), reinforcing an operator-to-operator sourcing and diligence style.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered at 601 California Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94108, with additional offices in Chicago and Calgary, plus dedicated regional practices for MENA (Tarik Sultan, Fernanda Braz) and venture partners covering Singapore and China — giving Builders VC a US-core footprint with structured international reach into the Middle East and Asia.