Expa

About

Expa is a company studio and venture fund founded in 2013 by Garrett Camp, co-founder of Uber and StumbleUpon ¹. The firm operates as what it calls a “company studio,” combining product design support, operational assistance, and capital to help founders build category-defining companies from inception ².

Camp founded Expa in late 2013 with the explicit goal of creating “a place that would give entrepreneurs the best environment to build companies” ³. The studio launched publicly in March 2014 with a $50 million first fund, backed by notable investors including Richard Branson, HP CEO Meg Whitman, Google board member Ram Shriram, TPG founder David Bonderman, Li Ka-shing, First Round Capital, SVAngel, Lerer Ventures, Matt Mullenweg, Scott Belsky, and Tim Ferriss ¹.

Expa has raised three funds totaling approximately $350 million: - Fund I (2014): $50 million, announced March 2014 ¹ - Fund II (2016): $100 million, announced March 2016 ⁴ - Fund III (2022): $200 million, announced April 2022, with more than half from Camp’s own capital; remaining LP base includes multifamily offices such as Iconiq and Epiq, individual family offices, and wealthy individuals ⁵

The firm has invested in 69 companies over approximately 12 years, averaging about six new investments annually ⁶. Expa operates offices in San Francisco and New York, and opened a London office in 2020 headed by Venture Partner David Clark ⁷.

The studio’s approach differs from both traditional accelerators and conventional VC funds. Partners are described as builders and operators who provide hands-on support in product design, branding, engineering, operations, and recruiting, particularly during the first two years of a company ⁵. In 2016, Expa also launched Expa Labs, a six-month startup accelerator program, though the main studio model remains the firm’s primary vehicle ⁸.

Notable portfolio exits include Reserve (acquired by Resy/American Express, 2018) ⁹, Cmd (acquired by Elastic, 2021) ¹⁰, Kit Health (acquired by Ro, 2021) ¹¹, Dadi (acquired by Ro, 2022) ¹², Gitalytics (acquired by GitHub/Microsoft) ¹³, Interseller (acquired by Greenhouse) ¹³, and Torch (acquired by OpenAI for approximately $60-100 million, January 2026) ¹⁴. Two portfolio companies have achieved unicorn status: Current (neobank, valued at $2.2 billion) and Fabric (headless commerce, valued at $1.5 billion at Series C) ⁶¹⁵.

Stated Thesis

Expa publicly describes itself as a “company studio” that has taken companies “from 0 to 10,000” ². The firm’s stated model is to work with founders “from inception toward product-market fit,” providing capital alongside deep operational support ¹.

Camp has described Expa’s value-add as: “Branding, product design, early strategy, hiring, product-market fit, how to raise your first round — just basically navigating that first two years.” ⁵

The firm’s website states that Expa Studio “combines design expertise, operational support, and capital to turn bold ideas into category-defining companies.” ¹⁶

Expa describes itself as operating six phases with portfolio companies: Ideation, Branding & Design, Team Formation, Funding, Resources (tested playbooks and go-to-market strategies), and Network access ¹⁶.

Expa’s stated model explicitly positions the firm as something other than a traditional VC: “Partners at Expa are builders and operators themselves,” capable of providing guidance on product design, branding, operations, and recruiting ¹⁷.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 30 verified portfolio companies drawn from Expa’s portfolio page and publicly reported investment announcements ¹³:

Sector distribution (30 verified investments): - Fintech / financial services: 7 of 30 (23%) — Current, Collective, Eco, Charlie, Range, Mos, Nibble Health - Logistics / supply chain: 5 of 30 (17%) — Convoy, Beacon, BlueCargo, Loop, Wingcopter - Developer tools / B2B infrastructure: 4 of 30 (13%) — Metabase, Radar, Cmd, Knock - Consumer / media: 5 of 30 (17%) — Aero, Sleeper, Statespace, Mix, Layer - Healthcare / wellness: 4 of 30 (13%) — Forward, Kit Health, Dadi, Physera - E-commerce / commerce infrastructure: 3 of 30 (10%) — Fabric, Collective, Smartrr - Other (sustainability, biotech, drone): 2 of 30 (7%) — Wingcopter, Prometheus

Note: Sample represents approximately 43% of the firm’s claimed 69 investments. Years are drawn from publicly reported funding rounds; sector classification is the author’s.

Stage distribution: Expa invests primarily at pre-seed and seed, often before a company has a product or team. Several portfolio companies (Aero, Metabase, Current, Collective, Cmd) were incubated directly within the Expa studio. The firm also participates in Series A and occasionally Series B follow-ons (e.g., Aero’s $65M Series B in 2022 was co-led by Expa) ¹⁸.

Geographic patterns: Predominantly US-based, with a cluster of New York companies (Current, Collective, Sleeper, Statespace) reflecting Expa’s NY office, San Francisco companies reflecting HQ, and a growing European portfolio (Beacon, Wingcopter, BlueCargo, Kolors) following the 2020 London office opening ⁷¹⁹.

Typical check size: Expa’s studio program offers $250K for 7% equity or $400K for 10% equity via post-money SAFE; the firm also invests up to $3M in startups up to Series B through its fund ². For studio-originated companies, Expa co-founds and provides substantially more than a check. Camp personally invests $500K–$1M in early-stage companies ¹.

Founder profile patterns: Strong preference for operators with specific domain expertise (e.g., Expa recruited two former Foursquare employees to found Radar; Current’s Stuart Sopp was a former Wall Street exec; Aero’s Uma Subramanian had airline operations experience). Recurring pattern of founders who are themselves alumni of Expa’s partner network or portfolio companies.

Co-investor patterns: First Round Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, SoftBank, Sequoia, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and a16z have all co-invested with Expa across multiple deals. Jeff Bezos personally co-invested with Expa in Beacon. Expa frequently co-invests with Travis Kalanick and other Uber alumni networks.

Infrastructure bias: Despite the breadth of sectors, the largest wins have come from companies building infrastructure for other businesses (Radar’s location APIs, Metabase’s analytics, Fabric’s headless commerce, Convoy’s freight network, Knock’s notification infrastructure). This B2B infrastructure theme is more prevalent in the portfolio than Expa’s consumer-facing marketing suggests.

Portfolio performance signal: From 69 investments, 2 unicorns (3% unicorn rate), 7 confirmed exits including one acquisition by OpenAI ⁶¹⁴. Convoy ceased operations in October 2023 after raising over $900M; its assets were acquired by Flexport ²⁰.

Notable divergence from stated thesis: Expa’s marketing emphasizes a “company studio” and founder-first model, but a substantial portion of the portfolio (Sleeper, Spatial, Twelve Labs, Beacon, Wingcopter) reflects conventional venture investments in companies that were not incubated internally. The inferred thesis is closer to a hybrid seed fund with deep operator involvement for select studio companies than a pure venture studio.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 43% of Expa’s claimed 69 investments. Years marked ~YYYY are estimates based on company founding dates or earliest known Expa association; all require independent verification. Full portfolio visible at expa.com/portfolio.

In Their Own Words

“Branding, product design, early strategy, hiring, product-market fit, how to raise your first round — just basically navigating that first two years.” — Garrett Camp, Founding Partner, describing Expa’s support to founders, TechCrunch interview via Yahoo Finance, April 2022 ⁵

“Like, 3,500 notes” relating to company building in his iCloud account, with “a solid 10” that could become significant companies. — Garrett Camp, on his ideation process, TechCrunch interview via Yahoo Finance, April 2022 ⁵

“Just so inaccurate. The timing is off. They emphasize certain things so much.” — Garrett Camp, on the HBO series Super Pumped depicting the Uber story, TechCrunch interview via Yahoo Finance, April 2022 ⁵

“Expa Studio combines design expertise, operational support, and capital to turn bold ideas into category-defining companies.” — Expa website, March 2026 ¹⁶

“Partners at Expa are builders and operators themselves.” — Expa website, Team page, March 2026 ¹⁷

What Founders Say

“That’s what Garrett’s really good at — those market insights. And finding unconventional theses that are out there.” — Uma Subramanian, CEO of Aero, on Garrett Camp’s role in conceiving Aero, Expa Founder Spotlight, accessed March 2026 ³²

“Expa backed us and stuck with it. It’s been an amazing ride, and it’s really cool that Garrett’s all in and behind it.” — Uma Subramanian, CEO of Aero, on Expa’s long-term support, Expa Founder Spotlight, accessed March 2026 ³²

“We seeded our initial audience by delivering news really fast, and we curated it. People would rush in, read the news, and then enjoy it with tens of thousands of people. And the metric that really resonated at the seed stage with Birchmere and Expa was that the engagement and retention on the platform was world-class.” — Nan Wang, CEO of Sleeper, on Expa as an early seed investor, Expa Founder Spotlight, accessed March 2026 ³³

Note: The Aero and Sleeper quotes above appear on Expa’s own website and should be considered firm-curated testimonials rather than independently sourced statements. No independently sourced founder testimonials about Expa’s investor conduct were found in third-party press or podcasts during this research pass.

Sources