Version One Ventures Closes $108M Across Fund V and Opportunities Fund III, Pushes Deeper Into India and Africa
TL;DR
Vancouver- and San Francisco-based Version One Ventures closed $108M USD across two new funds on June 2, 2026: Fund V at $78M USD and Opportunities Fund III at $30M USD. Founding Partner Boris Wertz and General Partner Angela Tran are running the same lean two-GP shop they have run for over a decade, with the same fund-size discipline and a sharpened thesis around AI infrastructure, robotics and physical AI, deep tech, and biology. The Canada allocation has dropped from roughly half to about one in ten investments, and the firm is now actively deploying into India and, newly, Africa. Northleaf and HarbourVest continue as anchor LPs, joined by Israel's Vintage Investment Partners and an unnamed US endowment.
Key Takeaways
Same team, same size, sharper thesis. The $78M flagship is only an 11% step-up from Fund IV's $70M (2021). This is the most underrated discipline signal in 2026 VC. Most Canadian seed managers chased size in 2021 and 2022 and are now stuck with deployment problems. Version One held the line and gets to deploy into a market priced for them, not for $300M emerging managers.
The geography rotation is the story. Canada is now around 10% of deal count, down from roughly 50% historically. The firm is leaning into India and adding Africa, and 8 of 9 investments in 2025 had a hardware component. This is not a Canadian seed fund anymore. It is a globally distributed deep-tech seed fund that happens to have a Vancouver office.
The DPI is real and worth pricing in. Version One reports $25M+ in distributions during 2025 alone, drawn from Fund II and Fund III. A Coinbase exit, Wattpad to Naver, Clio to TCV, plus more recent Opyn (Coinbase, 2025) and Lolli (Thesis, 2025) acquisitions give the firm a credibly proven cash-on-cash story. That is a meaningfully different LP pitch than most $80M seed funds can make.
Opportunities Fund III stayed flat at $30M. Holding the opportunities vehicle at the same size as the prior round is a deliberate choice. It means Version One is not chasing growth-stage check sizes and is instead concentrating follow-on into the strongest Fund V positions, the way a disciplined opportunities sleeve is supposed to work.
Fund Overview
Fund Names: Version One Fund V and Opportunities Fund III
Fund Sizes: $78M USD (Fund V) and $30M USD (Opportunities Fund III), $108M USD combined
Stage: Pre-seed and seed (Fund V); follow-on into existing portfolio (Opportunities Fund III)
Check Size: Not publicly disclosed; historically pre-seed/seed lead or co-lead
Geography: Global, with active deployment across North America, India, and Africa
Focus: AI infrastructure and applications, robotics and physical AI, deep tech, biology, emerging market ecosystems
Key LPs: Northleaf Capital Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Vintage Investment Partners (new), an unnamed US endowment fund (new)
Why This Fund Matters
Version One has run a contrarian playbook for over a decade and is being rewarded for it now. The firm has stayed small, kept the partnership tight at two GPs plus a venture partner, and refused to scale fund size with the market in 2021. Every other Canadian seed fund that doubled or tripled its size in that cycle is now staring down deployment problems, longer hold periods, and tougher LP conversations. Version One is not.
The geographic rotation deserves scrutiny. Reducing Canada to around 10% of new investments is a strong statement about where the firm sees pre-seed and seed alpha. Canada has been a hard market for early-stage venture for the last 18 months: weaker venture capital availability per the OECD, a shrinking pool of repeat operators, and the gravitational pull of US capital. India and Africa look very different right now, with a wave of repeat operators building AI infra and physical-AI startups, lower entry valuations, and improving exit pathways through global strategics and growth-stage US funds.
The shift toward hardware and physical AI also matters. Eight of nine 2025 investments had a hardware component, which is unusual for a fund branded as software-first historically. This is a real conviction call: the firm is betting that the next decade's category leaders will be hardware-software hybrids, not pure SaaS, and that pre-seed pricing on hardware-adjacent founders is still rational while pure-software AI is overheated.
The LP base extension to Vintage Investment Partners is a useful tell. Vintage's mandate has historically tilted to fund-of-fund commitments into US and Israeli emerging managers, with selective Canadian and European exposure. Their entry into Version One signals that the firm is being underwritten by globally diversified LPs as a deep-tech seed manager rather than as a regional Canadian fund.
The Team
Boris Wertz founded Version One in 2012 after exiting AbeBooks to Amazon. He is based in Vancouver and leads the crypto and web3, climate and energy, and India focus areas. Angela Tran joined as Partner in 2015 and is now General Partner, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, leading deep tech (robotics, climate, bio and health), AI/ML, dev tools, and enterprise SaaS. Josh Nussbaum joined as Venture Partner in February 2025, coming from Compound and with operating experience as a former addiction-treatment founder. Leah Gosbee is CFO and has been with the firm since 2021.
The decade-long Wertz and Tran partnership is the firm's defining asset. Two-GP funds in venture often fail when one partner outpaces the other or when investing styles diverge. Wertz and Tran have run a disciplined hand-off between Wertz's marketplaces and crypto roots and Tran's deep tech and enterprise focus, and the addition of Nussbaum as Venture Partner expands the surface area without diluting the GP economics.
Early Portfolio
Version One's portfolio across funds reads like a credible 13-year seed track record. Coinbase delivered a 2021 direct listing on NASDAQ that reportedly turned an early-stage check in the low single-digit millions into a blockbuster outcome. Wattpad was acquired by Naver. Clio was acquired by TCV in 2019. Active portfolio names include Uniswap, Dapper Labs, Ada, Jobber, Top Hat, and Shippo. More recent exits include Opyn (to Coinbase, 2025) and Lolli (to Thesis, 2025). The firm reports $25M+ in 2025 distributions back to LPs across Fund II ($9M) and Fund III ($16M).
What This Means for Founders
If you are a pre-seed or seed founder in AI infrastructure, robotics, physical AI, deep tech, or biology, Version One should be one of the first three calls you make. Geographic location is increasingly irrelevant. The firm is actively deploying in North America, India, and Africa, and the bias toward hardware-component businesses is a real positive signal for founders whose pitch decks have been getting passed by pure-software seed funds.
Expect lead or co-lead checks at pre-seed and seed sizes consistent with US market norms. The Opportunities Fund III sleeve at $30M means strong portfolio companies can expect concentrated follow-on at Series A and Series B, which is increasingly rare among seed managers that did not raise an opportunities vehicle in this cycle.
Fund Momentum Take
The most interesting question in Canadian VC right now is whether the next generation of Canadian-anchored funds should stay Canadian or rebrand as global. Version One has effectively answered that by saying neither: it is going to operate as a globally distributed deep-tech seed fund without performing geographic identity, and it is going to let the portfolio speak for itself. That is a smarter answer than the geographic-rebrand approach taken by several other former Canadian managers.
Our concern is concentration risk in the India and Africa expansion. Sourcing pre-seed deep-tech deals across two emerging-market ecosystems with a two-GP partnership requires either local venture partners, on-the-ground operating partners, or a co-investor network that the firm has not yet publicly built out. Nussbaum's venture partner role is a step in that direction but it is not enough on its own.
Our bet: Version One Fund V will outperform the median 2026 vintage Canadian fund by a wide margin because the firm is anchored on the disciplines (size, GP count, thesis sharpness) that actually drive seed-stage returns. The geographic and hardware tilts are a calculated bet on where the next decade's compounders will be built, and the LP base supporting that bet is among the most sophisticated in the market.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big is Version One Fund V?
$78M USD for Fund V and $30M USD for Opportunities Fund III, $108M USD in combined commitments.
What does Version One invest in?
Pre-seed and seed-stage companies in AI infrastructure, robotics and physical AI, deep tech, biology, and emerging-market ecosystems including India and Africa.
Who are the partners at Version One?
Boris Wertz (Founding Partner, Vancouver), Angela Tran (General Partner, Bay Area), Josh Nussbaum (Venture Partner, joined 2025), and Leah Gosbee (CFO).
Is Version One still focused on Canada?
Canada is now approximately 10% of the firm's investment portfolio, down from roughly 50% historically. The firm is global with active deployment in North America, India, and Africa.
Who are Version One's LPs?
Named LPs include Northleaf Capital Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Vintage Investment Partners (new to Fund V), and an unnamed US endowment fund. BDC Capital anchored Fund II historically.
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