Vertex Ventures US Research
Investment Thesis
Vertex Ventures US (VVUS) is a boutique early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2015 by Jonathan Heiliger and In Sik Rhee. The firm backs fearless founders building a smarter digital economy through B2B software, with a specific focus on enterprise software, SaaS, developer infrastructure, data platforms, and security. All General Partners are former founders and operators — not career VCs — which is central to their value proposition and identity.
The firm operates on three core operational principles: (1) Go-to-Market Execution Wins Markets — the best GTM, not the best product, determines market leadership; (2) Exceptional Teams Build Exceptional Companies — the firm actively assists with strategic hiring across functional areas, management development, and leadership coaching at each growth stage; (3) Learning from Experience Prevents Missteps — leveraging decades of founder and operator experience to help portfolio companies avoid repeating common mistakes.
Vertex US is part of the global Vertex network managed by Vertex Holdings (Singapore), with affiliated funds spanning Israel, China, Southeast Asia, India, and Japan. This network provides portfolio companies with international expansion support, strategic introductions, and access to global markets that many comparable US-only seed funds cannot offer.
Stage Focus
Vertex US concentrates on Seed and Series A investments. They are typically first or early institutional money and aim to build deep, long-term relationships with portfolio founders. Their high-conviction, low-volume approach means they make fewer investments per fund cycle but go deeper with each portfolio company.
Check Size
Typical investment range is $500,000 to $10,000,000, covering both Seed and Series A rounds. They target meaningful ownership stakes and typically lead or co-lead rounds at the Seed and Series A stages. Fund III, announced in September 2022 at $200M, reinforced their strategy of doubling down on high-conviction investing.
Lead Tendency
Vertex US leads or co-leads rounds at the early stage. They led the $5.5M seed extension in Cleric (December 2025) alongside Zetta Venture Partners, and led the Series A in SPRX Tax (October 2024). This pattern of lead investing is consistent across their portfolio.
Recent Activity
Vertex US has been actively deploying from Fund III ($200M, closed 2022):
- February 2026: Participated in Onshore (formerly SPRX) $31M Series B, led by FPV Ventures
- December 2025: Led $5.5M seed extension in Cleric (AI-powered SRE platform), bringing total to $9.8M
- August 2025: Invested in SWARM Biotactics (bio-robotic swarms for defense)
- November 2024: Invested in Northflank (modern PaaS for developers and SRE teams)
- October 2024: Led Series A in SPRX Tax (AI-powered R&D tax credit automation)
Portfolio Highlights
Vertex US has backed several unicorns and category-defining companies:
Unicorns / Major Exits:
- LaunchDarkly (launchdarkly.com) — Feature flag management platform; unicorn
- HUMAN Security (humansecurity.com, formerly PerimeterX) — Enterprise bot protection and ad fraud prevention; unicorn
- CyberHaven (cyberhaven.com) — Data security and insider threat detection; unicorn
- Evisort (evisort.com) — AI-native contract management; acquired by Workday
Active Portfolio:
- Hasura (hasura.io) — Developer tool for GraphQL APIs and data access; widely used by enterprise developers
- Tulip (tulip.co) — Manufacturing/frontline operations platform; vertical SaaS for industrial companies
- Metaview (metaview.ai) — AI meeting notes and interview intelligence
- Onshore (onshore.com) — AI-powered R&D tax credit and corporate tax automation (formerly SPRX)
- OpsLevel (opslevel.com) — Internal developer portals and service catalog
- Very Good Security / VGS (verygoodsecurity.com) — Data vault and tokenization infrastructure
- DesktopMetal (desktopmetal.com) — 3D printing and additive manufacturing (public company)
- Higharc (higharc.com) — Construction and home-building software
- Trustero (trustero.com) — AI-powered compliance and security audit automation
- Orkes (orkes.io) — Workflow orchestration platform (cloud-native Conductor)
- SWARM Biotactics (swarm-biotactics.com) — Bio-robotic systems for defense applications
- Northflank (northflank.com) — Modern PaaS for developers and SRE teams
- Cleric (cleric.ai) — AI-powered site reliability engineering platform
Team
In Sik Rhee, General Partner — Former serial entrepreneur; founded Kiva Software at age 24 (acquired by Netscape, created the Application Server market), co-founded Loudcloud/Opsware (IPO 2001, acquired by HP 2007). Previously GP at Rembrandt Venture Partners and Venture Partner at Accel Partners (early investor in Cloudera, Couchbase). BS in EECS from UC Berkeley. Focuses on data science, machine learning, and enterprise process automation.
Jonathan Heiliger, General Partner — Established VVUS in 2015. Former VP Infrastructure & Technical Operations at Facebook (grew infrastructure from 35M to 800M+ users). COO of Opsware; co-founded GlobalCenter. GP at North Bridge Venture Partners (2012-2014). Early backer of DesktopMetal, Higharc, LaunchDarkly, HUMAN Security, Metaview, OpsLevel, and VGS.
Sandeep Bhadra, General Partner — PhD in Electrical Engineering from UT Austin; MBA from INSEAD. Managed ~$425M in cloud/infrastructure M&A at Cisco's corporate development team. Joined Vertex in 2015 from Menlo Ventures. Board seats include Hasura, Orkes, Tulip, Docker, Gitpod, KSOC, LeaseLock, and UnitySCM. Focuses on open-source cloud infrastructure, developer tools, and B2B fintech.
Noah Carr, General Partner — Former investor at Bain Capital Ventures (portfolio: DocuSign, Sysdig, Armis, BetterCloud), Unusual Ventures, and Point72 Ventures. Deutsche Bank Technology Investment Banking prior to VC. Focuses on enterprise technology: data infrastructure, cybersecurity, and developer tools.
Megan Reynolds, Principal — Joined Vertex US in 2022. Former investor at Crane Venture Partners (London); led investments in Silverflow, Novu, and Gitpod. Previously at Entrepreneur First (deep tech builder) and Crowdcube. Focuses on cloud-native software infrastructure and developer tools.
Simon Tiu, Principal — Joined Vertex US in 2024. Former investment banker at Qatalyst Partners (advised on ~$100B in M&A including Splunk, Afterpay, Coupa, New Relic). Previously at Google Cloud and management consulting. Focuses on AI-native enterprise software and cybersecurity. BSIOR from UC Berkeley; MBA from Chicago Booth.
Decision Process
Vertex US operates as a partnership with four General Partners making investment decisions collaboratively. The firm is known for high conviction and low volume — they make fewer investments but go deep with each. Multiple sources cite the firm's differentiated value as access to operational expertise from founders who have scaled companies to significant revenue and exits.
Founder Preferences
Vertex US seeks technical founders or operator-founders with first-hand experience of the pain point they are solving. They prioritize founders who are 'gritty, humble, and passionate' about solving hard infrastructure or software problems. Given the team's operator background, they particularly value founders who can benefit from GTM coaching and enterprise network access.
Geographic Focus
Primarily United States, with a particular concentration in the SF Bay Area and emerging hubs. International deals are possible through the global Vertex network (Israel, China, Southeast Asia, India, Japan).