Vermilion Cliffs Ventures

Profile

Vermilion Cliffs Ventures is a venture capital firm based in the United States, established in 2023 by Ashley Smith, an experienced operator and marketer. Smith's extensive career includes roles at Twilio, GitHub, and Facebook, giving her a unique perspective on product distribution and development. The firm recently added Meghan Murphy, another experienced go-to-market operator, emphasizing their focus on operational support. They target technical founders aiming to build and excel in the domain of developer tools and infrastructure.

The firm invests specifically in early-stage companies, primarily pre-seed and seed stages, with check sizes ranging from $500K to $1M. Their sector focus includes AI infrastructure, security, and developer tooling, targeting founders building technical products for technical users. Vermilion Cliffs Ventures has raised $25M for its current fund, almost doubling from its $13M debut. The fund is backed by notable LPs such as LGT Capital Partners and Screendoor.

Notable investments from Vermilion Cliffs Ventures include Keycard - a cybersecurity startup, and CopilotKit - an AI infrastructure company. Other portfolio companies like Catio and Documatic further reflect their focus on supporting developer-centric products. The firm aims to back over 25 companies with this fund, leveraging its deep industry insights and technical go-to-market expertise to give companies a distinct advantage in the competitive startup landscape.