Ridge Ventures

Say hello to our fifth fund, Ridge V! The $180M in total funding is the largest in our firm's history. Ridge V will support the next generation of Seed/early Series A #EnterpriseSoftware companies. Post-product. Pre-product-market fit. Experienced founders. Let the fun(d) begin!

Congrats to George Khachatryan, Victor Kostyuk, and everyone at OfferFit on their agreement?to be acquired by another (prior) Ridge Ventures portfolio company — Braze! Ridge backed OfferFit's Series B in 2023, joining our friends at Menlo Ventures, Canvas, and Harmony. We pretty much never invest past the Series A, but witnessing George present at one of our CXO Summits (https://lnkd.in/g4TTBcYx) convinced us this was worth the exception. Since then, I've had the privilege to join OfferFit's board and witness the rapid growth of customer count and revenue. OfferFit has brought to market one of the clearest use cases for #AI which replaces manual A/B testing with reinforcement learning and deep decision intelligence. This acquisition adds to Ridge’s successful string of Martech investments which include Braze (IPO), Krux Digital (acquired by Salesforce), Vidible (acquired by AOL), and Habu (acquired by Liveramp), among standouts in other software categories. I'm grateful to add OfferFit to this list, and see Braze as the perfect partner for George, Victor, and the whole OfferFit team. ? And on a personal front, I’m happy for George and Victor who are wonderful and caring human beings on top of being great founders. Thank you Mike Ghaffary Jean-Paul (J.P.) Sanday Clemens Baumgart Shweta Narayan Nathan Katz Sean Carrigan Jessica Vogol

Congratulations George Khachatryan Victor Kostyuk and the entire OfferFit team. And kudos to Alexander Rosen for championing this win for Ridge Ventures

I’m so excited to share that OfferFit has agreed to join Braze!! Braze has built an incredible customer engagement platform, trusted by many of the most sophisticated marketers in the world. Joining Braze will take OfferFit to the next level, both in terms of product and scale. Victor and I share more on the proposed acquisition in this blog post: go.offerfit.ai/bignews I’d like to thank the people who have made this possible. 1. Above all, our customers –?you have been amazing partners in building OfferFit and creating the AI decisioning category! 2. The OfferFit team –?I feel incredibly privileged every day to work with this extraordinary group of people. 3. My cofounder Victor Kostyuk – we’re best friends, but?my wife Marcela has said that we’re more like brothers. I couldn’t have wished for a better partner. 4. Our investors, including Menlo Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Harmony Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Capital One Ventures, Canadian Tire Corporation Roller Labs Ventures – you have been an incredible source of support every step of this journey. I can’t wait to get to work with Bill, Jon, and the rest of the Braze team to achieve even greater things together. Bill Magnuson Jonathan Hyman Jean-Paul (J.P.) Sanday Mike Ghaffary Alexander Rosen Wesley Yiu Fraser Christie Clemens Baumgart Shweta Narayan Sean Carrigan Nathan Katz Suraj Patel Jessica Vogol Spencer B. Astha Malik

Ridge Partner and five-time CIO Yousuf Khan recently chatted with Akash Bhat of The Desi VC Podcast about a range of topics?related to #enterprise #startups and #VentureCapital. Here are some of the highlights, including helpful tips for #founders! ??

ICYMI: Ridge Partner and five-time CIO Yousuf Khan sat down with Charles Uniman of the #Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast. Yousuf shared how he evaluates #legaltech #startups and what #founders should know about fundraising in this burgeoning space. Highlights include: ? #AI is transforming legal tech by providing productivity gains that excite legal professionals ? Market expectations are shifting as lawyers see competitors gaining advantages through technology ? Time-to-value is becoming a critical factor in legal tech adoption ? Successful founders must identify specific market segments, not just target "all law firms" ? Building for long-term customer success is more important than debating founder vs. manager modes ? And a lot more!

In this latest episode of the Legal Tech StartUp Focus Podcast, podcast host Charlie Uniman interviews Yousuf Khan of Ridge Ventures. Venture capitalist Yousuf Khan shares how Ridge Ventures evaluates legal tech startups and what founders need to know about raising capital in this rapidly evolving space. We explore the intersection of artificial intelligence, legal practice, and investment strategy. ? Ridge Ventures differentiates itself by including customer introduction targets in term sheets ? Yousuf's background as a former CIO gives him unique insight into enterprise legal departments' needs ? Legal tech founders have a competitive advantage when they leverage their domain expertise ? In-house legal departments represent a growing and underserved market for legal tech solutions ? AI is transforming legal tech by providing productivity gains that excite legal professionals ? Market expectations are shifting as lawyers see competitors gaining advantages through technology ? Time-to-value is becoming a critical factor in legal tech adoption ? Successful founders must identify specific market segments, not just target "all law firms" ? Building for long-term customer success is more important than debating founder vs. manager modes Join our free LegalTech Startup Focus community at https://lnkd.in/eT7ZjKbU to connect with founders, investors, and industry experts. Access this episode here: https://lnkd.in/ezSpwfvF #legaltechnology #legaltech Ridge Ventures

The go-to-market strategy for AI solutions demands a unique approach and a reevaluation of the sales process. Adapting to the specialized nature of these products will drive success. Here are some insights that shed light on the evolving landscape of AI sales strategies. #AI #GTM

Yousuf Khan is a Partner at Ridge Ventures. Having held many operational roles in his previous positions, he’s uniquely qualified to not only grow Ridge’s portfolio, but more importantly to support founders through the vantage point of deep start-up experience. He currently serves as board director for Ridge-backed Archera, Cerby, Chisel Labs, Lightyear, Rafay, and Rewind. Prior to joining Ridge, Yousuf was the first CIO of Automation Anywhere, the CIO and Vice President of Customer Success at cloud-based AI platform Moveworks, as well as CIO of Pure Storage and Qualys. He has been an advisor to early-stage companies such as Zoom, Productiv and Material Security as well as an active member of the CIO community. He holds a BSc in Business Management from King’s College London. Topics: - The evolving role of CIOs in modern enterprises - Key trends in enterprise software and AI - The future of cloud-based AI platforms #VC #RidgeVentures #StartupInvesting #EnterpriseSoftware #CloudTechnology

?? Tomorrow (Tue.) @ 9am PT ?? Tune into the Smart Venture Podcast with Ridge Partner Yousuf Khan and Grace Gong, a LinkedIn Top Voice, as they talk live about all things #VC!