Version One Ventures is a Vancouver and San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2012 by Boris Wertz, one of Canada's most prominent technology investors. The firm backs mission-driven founders building generational technology companies, typically before their category is obvious or fully formed. Over more than a decade, Version One has invested in over 116 companies, including 6 unicorns, with significant wins across SaaS, marketplaces, crypto, deep tech, and consumer internet. With Fund V and Opportunities Fund III, Version One has raised $108 million across two new vehicles and continues to evolve its focus alongside major technological shifts.
Version One invests globally at pre-seed and seed, with a focus that has evolved alongside major technological shifts: AI infrastructure and applications, robotics and physical AI, deep tech, biology, and emerging ecosystems including India and Africa. The firm is founder-first rather than thesis-driven, backing people who are obsessive about problems they understand intimately rather than chasing market trends. Version One has historically maintained close ties to Vancouver, Seattle, and the broader Pacific Northwest, and is increasingly expanding its geographic reach.
Version One Fund V closed at $78 million in June 2026, focused on pre-seed and seed investments. Opportunities Fund III closed simultaneously at $30 million, designed to make follow-on investments in the firm's most promising portfolio companies. Combined, the two funds total $108 million.
Prior fund history: Fund IV closed at $70 million in 2021; Opportunities Fund II closed at $30 million in 2021. Fund III closed at approximately $45 million. Fund I raised $18.7 million in 2012. LP composition for the new funds has not been publicly disclosed.
Leadership
Boris Wertz is Founding Partner, based in Vancouver. Born in Germany, he co-founded JustBooks in 1999, at the time the largest European internet marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books, and served as COO of AbeBooks for five years before Amazon acquired it in 2008. He was named Pacific Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005 and inducted into the BC Innovators Hall of Fame in 2024. He is a former board partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Angela Tran is General Partner, based in San Francisco. An engineer by training, she focuses on deep tech and brings a dual US and Canadian ecosystem perspective. Leah Sherwood serves as the firm's finance lead.
Investment Strategy
Version One leads or co-leads pre-seed and seed rounds, partnering closely with founders through the earliest and messiest stages of company building. Opportunities Fund III deploys follow-on capital into the core fund's most compelling performers, allowing the firm to maintain meaningful ownership as portfolio companies scale. The firm argues that the next decade of venture returns will disproportionately accrue to investors willing to develop conviction ahead of the market on non-consensus ideas. Check sizes are not publicly disclosed.
Notable Investments
Notable Exits
Boris Wertz — Founding Partner
bwertz@versiononeventures.com
Angela Tran — General Partner
angela@versionone.vc
Canada
