Ian Rountree
General Partner at Cantos Ventures
San Francisco, California
Overview
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.
Education
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
2005 - 2009
High School
2001 - 2005