Framework Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture firm founded in 2019 by Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer. The firm built its reputation as one of the first institutional investors to go all-in on decentralized finance, with early conviction positions in Aave and Chainlink that defined the DeFi category. With FVIV, Framework formally repositioned from a crypto-native shop into a frontier-technology firm, expanding its mandate to include AI, robotics, energy, and fintech alongside its foundational digital assets and stablecoins thesis. The firm manages approximately $1.28B in AUM following the FVIV close.
Framework backs frontier technology companies across crypto, stablecoins, tokenization, digital assets, AI, robotics, energy, and fintech.
The fund deploys across both private equity and liquid digital assets, including select public securities, giving it structural flexibility that most traditional VC firms cannot match.
The firm's core thesis is convergence: that the most important companies of the next decade will sit at the intersection of multiple frontier verticals rather than cleanly inside one.
Framework Ventures Fund IV (FVIV) closed oversubscribed at $400M in June 2026, flat versus the firm's 2022 Fund III, a deliberate sizing decision rather than a stretch raise.
LPs include an anchor Ivy League endowment alongside sovereign wealth funds, nonprofits, and funds of funds, a predominantly institutional base.
Check sizes range from $1M to $50M across pre-seed through Series A, plus liquid and select public positions.
Early FVIV deployments include leading Mecka AI's $60M Series A and backing distributed energy network Daylight.
Leadership
Michael Anderson is Co-Founder and General Partner, a Yale graduate who co-built Framework into one of DeFi's defining early investors.
Vance Spencer is Co-Founder and General Partner, known for early-contrarian bets on crypto infrastructure that defined the last cycle.
Rajiv Patel-O'Connor was promoted to General Partner alongside the FVIV close, bringing the GP bench to three.
Ryan Barney (ex-Pantera Capital) and Nick Trileski (ex-DRW) joined as Partners, adding crypto-native continuity and liquid-markets trading expertise respectively.
Investment Strategy
Framework writes $1M–$50M checks from pre-seed through Series A, with the ability to hold liquid tokens and public positions alongside equity, a genuine structural edge in categories where value accrues to a token as much as a cap table.
The firm's convergence thesis targets companies where AI, blockchain infrastructure, robotics, and energy intersect rather than backing single-vertical plays.
Post-investment support draws on the firm's deep DeFi network, capital formation expertise, and newly added trading and liquid-markets capability.
Notable Investments
Michael Anderson — Co-Founder & General Partner
michael@framework.ventures
Vance Spencer — Co-Founder & General Partner
vance@framework.ventures
United States
