Uncork Capital: Investor Profile

The thesis

Uncork Capital describes itself as a seed-stage venture firm investing in founder potential long before it is obvious. The firm was founded in 2004 by Jeff Clavier as SoftTech VC, one of Silicon Valley's earliest micro VCs, and renamed to Uncork Capital in 2017. Its conviction is simple: back exceptional founders at the earliest stages, when others hesitate, and stay the course through boom-and-bust cycles. The firm's own framing is "conviction from zero" — it is typically the first major check on the cap table, often leading seed rounds, with initial investments of $3 million to $5 million.

Sectors and stages

Uncork invests across AI-native companies, B2B software, developer tools, infrastructure, SaaS, consumer and frontier technology. Managing partner Andy McLoughlin has said the firm expects to put roughly 70 per cent of its capital into B2B software, with dev tools, infrastructure opportunities, vertical industry software and traditional enterprise software high on the list. It does not write small, participatory pre-seed cheques and does not lead Series A or B — what it does is lead or co-lead seed rounds. It will also back founders before they have written a line of code, taking on execution risk when the market is large and the team's perspective is unique.

Fund size

In May 2025 the firm closed $300 million in new capital across two funds: Uncork VIII, a $225 million seed fund, and Uncork Plus IV, a $75 million growth fund. Uncork VIII targets 35 seed rounds with significant follow-on reserves and slightly larger cheques than before, while Plus IV doubles down on breakout portfolio companies at their inflection points. This followed a 2023 close of $400 million across two funds — a $200 million seed vehicle and a $200 million opportunity-style fund, reported by TechCrunch.

Notable portfolio

The firm has backed more than 275 companies. Classic wins include Fitbit, SendGrid, Eventbrite, Poshmark and Postmates. Its current late-stage and scaling roster includes Human Interest, LaunchDarkly, Carrot Fertility, Tailscale, Loft Orbital, Hallow, Wrapbook, Crossbeam, Fountain and ClassDojo, alongside AI-native early-stage bets such as GPTZero, Numeral, Ivo, Nuon, Final Round, Gamma, Coder and Groq.

Partners

Andy McLoughlin is the managing partner. Jeff Clavier, the founder, stepped back from day-to-day management with the 2025 funds and continues to invest in frontier technology and emerging innovation. The general partners are Amy Saper, Susan Liu and Tripp Jones, with Isha Mehrotra as an associate. The team reports reviewing more than 3,000 startups a year.

Programs run

Uncork does not run a formal accelerator or fellowship programme. It publishes a steady stream of founder-facing writing — investment memos such as "Investing in Gamma (again!)" and guides like "Raising a Series A in an AI-First World" — which function as its public content programme for founders.

Credits and perks

No founder credits or perks programme is publicly documented. Portfolio companies cite practical support — introductions to follow-on investors, help communicating the vision in later rounds — rather than a packaged perks platform.