Duration Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Duration Ventures is a newly launched, San Francisco-based venture capital firm built around a single premise: enterprises and entire industries are being remade by AI, and the founders leading that transformation deserve capital partners who commit for the long haul rather than chase quick marks. The firm's own tagline, "full-commitment capital," and its stated promise to back founders "from formation, for the duration," signal a thesis oriented around durability of partnership rather than a narrow product category. Duration is explicitly focused on founders building enterprise AI companies that transform how large organizations and legacy industries operate.
Sector Focus
Public fund-tracking sources classify Duration Ventures I as a seed-stage vehicle investing in Enterprise Software, AI, and FinTech. The firm's own site emphasizes "enterprises and industries" being transformed by AI, which points to a broad enterprise-AI mandate spanning vertical AI applications, AI-native workflow platforms, and infrastructure that enables agentic enterprise software, rather than a narrowly scoped niche.
Stage Focus
Duration Ventures I is structured as an early-stage, seed-oriented fund, with the firm's debut investment (Ande) spanning both seed and Series A. This suggests the firm invests at formation and is willing to follow on into the next round rather than exiting the cap table after a single check, consistent with its "for the duration" positioning.
Check Size
No check-size range has been publicly disclosed. The firm is targeting a $375 million debut fund (per The Wall Street Journal, May 2026), which would be a large vehicle for a two-partner emerging manager and implies meaningful per-company check sizes and reserve capacity for follow-ons, but exact figures are not yet public.
Lead Tendency
Unclear from public information. In its first disclosed deal (Ande's $52M+ combined seed and Series A), Duration Ventures was one of several participating investors alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sierra Ventures, with Bain Capital Ventures also participating. Lightspeed and Redpoint appear to have anchored that round given their multi-year prior relationship with the founder; Duration's specific role (lead vs. participant) was not distinguished in press coverage.
Recent Activity
Duration Ventures launched in mid-2026 and began raising its $375 million debut fund (reported by WSJ Pro on May 13, 2026). The firm's website states it is "now investing." Its first publicly known investment is Ande, an AI-native network for corporate entertainment, which emerged from stealth in September 2026 with more than $52 million in combined seed and Series A funding. Duration Ventures Management LP has an active SEC Form ADV registration (CRD No. 344403, most recently filed September 18, 2026), consistent with an actively operating registered investment adviser.
Portfolio Highlights
The sole confirmed portfolio company to date is Ande (ande.ai), the AI-native network connecting enterprises with corporate-entertainment vendors. At the time of its raise, Ande had a network of 93,000+ entertainment venues, 1,600+ hospitality groups, and 60+ enterprise customers (including Cloudflare, Salesforce, Netskope, and monday.com) transacting over $400 million in annual entertainment spend through its platform. Co-founder Arif Janmohamed described the deal as one of his first investments at Duration, having originally backed the founder while still at Lightspeed.
Team
- Arif Janmohamed, Co-Founder & General Partner — Spent 18 years as a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners (2008–2026), where he led or co-led investments including TripActions (Navan), Netskope, Mist Systems, and Alif Semiconductor (acquired by Analog Devices for $1.35B+). He remains a Venture Partner at Lightspeed while building Duration.
- Trevor Oelschig, Co-Founder & General Partner — Spent roughly 9.5 years as a Managing Director at General Catalyst (2016–2026), focused on infrastructure and developer-tools software, and served on boards including TRACTIAN.
No other investment team members are publicly disclosed; the firm appears to operate as a two-partner shop at launch.
Decision Process
With two founding General Partners and no disclosed junior investment team, decisions are most likely made jointly by the two partners (a partnership model) rather than through a larger investment committee.
Founder Preferences
Based on the founders' own investing histories (enterprise infrastructure, security, travel/spend management, developer tools, semiconductors) and Duration's messaging, the firm appears to favor technical or domain-expert founders tackling large, legacy enterprise categories with AI-native products, similar in spirit to the founder profile behind Ande.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its first investment (Ande) is based in New York, indicating the firm is not restricted to the Bay Area and will back enterprise AI founders nationally.