For over two decades, Emergence has been singularly focused on one mission: investing in people who change the way the world works.
We launched our firm at the dawn of a platform shift—when workplace technology was moving from on-premise to the cloud. Our goal was to identify and support the bold founders leading this transformation.
That’s exactly what we did.
We partnered with visionaries like Marc Benioff at Salesforce, who pioneered cloud-based business software; Peter Gassner at Veeva, who redefined technology for life sciences; and Eric Yuan at Zoom, who revolutionized how we communicate.
Looking back over our first twenty years, one thing is clear: partnership with Emergence bends the odds of success for B2B founders. More than 1-in-10 of our early stage investments have gone public. From the earliest days of a company’s journey, we’ve been there—not just as investors, but as true partners—helping founders turn emerging ideas into iconic businesses.
Today, we find ourselves amidst another platform shift as AI transforms how work gets done. Leaning on twenty years of experience helping B2B companies succeed in moments exactly like this one, we are thrilled to announce Emergence VII—a $1 billion commitment to supporting the next generation of founders on their journey from emerging to iconic.
A Track Record of Bending the Odds
Our unique approach to partnership helps us improve the odds of making it from emerging to iconic. To mark our twentieth anniversary and the launch of Fund VII, we crunched the numbers to measure the quantitative impact of our work.
Here’s what we’ve found:
- Over 9-in-10 of our early stage investments have gone on to raise successful follow on rounds.
- Over 1-in-5 of our early stage investments have surpassed $1B in valuation.
- Over 1-in-10 of our early-stage investments have gone public.
- We’ve generated over $8B in realized returns on less than $2B invested, funding leading nonprofits working on cancer research, climate, and more.
The data affirms what we’ve long believed—Emergence bends the odds of success for founders. And when they win, their impact extends far beyond the business world, funding some of the most important causes of our time.
The Emergence Difference
These results don’t happen by accident. What sets Emergence apart is not just the companies we invest in, but the way we invest in them. Our approach to partnership is intentional, hands-on, and built for every stage of the company-building journey.
We invest exclusively in founders shaping the way the world works.
We are laser-focused on B2B software, bringing deep, thesis-driven expertise and an elite network of operators to help founders navigate every phase of growth. Our playbook spans every B2B go-to-market approach, turning market insight into execution advantage.
We go all in on every investment to bend the odds of success.
Each of our Partners makes just one investment per year—a deliberate choice that allows us to go deep with every founder. When you work with us, you get the full firm behind you. Every Partner contributes to diligence, strategy, and execution, ensuring you benefit from our collective experience and relationships.
We are built for enduring partnership.
We’ve built something rare in venture: a firm with zero Partner turnover and a culture of developing talent from within. That means the team you start with is the team that will see you through. From your first round to IPO and beyond, we’re in it for the long haul.
Our Founders Building the Future of AI
The best proof of our impact comes from the founders we back.
As AI reshapes how work gets done, we are privileged to partner with the visionaries defining this next era of workplace technology—not just as investors, but as dedicated partners in their journey.
At Together.ai, Vipul is enabling enterprises of all shapes and sizes to train and optimize their own proprietary models tailored to their workflows. Our interest stemmed from deep thesis work on the potential for open source LLMs, and we were the first to have conviction in his Series A. But our partnership went far beyond the check—we introduced him to Zoom, which became Together’s first enterprise customer, and helped bring in a key engineering leader to strengthen the team.
At Bolt.new, Eric is revolutionizing software development by creating an AI-powered platform for anyone to build and launch full-stack web applications without writing a single line of code. We quickly became a key thought partner, working alongside him on product strategy, go-to-market execution, and talent acquisition. Eric and his team know they can rely on us not just for strategic guidance but for deep operational support at every stage of growth.
At Unify, Austin is transforming how revenue teams operate, using AI to streamline and optimize go-to-market motions. Emergence backed Austin from day one, and our role has been hands-on ever since—connecting him with some of Unify’s largest customers, helping him build his early team, and shaping strategic decisions that accelerated their explosive growth.
At Bland, Isaiah is empowering companies to build voice AI agents tailored to their unique goals, from replicating the tone of their brand to creating multi-language support for global audiences. Before we formally partnered, we worked with Isaiah to help him refine his market perspective and position Bland for long-term success.
These aren’t just companies—they are founders on a mission to reshape how we work. And they aren’t just investments—they are partnerships built on trust, deep engagement, and a shared vision. As we enter the AI era, we remain committed to bending the odds in favor of the next generation of iconic B2B companies and the leaders behind them.
Building Something Iconic?
We are still in the earliest days of AI and the generational platform shift it represents. It’s hard to imagine a more exciting time to build technology that transforms the way the world works.
While AI breakthroughs are rewriting what’s possible, the fundamentals of building a great B2B company remain the same. The playbooks for scaling, selling, and winning in B2B software are well-worn—and we know them inside and out.
That’s where Emergence comes in.
For over twenty years, we’ve backed some of the most iconic B2B founders, helping them navigate industry shifts, scale their businesses, and redefine their categories. We’ve developed a partnership model that’s an “n of one” in venture—designed to help founders bend the odds of success from emerging to iconic.
We’ve seen this movie before. We helped the most iconic founders move business from on-premise to the cloud. Now, with Emergence VII, we’re ready to do it again in the Intelligence Age.
If you’re building at the intersection of AI and work, we want to meet you.
.png)
