SV Angel was founded by Ron Conway and David Lee in San Francisco in 2009, the firm has backed an extraordinary roster of companies — from Google and PayPal in the late 1990s to Airbnb, Twitter, Dropbox, Stripe and OpenAI in later years.
The firm
Ron Conway began angel investing in the mid-1990s, and his earlier vehicles — Adam Ventures and Angel Investors LP — were already early investors in Google and PayPal before SV Angel itself was formed. When he converted his personal investment vehicle into a formal venture fund in 2009, it raised $10 million from outside investors.
SV Angel went on to raise six seed funds, with the sixth closing at $53 million in November 2016. In June 2018, the firm made a surprise move: it announced it would stop raising external funds entirely, with Ron and Topher Conway investing their own capital in smaller checks of $25,000 to $100,000 per company.
In March 2022 the firm raised $269 million for its first-ever growth equity fund, SV Angel Growth I, targeting Series B and later rounds. In January 2025 it followed with $330 million for SV Angel Growth II. Today the firm invests across seed and growth stages from its San Francisco base.
Thesis and sweet spot
SV Angel describes its investment focus as software-based companies in the consumer and enterprise sectors. Sectors it backs include SaaS, consumer internet, AI/ML, fintech, developer tools and marketplaces.
Its edge is a distinctly founder-first operating style. The firm's five core principles centre on sweating the details, advocating for founders, nourishing the network, doing the right thing, and showing up at inflection points — key hires, financings, business-development deals and M&A.
The check-size discipline is unusual: the seed fund typically invests around $200,000 per company, and the firm does not take board seats and does not lead investment rounds. Ron Conway's stated priority is explicit: people first, idea second, market size third.
Notable portfolio
Google, PayPal, Facebook (Meta), Twitter, Airbnb, Dropbox, GitHub, Square, Pinterest, Reddit, Eventbrite, Okta, Asana, Warby Parker and Credit Karma.
The newer vintage is just as striking: Stripe, OpenAI, Anthropic, Slack, Coinbase, Databricks, Figma, Notion, Rippling, DoorDash, Instacart, Anduril and Mistral AI all count among SV Angel's investments.
People
Ron Conway, founder and managing partner, remains the public face of the firm. Topher Conway
The team has expanded in recent years: Ronny Conway, Ron's other son and formerly a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, joined as managing partner overseeing firm operations in December 2024. The growth fund is led by managing partner Ashvin Bachireddy, who previously co-founded Geodesic Capital. General partners Mike Sho Liu and Andrea Wang, principal Sourav Gupta and COO Zachary Miller round out the team.
Why it matters for founders
SV Angel is the classic "dream early check" for a reason: small cheques, no board seat, no lead position — just a legendary network at your inflection points. That also means getting in is brutally competitive; the firm has historically sourced almost everything through warm referrals from people it already trusts. And remember the mandate: they bet on people first, the idea second, and market size third — so your story, integrity and determination matter more than the deck.