Venture Capital

Obvious Ventures

Obvious Ventures is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2014 by Ev Williams, James Joaquin, and Vishal Vasishth, investing in entrepreneurs building "world positive" companies that solve humanity's biggest problems through technology. The firm invests across three thesis pillars: planetary health (sustainable energy, food, mobility, climate), human health and longevity (healthcare, biotech, wellness), and economic health (fintech, the future of work, robotics, and inclusive systems). Obvious writes approximately 10 new checks per year, typically $5M to $12M into seed and Series A rounds, deliberately keeping fund sizes small enough that a single durable public company can return an entire fund. It closed its fifth fund at $360,360,360 in early 2026 and has backed 90+ companies since inception, including Beyond Meat, Planet, Gusto, Recursion, Devoted Health, Diamond Foundry, and Proterra. Obvious is a Certified B Corporation headquartered at 190 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA.

90 portfolio companies 6 publish APIs here 11 properties
Venture CapitalSeedSeries ASustainabilityHealthFintechClimateImpactNorth America

Obvious Ventures has 90 portfolio companies tracked on the APIs.io network, of which 6 (7%) publish APIs indexed here.

Its highest-rated API providers on the network are Dexterity, Cal, Canvas, Gusto, Planet.

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.

Thin 4 Limited public surface area
Emerging 2 Early or largely undocumented

Rest of Portfolio

84 further portfolio companies that don’t yet have a provider page on the network.

AI FleetAll InAmi LabsAmply PowerArborAtaraxisBatonBeamBeyond MeatBlock RenovationBrightsideCarezoneConcertoCareCorvus InsuranceDevotedDiamond FoundryEnbalaEnerveeFleetzeroForum MobilityGalileoGandeevaGood EggsGridHalcyonHappiest BabyHedvigHostieHowdyInatoInceptiveIncredible HealthInductiveInspireIterative HealthJoyKampiKeyoLabGeniusLightshipLiliumLong GameLong-Term Stock ExchangeLynxMagic LeapMedableMixtMiyokosMosaicMoziMycoMedicaMyroNectarOctaveOllyOneOumiParallel LearningPi HealthPlant PrefabPositive DevelopmentPrism DataProterraPykaRadical NumericsRecursionResilienceSenkenSeriforgeSightenSinai TechnologiesSynopThe OK CompanyTomorrow HealthTorchToucanUrban RemedyVirta HealthVscoWellyWomanessWorkpopZanskarZymergen

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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: obvious-ventures
name: Obvious Ventures
description: >-
  Obvious Ventures is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm
  founded in 2014 by Ev Williams, James Joaquin, and Vishal Vasishth, investing
  in entrepreneurs building "world positive" companies that solve humanity's
  biggest problems through technology. The firm invests across three thesis
  pillars: planetary health (sustainable energy, food, mobility, climate), human
  health and longevity (healthcare, biotech, wellness), and economic health
  (fintech, the future of work, robotics, and inclusive systems). Obvious writes
  approximately 10 new checks per year, typically $5M to $12M into seed and
  Series A rounds, deliberately keeping fund sizes small enough that a single
  durable public company can return an entire fund. It closed its fifth fund at
  $360,360,360 in early 2026 and has backed 90+ companies since inception,
  including Beyond Meat, Planet, Gusto, Recursion, Devoted Health, Diamond
  Foundry, and Proterra. Obvious is a Certified B Corporation headquartered at
  190 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA.
x-type: venture-capital
x-category: Venture Capital
image: https://obvious.com/favicon.ico
tags:
  - Venture Capital
  - Seed
  - Series A
  - Sustainability
  - Health
  - Fintech
  - Climate
  - Impact
  - North America
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-17'
specificationVersion: '0.20'
apis: []
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://obvious.com/
  - type: Portfolio
    url: https://obvious.com/portfolio/
  - type: Portfolio
    url: portfolio/obvious-ventures-portfolio.yml
  - type: Team
    url: https://obvious.com/team/
  - type: Team
    url: team/obvious-ventures-team.yml
  - type: InvestmentThesis
    url: https://obvious.com/about/
  - type: Blog
    url: https://obvious.com/ideas/
  - type: News
    url: https://obvious.com/press/
  - type: LinkedIn
    url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/obvious-ventures/
  - type: Twitter
    url: https://x.com/obviousvc
  - type: Crunchbase
    url: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/obvious-ventures
  - type: Features
    data:
      - 'Stage: Seed, Series A (early-stage)'
      - 'Typical check: $5M-$12M'
      - 'Sectors: planetary health, human health & longevity, economic health'
      - 'Geography: primarily North America'
      - 'Fund V: $360,360,360 (2026)'
      - 'Pace: ~10 new investments per year'
      - 'Founded: 2014'
      - 'HQ: 190 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94111'
      - 'B Corp: Certified'
    sources:
      - https://obvious.com/
      - https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/26/obvious-ventures-lands-fund-five-with-a-360-degree-view-of-planetary-human-economic-health/
    updated: '2026-07-17'
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: info@apievangelist.com
    url: https://apievangelist.com
  - FN: APIs.json
    url: http://apisjson.org
  - FN: Obvious Ventures
    url: https://obvious.com