Obvious Ventures is a venture capital firm founded by Ev Williams, James Joaquin, Vishal Vasishth in 2014. The firm focuses its investments in early stage and seed stage companies that are are profitable, as well as socially and environmentally impactful. Types of companies Obvious Ventures invests in are: food & agriculture, artificial intelligence & machine learning, biopharma & biotechnology, education, energy, FinTech, and manufacturing. Notable company investments made by Obvious Ventures include: Zymergen, Medium, Beyond Meat, and Recursion Pharma.
The company states that it aims to invest in sustainable environmental systems, empower people through education, and healthy living through healthcare initiatives. It tracks its credo by using the hashtag #worldpositive, which allows for its potential clients to see the types of companies in which Obvious Ventures invests.
As of 2019, the company has had two funds, with a total of more than $300 million and has invested in 67 companies.
Timeline
Funded Companies
Beyond Meat makes plant-based meat alternatives such as burgers, sausages, chicken strips, and ground beef. Beyond Meat was founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown and is based in Los Angeles, California.
A biotechnology and data science company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, founded in 2013, that combines biology with artificial intelligence for drug discovery. Using human cell models of diseases, Recursion captures microscopic images to build biological datasets and computational techniques identify disease-associated biological changes.
Inato matches the right sites to the right clinical research study, globally.
The Long-Term Stock Exchange is a financial services company and Securities Exchange.
Synthetic biology company that uses AI, DNA synthesis, and robotics to discover biological molecules.
A healthcare technology company offering a medical professional hiring platform for hospitals.
A software company with a platform for insights into aquaculture and how it affects the seafood industry. It was founded in 2012 and is located in Quebec, Canada.
Good Eggs is an online grocery delivery service based in the Bay Area, offering fresh local produce, weeknight meal kits, everyday staples, and wine, beer, and spirits .
Lilium is a Munich-based startup developing an on-demand, all-electric, vertical take-off and landing air taxi service.
Devoted Health is a healthcare company serving seniors.
A company offering a platform for the development of artificial intelligence.
ENBALA Power Networks is a power grid network solutions developer working to create a more robust and reliable electric power grid.
Amply Power is a Mountain View, California-based provider of commercial fleet electric-charging services.
Plant Prefab is a Rialto-based prefabricated home factory dedicated to sustainable construction.
Hedvig is a company founded by Hedvig Inc.
Virtahealth is a San Francisco-based healthcare company founded by Sami Inkinen.
Visor is an online tax filing and advisory solution that removes the hassle and complexity from doing taxes.
Associated investment funds
People
Andre Heinz
Venture Partner
Andrew Beebe
Managing Director
Anna Khuu
Executive Assistant
Daniel Liem
Senior associate
Ev Williams
Co-Founder
Gabe Kleinman
Director of Portfolio Services & Mktg
Hoolie Tejwani
Vice President
Jack Rothacher
Director of Finance & Operations
James Joaquin
Co-Founder & Managing Director
Joe Blair
Vice President
Nan Li
Managing Director
Shelby Herman
Office Coordinator
Vishal Vasishth
Co-Founder & Managing Director
Further reading
A Venture Capitalist's View on the Promise of Electric Aviation
Stephen Lacey
Web
In good company: How Obvious Ventures is disrupting venture capital
Jennifer Kongs
Web
Obvious Ventures has closed on a funky amount of funding (again) for fund two
Connie Loizos
Web
Sighten Closes $3.5M Series A Funding from Obvious Ventures
Business Wire
Web
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
E897: Obvious Ventures James Joaquin: brings operator expertise to fund #worldpositive startups
January 25, 2019
Companies
Amply
Sustainable Systems
Anbala
Sustainable Systems
Bakpax
People Power
Beyond Meat
Healthy Living
Boon Supply
People Power
Breezeworks
People Power
Care Zone
Healthy Living
Change.org
People Power
Darwin AI
Sustainable Systems
Devoted Health
Healthy Living
Enervee
Sustainable Systems
Fair
People Power
Good Eggs
Healthy Living
Gusto
People Power
Happiest Baby
Healthy Living
Incredible Health
People Power
Joy
People Power
Keyo
People Power
Lilium
Sustainable Systems
Long Game
People Power
LTSE
People Power
Lucid
Healthy Living
Magic Leap
People Power
Maker Media
People Power
News
References
Company attributes
Categories
Related Topics
Contributors
- 1
Dawson Sewell
Writing about startups. - 2
Jessica Karpinski
I'm a knowledge seeker with a thirst to understand how the world is connected. - 3
Melanie Manipula
Helping organize knowledge. - 4
Jude Gomila
Founder and CEO of Golden, Entrepreneur. Investor in 200+ companies. Cantabrigian (Gonville and Caius). Interested in the Universe. - 5
Neelam Jhaveri
Techno Geek + Gamer + Fashionista + Sense of Humor = It's ME - 6
Edita Rexha
Economist