Kanyi Maqubela
VCManaging Partner, Kindred Ventures
Seed investor in frontier tech and fintech
Background
Kanyi Maqubela is a Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, a seed-stage VC fund based in San Francisco. He studied philosophy at Stanford and previously served as Partner at Collaborative Fund. He co-founded Heartbeat Health, described as the largest virtual heart health platform in the United States. He was named to the San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40 list in 2025. His portfolio includes notable exits and public companies including Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) and Reddit (NYSE: RDDT). He also served as Adjunct Professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and sits on the UCSF Foundation Investment Company Board.
Investment Thesis
Invests in frontier technology with a focus on digital health, fintech, e-commerce, and supply-chain/logistics at formation, pre-seed, and seed stages.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $250K–$2M
Sectors
Based in: United States, primarily San Francisco Bay Area (North America)
Notable Investments
Upstart
NASDAQ: UPST
NYSE: RDDT
Impossible Foods
Plant-based meat alternative
Tala
Emerging-market mobile lending; lead investor
Outschool
Online learning marketplace for kids
HelloSign
Acquired by Dropbox
Earnest
Student loan refinancing; acquired by Navient
Basis Theory
Payment card tokenization platform; lead investor