Felicis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Venture capital |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Aydin Senkut |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California |
| Website | felicis |
Felicis is a venture capital firm that invests in start-up technology companies. It was founded in 2006 by Aydin Senkut. The company has offices in Menlo Park, California, San Francisco, California and New York City.[1]
Felicis has invested early in Shopify, Plaid Inc., Canva, CreditKarma, Notion, and Mercor. In 2016, Inc. magazine named Felicis one of the “Top 13 Seed Investors in Silicon Valley”,[2] and in 2025, Forbes included the firm’s founder and managing partner Aydin Senkut on its Midas List of the World’s Best Venture Capital Investors, for the 12th consecutive year.[3]
Felicis was established in 2006 by Aydin Senkut, a Turkish-born executive who was the first product manager at Google.[4] The New York Times listed Senkut as one of the Top 20 Venture Capitalists in the world in 2017.[5]
The company has its headquarters in Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park in San Mateo County, California. Felicis focuses on early-stage technology investments across sectors including AI, cybersecurity, global resilience, health and biotech.[6] Forbes describes Felicis as a "nimble boutique VC, able to move faster than larger funds".[7] The company has invested in companies in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Estonia, Finland and the Near East.[8]
In 2014, Felicis gained attention by including a clause in its term sheets that pledged not to vote against a founder, effectively aligning its interests with those of the entrepreneur.[9][10][11] By 2014, Felicis, had invested in 50 startups that were either acquired or sold shares in an initial public offering.[12]
In 2018 launched the Founder Pledge, which commits 1% of every first check to founder performance and development, including leadership, coaching and CEO peer groups.[7][13][14] Former Consumer Vice President of OpenAI’s ChatGPT team Peter Deng joined Felicis in 2025.[15]