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The Venture Codex

Darwin Ventures

315 Primrose Road, Burlingame, California, 94010, United States

Overview

Darwin Ventures is a Bay Area-based venture capital fund of funds platform providing access to a select group of venture capital funds and their transformative portfolio investments. Since 2004, Darwin Ventures has maintained a singular focus on venture capital, investing in some of the industry's most sought-after venture capital funds. Darwin counts leading family offices and institutional allocators among its investor base.

Total investments
15
Lead investments
3
Investments · 12mo
4
Active investors
6

Sector focus

  • Venture Capital
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Investment portfolio

  • OXMIQ

    Participated · Series A · Jul 2026

    OXMIQ develops a licensable GPU core, OxCore™, that integrates a CUDA-compatible GPU engine, a tensor processing engine, and an orchestration engine to enable configurable AI silicon. Its OxQuilt™ chiplet integration architecture supports heterogeneous compute and memory configurations across foundries and packaging options, and OxPython™ and OxCapsule™ provide software portability and orchestration for running existing CUDA and PyTorch code. OxCore is running on FPGA today with live demonstrations available, and the company positions an IP-first model to generate revenue from customer engagements while conserving capital. OXMIQ is working with semiconductor companies, neoclouds, AI system builders, and partners such as MediaTek and AM Intelligence Labs on initiatives including a renewable-powered AI factory collaboration. The company has strengthened its governance with additions to its board and advisory ranks to support customer integration and scaling. Financially, OXMIQ has raised $60 million in total capital following the $35 million Series A.

  • Protuoso Biosciences

    Led · Seed · May 2026

    Protuoso Biosciences develops multifunctional MUXBODIES™, fully recombinant fusion proteins designed to integrate antibodies, cytokines, peptides and other signaling modules into single therapeutics that can exert multi-modal functions. Its platform combines computational protein design, massively parallel synthetic biology, and AI-enabled modular protein engineering to optimize multi-domain fusion proteins. The company is building a hub-and-spoke operating model: a central engineering hub that generates diverse assets and spokes that advance programs in parallel and enable early business development. Protuoso has active programs in cardiometabolic diseases, solid tumors (including armored immune cell engagers) and is expanding into autoimmune indications. The company is headquartered in San Carlos, Calif., and positions its model to drive capital efficiency and create multiple value inflection points across the pipeline.

  • bitBiome

    Participated · Seed · May 2026

    bitBiome develops a data-driven platform for bio-manufacturing centered on its single-cell microbial genome sequencing technology (bit-MAP®) and a proprietary microbial gene database (bit-GEM) that has grown from 2 billion to over 3 billion genes. The company pairs bioinformatics, machine learning/AI, and high-throughput screening including robotics to enable enzyme discovery, enzyme and metabolic-pathway design, and microbial strain engineering via platforms such as bit-QED and bit-EVO. It has expanded leadership with experienced global hires and forged commercial partnerships and CMO ties to support end-to-end research-to-manufacturing workflows, including collaborations with Tojo Vikas International, Kyoritsu Seiyaku, and Sanwa Starch. bitBiome has been selected for large public projects (e.g., NEDO) and published research using bit-MAP® with multiple research groups, and has begun U.S. sampling to expand its database. The company plans to use recent funding to further grow bit-GEM, advance its SENS-AI genome-biology model, expand labs for data collection, and scale global business development, and has reported cumulative funding of about ¥7.0 billion.

  • PopChill

    Led · Series A · Sep 2025

    PopChill is a Taipei, Taiwan-headquartered e-commerce platform focused on the resale of luxury apparel, shoes, and handbags. The service lets consumers list, discover, and purchase authenticated pre-owned goods, promoting more sustainable shopping habits. Beyond transactions, the startup aims to foster a community centered on circular fashion. Its core product stack will soon integrate AI Agents, intelligent recommendation engines, and automated fraud-prevention tools to elevate both buyer and seller experiences. The company plans to channel new capital into accelerating these AI capabilities and further platform upgrades. Led by CEO Andy Kuo, PopChill has just secured US$3 million in Series A funding to support these initiatives.

  • KKday

    Participated · Equity · Dec 2024

    KKday is a travel experiences platform based in Taipei, Taiwan offering more than 350,000 experiences in over 550 cities and 92 countries. The company reports millions of users and operates 11 offices across the Asia‑Pacific region. KKday employs over 1,000 people across markets including Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Shanghai, Taiwan and Australia. Its product inventory spans local theme parks, top restaurants, staycations and multi-day hiking trips. KKday raised approximately US$70M and secured credit lines from financial institutions to support its growth. The company plans to use the funds for growth initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions in the Asia‑Pacific region to enhance its market position. KKday operates a travel experiences marketplace and a SaaS product (Rezio) that helps merchants manage bookings and inventory across channels. The company sells curated tours, activities and works with OTAs such as Viator and Tripadvisor to distribute merchant inventory. Rezio is used by about 1,600 merchants and KKday says the platform reaches 2.7 million travelers. During COVID-19 KKday added 200,000 experiences across Asia-Pacific (35,000 new activities in Japan) and has leaned on domestic travel growth in markets like Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Financially, KKday reports that its June 2022 gross merchandise value exceeded pre-COVID levels, it lowered user-acquisition cost to one-third of pre-pandemic levels, and it is generating revenue above its pre-COVID numbers. Planned uses of new capital include geographic expansion, rehiring and hiring across engineering, R&D, BD, operations and marketing, product development for OTAs and merchants, and a relaunch of KKday’s own curated experiences. KKday is a Taipei-based platform that sells tours and activities and has built a booking-management product called Rezio. The company was founded in 2014 and reports more than five million users and over 30,000 hosted tours and activities across 92 countries. Rezio, piloted in March starting with Japan and Taiwan, is designed for tour operators and activity providers—especially those that were mostly offline—to set up booking websites, connect payment gateways, and manage availability across channels. The platform has served more than 150,000 customers to date. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic KKday has shifted focus toward domestic travel or "staycations," seeing increased demand in markets such as Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. KKday says it will use new funding to expand Rezio into more Asian markets and support operators dealing with capacity limits and other pandemic-related constraints. KKday operates an e-platform that aggregates and sells local travel experiences, packages and tickets by working with local suppliers to shorten the supply chain and offer more transparent pricing. The company claims over 10,000 travel experiences across 80 countries and 500 cities, and reports that more than half of its users are aged 25–34. Founded in 2014, KKday has expanded across Southeast Asia and now has six regional offices in Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. It has begun operations in China via a virtual store on Alibaba-owned Fliggy and plans to set up a China office this year to strengthen its presence. KKday generates revenue from the services it provides to travellers; its operational status and profitability remain undisclosed. The firm is focused on further partnership development and growth in Southeast Asia and China. KKday operates a digital marketplace that lets travelers browse and book local experiences, tours, and activities across destinations. The company claims to host over 10,000 experiences from 500-plus cities in more than 80 countries. KKday tailors packages by using its own staff (for example as tour guides) and renting buses, and also works closely with contractors to control experience quality. It aims to grow customer numbers in China and Western markets such as Europe and the U.S., while expecting a major Japan boost through its new partner. KKday does not currently plan expansion into India and views its H.I.S. alliance as strategic rather than an acquisition. The startup aspires to offer an Amazon-like level of quality and guarantee for travel experiences as larger online travel firms potentially enter the space.

Team

  • Frank R. Caufield

    Managing Partner

  • Simon Fang

    Partner

  • Ryan Cotton

    Partner

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  • Scott Monahan

    Administrative Partner

    LinkedIn