Avidan Ross
VCFounding Partner, Root Ventures
Engineer-turned-VC funding deep tech founders
Background
Avidan Ross founded Root Ventures in 2013, building it into a seed fund run entirely by practicing engineers and hardware hackers that explicitly underwrites engineering risk in robotics, developer tools, and manufacturing tech. Before Root, he was CTO of CIM Group, a $15 billion investment firm, where he focused on industrial internet investing. Earlier in his career he designed industrial robotics for production kitchens. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University with a focus on networking protocols.
Investment Thesis
Backing seed-stage technical founders tackling deep engineering challenges in hardware, robotics, and developer infrastructure — acting as an engineering thought partner who can debug hardware roadmaps and manufacturing choices.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $500K–$2M
Sectors
Based in: San Francisco, CA, USA (North America)