Spark Capital

Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026

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Location San Francisco, CA
Founded 2005
Fund Size $12B+ AUM; $700M Fund VIII early-stage (2024); $1.4B Growth V (2024); $700M Fund VII (2021); $1.4B Growth IV (2021)
Website https://www.sparkcapital.com
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed series-a series-b growth
Sector Focus
ai consumer enterprise fintech infrastructure developer-tools deep-tech crypto

Team

Santo Politi Founder & General Partner (Early Stage)
Nabeel Hyatt General Partner (Early Stage)
Alex Finkelstein General Partner (Early Stage)
Kevin Thau General Partner (Early Stage)
Fraser Kelton General Partner (Early Stage)
Natalie Vais General Partner (Early Stage)
Arpan Shah General Partner (Early Stage)
Mikowai Ashwill Investor (Early Stage)
Yasmin Razavi General Partner (Growth)
Clay Fisher General Partner (Growth)
Will Reed Investor (Growth)
Jeremy Philips Investor (Growth)
Hanseul Nam Investor (Growth)
Coen Armstrong Investor (Growth)
James Kuklinski Investor (Growth)
Bijan Sabet Co-Founder & General Partner Emeritus
Paul Conway Co-Founder & General Partner Emeritus
Todd Dagres Co-Founder & General Partner Emeritus

About

Spark Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm founded in 2005 by Bijan Sabet, Paul Conway, Santo Politi, and Todd Dagres 12. The firm was born in Boston, initially operating from a small space in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before relocating to an office above a shoe store on Newbury Street in Boston 2. Spark has since expanded with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Boston 12.

The firm manages over $12 billion in assets 13. Spark has raised eight early-stage funds: $265 million (2005), $360 million (2008), $360 million (2010), $450 million (2013), $400 million (2016), $450 million (2019), $700 million (2021), and $700 million (2024) 1. It has also raised five growth funds: $375 million (2014), $600 million (2016), $900 million (2019), $1.4 billion (2021), and $1.4 billion (2024) 1. As of March 2026, the firm was reportedly raising $3 billion for its next set of funds 3.

Spark’s portfolio includes 45 unicorns, 15 IPOs, and 89 acquisitions across 337 companies 4. The firm’s most celebrated early investments include Twitter (Series B lead in 2008, jointly with Union Square Ventures) and Slack, both led by co-founder Bijan Sabet 15.

In recent years, the firm promoted Fraser Kelton (previously Head of Product at OpenAI) and Clay Fisher to General Partner, and brought on Natalie Vais (formerly of Amplify Partners) as a new General Partner 6.

Stated Thesis

Spark Capital publicly describes its investment philosophy as product-first: “Product comes first, and everything else follows” 7. The firm states it invests in “products we love, people, crazy, dreams, design, details, brains, reality, unreality, reinvention, new markets, weird stuff, guts, independence, hustle, distinction, art, humanness, idealists, oddities, optimism, communities, creation, surprises, technologists with the heart of an artist” 28.

The firm uses the metaphor: “A ship is safest at the dock, but that’s not the point of a ship” to reflect its belief in bold action over caution 8.

Spark explicitly rejects standardized playbooks: “Culture and individual company circumstances drive success, not formulas” 8. The firm values “no standardized playbooks,” “pattern-breaking,” “long-term commitment,” and “user-centric” investing 8.

Co-founder Bijan Sabet has described Spark as aiming to build “a new kind of firm — one that would push back against the traditions, good and bad, of typical venture capital” 2.

Inferred Thesis

Based on Spark Capital’s verified portfolio of 337 investments 4 and publicly listed companies 9:

Sector distribution: Spark’s portfolio page lists companies across AI/ML (Anthropic, Scale AI, Pika, MatX, Lightmatter, Baseten, Adept), consumer/social (Twitter, Tumblr, Snap, Discord, Niantic), fintech (Affirm, Plaid, Ramp, Mercury, Coinbase, Marqeta, Kalshi), enterprise (Slack, Trello, Benchling, Granola), developer tools/infrastructure (Crusoe, Enfabrica, Chainguard), deep tech/hardware (Oculus, Framework, Stoke Space, Inversion, Edison Scientific), and biotech (WildType, Profluent, Formation Bio) 9. The portfolio skews heavily toward consumer and product-driven companies historically, with a significant recent pivot toward AI and deep tech.

Stage distribution: Spark operates separate early-stage and growth fund teams 1. The firm’s check sizes range from $500K to $60M, covering pre-seed through Series B, with growth investments handled by the dedicated growth team 7. Decision timeline is approximately 2 weeks 7.

Geographic distribution: While headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York and Boston, Spark’s portfolio is predominantly US-based 12.

Investment style: General Partner Nabeel Hyatt has described backing only one or two companies per year, reflecting deep conviction investing 10. He has explained: “if you’re a startup CEO or running a small org, you can manage eight or nine reports where you understand everything they’re doing, and outside of that, the edges get fuzzy” 10.

Notable behavioral patterns: - Spark has a strong track record with consumer social products (Twitter, Tumblr, Snap, Discord, Foursquare — many co-invested with Union Square Ventures) 15. - The firm has shifted significantly toward AI and deep tech in 2024-2025, with investments in Anthropic, Pika, MatX, Lightmatter, and Baseten 9. - The recent GP promotions (Fraser Kelton from OpenAI, Natalie Vais) signal deliberate team building around AI expertise 6. - Spark’s branding emphasizes founder loyalty — its logo is a dog, symbolizing “loyalty and companionship with founders” 8.

Portfolio

Company Stage Year Sector Source
Twitter Series B 2008 Consumer/Social 15
Slack Series B 2014 Enterprise 19
Anthropic Series C (lead) 2023-05-23 AI 949
Affirm Series B 2015 Fintech 913
Discord Series C 2016 Consumer/Social 914
Plaid Seed 2013 Fintech 915
Oculus Series A 2013 Hardware/VR 916
Cruise Series A 2015 Autonomous Vehicles 917
Coinbase Series D 2017 Crypto/Fintech 918
Scale AI Series C 2019 AI/Data 919
Tumblr Series A 2007 Consumer/Social 1
Snap Series F 2016 Consumer/Social 920
Ramp Series C 2021 Fintech 921
Mercury Series C ($300M, Sequoia led) → Series D ($200M, TCV led at $5.2B val) 2025-03-26; 2026-05-20 Fintech 92250
Trello Series A 2014 Productivity 923
Postmates Series B 2014 Consumer/Delivery 924
Niantic Series B 2017 Gaming/AR 925
Benchling Series D 2020 Biotech/Enterprise 926
Deel Series B 2020 HR/Fintech 927
Marqeta Series E 2019 Fintech 928
Pika Early 2023 AI/Video 9
MatX Early 2023 AI/Hardware 9
Lightmatter Series A 2018 AI/Hardware 929
Baseten Series B 2022 AI Infrastructure 930
Flock Safety Series E 2022 Public Safety 931
Crusoe Series E 2025-10 AI Infrastructure 939
Chainguard Series B 2023 Cybersecurity 932
The Bot Company Series A 2024-05-13 AI/Robotics 1048
Fireblocks Series D 2021 Crypto/Fintech 933
Framework Series A 2022 Hardware 934
Cyera Series C 2024-04-09 Cybersecurity 935
Headway Series C 2023-10-05 Healthcare 936
Handshake Series B 2016 Consumer/Jobs 937
Granola Series A 2024-10-23 AI/Productivity 938
Shepherd Series B 2026-03-24 Insurtech/AI 12
Standard Intelligence Series A (co-led with Sequoia) 2026-04-30 AI / Foundation Models 404142
Profluent Series B (existing investor) 2025-11-19 AI / Programmable Biology 4344
RadixArk Seed (co-led, $100M, $400M post-money) 2026-05-05 AI Infrastructure 454647

This table represents a subset of Spark Capital’s 337 total investments 4.

In Their Own Words

Spark Capital states: “Product comes first, and everything else follows” 7.

The firm’s manifesto describes investing in “products we love, people, crazy, dreams, design, details, brains, reality, unreality, reinvention, new markets, weird stuff, guts, independence, hustle, distinction, art, humanness, idealists, oddities, optimism, communities, creation, surprises, technologists with the heart of an artist” 8.

Nabeel Hyatt on his selective approach: “if you’re a startup CEO or running a small org, you can manage eight or nine reports where you understand everything they’re doing, and outside of that, the edges get fuzzy” 10.

Co-founder Bijan Sabet described starting Spark to build “a new kind of firm — one that would push back against the traditions, good and bad, of typical venture capital” 2.

What Founders Say

A founder who worked with Nabeel Hyatt described him as “a straight shooter with strong opinions” who is “wise without being arrogant” and “loyal, hard-working, and genuinely cares about the entrepreneurs with whom he works” 11. The founder highlighted that Nabeel’s experience as an entrepreneur helps him empathize with founders 11.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Spark Capital,” accessed March 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_Capital↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Crunchbase, “Bijan Sabet - Co-Founder and General Partner @ Spark Capital,” accessed March 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/bijan-sabet↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. TechCrunch, “VC mega-funds are back with General Catalyst, Spark rumored to be raising billions,” March 2026, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/11/vc-mega-funds-are-back-with-general-catalyst-spark-rumored-to-be-raising-billions/↩↩

  4. Tracxn, “Spark Capital - 2025 Investor Profile,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/spark-capital/__mODt1i5BYDWaPfk-iLnH5snYnPHjX0j0rSXCUPB3rb8↩↩↩

  5. The Boston Globe, “With $2 billion in new funds, Spark Capital doubles down on tech,” March 2022, accessed March 2026. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/09/business/with-2-billion-new-funds-spark-capital-doubles-down-tech/↩↩↩

  6. Medium/Spark Capital, “We have three new general partners at Spark,” accessed March 2026. https://medium.com/spark-capital/we-have-three-new-general-partners-at-spark-895459f478ce↩↩

  7. F4 Fund, “Spark Capital — Investment Thesis & Preferences,” accessed March 2026. https://f4.fund/firms/spark-capital↩↩↩↩

  8. Spark Capital website, homepage, accessed March 2026. https://www.sparkcapital.com/↩↩↩↩↩↩

  9. Spark Capital, “Companies,” accessed March 2026. https://www.sparkcapital.com/companies↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  10. The Twenty Minute VC, “Nabeel Hyatt, GP @ Spark Capital: To Win in AI, Investors Need to Change Their Approach,” accessed March 2026. https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/nabeel-hyatt↩↩↩↩

  11. All Blue Labs, “Nabeel Hyatt from Spark Capital - VC Guide,” accessed March 2026. https://www.allbluelabs.com/reviews/rec8z9n69Ot2r6ZFS?Item+ID=5f925e7358be220b450659a3&Item+Name=rec8z9n69Ot2r6ZFS↩↩

  12. “Shepherd Raises $42M Series B to Power the Insurance Behind AI Infrastructure Boom,” PR Newswire, March 24, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shepherd-raises-42m-series-b-to-power-the-insurance-behind-ai-infrastructure-boom-302723122.html↩

  13. PitchBook, “Spark Capital Leads $275M Investment in Affirm,” accessed April 2026. https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/spark-capital-leads-275m-investment-in-affirm↩

  14. Tracxn, “Niantic — 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/niantic/__dlj7tOG-fxifIUPO-WKT81Jj7O3IhkwS-PPxW0o5eeU/funding-and-investors↩

  15. Crunchbase, “Plaid — Seed Round,” September 2013. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/plaid-seed–4bbe2fa4↩

  16. Tracxn, “Oculus — 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/oculus/__t3j3bzOkxb397phcFarJY-Z7g0Yurbta0cjtL7rnwmM/funding-and-investors↩

  17. TechCrunch, “Cruise Raises $12.5M From Spark, YC’s Sam Altman For Self-Driving Cars,” September 2015. https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/18/cruise-2/↩

  18. Medium/Spark Capital, “Investing in Coinbase,” by Jeremy G. Philips, 2017. https://medium.com/spark-capital/investing-in-coinbase-3f25b0cf2f13↩

  19. Medium/Spark Capital, “Welcome, Scale!” by Will Reed, 2019. https://medium.com/spark-capital/welcome-scale-aa3acd946688↩

  20. Snap Inc., Wikipedia, accessed April 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap_Inc.↩

  21. Tracxn, “Ramp — 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/ramp/__mMFluFx9yKyt9DXRq5KzSGK2frbsYq5y9jc9XK9-g9E/funding-and-investors↩

  22. TechCrunch, “Fintech Mercury lands $300M in Sequoia-led Series C, doubles valuation to $3.5B,” March 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/26/fintech-mercury-lands-300m-in-sequoia-led-series-c-doubles-valuation-to-3-5b/↩

  23. TechCrunch, “Disrupt Alum Trello Takes In $10.3M For Its Visual To-Do Lists,” July 2014. https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/24/trello-series-a/↩

  24. TechCrunch, “On-Demand Delivery Startup Postmates Raises $16 Million From Spark Capital,” February 2014. https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/18/postmates-16m-spark-capital/↩

  25. Pokemon GO Hub, “Niantic raises $200 million in a Series B funding round led by Spark Capital,” November 2017. https://pokemongohub.net/post/news/niantic-raises-200-million-series-b-funding-round-led-spark-capital/↩

  26. Benchling, “Benchling Raises $50M Series D To Accelerate Biotech Revolution,” May 2020. https://www.benchling.com/news/benchling-raises-50m-series-d-to-accelerate-biotech-revolution↩

  27. Crowdfund Insider, “Spark Capital Leads Remote Working Fintech Deel’s $30 Million Series B Round,” September 2020. https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2020/09/166571-plaid-twitter-slack-investor-spark-capital-leads-remote-working-fintech-deels-30-million-series-b-round/↩

  28. Tracxn, “Marqeta — 2025 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/marqeta/__003GYeHsTZo7TDu3m6UIku5061YF79tRD4GhRxNIACo/funding-and-investors↩

  29. Medium/Spark Capital, “Our investment in Lightmatter,” by Santo Politi. https://medium.com/spark-capital/our-investment-in-lightmatter-a565bb0ede34↩

  30. Crunchbase, “Baseten — Series B,” accessed April 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/baseten-series-b–8c4203e2↩

  31. Tracxn, “Flock Safety — 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/flock-safety/__lfRrqBoJWA2PHkk8HJ-7MN7tlihrgTa6vvlOhfrv8eg/funding-and-investors↩

  32. Chainguard, “Chainguard raises $61 million series B round,” November 2023. https://www.chainguard.dev/unchained/chainguard-raises-61-million-series-b-round-as-enterprises-move-to-fortify-open-source-software↩

  33. TechCrunch, “Crypto infrastructure company Fireblocks nearly quadruples valuation to $8B,” January 2022. https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/27/crypto-infrastructure-company-fireblocks-nearly-quadruples-valuation-to-8b-in-six-months/↩

  34. Framework, “Framework’s Series A and the Years Ahead,” January 2022. https://frame.work/blog/frameworks-series-a-and-the-years-ahead↩

  35. Tracxn, “Cyera — 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/cyera/__p8e5_i0CWICkrIIlFk4v-KW5_IdvKEquM9eXK85ET6g/funding-and-investors↩

  36. Modern Healthcare, “Mental health startup Headway lands $125M from Spark Capital, others,” October 2023. https://www.modernhealthcare.com/digital-health/mental-health-startups-headway-sparks-capital/↩

  37. EdSurge, “Student Career Network Handshake Raises $20 Million in Series B Funding,” November 2016. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-11-17-student-career-network-handshake-raises-20-million-in-series-b-funding↩

  38. TechCrunch, “VCs love using the AI meeting notepad Granola, so they gave it $20M,” October 23, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/23/vcs-love-using-the-ai-meeting-notepad-granola-so-they-gave-it-20m/↩

  39. Crusoe, “Crusoe announces Series E funding,” October 2025. https://www.crusoe.ai/resources/newsroom/crusoe-announces-series-e-funding — $1.375B Series E co-led by Valor Equity Partners and Mubadala Capital with participation from Spark Capital among 29+ investors at $10B+ valuation. ↩

  40. SiliconANGLE, “Standard Intelligence raises $75M to develop efficient computer use models,” April 30, 2026. https://siliconangle.com/2026/04/30/standard-intelligence-raises-75m-develop-efficient-computer-use-models/ — $75M Series A co-led by Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital. ↩

  41. Sequoia Capital, “Standard Intelligence: Training General Intelligence in Pixel Space,” by Sonya Huang, April 30, 2026. https://sequoiacap.com/article/standard-intelligence-training-general-intelligence-in-pixel-space/ — Confirms Spark Capital partners Mikowai Ashwill and Yasmin Razavi co-led the round with Sequoia’s Sonya Huang. ↩

  42. Pulse 2.0, “Standard Intelligence Raises $75 Million From Sequoia And Spark Capital To Scale AGI Research,” April 30, 2026. https://pulse2.com/standard-intelligence-raises-75-million-from-sequoia-and-spark-capital-to-scale-agi-research/ — Angel investors include Andrej Karpathy, Stanley Druckenmiller, and Milan Kovac. ↩

  43. SiliconANGLE, “Profluent Bio raises $106M from Jeff Bezos and others to accelerate protein design with AI,” November 20, 2025, accessed April 2026. https://siliconangle.com/2025/11/20/profluent-bio-raises-106m-jeff-bezos-others-accelerate-protein-design-ai/ — Confirms Spark Capital participated as existing investor in $106M Series B co-led by Bezos Expeditions and Altimeter Capital. ↩

  44. CRISPR Medicine News press release service, “Profluent Raises $106M to Scale Frontier AI Models for Programmable Biology,” November 19, 2025, accessed April 2026. https://crisprmedicinenews.com/press-release-service/card/profluent-raises-106m-to-scale-frontier-ai-models-for-programmable-biology/ — Confirms Spark Capital, Insight Partners, and Air Street Capital participated as existing investors. ↩

  45. BusinessWire, “RadixArk Launches with $100 Million in Seed Funding Led by Accel to Grow SGLang and Democratize Frontier AI Infrastructure,” May 5, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260505077157/en/RadixArk-Launches-with-$100-Million-in-Seed-Funding-Led-by-Accel-to-Grow-SGLang-and-Democratize-Frontier-AI-Infrastructure — Confirms Accel led, Spark Capital co-led, $100M seed at $400M post-money. ↩

  46. Accel, “Our Investment in RadixArk: Building the Open Infrastructure for AI,” May 5, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://www.accel.com/noteworthies/investing-in-radixark-building-an-open-universal-inference-engine↩

  47. HOF Capital, “Why We Invested in RadixArk,” May 5, 2026, accessed May 2026. https://hofcapital.substack.com/p/why-we-invested-in-radixark↩

  48. TechCrunch, “Cruise founder Kyle Vogt is back with a robot startup,” May 13, 2024. Accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/13/cruise-founder-kyle-vogt-is-back-with-a-robot-startup/ — Confirms The Bot Company announced $150M round on May 13, 2024, with Nabeel Hyatt (Spark Capital general partner) among the named investors alongside Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Quiet Capital. Cross-referenced with Sacra, “The Bot Company valuation, funding & news,” accessed May 2026. https://sacra.com/c/the-bot-company/ — which characterizes the subsequent March 2025 $150M round at $2B valuation as Series B, supporting Series A designation for the May 2024 round. ↩

  49. Anthropic, “Anthropic Raises $450 Million in Series C Funding to Scale Reliable AI Products,” May 23, 2023, accessed May 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-series-c — Primary announcement confirming Spark Capital led the $450M Series C; participants Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures. Cross-referenced with TechCrunch, “Anthropic raises $450M to build next-gen AI assistants,” May 23, 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/23/anthropic-raises-350m-to-build-next-gen-ai-assistants/ and VentureBeat, “Anthropic secures $450M in Series C funding from Google, Salesforce and others,” May 23, 2023. https://venturebeat.com/ai/anthropic-secures-450m-in-series-c-funding-from-google-salesforce-and-others/↩

  50. BusinessWire, “Mercury Raises $200 Million Series D at $5.2B Valuation,” May 20, 2026. Accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260520511817/en/Mercury-Raises-$200-Million-Series-D-at-$5.2B-Valuation — Confirms Spark Capital participated in Mercury’s Series D on May 20, 2026 at $5.2B valuation; TCV led with existing investors a16z, Coatue, CRV, Sapphire Ventures, and Sequoia Capital also participating. ↩