Tom Loverro
General Partner at IVP
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General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP, joined 2015, promoted to GP 2019, 7th GP). Growth/late-stage investor ($15M-$100M) in enterprise software, fintech, developer tools, security, AI. Recent investment in LangChain Series B. Focuses on high-growth consumer and enterprise companies. Menlo Park based. IVP founding partner.
Background
Tom Loverro is a General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), where he focuses on investing in later-stage, high-growth consumer and enterprise companies 1. He joined IVP in April 2015 and was promoted to General Partner in May 2019, becoming the firm’s seventh GP 23.
Loverro began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs in the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Group 12. He then joined RRE Ventures in New York as an analyst, eventually rising to Principal, where he led or co-led investments in Avant, Base, Braintree (acquired by PayPal), Bread Finance, CollectiveHealth, CoverHound, and NerdWallet 12. He also served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Lightbank and as Senior Director of Product Marketing at Drobo, a role he has said deepened his empathy for founders and operators 1.
Loverro holds a B.A. from Stanford University, where he graduated with Distinction, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was an Austin Scholar 12.
He was named to the Forbes Midas List of the 100 Best Venture Capital Investors in 2021 4, the Forbes Midas Brink List in 2019 5, GrowthCap’s Top 25 Software Investors in 2020 and 2021 67, and GrowthCap’s Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors in 2019 5.
Stated Thesis
Loverro publicly describes himself as a generalist who gravitates toward companies with identifiable technological advantages 1. On IVP’s website, he states he is “energized by working with product visionaries” and that his heart is “in venture—where my passion for technology and my passion for people intersect” 1. He emphasizes understanding the “why now” behind opportunities and seeks founders with “a striking sense of urgency and determination” 1.
In a July 2024 Fortune article, Loverro articulated his view that the startup market had stabilized after the 2022-2023 downturn and that founders should shift from defensive cost-cutting to competitive growth, describing the period as a “Great Reawakening” 8. He stated: “We have to get out of our Stockholm Syndrome, and get back to thinking: ‘Hey, maybe it’s okay if my startup burns a little more money’” 8.
IVP as a firm invests at the growth stage, typically deploying $15M-$100M per deal with a target of $25M 9.
Inferred Thesis
Based on 20 verified investments where Loverro was personally involved (at IVP), the following patterns emerge:
Sector breakdown: Enterprise software and developer tools dominate the portfolio. Of 20 verified investments: 8 are enterprise software/developer tools (Amplitude, CircleCI, Datadog, GitHub, HashiCorp, LangChain, Tanium, Vercel — 40%), 5 are fintech/financial services (Coinbase, NerdWallet, TaxBit, Ajaib, IEX — 25%), 3 are security/infrastructure (Chainguard x2 rounds, Skydio — 15%), 2 are vertical SaaS (Podium, Attentive — 10%), and 2 are other (Paper, Gamma — 10%). Sample size is moderate; percentages are approximate.
Stage distribution: Loverro invests predominantly at Series B through Series D, consistent with IVP’s growth-stage mandate. Of the verified investments with known stages: 2 Series B (Podium, LangChain), 3 Series C (Amplitude, Attentive, Chainguard), 4 Series D (Coinbase, HashiCorp, Skydio, Datadog). The remainder are later-stage or follow-on rounds.
Geographic focus: The portfolio is heavily US-based, with the notable exception of Ajaib (Indonesia). Most portfolio companies are headquartered in San Francisco, New York, or other major US tech hubs.
Notable pattern — platform infrastructure bets: Loverro has a strong track record in companies that become foundational developer or enterprise infrastructure: GitHub (code hosting, acquired by Microsoft), Datadog (cloud monitoring, IPO), HashiCorp (infrastructure automation, IPO), and more recently LangChain (AI agent tooling) and Chainguard (software supply chain security). This pattern suggests a thesis around companies that become essential layers in the developer/enterprise stack.
Co-investor patterns: Sequoia appears alongside multiple Loverro investments (Amplitude, Attentive, GitHub). Andreessen Horowitz co-invested in Skydio and Tanium. Kleiner Perkins co-led Chainguard’s Series D.
IPO/acquisition track record: Several of Loverro’s investments have reached public liquidity events: Coinbase (IPO 2021), Datadog (IPO 2019), HashiCorp (IPO 2021), NerdWallet (IPO 2021), GitHub (acquired by Microsoft 2018), Amplitude (IPO 2021).
Gap between stated and actual: While Loverro describes himself as a generalist, his portfolio shows a pronounced tilt toward developer tools and enterprise infrastructure — categories he does not specifically call out in his public positioning. His fintech investments are significant but represent a smaller portion than the enterprise/dev-tools concentration might suggest from his public commentary around Coinbase.
Portfolio
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amplitude | 2017 | Series C | 10 |
| Coinbase | 2017 | Series D (Lead) | 11 |
| GitHub | 2015 | Series B | 12 |
| Tanium | 2015 | Series C | 13 |
| HashiCorp | 2018 | Series D (Lead) | 14 |
| NerdWallet | 2015 | Series A | 15 |
| Podium | 2018 | Series B (Lead) | 16 |
| Datadog | 2018 | Series D | 17 |
| Attentive | 2019 | Series B | 18 |
| Attentive | 2020 | Series C (Co-Lead) | 19 |
| Skydio | 2021 | Series D | 20 |
| TaxBit | 2021 | Series B (Co-Lead) | 21 |
| Paper | 2021 | Series C (Lead) | 22 |
| Ajaib | 2021 | Series B | 23 |
| CircleCI | 2020 | Series E | 24 |
| Chainguard | 2024 | Series C (Co-Lead) | 25 |
| Chainguard | 2025 | Series D (Co-Lead) | 26 |
| LangChain | 2025 | Series B (Lead) | 27 |
This table represents investments where Loverro has been specifically identified as personally involved, based on board roles, press releases, and public statements. IVP’s full portfolio is substantially larger; Loverro’s personal involvement could not be verified for all IVP deals.
In Their Own Words
“I’ve always been energized by working with product visionaries, so I always knew that I wanted either to be a startup founder or invest alongside founders.” — Tom Loverro, IVP team page 1
“My heart was in venture—where my passion for technology and my passion for people intersect.” — Tom Loverro, IVP team page 1
“I don’t need to call the exact bottom, because startups need to anticipate. Whether the bottom is actually six months from now or tomorrow doesn’t matter. The point is things aren’t going to get much worse. For founders, that means it’s time to go out there, land grab, and beat your competition.” — Tom Loverro, Fortune, July 2024 8
“We have to get out of our Stockholm Syndrome, and get back to thinking: ‘Hey, maybe it’s okay if my startup burns a little more money.’” — Tom Loverro, Fortune, July 2024 8
“Name a year where there wasn’t some obsession. That’s part of the cycle, where we have something we’re obsessed with. That’s actually normal for venture capital.” — Tom Loverro, Fortune, July 2024 8
On Chainguard: “Chainguard isn’t just a product—it’s becoming the go-to platform for securing modern software development from the ground up. Our conviction is driven by customer love and compounding adoption: we’re seeing customers not only deploy it deeply but evangelize it passionately—and that love is translating into real momentum, with Chainguard beating its revenue plan by 2x.” — Tom Loverro, Chainguard Series D announcement, April 2025 26
On Chainguard: “Enterprises are turning to Chainguard and realizing a clear ROI right away by eliminating the resource burden of patching software vulnerabilities and meeting compliance standards.” — Tom Loverro, Chainguard Series C announcement, July 2024 25
On LangChain: “Two years ago, the question was whether an open-source project like LangChain could become a major commercial company. We saw Harrison and Ankush take the first important steps boldly into that journey.” — Tom Loverro, Fortune, October 2025 27
On LangChain: “It feels increasingly sure that agents are super important to the future. And if you believe that, then agent engineering is going to be incredibly important.” — Tom Loverro, Fortune, October 2025 27
On Podium: “The growth Podium has experienced in just four years puts them on track to be one of the most elite SaaS companies we’ve seen.” — Tom Loverro, Podium Series B announcement, 2018 16
What Founders Say
“I’ve really enjoyed working with Tom over the past few years. He is always happy to put in the work and this has been a major factor in Coinbase’s success. He is thoughtful, measured, humble, and never pushy. I’m grateful to have him as an investor.” — Brian Armstrong, CEO & Co-Founder of Coinbase, IVP press release, May 2019 3
“I first worked with Tom at GitHub four years ago. We stayed in close touch and when it was time to raise our growth round for HashiCorp, I picked up the phone and called Tom. He is an exceptionally high conviction investor, moves swiftly, and is dedicated to helping build out our team to realize our massive opportunity.” — Dave McJannet, CEO of HashiCorp, IVP press release, May 2019 3
Sources
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IVP team page, “Tom Loverro,” accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/team/tom-loverro/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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IVP press release, “Thomas Loverro Joins Institutional Venture Partners,” accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/thomas-loverro-joins-institutional-venture-partners/↩↩↩↩
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Pulse2, “IVP’s Thomas Loverro Gets Promoted To General Partner,” May 2019, accessed March 2026. https://pulse2.com/ivp-tom-loverro-promoted-general-partner/↩↩↩
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BusinessWire, “Forbes Names Tom Loverro to the Midas List of the World’s Best 100 Venture Capital Investors,” April 2021, accessed March 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210413006221/en/Forbes-Names-Tom-Loverro-to-the-Midas-List-of-the-Worlds-Best-100-Venture-Capital-Investors↩
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BusinessWire, “Somesh Dash and Tom Loverro Named on the 2020 GrowthCap’s Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors List,” December 2020, accessed March 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201222005605/en/Somesh-Dash-and-Tom-Loverro-Named-on-the-2020-GrowthCaps-Top-40-Under-40-Growth-Investors-List↩↩
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BusinessWire, “Eric Liaw and Tom Loverro Named on the 2020 GrowthCap’s Top 25 Software Investors List,” October 2020, accessed March 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201013006016/en/↩
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BusinessWire, “Steve Harrick, Eric Liaw and Tom Loverro Named on the 2021 GrowthCap’s Top 25 Software Investors List,” November 2021, accessed March 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211103006376/en/Steve-Harrick-Eric-Liaw-and-Tom-Loverro-Named-on-the-2021-GrowthCaps-Top-25-Software-Investors-List↩
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Fortune, “IVP’s Tom Loverro on why startups need to seize this moment,” July 2024, accessed March 2026. https://fortune.com/2024/07/01/ivps-tom-loverro-on-why-startups-need-to-seize-this-moment/↩↩↩↩↩
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Signal by NFX, “Thomas Loverro’s Investing Profile - IVP General Partner,” accessed March 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/tom-loverro↩
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IVP press release, “Enterprise Demand for Product Analytics Fuels 3x Growth at Amplitude,” accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/enterprise-demand-for-product-analytics-fuels-3x-growth-at-amplitude/↩
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Coinbase blog, “Coinbase raises $100M Series D led by IVP,” August 2017, accessed March 2026. https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-raises-100m-series-d-led-by-ivp↩
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TechCrunch, “GitHub Raises $250M Series B Round Led By Sequoia Capital,” July 2015, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/29/github-raises-250m-series-b-round-to-take-risks/↩
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IVP press release, “Tanium Secures Additional $120 Million from Leading Investment Firms,” accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/tanium-secures-additional–120-million-from-leading-investment-firms-to-support-explosive-global-demand-for-a-modern-approach-to-it-management/↩
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TechCrunch, “HashiCorp scores $100M investment on $1.9 billion valuation,” November 2018, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/01/hashicorp-scores-100m-investment-on-1-9-billion-valuation/↩
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IVP press release, “NerdWallet Secures $64 Million in Series A Funding to Transform Personal Finance,” May 2015, accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/nerdwallet-secures–64-million-in-series-a-funding-to-transform-personal-finance/↩
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IVP press release, “Podium Raises $60M in Series B Growth Round Led by IVP,” accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/podium-raises-60m-in-series-b-growth-round-led-by-ivp/↩↩
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Datadog press release, “Datadog Raises $94.5M in Series D Funding,” 2018, accessed March 2026. https://www.datadoghq.com/about/latest-news/press-releases/series-d/↩
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Attentive blog, “Attentive Raises $70 Million Series C Investment, Led by Sequoia and IVP,” accessed March 2026. https://www.attentive.com/blog/series-c↩
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IVP press release, “Attentive Extends Series C Investment Round to $110 Million,” accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/attentive-extends-series-c-investment-round-to-110-million-adding-sequoia-capital-global-equities-and-coatue/↩
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Skydio blog, “Skydio Announces $170 Million Series D Funding,” March 2021, accessed March 2026. https://www.skydio.com/blog/autonomous-drone-skydio-announces-170-million-series-d-funding↩
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IVP press release, “TaxBit Raises $130M Series B at $1.33B Valuation,” August 2021, accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/taxbit-raises-130m-series-b-at-1-33b-valuation-to-disrupt-legacy-tax-information-reporting/↩
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GlobeNewsWire, “Education Company Paper Seeks to Close the Public School System Inequity Gap; Raises $100 Million USD Investment Led by IVP,” June 2021, accessed March 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/06/30/2255579/0/en/Education-Company-Paper-Seeks-to-Close-the-Public-School-System-Inequity-Gap-Raises-100-Million-USD-Investment-Led-by-IVP.html↩
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TNGlobal, “Online brokerage Ajaib becomes Indonesia’s latest unicorn after raising $153M Series B round,” October 2021, accessed March 2026. https://technode.global/2021/10/05/online-brokerage-ajaib-becomes-indonesias-latest-unicorn-after-raising-153m-series-b-round/↩
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IVP press release, “CircleCI Raises $100M in Series E Funding,” April 2020, accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/circleci-raises-100m-in-series-e-funding/↩
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Chainguard blog, “Chainguard Raises $140 Million in Series C Funding to Secure the Next Frontier of AI Workloads,” July 2024, accessed March 2026. https://www.chainguard.dev/unchained/chainguard-raises-140-million-in-series-c-funding-to-secure-the-next-frontier-of-ai-workloads↩↩
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PR Newswire, “Chainguard Raises $356 Million in Series D Funding to Be the Safe Source for All Open Source,” April 2025, accessed March 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chainguard-raises-356-million-in-series-d-funding-to-be-the-safe-source-for-all-open-source-302435220.html↩↩
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Fortune, “Exclusive: Early AI darling LangChain is now a unicorn with a fresh $125 million in funding,” October 2025, accessed March 2026. https://fortune.com/2025/10/20/exclusive-early-ai-darling-langchain-is-now-a-unicorn-with-a-fresh-125-million-in-funding/↩↩↩