Not researched understanding. Lived understanding: the processes, the problems, and the relationships that come from doing the work.
AI makes that layer more valuable, not less. It is all we have invested in since 2014.
Not horizontal tools looking for use cases, but businesses built for one industry from day one, by founders who know where the pain is buried. That has been the entire strategy since our first fund.
AI is simultaneously causing the disruption and offering the solution. Every vertical industry is being asked the same question: what does this technology mean for how the work actually gets done? The founders who have done the work are the ones who can answer it.
We didn't come to vertical industries through AI. We came to AI from inside vertical industries: the workflows, the buyers, the regulation, the incumbents. More than a decade of that context is what we underwrite with.
Regulated, relationship-driven industries where the work is learned by doing and trust is earned slowly. That is where a founder from the industry starts with an edge.
We underwrite all three, and we have backed all three since our first fund.
Software built for one industry with AI driving the critical workflow: the modern successor to vertical SaaS, where the product becomes the industry's system of record and then does the work itself.
We're not selling you software to solve your problem; we're taking the problem off your hands. AI makes a tech-enabled service carry software-like gross margins, and the customer just gets the outcome.
Foundational technology aimed at a specific industry's hardest physical problems: manufacturing, drug discovery, advanced materials. Increasingly, it is built and accelerated with AI.
The agentic AI marketing workforce for multi-location brands: brand-trained agents autonomously running local search, social, and reputation for enterprise franchises.
We led the Series A. SOCi has scaled through many institutional rounds and was partially realized.
Instant deep fuel discounts for owner-operators and small fleets: the spending platform for the people who keep American freight moving.
We led the formation-stage round. Mudflap has scaled to become an industry leader.
The AI reading tutor that listens to students read aloud, diagnoses needs in real time, and delivers science-of-reading instruction 1:1, at scale.
We led the formation-stage round. Amira now reaches millions of students in multiple countries.
Vertical Venture Partners was founded in 2014 and operates from two offices. Four investing professionals, every deal underwritten by the whole partnership. Across four funds and 70+ companies, the strategy has produced several successful exits.
The same transformation we back in our verticals runs inside the firm: sourcing, diligence, and portfolio support are built on the tools, not assisted by them. It changes how much ground a four-person team covers, and it means we evaluate AI products as practitioners.
How VVP uses AI internally →We meet founders where they are. Cold outreach is welcome.
A short note with what you're building, who you're building for, and why now.
matthew@vvp.vc →Prospective investors can reach us at matthew@vvp.vc. Current investors can request reporting and fund documents at the same address.
How we invest →