{"id":1798,"name":"AI First Capital","slug":"ai-first-capital","website":"https://firstcapital.vc/","hqGeo":"Palo Alto, CA","stageFocus":["Pre-Seed","Seed","Series A"],"sectorTags":["AI / ML","SaaS","Enterprise"],"excludedSectors":["Hardware"],"checkSizeMin":500000,"checkSizeMax":3000000,"thesisSummary":"AI First Capital specializes in early-stage companies using artificial intelligence to solve industry-specific problems, focusing on verticalized AI applications.","thesisNarrative":null,"logoUrl":null,"aumUsd":365000000,"submissionUrl":null,"linkedinUrl":null,"twitterHandle":null,"portfolio":[{"companyName":"KitchenAI","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":"AI, RestaurantTech","investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"InsightDining","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":"HospitalityTech","investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"Cognition Labs","companyUrl":null,"stage":"early-stage","sector":"AI/dev tools","investmentYear":null,"description":"AI software engineering","amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":"Soma Capital"},{"companyName":"Ironclad","companyUrl":null,"stage":"early-stage","sector":"legaltech/AI","investmentYear":null,"description":"contract management","amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":"Soma Capital"},{"companyName":"Mercor","companyUrl":null,"stage":"early-stage","sector":"HR/AI","investmentYear":null,"description":"AI talent platform","amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":"Soma Capital"},{"companyName":"Hamming AI","companyUrl":null,"stage":"pre-seed","sector":"dev tools","investmentYear":null,"description":"AI coding tools","amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":"Pioneer Fund"},{"companyName":"Cofactr","companyUrl":null,"stage":"pre-seed","sector":"enterprise AI","investmentYear":null,"description":"AI operations platform","amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":"Pioneer Fund"},{"companyName":"EzDubs","companyUrl":null,"stage":"pre-seed","sector":"media/AI","investmentYear":null,"description":"AI video dubbing","amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":"Pioneer Fund"},{"companyName":"MONEY","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"SYNTHARA","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"FOUNDR","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"ENTRIES","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"NORTHASTRA","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"FORWARD / INHERITANCE","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"FAMOUS.AI","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"SUPERCOOL","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"PEEK","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"NUMERO","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"EARLYBIRD","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"UPTIQ","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"ALTRIUM","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"ALPHA","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null},{"companyName":"MODUS","companyUrl":null,"stage":null,"sector":null,"investmentYear":null,"description":null,"amountUsd":null,"relevanceNote":null,"fundName":null}],"partnerCount":3,"partners":[{"id":19216,"name":"Gene Podsiadlo","title":"Senior Strategic Advisor, Special Limited Partner","seniority":null,"focusTags":[],"linkedinUrl":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/genepodsiadlo","twitterHandle":null,"blogUrl":null,"thesisSummary":null,"whyThisPartner":null,"recentPosts":[]},{"id":19215,"name":"Josh Sutton","title":"Co-Founder and Advisory Partner","seniority":null,"focusTags":[],"linkedinUrl":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadsutton","twitterHandle":null,"blogUrl":null,"thesisSummary":null,"whyThisPartner":null,"recentPosts":[]},{"id":19214,"name":"Andrew Maus","title":"Managing Director, North America","seniority":null,"focusTags":[],"linkedinUrl":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmaus","twitterHandle":null,"blogUrl":null,"thesisSummary":null,"whyThisPartner":null,"recentPosts":[]}],"funds":[],"activity":{"lastInvestmentYear":null,"investmentsThisYear":0},"activityItems":[{"kind":"news","title":"Changing the Odds: AI Summit — FirstCapital","url":"https://firstcapital.vc/aisummit-sep2026","source":"FirstCapital","occurredAt":"2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z"}],"contentUpdatedAt":"2026-10-30T13:43:53.776Z","investorType":"vc","preferredApproach":"cold outreach ok","prefersFounderType":null,"oneClickPitchEnabled":false,"relatedFirms":[{"id":7722,"name":"Sheesha Finance","slug":"sheesha-finance","logoUrl":null,"website":"https://sheeshafinance.gitbook.io/","stageFocus":[],"sectorTags":["AI / ML","Developer Tools","Fintech"],"hqGeo":null},{"id":13762,"name":"NeuroNet Ventures","slug":"neuronet-ventures","logoUrl":null,"website":"https://neuronetgpo.com/","stageFocus":["Seed"],"sectorTags":["AI / ML"],"hqGeo":"Chicago, IL"},{"id":11767,"name":"LiftScale Partners","slug":"liftscale-partners","logoUrl":null,"website":"https://weareliftscale.com/","stageFocus":["Pre-Seed"],"sectorTags":["AI / ML","SaaS"],"hqGeo":"San Francisco, CA"},{"id":547,"name":"Cocoa VC","slug":"cocoa-vc","logoUrl":null,"website":"https://www.cocoa.vc/","stageFocus":["Pre-Seed","Seed"],"sectorTags":["Fintech","SaaS"],"hqGeo":"San Francisco, CA"},{"id":1574,"name":"Plaid Ventures","slug":"plaid-ventures","logoUrl":null,"website":"https://plaid.com/","stageFocus":["Pre-Seed","Seed"],"sectorTags":["Fintech","Developer Tools","AI / ML"],"hqGeo":"San Francisco, CA"},{"id":12955,"name":"Jovono","slug":"jovono","logoUrl":null,"website":"https://jovono.com","stageFocus":["Seed","Series A"],"sectorTags":["Climate / Energy","Fintech","Consumer","SaaS","Healthcare"],"hqGeo":"Los Angeles, CA"}],"featuredIn":[{"slug":"pre-seed","displayName":"Pre-Seed Investors","pageType":"stage"},{"slug":"saas","displayName":"SaaS Investors","pageType":"industry"},{"slug":"seed","displayName":"Seed Investors","pageType":"stage"},{"slug":"ai","displayName":"AI & ML Investors","pageType":"industry"},{"slug":"series-a","displayName":"Series A Investors","pageType":"stage"}],"fundraisingResources":[{"slug":"what-vcs-actually-look-for-pitch-deck","title":"What VCs Actually Look for in a Pitch Deck"},{"slug":"find-right-pre-seed-investors-b2b-saas","title":"How to Find the Right Pre-Seed Investors for Your B2B SaaS Startup"},{"slug":"investormatch-mcp-server-claude-chatgpt","title":"Your Investor List Now Lives Inside Claude and ChatGPT"}],"overviewNarrative":"AI First Capital is a venture capital firm headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The firm specializes in early-stage companies using artificial intelligence to solve industry-specific problems, focusing on verticalized AI applications. AI First Capital invests at the pre-seed, seed, and series A stages.\n\nThe firm maintains a typical check size of $500K to $3.0M and has assets under management of $365M. AI First Capital invests in the sectors of AI/ML, B2B SaaS, Legal Tech, HR Tech, and Enterprise. The firm does not invest in hardware. Cold outreach is an accepted way to approach the firm.","portfolioNarrative":"AI First Capital has recorded investments in 23 portfolio companies. Recorded investments include Cofactr in enterprise AI at pre-seed, Cognition Labs in AI and developer tools at early stage, EzDubs in media and AI at pre-seed, Hamming AI in developer tools at pre-seed, Ironclad in legaltech and AI at early stage, Mercor in HR and AI at early stage, InsightDining in HospitalityTech, and KitchenAI in AI and RestaurantTech. Additional recorded investments include ALPHA, ALTRIUM, EARLYBIRD, ENTRIES, FAMOUS.AI, FORWARD / INHERITANCE, and FOUNDR.\n\nThe firm's investment thesis centers on supporting companies that apply artificial intelligence to address specific vertical industry challenges.","seoTitle":null,"seoDescription":null,"lastVerifiedAt":"2026-08-20T12:53:13.930Z"}