The recognition highlights Rackhouse Venture Capital’s strong activity in 2025, marked by new investments, portfolio milestones, and founder partnerships that extend beyond capital.

Rackhouse Venture Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm backing founders solving high-friction, real-world problems with applied AI, has been named to Inc.’s 2025 Founder-Friendly Investors list. The recognition comes amid significant growth for the firm, underscoring the impact of its founder-first approach and deep focus on infrastructure-layer AI.

Over the past year, Rackhouse Venture Capital has expanded its reach and deepened its commitment to backing founders solving critical operational challenges with applied AI. Since closing its $45 million second fund in 2024, the firm has added key talent with the appointment of Brendan Baker as Partner, completed multiple new investments, and seen portfolio companies reach major milestones.

Recent highlights include:

• The successful exit of Windsurf, which reached a $2.4 billion agreement with Google in July 2025.
• Notable investments include Fathom Video, an AI notetaker that captures key moments and connects with team tools; Arvist, which automates warehouse quality control using existing infrastructure; and Guilde, a spec-driven platform that turns requirements into reliable code.
• Continued focus on applied AI infrastructure powering mission-critical workflows in sectors like compliance, logistics QA, and product development.

“Being named to Inc.’s Founder-Friendly Investors list reflects the impact of how we show up for founders, not just the capital we provide,” said Kevin Novak, Founder and General Partner at Rackhouse Venture Capital. “The real measure of a venture partner is in the quiet, crucial moments. When a founder is deciding whether to pivot, make a key hire, or fight through another obstacle – that’s when our partnership matters most.”

Rackhouse’s investment strategy focuses on overlooked opportunities where AI delivers measurable impact inside real-world workflows. The firm backs founders tackling invisible but critical pain points, from automating compliance and optimizing supply chain operations to building intelligence into product workflows. Many of these challenges operate behind the scenes, but solving them has a meaningful impact on efficiency, scale, and operations.

The recognition from Inc. reinforces Rackhouse’s founder-first approach, which prioritizes deep collaboration, operational support, and hands-on partnership beyond the term sheet. It reflects feedback from founders themselves, those who have worked side-by-side with Rackhouse through product pivots, scaling decisions, and key inflection points

About Rackhouse Venture Capital

Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Rackhouse Venture Capital is a global venture capital firm purpose-built to support early-stage founders and firms that sit at the intersection of AI/ML and the real world. Rackhouse Venture Capital is the place for early-stage founders with a vision of making the world more efficient. For more information, visit https://www.rackhouse.vc/.

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