Launching Touring Capital to Back The Next Generation of AI-Powered Software Startups
By: Nagraj Kashyap, Priya Saiprasad and Samir Kumar
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Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Touring Capital, a venture capital firm investing in the next generation of AI-powered software companies around the world at the early-growth stage.
A tad about us:
We are a team defined by our diversity of thought. Our Myers Briggs personality types range from “Commander” to “Entertainer” to “Logician”. Our childhoods have taken us around the world from the hustle & bustle of New York and SF to the historic corridors of Lagos and Baghdad. Our hobbies range from astrophysics to hip hop-inspired Pilates. Over the years, our complementary perspectives have allowed us to look beyond corners and back amazing teams across our time at three premier venture franchises. After years of countless laughs, difficult arguments, shared triumphs, and eating our way through Hayes Valley, Soho, Lavelle Road, and everywhere in between, we’ve built an immense amount of respect and trust for one another. We are similarly inspired to support the next crop of exceptional founders.
We founded and built Qualcomm Ventures and M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), collectively backing 16 unicorns, overseeing 26 successful exited investments, and generating market-leading returns. We’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to partner with generational founders including Eric at Zoom, Johan at Kahoot, Glen at Livongo, Abhinav at Innovaccer, Manny at Outreach, Qasar at Applied Intuition, and Andrew at Go1.
Why now, and why software at the frontier?
We founded Touring Capital with the shared belief that the software paradigm will evolve rapidly in the near term. Advances in AI will fuel major productivity gains across all sectors and lines of business and reshape the way we build and interact with software. The explosion of talent outside of Silicon Valley and national imperatives to participate in the next frontier of AI has democratized software development. As a result, iconic software companies are being built in emerging technology hubs at an unprecedented rate. Our investment philosophy is squarely rooted in investing at two key frontiers in software: deep AI innovation and a focus on emerging ecosystems.
What is our approach?
As a collection of immigrants, we appreciate that innovation has no borders. Our pursuit of exceptional founders will take us around the world, with a special focus on emerging software ecosystems across North America, India, Australia, and Europe. Our debut fund will predominantly focus on investing in Series B and Series C rounds of category-defining software companies powered by AI.
Throughout our respective careers, we have shared the commitment of serving as trusted partners to founders, working in the trenches with them in both good and bad times. We are singularly founder-first at Touring. We will hustle to help our founders build generational companies by always serving as an extension of their teams, unlocking doors across our strong networks, and leveraging expertise from our decades of collective experience in software.
We are incredibly grateful to receive support from institutional firms, family offices, as well as a network of over 25 founders who we’ve previously worked with, highlighting our commitment to strong, long-lasting relationships with entrepreneurs.
If you are a founder at an early-growth stage software company with an ambition to be a global leader, we would love to hear from you.
Please reach out to us at general@touringcapital.com and to learn more, please visit us at touringcapital.com.
