DayDream Ventures

At Menlo Ventures, we go ALL IN. This isn’t just a motto, but how we show up everyday for the companies we back, the investors who back us, and each other. When we win, we win as a team. 47 Years 80+ Public Companies 165 + Mergers + Aquisitions $5B+ Under Management We focus on the "three stages of early" We are investors and company builders - we know what it takes to turn a budding idea into a scalable business. We work with early-stage founders to find product-market fit, develop go-to-market strategies, scale their organizations, and support them as they grow. Inception: Our Menlo Labs team helps founders validate early-stage ideas, de-risk opportunities, and build successful foundations. Venture: Our venture team provides series A and B startups with guidance and hands-on help as they build their teams and products. Inflection: Our inflection team supports early growth-stage startups during critical points as they prepare to scale. Our focus areas At every stage from inception through IPO, we invest in game-changing ideas that reinvent life and work. Although we remain open to new ventures within consumer, enterprise, and healthcare, we go deep in the following seven focus areas: AI: Generative AI is breaking into every software vertical, and winners in these markets will create massive economic and societal value. Menlo Ventures is placing bets on the most promising GenAI companies at the infrastructure and application layers, where we see immense potential for groundbreaking businesses that will reshape industries and push the boundaries of what we can achieve. Bio + Healthcare: Innovations at the intersection of advancements in technology and biology will drive major improvements in the quality of our health and the cost of healthcare. At Menlo, we invest at that intersection - backing breakthrough digital health companies (vertical SaaS and digital care) and novel life sciences companies (therapeutic platforms and transformative technologies). Consumer: The world we live in today is enhanced by technologies we might not have thought possible even 10 years ago. There is so much still to come. At Menlo, we invest in the game-changing companies of the future, those that will help us do things better, faster, or cheaper than we can today. Cloud Infrastructure: As enterprises continue migrating to the public cloud, a new generation of companies will write the playbook for the underlying infrastructure that powers their applications. These tools and platforms are built for and cater to the developer, optimized for time-to-integration with beautiful, easy-to-use UIs and APIs. Cybersecurity: In a complex, post-pandemic world, rapid cloud adoption and the proliferation of open-source software have dramatically expanded the attack surface for bad actors against enterprises, governments, and their applications. Additionally, the shift-left approach to software development requires developers to embrace a security-first mindset. As the cyber war continues, Menlo will back the best teams fighting on the frontlines. Fintech: Financial transactions and services power the global economy. Menlo invests in four fintech categories: dev-focused infrastructure and embedded finance (API layers), vertical banking, end-to-end financial services for consumers and SMBs, and tools that serve finance teams and the office of the CFO. SaaS: The shift to the cloud introduced an entirely new business model–Software-as-a-Service–and created unprecedented opportunities for enterprise software companies. Menlo divides the SaaS landscape into three categories, each with a distinct point of view that guides our investment, research, and resources: Departmental SaaS, Vertical SaaS, and Horizontal SaaS. Supply Chain + Automation: This once-in-a-generation reinvention/reinvigoration of the supply chain will create a world that is more efficient, resilient, and sustainable because of the operational efficiencies we gain. With an eye on a more functional future, Menlo invests in a broad range of technologies–robotics and industrial automation among them.

As enterprise software specialists we know that founders of high-growth B2B companies face similar challenges when scaling from expansion stage to IPO. Our mission is to contribute our specialization, experience and network to help teams navigate the journey to build companies of consequence. Our areas of interest are: AI/ML B2B SaaS Crypto Cybersecurity Data & Analytics DevOps Fintech Healthtech Vertical SaaS For more than two decades, we have partnered with visionary management teams and venture funds to help scale companies of consequence. Since our founding, we has invested in more than 170 companies globally resulting in more than 30 IPOs and 45 acquisitions. The firm’s investment strategies - Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners and Sapphire Sport - are focused on scaling companies and venture funds, elevating them to become category leaders. Sapphire’s Portfolio Growth team of experienced operators delivers a strategic blend of value-add services, tools and resources designed to support portfolio company leaders as they scale.

We are an early stage investor investing in Seed and Series A startups. We are attracted to scalable B2C and B2B startups that can develop a sustainable moat over time and have a sweet spot for PropTech, FinTech, Marketplaces, TravelTech and SaaS. We are proud of our name which was actually suggested by one of our founders. We are founder first investors, getting our hands dirty from day one and we are next to you in the good and the bad times. All startups will get through tough times and you need to think twice who you would have next to you. Ask our founders 😉

Arkam Ventures is a thesis centric firm. We have a long-term, often multi-decade, point of view on certain market trends, inflection points, and solutions that we believe are truly disruptive and have the potential to create large, scalable, and profitable new market leaders. We believe India is at a unique point in its history in terms of digital adoption, macro-economic, and geo-political winds of change. Arkam invests across two major themes. These are generational themes with massive market drivers, innovation proof points, and clear opportunities for digital disruptors to reshape large industries or create new ones. Middle India Digitization: Middle India Digitization is one of the largest global investment opportunities available today. There is a massive shift to digital transactions for essential categories that did not exist five years ago. For the first time in India's history, digitization is democratizing access to essential products and services for hundreds of millions of Indians below the top of the pyramid. Our companies have deep Middle India understanding reflected in their product design, low friction adoption, customer segmentation, trust building, and low cost acquisition and retention. SaaS from India to the world: Combining world class product design, and cost effectiveness with savvy go-to-market approaches from India these SaaS companies are setting the stage for highly scalable and profitable growth. Over the past decade, there are increasing proof points of India building winning SaaS solutions for the world. Our companies combine world class product design, lower costs and savvy global go-to-market approaches that create deep moats and opportunities for market leadership.

We are investing in and building human-centered technology companies to empower the middle-class of Latin America. Polymath is the pioneer of the Venture Studio model in Latin America, bridging the talent and capital gap of the region to solve the most complex challenges for the middle-class. We empower breakout entrepreneurs With our VC business, we lead and co-lead Seed rounds in exceptional early stage tech companies that serve Spanish-speaking Latin America's emerging middle class and SMBs in the Vertical SaaS, FinTech and HealthTech verticals. We leverage our Venture Studio infrastructure and experience to work with our portfolio companies in key areas such as helping them find & measure PMF, building more scalable GTM strategy, setting up the right Talent strategy, and preparing the company for the next Fundraise. If you are a founder attacking deep problems in the FinTech, HealthTech or Vertical SaaS spaces in Spanish-speaking Latin America, we would love to hear from you!

Focused on the rising consumption story in India and Indian SaaS companies catering to a global market. CONSUMER TECH Backing tech native businesses for India’s internet users and middle-class. AgriTech EdTech HealthTech SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS) Backing product-led SaaS startups that can reach a global scale. Automation, Collaboration and Intelligence Vertical SaaS SaaS enabled marketplaces FINTECH Backing companies which manage finances in the most tech efficient way Vertical neo banks, lending Embedded Finance, infra APIs Insurtech Alternative investing DEEPTECH Backing companies solving deep engineering problems Artificial Intelligence Robotics / Drones Space tech and Semiconductors OUR APPROACH We invest in people rather than companies. From great entrepreneurs emerge great brands and companies. We are good listeners and that is a trait needed in our profession to grow. We have a non-intrusive approach and we completely believe in the entrepreneurs we have backed. An entrepreneur can think of us more as a resource and a sounding board. WHAT WE LOOK FORWe prefer to invest in mission driven founders who have relevant work experience and domain expertise Significant growth potential over the next 3 to 5 years. We prefer backing founders with at least 4-5 years of prior experience. Differentiated products or services that have strong ‘moats’ built around it. HOW WE INVESTWe invest in pre-seed and seed rounds. We invest ~US$ 250K per startup in the first round and then in follow-on rounds We are open to investing through convertible structures and instruments, however, we prefer straight equity. We generally prefer to co-invest along with other VC funds and micro VC funds In a larger round of fundraising – we co-invest with our select Limited Partners.