Better Tomorrow Ventures

About

Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV) is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm founded in 2019 by Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot, focused exclusively on fintech investing at the pre-seed and seed stage ¹². Gibson co-founded NerdWallet (Nasdaq: NRDS), and Mohnot built and sold two fintech companies before founding the 500 Fintech accelerator ³⁴.

BTV raised its debut fund (BTV I) at $75 million in 2019 ². In February 2022, the firm closed BTV II at $225 million — triple the size of its first fund — during the fintech boom ⁵. In October 2025, BTV closed its third fund at $140 million, bringing total AUM to approximately $450 million ²⁶.

The fund III is smaller than fund II by design, reflecting the post-2022 fintech correction. BTV III targets 30-35 companies with check sizes of $500K to $4 million ². The firm always leads or co-leads initial rounds ⁷.

The team includes Partner Nihar Bobba, who was recruited by Mohnot to drop out of Wharton’s MBA program to join the firm, and Principal JC Bahr-de Stefano ³⁸. Yoni Lateiner serves as Head of Talent ³.

BTV also operates The Mint, an incubation program for fintech founders, often engaging before a company even has a name ⁴.

Stated Thesis

BTV publicly describes itself as an operator-led fintech fund, emphasizing that every team member is a former founder ¹⁴. Mohnot has articulated a core thesis that “everything is fintech” — vertical SaaS companies increasingly derive revenue from payments and financial services rather than software subscriptions ⁷. He cites Toast as an example: the restaurant software company now derives 83% of its revenue from financial services ⁷.

Mohnot has stated: “I think it all comes down to a founder and their ability to iterate fast… Are they tenacious? Are they breaking through walls to make stuff happen?” ⁷

The firm publicly states it looks for companies at the intersection of finance and software, with a particular interest in AI-powered financial services and embedded finance ²⁷. Mohnot has noted that about 20% of global GDP is financial services and “it’s still not digital enough,” arguing that “the massive digitization opportunity is still ahead of us” ⁷.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 12 featured and verified portfolio companies from BTV’s website and press coverage ¹⁹:

Sector distribution: Of 12 verified investments: 4 accounting/finance automation (33%), 3 cards/banking/payments (25%), 3 infrastructure/embedded finance (25%), 2 other/healthcare (17%). The firm is deeply specialized in fintech — Tracxn reports 55 fintech investments and 43 enterprise application investments across the full portfolio ⁹.

Stage distribution: BTV exclusively leads at pre-seed and seed, with follow-on investment through Series B and occasionally Series C ⁷. Featured companies include Unit (Series B), Coast (Series B), and Relay (Series B), suggesting active follow-on participation ¹.

Check size: $500K to $3.5 million for initial investments, with BTV III checks ranging $500K to $4 million ²⁷.

Geographic focus: Primarily US-based companies, with some presence in Latin America (Brazil, Mexico), Europe, and Israel (for US-focused operations) ⁷.

Founder profile patterns: The firm strongly favors founders with prior operating experience in financial services or adjacent industries. The “operators backing operators” positioning suggests a preference for repeat founders or those from fintech incumbents.

Co-investor patterns: Portfolio includes companies also backed by Ribbit Capital, QED Investors, and a16z — suggesting BTV sits in the fintech-specialist ecosystem alongside these larger funds.

Notable emphasis areas: Accounting automation (Basis, InScope, Layer) appears to be a concentrated bet within the portfolio, likely reflecting a thesis about the accountant shortage and AI-driven transformation of financial back-office work ⁷.

Portfolio performance: BTV reports Q1 2025 was its best quarter ever, following a difficult 2022-2023 period when generalist funds pulled back from fintech ⁷. The portfolio includes 12 unicorns according to Tracxn ⁹.

Portfolio

This table represents 12 of approximately 85 known pre-seed and seed investments across three funds ². BTV’s website lists 150+ companies across its full portfolio ¹.

In Their Own Words

“I think it all comes down to a founder and their ability to iterate fast… Are they tenacious? Are they breaking through walls to make stuff happen?” — Sheel Mohnot, Co-Founder & General Partner, Tearsheet podcast, 2025 ⁷

“Founders want to work with founders… everyone on our team is a founder, operator.” — Sheel Mohnot, Tearsheet podcast, 2025 ⁷

“2016 to 2021 was like a straight line upward… then it crashed pretty hard in 2022-2023… Q4 into Q1 of this year, they were back.” — Sheel Mohnot, on fintech funding cycles, Tearsheet podcast, 2025 ⁷

What Founders Say

“Their network is unbeatable, and they went out of their way to help us in every critical area.” — Itai, Founder & CEO (portfolio company), BTV website ¹

“They offer so much beyond capital… remarkably responsive and hands-on support.” — Mary, Founder & CEO (portfolio company), BTV website ¹

“BTV is my first phone call for a range of strategic issues.” — Daniel, Founder & CEO (portfolio company), BTV website ¹

“This is my 3rd company, and I’ve never worked with investors who have been more accessible — and every BTV company will say the same.” — Unnamed founder, reported via BTV marketing ⁴

Note: These testimonials are sourced from BTV’s own website and marketing materials. No independently sourced founder testimonials were found outside of firm-controlled channels.

Sources