True Ventures

Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026

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Location Palo Alto, California
Founded 2005
Fund Size ~$4B AUM across 12 funds (2025)
Website https://trueventures.com
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed
Sector Focus
ai hardware consumer biotech climate infrastructure developer-tools wearables deeptech security

Team

Jon Callaghan Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Kevin Rose Partner

About

True Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2005 by Jon Callaghan, Phil Black, and John Burke 12. The firm’s first fund, True Ventures I (2006), closed at $165 million — one of the largest institutional seed funds at the time 2. The firm is headquartered in Palo Alto, California 1.

By October 2020, True had raised eleven funds totaling roughly $2.8 billion in AUM, with that announcement including Fund VII ($465M) and Select Fund IV ($375M) 3. As of 2025, the firm manages approximately $4 billion across twelve funds and has partnered with more than 1,050 founders across 500+ companies, producing seven IPOs and 60+ acquisitions 45.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported.)

True Ventures positions itself as the institutional first-check investor at company formation, emphasizing founder alignment over deal terms. Co-founder Jon Callaghan has said the firm was named “true” because “entrepreneurs deserved a better, more aligned partner in their cap table and better, more aligned partner on their board” 6.

The firm has stated it is “early and deep in AI,” with 85+ AI-native investments since 2015 14.

Inferred Thesis

Based on True’s published portfolio communications, partner board seats, and contemporaneous press coverage of named rounds.

Stage discipline. True writes initial checks of $1M-$5M at pre-seed and seed, with follow-on capacity up to ~$50M lifetime via the Select Fund series (Select I-IV) 35. Co-founder Callaghan has said True can “comfortably” invest up to $50 million in a single company through the combination 7.

Sector composition — broad with a distinctive hardware/consumer-device tilt. True’s most distinctive concentration historically has been hardware and novel consumer devices: Fitbit (wearables), Ring (smart doorbells), Peloton (connected fitness), MakerBot and Glowforge (consumer 3D printing/laser), and most recently Sandbar (voice-activated ring) 78910. Software is also a major component: HashiCorp (cloud infrastructure), Duo Security (MFA), Automattic (open-source/SaaS) 111. The firm reports 85+ AI investments since 2015 (Aisera, Daydream, Pipedream, Pallie AI, others) 4.

Pattern: backing categories before they exist. True’s most-cited bets — Fitbit (first external round 2008, wearables as a category did not exist) 12; Ring (Series A April 2014, smart-doorbells as a category did not exist) 9; HashiCorp (seed April 2013, infrastructure-as-code as a category was nascent) 11; MakerBot (consumer 3D printing as a category did not exist) 7 — are category-creating rather than category-competing.

Capital sourcing. Phil Black stated to TechCrunch in 2018 that True has “never taken money from foreign sources” and avoids “special deals” with sovereign wealth funds 7. This is unusual for funds of True’s size.

Portfolio

Notable investments where the firm or a named True partner participated:

Company Stage Year Lead Partner Sector Status
Automattic Series A 2007 (firm participated; Toni Schneider later joined as CEO) Open-source/SaaS Active 13
Fitbit First external round 2008 Jon Callaghan Wearables IPO 2015; acq. Google 2021 12
Peloton Early ~2014-2015 Jon Callaghan Connected fitness IPO 2019 114
MakerBot Series A ($10M; Foundry Group led) 2011-08-23 — 3D printing Acq. Stratasys 2013 71718
HashiCorp Seed (first investor) 2013-04 Adam D’Augelli Cloud infrastructure IPO 2021; acq. IBM 2024 11
Duo Security Series A ($5M; Google Ventures led) 2012-02-28 — Security (MFA) Acq. Cisco 2018 (~$2.35B) 171920
Ring Series A (lead) 2014-04 Jon Callaghan Smart home Acq. Amazon 2018 9
Blue Bottle Coffee Early — — Consumer/coffee Acq. Nestlé 2017 7
Glowforge Series A ($9M; Foundry Group led) 2015-05-20 (co-led with Foundry Group) Hardware/3D laser Active 10222324
Goodreads Early — — Consumer/books Acq. Amazon 2013 7
BrightRoll Early — — Ad-tech Acq. Yahoo 2014 (~$640M) 7
Evident.io Series A (participated, $9.85M; Bain Capital Ventures led) 2014-11 — Cloud security Acq. Palo Alto Networks (2018, $300M) 725
Zymergen Early/Select — — Biotech IPO 2021 (subsequently delisted) 7
Madison Reed Series A ($4M, co-led with Maveron) 2013-04 (Amy Errett, venture partner) Consumer/beauty Active 3726
WeFarm Seed (led, $5M) + Series A (led, $13M) 2018-03, 2019-10 — Agriculture/marketplace Active 72728
Aisera Series C/D 2020-2022 Jon Callaghan Enterprise AI Active 15
Pipedream Series A 2022-05 Jon Callaghan Developer tools Active 115
Daydream Seed 2024-06 Jon Callaghan AI Active 15
Ernesta Series A → B 2022 / 2026 Jon Callaghan Consumer Active 15
Sandbar Early 2025 — Voice/wearable Active 8
Nectar Social Seed → Series A 2025-06 / 2026-05-14 — AI / MarTech / Social Commerce Active 16
Flick Seed (lead) 2026-05-14 — AI / Filmmaking Active 21

This table is a curated subset of True Ventures’ 500+ portfolio companies 1.

In Their Own Words

Jon Callaghan on the firm’s naming and mission (The Twenty Minute VC):

“We started true, and we actually named the firm true because we thought that entrepreneurs deserved a better, more aligned partner in their cap table and better, more aligned partner on their board.” — Jon Callaghan 6

Jon Callaghan on the firm’s risk posture:

“We want to try big things. We want to be out in the frontier, and we want to empower those founders to try big things and not worry about failing.” — Jon Callaghan 6

Phil Black on capital sourcing (TechCrunch 2018):

“We’ve never taken money from foreign sources.” — Phil Black, on True’s avoidance of sovereign wealth funds and “special deals” 7

True team on backing HashiCorp’s Mitchell Hashimoto (firm blog, Adam D’Augelli):

“We were extremely impressed with Mitchell during his time at Kiip, and we stayed close to him as he moved his focus to further building Vagrant and developing a company around it.” — Adam D’Augelli, “Welcoming HashiCorp” 11

On Fund VII / Select IV (October 2020 announcement):

“Supporting founders in this way for the long and often arduous journey of entrepreneurship is one of the most valuable things we can do.” — True Ventures, Fund VII/Select IV announcement 3

What Founders Say

James Park, co-founder/CEO of Fitbit, at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015, onstage with Jon Callaghan:

“We didn’t know anything about hardware at the time… in hindsight it was probably something completely dumb for us to do.” — James Park 12

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials specifically about working with True Ventures (beyond on-firm-blog testimonials and on-stage interviews) were verified in this profile. Future research should search portfolio founder podcast appearances (Jamie Siminoff on 20VC, Mitchell Hashimoto interviews, Matt Mullenweg’s ma.tt blog) for direct quotes.

Sources

  1. True Ventures team page, “Jon Callaghan,” accessed May 2026. https://trueventures.com/team/jon-callaghan/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Crunchbase, “True Ventures — Company Profile” (confirming founding 2005 by Callaghan, Phil Black, John Burke; True I = $165M), accessed May 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/true-ventures↩↩

  3. True Ventures blog, “Powering Founders With Two New Funds and Additional Platform Resources” (Fund VII $465M + Select IV $375M; ~$2.8B AUM at announcement), October 14, 2020. https://trueventures.com/blog/true-fund-vii-select-fund-iv↩↩↩↩

  4. Crunchbase News, “From Web 2.0 To AI: How True Ventures Is Backing The Next Big Shift,” October 2, 2025. https://news.crunchbase.com/ai/true-ventures-ai-investments-jon-callaghan-puneet-agarwal/↩↩↩

  5. True Ventures team page (full team), accessed May 2026. https://trueventures.com/team/↩↩

  6. The Twenty Minute VC (Harry Stebbings), “20VC: Why Investors Have The Biggest Problem with Bias … with True Ventures Founder, Jon Callaghan,” transcript via deciphr.ai, accessed May 2026. https://www.deciphr.ai/podcast/20vc-why-investors-have-the-biggest-problem-with-bias-why-our-job-is-to-maximise-risk–why-it-is-essential-to-get-good-at-losing-with-true-ventures-founder-jon-callaghan↩↩↩

  7. TechCrunch, “True Ventures has two new funds totaling $635 million to plug into a wide range of startups,” October 30, 2018. https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/true-ventures-has-two-new-funds-to-invest-totaling-635-million-to-plug-into-a-wide-range-of-startups/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  8. TechCrunch, “The phone is dead. Long live . . . what exactly?” (Jon Callaghan interview; Sandbar named), December 30, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/30/the-phone-is-dead-long-live-what-exactly/↩↩

  9. True Ventures blog, “Congratulating the Ring Team” (True led Ring Series A April 2014), April 12, 2018. https://trueventures.com/blog/congratulating-the-ring-team↩↩↩

  10. GeekWire, “Glowforge raises $9M from Foundry Group, True Ventures, MakerBot founder to build 3D laser printers,” 2015. https://www.geekwire.com/2015/glowforge-raises-9m-from-foundry-group-true-ventures-makerbot-founder-to-build-3d-laser-printers/↩↩

  11. True Ventures blog, “Welcoming HashiCorp” (Adam D’Augelli; True seed-funded HashiCorp April 2013 as first investor), December 10, 2014. https://www.trueventures.com/blog/welcoming-hashicorp↩↩↩↩

  12. TechCrunch, “Fitbit CEO And True Ventures’ Jon Callaghan On The Big Fitness Opportunity” (True invested in Fitbit’s first external round in 2008), September 22, 2015. https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/22/fitbit-ceo-and-true-ventures-jon-callaghan-on-the-big-fitness-opportunity/↩↩↩

  13. ma.tt (Matt Mullenweg) venture-capital tag, Automattic Series A April 2007 (Polaris, True Ventures, Radar Partners, CNET), accessed May 2026. https://ma.tt/tag/venture-capital/↩

  14. Peloton Interactive investor relations, “Jon Callaghan — Board Member” (board service through January 2025), accessed May 2026. https://investor.onepeloton.com/board-member/jon-callaghan/↩

  15. Signal NFX, “Jon Callaghan’s Investing Profile,” accessed May 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/jon-callaghan↩↩↩↩

  16. True Ventures, “The Social Marketing Playbook Has Changed — Why We Backed Nectar Social,” June 2025. Accessed May 2026. https://www.trueventures.com/blog/the-social-marketing-playbook-has-changed-why-we-backed-nectar-social — True Ventures co-led Nectar Social’s $10.6M seed in June 2025 with GV. Cross-referenced with Business Wire press release for the $30M Series A on May 14, 2026 (True Ventures participated), https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260513604281/en/Nectar-Social-Raises-$30M-Series-A-to-Build-the-Agentic-Operating-System-for-Modern-Marketing.↩

  17. TechCrunch, “MakerBot Takes $10 Million In Funding From Foundry Group, Angels,” August 23, 2011. Accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/23/makerbot-takes-10-million-in-funding-from-foundry-group-angels/ — MakerBot’s $10M Series A announced August 23, 2011, led by Foundry Group with Bezos Expeditions, True Ventures, and RRE Ventures participating alongside a dozen angels. ↩

  18. AllThingsD, “MakerBot Raises $10 Million for 3D Printers,” August 23, 2011. Accessed May 2026. https://allthingsd.com/20110823/makerbot-raises-10-million-for-3d-printers — Confirms $10M Series A led by Foundry Group with RRE Ventures, True Ventures, and Bezos Expeditions participating. ↩

  19. AnnArbor.com, “Ann Arbor startup Duo Security lands $5 million from investment group including Google,” February 28, 2012. Accessed May 2026. https://www.annarbor.com/business-review/ann-arbor-startup-duo-security-lands-5-million-from-investment-group-including-google/ — Duo Security’s $5M Series A announced February 28, 2012, led by Google Ventures with True Ventures and Resonant Venture Partners participating. Quote from GV partner Karim Faris included. ↩

  20. PE Hub, “Duo Security Seals $5M,” February 28, 2012. Accessed May 2026. https://www.pehub.com/duo-security-seals-5m/ — Confirms Duo Security $5M Series A on February 28, 2012 with True Ventures and Resonant Venture Partners as prior backers in the 2010 seed round. ↩

  21. BusinessWire, “Flick Raises $6M Seed Round to Redefine How AI Films Are Created,” May 14, 2026. Accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260514408256/en/Flick-Raises-$6M-Seed-Round-to-Redefine-How-AI-Films-Are-Created — True Ventures led Flick’s $6M seed announced May 14, 2026, with participation from GV, Y Combinator, Lightspeed, Formosa Capital, Pioneer Fund, Olive Tree Capital, and N1. ↩

  22. Business Wire, “Glowforge Raises $9 Million Series A to Bring 3D Laser Printer to Consumers,” May 20, 2015. Accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150520005310/en/Glowforge-Raises-9-Million-Series-A-to-Bring-3D-Laser-Printer-to-Consumers — Glowforge $9M Series A announced May 20, 2015, led by Foundry Group and True Ventures, with participation from Bre Pettis and Jenny Lawton (both of MakerBot). ↩

  23. TechCrunch, “Seattle’s Glowforge Is Building A Maker Machine To Challenge Amazon Prime,” May 20, 2015. Accessed May 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/20/glowforge-series-a/ — Contemporaneous coverage confirming Glowforge’s $9M Series A on May 20, 2015 led by Foundry Group with True Ventures co-leading. ↩

  24. True Ventures blog, “Welcoming Glowforge,” May 2015. Accessed May 2026. https://trueventures.com/blog/welcoming-glowforge — True Ventures’ announcement of its Series A investment in Glowforge alongside Foundry Group (Brad Feld), citing prior MakerBot experience. ↩

  25. Bain Capital Ventures, “Evident.io Closes $9.85 Million in Series A to Expand Its Vision for Continuous Cloud-Centric Security,” November 2014. Accessed May 2026. https://www.baincapital.com/news/evidentio-closes-985-million-series-expand-its-vision-continuous-cloud-centric-security — Confirms Evident.io’s $9.85M Series A in November 2014 led by Bain Capital Ventures with True Ventures participation; Puneet Agarwal (True Ventures) quoted. Evident.io was subsequently acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $300M in March 2018. ↩

  26. PR Newswire, “Hair Color Innovator Madison Reed Raises Over $50 Million to Continue Omnichannel Expansion,” March 2021. Accessed May 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hair-color-innovator-madison-reed-raises-over-50-million-to-continue-omnichannel-expansion-301234446.html — Documents Madison Reed funding history including the April 2013 Series A ($4M co-led by True Ventures and Maveron), 2014 Series B ($12M led by Norwest Venture Partners), and subsequent rounds totaling $130.8M. ↩

  27. BusinessWire, “AgTech Startup Wefarm Secures New Financing Round Led by True Ventures,” March 13, 2018. Accessed May 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180313006119/en/AgTech-Startup-Wefarm-Secures-New-Financing-Round-Led-by-True-Ventures — Confirms WeFarm’s $5M seed round led by True Ventures in March 2018, with Skype founder Niklas Zennström, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, Bryan Meehan (Blue Bottle), Norrsken Foundation, LocalGlobe, and Accelerated Digital Ventures participating. ↩

  28. UKTN, “Wefarm secures $13m Series A funding,” November 1, 2019. Accessed May 2026. https://www.uktech.news/funding/vc-funding/wefarm-secures-13m-series-a-funding-2019 — Confirms WeFarm’s $13M Series A in October/November 2019 led by True Ventures, with AgFunder, June Fund, LocalGlobe, ADV, and Norrsken Foundation participating. ↩