Costanoa Ventures, a boutique early-stage venture capital firm, announced the successful closing of two new funds: Costanoa Fund V, a $275 million early-stage fund, and Opportunity Fund III, a $119 million fund for investing in later rounds of its early-stage companies. And with these additions, the firm’s total assets under management now exceed $2 billion.
Costanoa invests as early as Day One in Seed and Series A startups in high-growth sectors across AI-enabled SaaS, Cyber- and National Security and Fintech. And in recent years, the firm has doubled down on critical sectors that lay the foundation to grow and scale AI’s use in business.
In Fund V, Costanoa continued to expand its focus on Cybersecurity and Defense Tech. And Costanoa also announced that John Cowgill has been promoted as its newest General Partner. Cowgill built Costanoa’s cybersecurity and space practices and has led investments in category standouts like AppOmni, Cyberhaven, Muon Space and Kepler Communications.
One of the firm’s standout investments in Defense Tech is Vannevar Labs, which was founded by two Stanford GSB students and incubated in Costanoa’s Palo Alto office in 2019. And Vannevar has since emerged as a leader in providing state-of-the-art technology for the defense industry. The other investments in the sector include Cape, Auterion, Kepler Communications and Muon Space, among others.
Costanoa sets itself apart by building a highly concentrated portfolio focused on outstanding technical founders, where it can add real value with the world-class expertise of its BuilderOps Team. And they provide the hands-on support these teams need in go-to-market strategy, company building and talent recruitment. With a boutique approach, Costanoa offers a tailored, high-touch approach that early-stage founders need and value.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our goal has always been to be the best possible partner to incredible founders building extraordinary companies that can solve big problems. The huge leaps forward we’re now seeing in AI make this a tremendous time to be an early-stage investor.”
-Greg Sands, Costanoa’s founder and managing partner
“Costanoa is building the most founder-aligned early stage venture firm in the industry. I couldn’t be more excited for the extraordinary companies we’ve partnered with and the amount of innovation that still lies ahead.”
-John Cowgill
“Costanoa has been part of our team through all the highs and lows and every phase of company building. The Costanoa team feels like an extension of our team at this point, with a very different level of engagement than we see from other investors that is hyper specific to this early stage of company building. They are also just really great people who want to have a really big impact on the world, and we can’t imagine building Vannevar without them.”
-Nini Hamrick, President and Co-Founder of Vannevar Labs
