Thayer Ventures

Thayer Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm and the preeminent US venture platform focused on technology innovation across the global travel, transportation and hospitality industries; no other traditional US-based VC has invested more capital into travel startups over the past decade. Founded around 2009 by Chris Hemmeter and Mark Farrell, the firm prioritizes early-stage B2B companies while selectively pursuing seed, later-stage and B2C deals across the roughly $10 trillion global travel and transportation markets, and it is willing to lead. It manages four active investment vehicles with more than $300M of capital deployed across 30-plus active portfolio companies, including its $80M Fund III, which closed in 2020. Notable portfolio companies include Sonder, Canary Technologies, Beekeeper, May Mobility, Dishcraft Robotics, Lifehouse and Muse. Thayer's competitive edge is a deep strategic network of industry advisors and LPs spanning founders of Agoda, advisors to Booking Holdings, former CEOs of Marriott, Sabre, Travelocity, American Airlines, Virgin America and Air Canada, plus executives from Airbnb and AWS Travel & Hospitality. In September 2024 Thayer Ventures combined with Derive Ventures to form Thayer Investment Partners (TIP), a broader strategic platform driving innovation across travel, hospitality and real estate. The firm is led by managing partner and co-founder Chris Hemmeter, with co-founder Mark Farrell and Katherine Grass as a venture partner expanding its global focus. By concentrating exclusively on travel, transportation and hospitality and pairing capital with an unmatched industry network, Thayer backs the technology reshaping how the world travels.