Playground Global
Playground Global is an early-stage deep tech venture capital firm founded in 2015 by Andy Rubin, Bruce Leak, Matt Hershenson, and Peter Barrett, and headquartered at 380 Portage Ave, Palo Alto, California. The firm invests "somewhere between improbable and impossible," backing technical founders who take large technology risks and build companies from first principles. Playground concentrates on four pillars: next-gen compute (quantum computing, novel AI chip architectures, advanced interconnects, and semiconductors), automation (robotics, supply-chain and industrial automation with tangible ROI), energy transition and decarbonization, and engineered biology (AI-driven drug discovery, RNA editing, and next-generation therapies). It invests at the earliest stages, often at company formation, and operates Studio Palo Alto, a lab and prototyping environment for hardware and deep-science founders. Reported assets under management are over $1.2 billion across its funds. Notable portfolio companies include PsiQuantum, Relativity Space, Ultima Genomics, d-Matrix, Velo3D (NYSE), and MosaicML (acquired by Databricks).
Playground Global has 43 portfolio companies tracked on the APIs.io network, of which 43 (100%) publish APIs indexed here.
Its highest-rated API providers on the network are MosaicML, Skydio, Branch, RapidSOS, Relativity Space.
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.
Strong 1 Solid coverage with minor gaps
Developing 1 Usable, with meaningful gaps to close
Emerging 11 Early or largely undocumented
Minimal 29 Almost no public developer surface
Unrated 1 Not yet scored
Properties
Portfolio
Where the firm publishes its investments
Cohort brief
Auto-generatedThe 42 portfolio companies with APIs in the catalog, backed by Playground Global, scored on the Kin Score. Every figure below is computed from the catalog — nothing here is written.
| Facet | This cohort | Catalog | Difference | Scored |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contract Governance | 1.2 | 6.4 | -5.2 | 42 |
| Operational Transparency | 4.3 | 11.3 | -7 | 42 |
| Discoverability | 53 | 60.4 | -7.4 | 42 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 9.2 | 17.9 | -8.7 | 42 |
| Access Clarity | 12 | 22.3 | -10.3 | 42 |
| Contract Quality | 5.3 | 17.5 | -12.2 | 42 |
A facet is averaged over the members that carry it, not over the whole cohort — the “Scored” column is that count. Averaging an absent facet as zero would score our own coverage gaps as the providers’ posture.
| Artifact | This cohort | Catalog | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCP server (any) | 2% | 16% | -14 |
| MCP server (first-party) | 0% | 7% | -7 |
| Agent Skills | 0% | 0% | 0 |
| OAuth scopes | 0% | 9% | -9 |
| Security | 93% | 88% | +5 |
| Arazzo workflows | 2% | 2% | 0 |
| Governance rules | 2% | 13% | -11 |
mcp_pct counts any mcp/ artifact including ones API Evangelist derived from the provider OpenAPI; mcp_first_party_pct counts only servers the provider publishes. Prefer the latter.
- 1 Databricks 59.1
- 2 Skydio 41.1
- 3 Branch Insurance 21.6
- 4 Relativity Space 21.1
- 5 Velo3D 21.1
- 6 RapidSOS 20.5
- 7 Anjuna 17.2
- 8 Nauto 16.1
- 9 Virta Health 16.1
- 10 d-Matrix 15.1
- 1 Databricks 40.1
- 2 Skydio 19.8
- 3 Branch Insurance 15.5
- 4 Relativity Space 15.5
- 5 Velo3D 15.5
- 6 RapidSOS 0
- 7 Anjuna 0
- 8 Nauto 0
- 9 Virta Health 0
- 10 d-Matrix 0
Source (apis.yml)
Work with this as data
Every firm here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.