Venture Capital

Sierra Ventures

Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Peter Wendell in 1982 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. The firm invests from inception through Series A in first-principles founders under the tagline "Conviction Before Consensus," writing checks of up to $5M at seed and up to $10M at Series A. Sierra's current investment thesis centers on the next wave of enterprise technology: Vertical AI (purpose-built AI for specific industries), Infrastructure AI, Frontier and Deep Tech, and Physical AI and Robotics, alongside a longstanding history in enterprise applications, digital health, SaaS, and security. Over its 40-plus-year history the firm has invested more than $2 billion across 13 early-stage funds, with its 13th fund closing in 2023 at $265 million, following Fund 12 at $215 million and Fund 11 at $170 million. Sierra reports 35 IPOs and hundreds of successful exits, having backed companies such as Elastic, Astronomer, Chronosphere, CourseHero, Q-CTRL, Spectro Cloud, Endor Labs, and Reflection AI. The firm is notable for its CXO Advisory Board of Fortune 1000 enterprise leaders who help portfolio companies land early customers. This profile tracks Sierra Ventures' identity and its portfolio graph across the API Evangelist network.

84 portfolio companies 84 publish APIs here 13 properties
Venture CapitalEarly StageSeedSeries AArtificial IntelligenceVertical AIInfrastructureEnterpriseDeep TechFrontier TechPhysical AIRoboticsDigital HealthSan MateoSilicon ValleyUnited States
Portfolio Strength across 84 profiled portfolio companies on the network
5 top-rated API companies 0 exemplar · 5 strong
14 agent-ready companies 0 agent-native · 14 agent-ready
Average quality of the book:
Composite emerging 24.7
Agent-Readiness human-only 13.0

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.

Sierra Ventures has 84 portfolio companies tracked on the APIs.io network, of which 84 (100%) publish APIs indexed here.

Its highest-rated API providers on the network are Krisp, Modulate, FriendliAI, Astronomer, Band AI.

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 5 Solid coverage with minor gaps
Developing 14 Usable, with meaningful gaps to close
Thin 9 Limited public surface area
Emerging 30 Early or largely undocumented
Minimal 26 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: sierra-ventures
name: Sierra Ventures
description: >-
  Sierra Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Peter
  Wendell in 1982 and headquartered in San Mateo, California, in the heart of
  Silicon Valley. The firm invests from inception through Series A in
  first-principles founders under the tagline "Conviction Before Consensus,"
  writing checks of up to $5M at seed and up to $10M at Series A. Sierra's
  current investment thesis centers on the next wave of enterprise technology:
  Vertical AI (purpose-built AI for specific industries), Infrastructure AI,
  Frontier and Deep Tech, and Physical AI and Robotics, alongside a longstanding
  history in enterprise applications, digital health, SaaS, and security. Over
  its 40-plus-year history the firm has invested more than $2 billion across 13
  early-stage funds, with its 13th fund closing in 2023 at $265 million,
  following Fund 12 at $215 million and Fund 11 at $170 million. Sierra reports
  35 IPOs and hundreds of successful exits, having backed companies such as
  Elastic, Astronomer, Chronosphere, CourseHero, Q-CTRL, Spectro Cloud, Endor
  Labs, and Reflection AI. The firm is notable for its CXO Advisory Board of
  Fortune 1000 enterprise leaders who help portfolio companies land early
  customers. This profile tracks Sierra Ventures' identity and its portfolio
  graph across the API Evangelist network.
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://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/sierra-ventures.png
tags:
  - Venture Capital
  - Early Stage
  - Seed
  - Series A
  - Artificial Intelligence
  - Vertical AI
  - Infrastructure
  - Enterprise
  - Deep Tech
  - Frontier Tech
  - Physical AI
  - Robotics
  - Digital Health
  - San Mateo
  - Silicon Valley
  - United States
url: >-
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/sierra-ventures/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-17'
specificationVersion: '0.20'
apis: []
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://www.sierraventures.com/
  - type: Portfolio
    url: https://www.sierraventures.com/portfolio
  - type: Portfolio
    url: portfolio/sierra-ventures-portfolio.yml
  - type: Team
    url: https://www.sierraventures.com/team
  - type: Team
    url: team/sierra-ventures-team.yml
  - type: InvestmentThesis
    url: https://www.sierraventures.com/about
  - type: Blog
    url: https://www.sierraventures.com/content
  - type: Podcast
    url: https://www.youtube.com/@sierraventures/featured
  - type: Jobs
    url: https://careers.sierraventures.com/
  - type: Contact
    url: https://www.sierraventures.com/about
  - type: LinkedIn
    url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sierra-ventures
  - type: Twitter
    url: https://twitter.com/Sierra_Ventures
  - type: Crunchbase
    url: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/sierra-ventures
  - type: Features
    data:
      - "Stage: Inception, Seed, Series A (early stage)"
      - "Typical check: up to $5M at seed; up to $10M at Series A"
      - "Sectors: Vertical AI, Infrastructure AI, Frontier & Deep Tech, Physical AI & Robotics, enterprise applications, digital health, SaaS, security"
      - "Geography: United States (Silicon Valley), global"
      - "AUM: $2B+ invested across 13 early-stage funds (self-reported)"
      - "Latest fund: Sierra Ventures XIII, $265M (2023); Fund XII $215M; Fund XI $170M"
      - "Founded: 1982 (Peter Wendell)"
      - "HQ: San Mateo, CA (1400 Fashion Island Blvd. Ste. 1010)"
      - "Track record: 35 IPOs; hundreds of exits (self-reported)"
    sources:
      - https://www.sierraventures.com/
      - https://www.sierraventures.com/about
      - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Ventures
    updated: '2026-07-17'
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com
  - FN: APIs.json
    url: http://apisjson.org
  - FN: Sierra Ventures
    url: https://www.sierraventures.com/