Felicis

Felicis started in 2006 as one former Google manager's small fund. Two decades later it is a multibillion dollar firm on Sand Hill Road, yet it still writes most of its checks at the seed and Series A stage. Its name comes up often in founder circles for a reason that has nothing to do with returns: a public pledge never to vote against the founders it backs.

This profile is a neutral explainer for visitors and founders. It is based on Felicis's website and published reporting. Figures the firm states about itself are marked as such. For the basics of how venture funds work, see our venture capital guide.

Founding and early years

Aydin Senkut founded Felicis in 2006. Before that he worked at Google in its early years as a product manager. Our page on Google's Palo Alto years covers that period.

The firm's own timeline shows how small it began. Its first fund in 2006 was $4 million. The firm lists itself as the first investor in Y Combinator, the startup accelerator. A $41 million second fund followed in 2010, when the firm began moving from a one-person operation to a team of investors.

The name echoes the Latin word for lucky. The firm plays on that idea in its tagline: "Where others see luck, we see: opportunity."

The office at 2460 Sand Hill Road

Felicis gives its postal address as 2460 Sand Hill Road, Suite 100, Menlo Park in its privacy policy and terms of use. The 2400 block sits on the eastern stretch of the venture corridor, closer to Stanford Shopping Center than to Interstate 280. Published profiles also list offices in San Francisco and New York.

The office is a private workplace inside a low-rise office park. It does not take walk-in visitors. Our Sand Hill Road guide explains the layout of the road, the main office campuses and where visitors can sit down nearby.

Focus areas and stage

Felicis groups its investing into four areas on its website: AI, cybersecurity and defense, global resilience and energy and health and bio. It makes several specific claims about how it invests:

• Early. 94 percent of its investments are at seed or Series A.
• Leading. It leads or co-leads 83 percent of the time.
• Fast. It advertises that it can go from first meeting to term sheet in 24 hours.
• Global founders. Its founders come from more than 40 home countries, according to the firm.
• Network driven. 85 percent of the founders it backs come through referrals from its network.

The firm also says 100 percent of its limited partners are what it calls world-positive organizations. It invites founders to ask about them.

The founder pledge

Two commitments set Felicis apart in public discussion.

The first is a voting pledge. Felicis says it does not vote against its founders on company boards. The firm's timeline places that pledge in its early institutional years. Press coverage in 2014 drew attention to a clause in its term sheets that made the promise in writing. For founders, it means Felicis gives up one of the levers investors sometimes use in a dispute with management. Our term sheet basics page explains board seats and protective provisions.

The second is money for founder development. Since 2018, the firm says, 1 percent of every first check goes to founder support, such as executive coaching, leadership programs and CEO peer groups.

Notable investments

Felicis publishes a timeline of its funds and milestones. A selection, with the firm's own descriptions:

The timeline also lists Twitch and Cruise among acquisitions and Fitbit, Guardant Health and Warby Parker among IPOs. Published profiles add early bets on Plaid and Notion. Its homepage features founders from Shopify, Canva, Supabase, n8n, Crusoe, Mercor and Runway.

Felicis says 65 or more of its companies became unicorns and that 140 or more were acquired or went public. As always, those totals are the firm's own. They describe the winners, not the many bets that did not work out.

Funds and size

Felicis is open about its fund history. According to its timeline:

• 2006: Fund I, $4 million.
• 2010: Fund II, $41 million.
• 2021: Fund VIII, $600 million, plus a $300 million Focus Fund.
• 2023: Fund IX, $825 million.
• 2025: Fund X, $900 million.

The firm gave its assets under management as $4.1 billion across 10 funds on its website in 2026.

Felicis and the Sand Hill tradition

Felicis belongs to a newer generation of firms on Sand Hill Road. The road's first venture offices opened in the early 1970s. Over the decades many of the larger firms there grew into investors that fund companies at every stage. Felicis took a different path. It started as an angel-sized fund, grew through repeated small and mid-sized funds and kept its attention on the first institutional round.

That focus shapes what a founder can expect. A seed or Series A investor usually takes a board seat or a board observer role early, works closely with the founding team on hiring and the next raise and then leaves later rounds to growth investors. The firm's own statements about leading most of its deals and moving quickly fit that model. Our venture capital glossary defines lead investor, pro rata and other terms that come up in these rounds.

How founders reach Felicis

Felicis says most of the founders it backs, 85 percent, come through referrals from its network of founders and partners. It does not advertise an open pitch form on the pages we checked. Practical steps:

1. Read the team page and the four focus areas. Pick the partner whose area and past deals match your company.
2. Ask a founder already backed by Felicis, or a mutual contact, for a short introduction.
3. Be ready to move quickly. The firm stresses speed, so have your deck, data room and references prepared before the first call.

Our guides to seed and pre-seed funds and pitching investors cover the wider landscape and the mechanics of a first meeting.

Visiting Sand Hill Road

Sand Hill Road has no Caltrain stop and very little to walk to. Most founders drive or take a rideshare from Palo Alto or Menlo Park station. From downtown Palo Alto, allow 10 to 15 minutes outside rush hour.

For a meeting farther up the road, Rosewood Sand Hill is the one place on the road where visitors can comfortably sit down for a drink or a meal. Our Menlo Park guide covers the town around the corridor.

Frequently asked questions