Manu Kumar

Founder, Chief Firestarter atK9 VenturesPalo Alto

Manu Kumar is an entrepreneur and investor who founded K9 Ventures in 2009. He has a PhD from Stanford and previously founded SneakerLabs and iMeet.

What Manu can write

Writes checks of$250K to $1M

Comes in atPre-seedCan lead the round

Ownership target7-10%At first check

Pitch pageSubmit on their siteThe firm asks founders to apply here.

K9 Ventures writes $250K to $1M checks, larger than 33% of firms in the atlas.

Bars: how many firms report each check band. Highlighted: K9 Ventures.

Career

Netspoke · Board of Directors
2002-2005
Stanford University · Doctoral Researcher
K9 Ventures · Chief Firestarter
Now
Carnegie Mellon University · lecturer
SneakerLabs · Founder, President and CEO
E.piphany · Vice-President of Interactive Technologies
iMeet · Chairman and CEO
K9 Ventures · Founder and Chief Firestarter
Now

Companies founded

SneakerLabsiMeetK9 Ventures

Investments named in public bios

EverlawBaydinLucidChartCartaenumaAuth0CurrantNexkeyBugseeTrapticCrave.io Inc.Aurora InnovationCompound EyeAvomaForethought TechnologiesWorkona Inc.

Focus

seed-stagetechnology riskstartup operating experienceventure capitalstartups

Education

Carnegie Mellon, BS, Electrical and Computer EngineeringStanford, MS, Computer ScienceCarnegie Mellon University, Bachelors in Electrical and Computer EngineeringStanford University, Masters in Computer Science

Before you pitch

K9 Ventures does not invest inWe want companies where the customers pay for using the product or service directly. In other words, “I deliver value to you, you pay me.” We don’t like three-way business models as at the stage we invest it’s impossible to tell a company will become the next Google or Facebook. As a corollary, we don’t invest in companies built on media, content, advertising. We typically only consider companies where the founding team is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is not a function of where K9 is located, but because we believe that there is something that happens in Silicon Valley, which cannot be easily replicated in other geographies. We welcome working with remote or distributed teams (a change in our thinking), but absolutely will not consider companies that plan to outsource the development of their core technology/product.

Partners like Manu

At firms with a similar stage, sector and check size.

Joanna DrakeCo-Founder & Managing Partner, Magnify Ventures

Ayanna KerrisonPrecursor Ventures

Alex DavidovGeneral Partner, Abstract Ventures

Gabriel SabbagGeneral Partner, Atman

Lan XuezhaoFounder & Managing Partner, Basis Set Ventures

Karin KleinFounding Partner, Bloomberg Beta

Founders and investors at a Mode VC gathering

Send Mode VC your deck

Raising a pre-seed or seed round? We write $1M to $5M first checks and help founders with distribution. A partner reads every deck.

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Questions

Who is Manu Kumar?

Manu Kumar is an entrepreneur and investor who founded K9 Ventures in 2009. He has a PhD from Stanford and previously founded SneakerLabs and iMeet.

How much does Manu Kumar invest?

Manu Kumar invests through K9 Ventures, which writes checks of $250K to $1M at pre-seed.

How do I pitch Manu Kumar?

A warm intro from a founder K9 Ventures backed works best.

What did Manu Kumar do before K9 Ventures?

Board of Directors at Netspoke; Doctoral Researcher at Stanford University; lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University; Founder, President and CEO at SneakerLabs; Vice-President of Interactive Technologies at E.piphany; Chairman and CEO at iMeet.

Last updated 2026-10-15. Is this you? Ask for a correction.