Thesis
Commerce Ventures is a San Francisco-based early-stage venture firm focused exclusively on technology innovation in fintech and commerce. Founded in 2013, it organises its worldview around the Commerce Continuum™ — the technologies shaping how consumers shop, spend, save and secure their financial lives. The firm takes a deeply thematic approach: its themes are inspired by entrepreneurs' visions and by the needs expressed by corporate executives in its network, and its narrow sector focus is designed to help portfolio companies find customers, distribution partners, advisors and key executives. Notably, its strategy is to participate alongside lead investors rather than to lead rounds itself.
Sectors and stages
The firm invests across three pillars: Spend (faster, more efficient payments), Secure (revolutionising insurance underwriting, servicing and operations) and Save (transformational software for financial institutions). Its taxonomy covers retail tech, payment tech, insurance tech and banking tech. Recent thematic focuses published on its website include Tokenizing Value: Stablecoins (programmable dollars for borderless B2B payments), Agentic Commerce (AI reshaping discovery and buying, where shopping happens via API), AI for Accounting and Commercial Lending (modernising the credit stack for banks and private credit).
Fund size
The firm raised a $60 million Fund III to continue investing across the retail and financial services sectors. It has since announced Commerce Ventures Fund IV; the size of the fourth fund is not publicly disclosed.
Notable portfolio
Commerce Ventures has invested in more than 80 companies; over 20 are valued above $100 million, five above $1 billion and two above $10 billion. Standout names include Bill.com, Marqeta, Forter, Socure, MX, Narvar, Snapsheet, Vestwell, Kin, Moov and BillGo. Two of its bets — Marqeta and Bill.com — reached public listings, anchoring the firm's reputation in payments infrastructure.
Partners
The firm was founded by Dan Rosen, Founder and Partner. The partnership includes Matt Nichols and Vivek Krishnamurthy, who has spent the better part of a decade investing in commerce infrastructure and fintech with a focus on AI's transformation of insurance, alongside development partner Ysbrant Marcelis. The team blends investing experience from Highland Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley and HarbourVest with operating experience at Citigroup, Worldpay, Sephora and Financial Technology Partners. Its advisor network draws on executives from Capital One, Citi, Intuit, JPMorgan Chase, PayPal, MetLife and Northwestern Mutual.
Programmes run
Commerce Ventures runs the CV Access Fellowship, which trains aspiring venture capitalists from underrepresented backgrounds and accepts applications through the firm's website. The firm reports that more than 40% of its recent new investments had at least one founder with a diverse background. For founders, the firm's de facto programme is its corporate network: the Commerce Continuum thesis is built to convert advisor relationships into customer introductions and distribution partnerships.
Credits and perks
The firm does not publicly list startup credits or vendor discount programmes; this is not publicly disclosed.
Why it matters for founders
For founders building at the intersection of fintech and commerce — payments infrastructure, insurtech, retail technology or banking software — Commerce Ventures offers a specialist investor whose entire network is tuned to your customer base. It will not lead your round, so it suits founders who already have a lead and want a value-add co-investor with direct lines into banks, insurers and retailers.