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Ian Rountree

General Partner at Cantos Ventures

San Francisco, California

Overview 

Ian Rountree is a General Partner at Cantos Ventures, known for his role as a 1st check investor who backs the near frontier, specializing in pre-seed and seed stages in sectors like Semiconductors, Material Science, and Impact investing. His career highlights include investments in companies like Public.com and Astranis, showcasing his expertise in venture capital and strategic partnerships within the San Francisco Bay Area tech ecosystem.

Work Experience 

  • General Partner

    2016 - Current

    Cantos is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with over $100M under management dedicated to investing in world-changing startups at the idea stage (pre-seed). We typically invest $750K to $2.5M.

A pre-seed firm obsessively pursuing the near frontier – where software, hardware, & wetware intersect.

  • Board Member

    2023

EARTH AI is a predictive explorer and driller for critical minerals.

Raised $14,000,000.00 from Roman Smolevskiy.

  • Board Member

    2024

  • Board Observer

    2024

Shinkei Systems is an automation agency that provides automation for fish harvesting.

Raised $6,000,000.00 from Cantos, Red & Blue Ventures, 8VC, Ravelin Capital, Undeterred Capital, Humba Ventures, Impatient Ventures, Carya Venture Partners, Y Combinator and Carya Venture Partners.

  • Board Observer

    2018

  • Board Member

    2023 - 2025

Atomos Space is an aerospace company building and developing orbital transfer vehicles.

Raised $21,897,041.00 from O'Shaughnessy Ventures.

  • Board Observer

    2019 - 2023

Pow.bio provides a genetically engineered solution for fermentation scientists.

Raised $11,225,000.00 from Thia Ventures, XFactor Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Gullspång Re:food, VECTORS, Possible Ventures, Vectors Angel, Better Ventures, iSelect and Bee Partners.

  • Chief of Staff

    2015 - 2016

    Helped get Invisible off the ground and raise initial funding, pitching over 100 investors. Despite nearly as many "no's", the company pulled through and amazingly did $134M of revenue in 2024!

Clients give us complex business problems and we become their operations, automation, and AI partner to deliver operational breakthroughs.

  • Angel Investor

    2012 - 2016

    Invested in 13 companies over four years. One investment, EasyPost, returned ~3x my portfolio.

  • Manager

    2013 - 2015

    Aided an old friend in ushering in the next generation of a legendary winegrowing domain. The Mascot offers a unique glimpse into the estates of Harlan Estate, Promontory, and BOND.

Articles About Ian

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