Venture Capital

Costanoa Ventures

Costanoa Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in June 2012 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with an additional office in San Francisco. Costanoa invests primarily at the Seed and Series A stages, writing checks of roughly $1M to $10M and taking concentrated 10-15% ownership across about 35 companies per fund. The firm's thesis is to fill the "missing middle" of early-stage venture by providing unusually hands-on, operator-led support to founders building applied AI, AI and data infrastructure, cybersecurity, national security / defense tech, fintech, and enterprise software companies. Costanoa was founded by Greg Sands (an early Netscape product manager) and manages roughly $2.8B in assets. In September 2024 it closed an oversubscribed Fund V at $275M alongside Opportunity Fund III at $119M, doubling down on AI-enabled B2B technology. Portfolio companies include Alation, Cyberhaven, Quizlet, PayNearMe, Auterion, Vannevar Labs, Kepler Communications, and Muon Space.

24 portfolio companies 24 publish APIs here 11 properties
Venture CapitalEarly StageSeedSeries AApplied AIData InfrastructureCybersecurityNational SecurityFintechEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco Bay Area
Portfolio Strength across 24 profiled portfolio companies on the network
2 top-rated API companies 1 exemplar · 1 strong
3 agent-ready companies 1 agent-native · 2 agent-ready
Average quality of the book:
Composite emerging 24.5
Agent-Readiness human-only 12.3

Firms are ranked by cumulative portfolio strength — how many highly-rated API companies they've backed, weighted by tier across composite quality and agent-readiness. The averages below are a secondary read on the typical company in the book.

Costanoa Ventures has 24 portfolio companies tracked on the APIs.io network, of which 24 (100%) publish APIs indexed here.

Its highest-rated API providers on the network are Highnote, Feldera, Alation, RunReveal, Basis Theory.

Portfolio on the Network

Portfolio companies that publish APIs indexed on APIs.io, grouped by their API Evangelist rating. Exemplar and Strong are expanded by default.

Exemplar 1 Complete, well-documented, and agent-ready
Strong 1 Solid coverage with minor gaps
Developing 1 Usable, with meaningful gaps to close
Thin 5 Limited public surface area
Emerging 8 Early or largely undocumented
Minimal 8 Almost no public developer surface

Properties

Portfolio

Where the firm publishes its investments

Team

Partners and investing staff

Content

Blog, podcast, newsletter, and research

Firm

The firm itself

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑
aid: costanoa-ventures
name: Costanoa Ventures
description: >-
  Costanoa Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in June 2012
  and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with an additional office in San
  Francisco. Costanoa invests primarily at the Seed and Series A stages, writing
  checks of roughly $1M to $10M and taking concentrated 10-15% ownership across
  about 35 companies per fund. The firm's thesis is to fill the "missing middle"
  of early-stage venture by providing unusually hands-on, operator-led support to
  founders building applied AI, AI and data infrastructure, cybersecurity,
  national security / defense tech, fintech, and enterprise software companies.
  Costanoa was founded by Greg Sands (an early Netscape product manager) and
  manages roughly $2.8B in assets. In September 2024 it closed an oversubscribed
  Fund V at $275M alongside Opportunity Fund III at $119M, doubling down on
  AI-enabled B2B technology. Portfolio companies include Alation, Cyberhaven,
  Quizlet, PayNearMe, Auterion, Vannevar Labs, Kepler Communications, and Muon
  Space.
x-type: venture-capital
x-category: Venture Capital
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://www.costanoa.vc/favicon.ico
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-17'
specificationVersion: '0.20'
tags:
  - Venture Capital
  - Early Stage
  - Seed
  - Series A
  - Applied AI
  - Data Infrastructure
  - Cybersecurity
  - National Security
  - Fintech
  - Enterprise Software
  - San Francisco Bay Area
apis: []
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.costanoa.vc
  - type: Portfolio
    url: https://www.costanoa.vc/portfolio
  - type: Portfolio
    url: portfolio/costanoa-ventures-portfolio.yml
  - type: Team
    url: https://www.costanoa.vc/team
  - type: Team
    url: team/costanoa-ventures-team.yml
  - type: InvestmentThesis
    url: https://www.costanoa.vc/approach
  - type: Blog
    url: https://www.costanoa.vc/perspectives
  - type: Jobs
    url: https://jobs.costanoa.vc
  - type: LinkedIn
    url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/costanoa-ventures
  - type: Crunchbase
    url: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/costanoaventures
  - type: Contact
    url: https://www.costanoa.vc
  - type: Features
    data:
      - 'Stage: Seed, Series A (early-stage)'
      - 'Typical check: $1M-$10M'
      - 'Ownership target: 10-15%'
      - 'Portfolio construction: ~35 companies per fund'
      - 'Sectors: applied AI, AI & data infrastructure, cybersecurity, national security, fintech, enterprise software'
      - 'Geography: United States (San Francisco Bay Area focus)'
      - 'AUM: ~$2.8B (self-reported)'
      - 'Latest funds: Fund V $275M + Opportunity Fund III $119M (Sept 2024)'
      - 'Founded: June 2012'
      - 'HQ: Palo Alto, CA (office also in San Francisco, CA)'
    sources:
      - https://www.costanoa.vc
      - https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/09/18/2948355/0/en/costanoa-ventures-closes-oversubscribed-early-stage-fund-expands-investments-in-ai-enabled-b2b-tech.html
    updated: '2026-07-17'
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com
    url: https://apievangelist.com
  - FN: APIs.json
    url: https://apisjson.org
  - FN: Costanoa Ventures
    email: info@costanoa.vc
    url: https://www.costanoa.vc