Horizon VC

Horizon VC is a California-based venture capital firm founded in 2022 by Sandy Kory, a veteran investor known for early bets on Palantir and Canva. The firm writes $250,000 to $1.5 million checks at the pre-seed and seed stages, making it an ideal partner for founders building software companies before institutional validation arrives.

Unlike multi-stage funds that deploy big checks across many sectors, Horizon VC is laser-focused on one type of founder: outliers building generational companies. This guide covers Horizon VC's investment thesis, their portfolio, what they look for in founders, and practical advice for getting a meeting.

The firm's partner team brings firsthand operating experience. Sandy Kory has over 15 years of venture capital experience and personal investments in Palantir, Canva, BillionToOne, Flutterwave, and Sendbird. Mike Firmage leads finance and legal, drawing from a background advising product-first technology founders on transformative transactions. Associate Shivali Halabe handles sourcing through post-investment support, coming from a quantitative trading background at SIG.

Horizon VC's approach is intentionally contrarian. The firm explicitly avoids following hype cycles or conventional wisdom, instead seeking independent thinkers building companies that reshape industries. For founders who fit this profile, Horizon VC offers more than capital: they provide strategic edge from early backers of some of software's most iconic companies.

If you're raising at pre-seed or seed and building a software company with ambitious goals, Horizon VC is worth serious consideration. This guide explains exactly what they look for and how to approach them.

Horizon VC's investment thesis is built on a single conviction: outlier founders achieve outsized outcomes, and the best time to back them is before anyone else recognizes them. The firm exclusively invests at pre-seed and seed, meaning they meet companies when there is little to no institutional validation, often when the product is early, the revenue is small or nonexistent, and the market has not yet formed strong opinions.

The firm's website sums up their philosophy directly: 'We back outliers inventing the future.' This is not marketing language. Horizon VC genuinely prefers companies that seem controversial or unconventional at the time of investment, because consensus opportunities tend to be overpriced.

Software is the only investment vertical. Horizon VC does not invest in biotech, consumer hardware, or marketplaces outside of software-adjacent contexts. Within software, the firm has demonstrated interest across several sub-sectors: enterprise AI (Arkham, Baseten), fintech infrastructure (Float, Pier, Sandbox, Subscript), developer tools (Nango, Shuttle), and vertical SaaS across healthcare, construction, and insurance.

Check sizes range from $250,000 to $1.5 million. For pre-seed rounds, this is often the full round or a significant co-investment alongside a lead. At seed, the firm typically co-invests or follows a lead, though they will lead when conviction is strong and the opportunity warrants it.

The firm frequently follows on in subsequent rounds. Horizon VC describes themselves as 'fiercely loyal' to their portfolio, which means founders who perform can expect continued support through Series A and beyond. The willingness to follow is meaningful: it signals the firm is not a short-term player but a long-term partner.

Geographic focus is primarily U.S.-based, with the team operating from the San Francisco Bay Area. The firm does not have hard geographic requirements but shows a clear Bay Area bias, consistent with the partner team's network and sourcing discipline.

Horizon VC has been actively deploying capital since founding in 2022, building a portfolio that reflects the firm's thesis around vertical AI, fintech infrastructure, and developer tooling. The pace of investment has been steady rather than aggressive: the firm prefers to be highly selective and make meaningful checks rather than spread capital thin across many positions.

The current portfolio includes companies at various stages of maturity, from recent pre-seed investments to seed and early Series A companies that Horizon VC has supported through follow-on rounds. Sectors represented include enterprise AI (Arkham, Baseten, Julius AI), healthcare operations (Artos, Lyrebird Health, Sample), fintech (Float, Pier, Sandbox, Subscript), and B2B SaaS across construction, insurance, and customer support verticals.

Horizon VC tends to participate in rounds where there is a lead investor they know and trust. The firm's sourcing is primarily network-driven: referrals from portfolio founders, angels who co-invest, and introductions from other venture funds who co-invest. Cold outreach is accepted but far less effective than a warm introduction from a trusted source.

The firm's 2025 and 2026 activity shows continued conviction in AI-native infrastructure, particularly at the application layer and in workflows that were historically manual. Several portfolio companies have deepened their AI capabilities, reflecting Horizon VC's willingness to support product shifts and pivots that reflect market evolution.

For founders seeking to understand Horizon VC's current thinking, the firm's GP Sandy Kory is active on X (formerly Twitter) and publishes occasionally on Substack. These channels offer insight into how the firm thinks about markets, founder qualities, and the current venture environment.

Horizon VC's portfolio spans 20+ companies across software, with notable positions in enterprise AI, fintech infrastructure, healthcare operations, and developer tools. What unites the portfolio is a consistent thesis: software that replaces manual workflows with AI-native alternatives, often in fragmented or underserved verticals.

Arkham builds the AI operating system for enterprises, targeting the growing demand for AI-native infrastructure inside large organizations. Baseten provides fast, scalable inference infrastructure for AI models, addressing a core bottleneck in enterprise AI adoption. Bland puts phone calls on autopilot, automating outbound and inbound calling workflows with AI agents. Julius AI acts as a personal AI data analyst, helping teams query and understand data without requiring SQL expertise.

In fintech, Float provides seamless global banking for businesses, targeting the friction that international companies face with legacy banking infrastructure. Pier lets founders launch a credit product in weeks rather than months, dramatically shortening the path to embedded finance. Sandbox acts as a universal adapter connecting fintechs with legacy financial systems. Subscript provides billing and analytics for modern finance leaders, automating revenue operations for SaaS businesses.

Developer tooling is well-represented in the portfolio. Nango claims to be the fastest way to ship any integration, addressing the persistent challenge of connecting SaaS products. Shuttle is building the future of backend development.

Healthcare operations is another strong theme. Artos automates medical document drafting, addressing provider burnout in clinical settings. Lyrebird Health helps doctors focus on patients rather than paperwork. Sample brings AI-powered automation to healthcare back-office operations.

The portfolio also includes companies in construction tech (BuildPass), insurance (Praxos), customer support (Pylon), sales technology (Lace), hardware and AR (Raven), and manufacturing (SendCutSend). The breadth reflects Horizon VC's willingness to invest in vertical SaaS across industries, not just horizontal infrastructure plays.

Horizon VC's prior investments before founding the fund include Palantir, Canva, BillionToOne, Flutterwave, and Sendbird. These are the deals that established Sandy Kory's reputation and inform the firm's current thesis around backing category-defining companies before they are obvious.

Horizon VC evaluates founders on a specific set of criteria that reflects the partner team's own investing track record. The firm explicitly seeks 'independent thinkers with bold, pioneering ideas,' not operators who are executing on consensus strategies.

The founding team is the most heavily weighted factor. Horizon VC wants to see deep domain expertise: founders who have spent significant time inside the problem they are solving and can articulate why now is the right time to build. Prior operating experience at relevant companies, successful exits, or meaningful industry credentials all help, but the firm is ultimately evaluating judgment and execution ability.

Founder-market fit matters enormously. The best founders in Horizon VC's view are those who have a unique angle on their market that cannot be replicated by smart outsiders. This often comes from personal experience: a founder who lived the problem, felt the pain acutely, and built a solution because no existing product adequately addressed it.

Ambitious thinking is a prerequisite. Horizon VC passes on companies that have small ambition even if the business is healthy and the product works. The firm is looking for companies that could be generational: worth billions of dollars in value creation, not comfortable mid-market SaaS businesses with steady growth.

Product intuition is closely evaluated. The partners have backgrounds in product development and have seen thousands of pitches. They want to understand whether the founder has a clear point of view on what the product should become and can articulate a roadmap that reflects deep customer engagement.

Resilience and coachability are also evaluated, often through the reference check process. Horizon VC talks to former colleagues, co-founders, and early employees to understand how the founder operates under pressure, how they handle disagreement, and whether they are open to feedback that challenges their assumptions.

The firm does not have hard metrics requirements for pre-seed companies, but seed-stage investments typically show evidence of meaningful product-market fit: strong engagement, revenue growth, or clear leading indicators of traction. Founders should be able to speak fluently about their unit economics, customer acquisition cost, and path to next milestone regardless of stage.

Getting a meeting with Horizon VC requires understanding how the firm sources its deals. The majority of Horizon VC's investments come through warm introductions: referrals from portfolio founders, angels who co-invest, and trusted venture partners who know the firm's thesis well.

The single most effective outreach strategy for Horizon VC is securing a warm introduction from someone in their network. This could be a portfolio founder, an investor who has co-invested with Horizon VC, or a trusted advisor who knows the firm. The introduction does not need to be from a famous name; what matters is that the introducer has a genuine relationship with the partners and can speak to the founder's quality.

Cold outreach through the firm's website is less effective but not impossible. If pursuing this route, the pitch should be concise, specific, and grounded in the firm's investment thesis. Generic decks that could apply to any VC will not stand out. The email or pitch should explain why Horizon VC specifically is the right fit for this company at this stage.

When preparing for a meeting with Horizon VC, founders should be ready to discuss the problem they are solving in depth, their current solution and its differentiation, the market size and their target customer, their traction and key metrics, and their vision for the company over a 10-year horizon. The partners ask direct questions and expect founders to have deep knowledge of every aspect of their business.

Follow-up after the initial meeting is important. Horizon VC moves quickly when conviction is high, but the firm also maintains a rigorous process that takes time to work through. Sending updates on progress, significant milestones, and relevant market developments is appropriate without being pushy.

Building a relationship with Horizon VC before fundraising is a legitimate strategy. Founders who engage the firm during development, share progress, and demonstrate the qualities Horizon VC looks for can create genuine interest that makes the fundraising process significantly easier when the time comes.

While Horizon VC invests in early-stage companies and understands that pre-seed and seed startups often have limited financial history, founders who demonstrate financial clarity stand out significantly. Investors want to see that founders understand their business mechanics: burn rate, runway, unit economics, and path to profitability or the next financing milestone.

Founders should arrive to Horizon VC meetings with clean, well-organized financial models that reflect realistic assumptions. The partners will challenge projections and scrutinize every line item. Being prepared for this level of scrutiny signals maturity and operational competence.

Key metrics that matter to Horizon VC depend on the business model but typically include customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, gross margin, revenue growth rate, and net revenue retention for SaaS businesses. For marketplace or transactional businesses, GMV, take rate, and cross-side growth are more relevant.

Working with a fractional CFO can dramatically improve a founder's readiness for fundraising. Professional financial guidance helps build accurate projections, prepare investor-ready financials, and confidently navigate due diligence. For seed-stage companies preparing for institutional fundraising, this investment is almost always worth the cost.

Our team has helped numerous companies raise venture capital and can support founders preparing to pitch Horizon VC or similar investors. From pitch deck financials to comprehensive financial models, we ensure founders walk into meetings prepared, clear, and confident.

Financial projections should be grounded in evidence and reflect thoughtful assumptions about the market. Horizon VC will push back on projections that seem optimistic without justification. Being able to explain the basis for every major assumption demonstrates the kind of rigorous thinking that earns trust from experienced investors.

Whether you are preparing to pitch Horizon VC or other top seed-stage investors, professional financials can set you apart from the competition. Founders who demonstrate financial fluency and operational readiness earn trust faster and negotiate from stronger positions.

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Finding the right investor for your startup is one of the most consequential decisions you will make as a founder. Take time to understand each firm's thesis, track record, and portfolio before reaching out.

Our guides cover both established multi-stage funds and focused seed-stage specialists. The right fit depends on your company's stage, sector, and the type of partnership you are looking for.