Cowboy Ventures

Leveraging AI in industries without enough talent

Welcoming Tyrone Anderson to Team Cowboy!

We’re thrilled to announce $260M raised for two new funds: Cowboy Fund IV, a $140M seed fund, and our first “Mustang Fund”, a $120M fund for investing in breakout Cowboy portfolio companies.

Aileen Lee , Founder & Managing Partner at Cowboy Ventures. Learn about their investment focus, portfolio companies, and background.

Caroline Duffy, Partner at Cowboy Ventures. Learn about their investment focus, portfolio companies, and background.

Donna Boyer, Executive-in-Residence (EIR) at Cowboy Ventures. Learn about their investment focus, portfolio companies, and background.

Rohan Puranik, Principal at Cowboy Ventures. Learn about their investment focus, portfolio companies, and background.

We’ll help you build a company that stands the test of time, with independent thinking, resilience, ingenuity, honesty, incredible connections, and a human touch.

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We’ll help you build a company that stands the test of time, with independent thinking, resilience, ingenuity, honesty, incredible connections, and a human touch.

DeepL acquires San Francisco-based Mixhalo to bring live-event audio streaming and translation into its voice translation suite. Founded in 2016, Mixhalo provides real-time audio for sports and live events and has raised more than $39 million from investors including Fortress Investment, Founders Fund, Defy Partners, and Cowboy Ventures. Mixhalo already uses DeepL as its primary translation provider; DeepL says the platform will demonstrate its technology at in-person events and support a new Bay Area office as it expands U.S. operations.

Jun 2026 · TechCrunchNews article

TechCrunch explains how startups can reach the Startup Battlefield Top 20 and what participants receive. Selection favors differentiated, impactful companies, with product and founder videos playing a major role; finalists get pitch preparation and deliver six-minute live pitches followed by investor Q&A, with five advancing to compete for a $100,000 equity-free prize. All 200 selected companies receive a demo booth, event passes, virtual programming, pitch preparation, and access to the alumni network.

Jun 2026 · TechCrunchNews article

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Aileen Lee, Jon McNeill, and Steve Jang describe how AI is changing investors’ standards for startups. Investors assess data generation, competitive moats, founders’ track records, technical depth, and go-to-market ability, while demanding stronger evidence from seed-stage companies. Lee says AI startups face pressure to ship new features quickly, and the panelists say the market has no clear winners yet.

Nov 2025 · TechCrunchNews article

Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, discusses the firm’s direction and AI’s effects on jobs and business models. In a revisited conversation with Connie Loizos, Lee considers automation and job creation and offers a glimpse of recent changes to Cowboy Ventures’ team.

Jul 2025 · Startups | TechCrunchNews article