“Ideas are a dime a dozen,” she told Fortune. “What I’m backing, especially at the earliest stages, is a person.” That thesis is part of why she does only two to three deals a year.
Maliwal is a general partner at Upfront Ventures, a 30-year-old Los Angeles firm investing out of its Eight Fund. She joined in 2019 as their first partner in San Francisco and planted herself in fintech, AI applications, and dev tools. She grew up across five cities—Mumbai, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Singapore, San Francisco—which may explain why she thinks more about connective tissue than isolated bets.
Before Upfront, Maliwal moved from banking to venture to operating and back again: Deutsche Bank, then Crosslink Capital, then Google, where she was a product manager and built a team that surfaced market themes to Google’s leadership team. It was at Google where she learned a key lesson as an operator: “You think you’re working on something that the big players don’t know about,” she told Fortune, “but they actually do have a sense of what’s happening in the market thematically.”
Her first deal in venture was Chime, where she led the Series A at Crosslink in 2014. Eleven years later, Chime went public at an $11.6 billion market cap—well below its $25 billion private peak. Maliwal wasn’t surprised by the correction. “Being a public company is pretty damn hard,” she said.
Now, at Upfront, her portfolio includes Clair, the earned wage access play she backed at Series A and re-led at Series B in May 2025; General Translation, a localization dev tools play; and Arcade, a generative demo software company. She watches the AI frenzy without illusion. “We’re in that bubble right now. For every dollar that Cursor is making, how many dollars are they losing? Everyone needs to figure out what their fundamental unit economics are.”
Aside from that healthy skepticism, Maliwal is also quietly stalking untapped opportunities in what she calls information markets—proprietary data sets with time-bounded access, the kind that hedge funds, betting markets, and model training pipelines will pay a premium for. One Upfront portfolio company, Neon Mobile, is already there: collecting voice data and selling it to AI labs and developers.
For all the frameworks—information markets, unit economics, the AI backbone question—Maliwal says the actual investment decision comes down to something simpler. “You should only be backing ‘n of one’ founders,” she says, “not because they know it all right at the get-go, but because they are so determined that they will figure out a way not just to survive, but to be the greatest.”
See you on Monday,
Lily Mae Lazarus
X: @LilyMaeLazarus
Email: lily.lazarus@fortune.com
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- Cloudsmith, a Belfast, Northern Ireland-based universal artifact management platform, raised $72 million in Series C funding. TCV led the round and was joined by Insight Partners and existing investors.
- Petual, a San Francisco-based AI-powered platform designed for audit and compliance, raised $20 million across two funding rounds. a16z and First Round led the round and were joined by Cowboy Ventures, Elad Gil, and others.
- BAND, a San Francisco-based developer of interaction infrastructure for distributed AI agents, raised $17 million in seed funding from Sierra Ventures, Hertz Ventures, and Team8.
- Copperhelm, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based agentic cloud security company, raised $7 million in seed funding. TLV Partners led the round and was joined by ICON, toDay Ventures, and SaaS Ventures Israel.
- DOJO AI, a London, U.K. and Lisbon, Portugal-based intelligent marketing system, raised $6 million in seed funding. Armilar led the round and was joined by Heartfelt VC.
- Thoughtly, a New York City-based developer of voice AI agents, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Armory Square Ventures led the round and was joined by nvp capital and existing investors Afore Capital, Greycroft, and K5 Global Tokyo Black.
- Astor, a San Francisco-based developer of an AI investment advisor, raised $5 million in seed funding. Monashees led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, Gilgamesh Ventures, 468 Capital, Valutia, Sunshine Lake, and others.
- Cloneable, a Raleigh, N.C.-based AI automation company focused on infrastructure operations, raised $4.6 million in seed funding. Congruent Ventures led the round and was joined by First In, Overline, St. Elmo Venture Capital, and Bull City Venture Partners.
- Brev, a San Francisco-based AI-native layer between business goals and work, raised $3.3 million in pre-seed funding. Resolute Ventures led the round and was joined by shuckerVC, Duro VC, Gaingels, and FOG Ventures.
- CES Power, backed by Allied Industrial Partners, acquired: GH Energy Rental, a Dublin, Ireland-based temporary power solutions company; Event Power, a Portlaoise, Ireland-based electrical services company for the event, entertainment, and leisure industry; and Purecore, a Portlaoise, Ireland-based temporary power provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Shrieve Chemical Company, a portfolio company of Gemspring Capital, acquired Vertec BioSolvents, a West Chicago, Ill.-based manufacturer of bio-based solvents. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- United Building Solutions, backed by AE Industrial Partners, acquired McCarl’s Services, a Cranberry Township and Erie, Pa.-based HVAC and refrigeration solutions company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The Elmet Group, a Portland, Maine-based manufacturer of critical materials and engineered microwave products, raised $120 million in an offering of 8.6 million shares priced at $14 on the Nasdaq.
- Achieve Partners, a New York City-based private equity firm, raised $450 million for its second Workforce fund focused on companies tackling AI’s effect on the labor market.
- Kurma Partners, a Paris, France-based health care venture capital firm, raised €215 million ($251 million) for its fourth fund focused on drug discovery companies targeting severe or incurable diseases.
- Mighty Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, raised $91 million for its third fund focused on early-stage, business-to-business technology companies.
- Balderton Capital, a London, U.K.-based venture capital firm, hired Phil Chambers as partner. Previously, he was CEO of Orbex.
- Energize Capital, a Chicago-based investment firm, hired Sam Austin as a principal on the firm’s private equity strategy. Previously, he was with True Wind Capital.
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