Tidemark Research
Investment Thesis
Tidemark is a growth equity firm founded in 2021 by Dave Yuan, a former General Partner at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) who spent 15 years there investing in 25 companies (eight IPOs, eight acquisitions) and was twice named to the Forbes Midas List. Tidemark describes itself as "purpose-built to help companies win and scale," with a thesis centered on identifying secular waves in technology, consumer behavior, and business models, then backing fundamentally strong, often bootstrapped or capital-efficient businesses that are category leaders in their vertical. The firm places heavy emphasis on operational playbooks (go-to-market, pricing, M&A, AI adoption) rather than pure capital deployment, publishing a Vertical SaaS Knowledge Platform (VSKP) with proprietary benchmarking research and hosting an annual "Collective Live" conference for 200+ vertical SaaS CEOs.
Stage Focus
Tidemark is explicitly a growth-equity investor, not an early-stage fund. It backs "the next generation of category leaders" once they have proven product-market fit and durable unit economics, typically at Series B through late growth/pre-IPO stages.
Check Size
Tidemark makes investments of $20M-$150M per company, consistent with a growth-equity check size targeting significant ownership in scaled vertical SaaS businesses.
Lead Tendency
Tidemark leads its rounds. It led Nexl's $23M Series B (October 2025) and Onfly's $40M Series B (April 2025, its first Latin America investment), both structured as lead investments.
Recent Activity
Fund I (Tidemark Fund I LP and Fund I-A LP) closed in September 2021 at $575M, well above its original $350M target. The firm has been actively deploying since:
- April 2025: Led a $40M ($240M BRL) Series B in Onfly, a Brazilian corporate travel and expense management platform, alongside Endeavor Catalyst and Left Lane Capital — Tidemark's first Latin America deal.
- October 2025: Led a $23M Series B in Nexl, a Sydney-based AI-driven business development and CRM platform for law firms.
Fund status appears to be actively deploying as of Q4 2025 with continued vertical SaaS and cross-border expansion.
Portfolio Highlights
Tidemark's portfolio spans vertical and horizontal SaaS across multiple industries:
- Toast (toasttab.com) — restaurant management and POS platform, public (NYSE: TOST)
- ServiceTitan — all-in-one software for home services/trades contractors, public
- Freshworks (NASDAQ: FRSH) — AI-boosted customer support, sales, and IT service software
- Clio — cloud-based legal practice management software
- Nexl (nexl.cloud) — AI-driven business development/CRM platform for law firms
- Karbon — collaborative practice management platform for accounting firms
- OneStream — financial data intelligence and planning (EPM) platform
- Contentful — headless CMS / digital experience platform
- Kajabi — content and e-commerce platform for knowledge entrepreneurs
- Dutchie — e-commerce and POS for cannabis dispensaries
- AgVend — digital enablement platform for agribusinesses
- Jane (jane.app) — clinic management software and EMR for health and wellness providers
- Onfly (onfly.com.br) — B2B corporate travel and expense management, Latin America
Team
- Dave Yuan — Founder and Partner; 15 years as GP at TCV prior to founding Tidemark; two-time Forbes Midas List honoree
- Rahul Agarwal — Partner
- Rocky Gowni — Partner
- Christian Kurth — Partner
- Andrew Walsh — Partner
- Ann Lee Steinberg — Partner and COO
- Kevin Hamilton — Operating Partner
- Tim Kendall — Venture Partner
- Tim Barash — Venture Partner
- Drew Patterson — Venture Partner
- Frank Xu — SVP of Finance
- Eva Pullano — Director, Marketing and Community
Given the number of partners involved across deal sourcing and diligence, decisions appear to run through a partnership rather than a solo GP model.
Decision Process
Partnership-driven, with multiple partners (Yuan, Agarwal, Gowni, Kurth, Walsh, Steinberg) plus operating and venture partners contributing domain and operational expertise to diligence and post-investment support.
Founder Preferences
Tidemark favors experienced operators running fundamentally sound, often bootstrapped or capital-efficient vertical SaaS businesses with clear category leadership potential, rather than pre-revenue or concept-stage founders. The firm's public content (VSKP benchmarks, the Highpoint blog, SMB/VSaaS-experience pages) signals a strong preference for operationally rigorous management teams they can partner with on GTM and M&A playbooks.
Geographic Focus
Primarily US-based, with an expanding international footprint — Nexl (Sydney, Australia) and Onfly (Brazil, its first Latin America deal in 2025) show the firm is willing to back category leaders globally, not just domestically.
Additional Notes
Tidemark operates the Tidemark10 Foundation, committing 10% of profits to aligned causes, and runs the VSKP (Vertical SaaS Knowledge Platform) publishing an annual Vertical SaaS Benchmark Report. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA. Tidemark ranked #81 on the 2026 Strebulaev-Jackson Top 100 VC Firms ranking and #34 on the companion Top 100 Emerging VC Firms ranking.