Catamount Ventures

Catamount Ventures was a San Francisco-based venture capital firm founded in 2000 by Jed Smith, who previously founded drugstore.com (NASDAQ: DSCM) in 1997. The firm managed four funds with over $200 million in committed capital, building a portfolio of 45-plus companies concentrated in education, healthy living, and sustainability markets. Jed Smith — who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School — positioned the firm as a hands-on partner with mission-oriented conviction, backing companies with the potential to become category leaders. Catapult is no longer making new investments and is in portfolio management mode. Catamount led rounds at the Seed through Series B stages, deploying checks of $1 million to $10 million. The portfolio achieved 15 acquisitions across its history. Notable companies include MasteryConnect, an edtech platform where Catamount led a $4.5 million Series C alongside the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; Plum Organics, acquired by Sun-Maid in March 2021; RaiseMe; and Linden Lab, creator of Second Life. Numi Organic Tea rounded out the consumer and healthy living focus. Catamount's increasing emphasis on education within Fund IV led Jed Smith to co-found Owl Ventures, which has since grown into the world's largest edtech-focused VC with over $1 billion raised. That institutional evolution reflects the depth of Catamount's sector conviction — the firm's education thesis not only defined its later years but seeded an entirely new category-specialist fund that continues that work at scale.