Valley Capital Partners
About Valley Capital Partners
Valley Capital Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California, founded in 2018. The firm manages over $250 million in assets and focuses on investing in innovative technology companies. Its investment strategy emphasizes early-stage technology firms, particularly in sectors like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, enterprise infrastructure, software platforms, and deep tech. Valley Capital Partners primarily targets pre-seed, seed, seed-plus, Series A, and Series B investment rounds, with a strong focus on seed and Series A stages.
The firm is known for it
Public profiles describe Steve O'Hara as the founder and managing partner. One directory lists Raymond Choi and Mitchell Kokko as co-founders, and Crunchbase names a different set of founders, so the exact founding group is not consistent across sources. PitchBook lists Valley Capital Partners I as a 2018 vintage fund. Mitchell Kokko is a general partner and investment committee member who leads the investment team and post-investment support. Stephen Wong is a managing partner who handles capital raising, investor relations, and portfolio growth and exits. The firm's LinkedIn page cites 23 exits, 14 of them billion-dollar outcomes. The firm has not published a list of which partners lead AI deals.
Valley Capital Partners describes itself as backing highly technical, mission-driven teams. Its recent AI deals are mostly in infrastructure and tooling for enterprises. In May 2026 it led NanoCo's $12M seed. NanoCo makes the open-source NanoClaw agent framework and an enterprise AI assistant built on it. Docker, Vercel, monday.com, Slow Ventures, Clutch Capital and Factorial Capital took part. In May 2026 it also backed Tensormesh, which builds KV-cache inference infrastructure. In June 2026 it co-led Upriver's $14M seed with Hetz Ventures. Upriver is an AI-native data engineering platform. Caplight records Valley as lead on all three, and as a co-investor in Decart's Series B in May 2026.
Public sources place the firm mainly at seed and Series A. Visible lists a $1M to $6M range with a $3M sweet spot. NFX Signal lists a $3M to $7M range with a $5M sweet spot. These figures come from third-party databases, not from the firm, and the firm has not published official check sizes. Sources also disagree on fund size, so none is given here beyond the assets under management in the existing profile.
- RapidCanvas: enterprise AI company; Series B of $29M on the Lounge deals desk (2026-10). Visible also lists an earlier $16M round in December 2024.
- Tensormesh: inference infrastructure built on KV-cache reuse; seed round led by Valley (May 2026).
- Upriver: AI-native data engineering platform; $14M seed co-led with Hetz Ventures (June 2026).
- NanoCo: maker of the open-source NanoClaw agent framework and an enterprise assistant; $12M seed led by Valley (May 2026).
- Decart: Valley joined its Series B as a co-investor (May 2026), per Caplight.
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/265710-34
- pitchbook.com/profiles/fund/17070-67F
- crunchbase.com/organization/valley-capital-partners
- startupintros.com/orgs/valley-capital-partners
- people.equilar.com/bio/org/valley-capital-partners/5300937
- connect.visible.vc/investors/valley-capital-partners
- signal.nfx.com/firms/valley-capital-partners
- caplight.com/investor/valleycapital-vc
Investing activity
Valley Capital Partners appears in 4 AI deals tracked by the AI Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $75M, and led 2 of them. The rounds are mostly Seed and Series B, with a median round size of $20M and the largest at $29M. The most recent are RapidCanvas (Series B, $29M, Oct 2026), Upriver (Seed, $14M, Jun 2026) and Tensormesh (Seed, $20M, May 2026).
Valley Capital Partners most often invests alongside Vertex Ventures SEA & India, Titanium Ventures, Peak XV Partners and Accel, and the companies it backs on AI Lounge are mostly in AI and Enterprise AI agents, managed AI execution.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Valley Capital Partners
Who founded Valley Capital Partners?
Steve O'Hara is listed as founder and managing partner, and the firm dates to 2018. One directory lists Raymond Choi and Mitchell Kokko as co-founders, while Crunchbase names other founders.
Does Valley Capital Partners lead AI seed rounds?
Yes. Caplight and press reports show it leading seed rounds for NanoCo, Tensormesh and Upriver in May and June 2026. In Upriver's round it co-led with Hetz Ventures.
What check size does Valley Capital Partners write?
The firm has not published check sizes. Third-party databases list ranges of about $1M to $6M (Visible) and $3M to $7M (NFX Signal), so treat these as estimates.
What AI startups has Valley Capital Partners backed?
Recent AI names include NanoCo, Tensormesh, Upriver and RapidCanvas. It was also a co-investor in Decart's Series B.
Where is Valley Capital Partners based?
The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Some databases, including Crunchbase, list San Francisco.
What AI companies has Valley Capital Partners invested in?
Valley Capital Partners's AI investments include RapidCanvas, Upriver, Tensormesh and NanoCo. The 4 rounds on AI Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Valley Capital Partners invest at?
In the rounds tracked on AI Lounge, Valley Capital Partners has invested at Seed and Series B, with a median round of $20M. Valley Capital Partners led 2 of those rounds.
Who does Valley Capital Partners co-invest with?
Valley Capital Partners's most frequent co-investors on AI Lounge are Vertex Ventures SEA & India (1 deal), Titanium Ventures (1 deal), Peak XV Partners (1 deal), Accel (1 deal) and Hitachi Ventures (1 deal).
How can founders reach Valley Capital Partners?
Founders on AI Lounge can see Valley Capital Partners's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with the firm under Warm Paths, and add Valley Capital Partners to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.