Robotics and embodied AI
Robots leaving the lab for factories, warehouses, farms and homes, and the data, simulation and deployment layers that make them reliable in the real world.
We back the founders building intelligent machines.
Tess Ventures is the fund of Tess Hau. Over 12+ years and 200+ investments, she has backed technical founders from the first check. Today the fund is focused on AI, robotics and deep tech.
200+investments
12+ yearsof investing
$1B+raised by portfolio companies
Portfolio companies acquired by Apple, Autodesk and Datadog, and taken public including Robinhood, Nubank and TuSimple.
Tess Hau
Founder and General Partner. Investor and advisor to deep tech companies and extraordinary technical founders around the world.
- Founder and General PartnerTess Ventures
- Former advisorStanford Office of Technology Licensing
- Former COOGCBC, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- Chief Ambassador, appointed by the DeanUniversity of Waterloo Engineering
- Top Women to Watch, 2019Thrive Global
Where we invest
Applied AI and agents
Models and agents that do real work inside industries with deep domain knowledge: manufacturing, logistics, health and service operations.
Compute and infrastructure
The GPUs, developer tools and systems software that the AI build-out runs on.
Lab-to-market deep tech
University spinouts and scientist founders commercializing hard science, a path Tess knows from Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing and Waterloo Engineering.
Frontier companies
All companiesTuSimpleAutonomous trucking
- Outcome
- IPO
Automation AnywhereIntelligent automation software for the enterprise
- In the news
- Read the story
PlanGridField productivity software for construction
- Outcome
- Acquired by Autodesk
Stealth IoT startupConnected devices
AITOMATICIndustrial AI that captures domain expertise for engineering teams
- Founders
- Christopher Nguyen
Viva TranslateReal-time AI translation for business
- Founders
- Belinda Mo
- In the news
- Read the story
PeopleReignAI agents for IT and HR service
- Founders
- Dan Turchin
ParetoDistributed expert work for enterprise and AI teams
- Founders
- Phoebe Yao
MiniMe AIApplied AI
Crush AIApplied AI
From our founders
Meet the founders“Tess is a great listener and has always responded enthusiastically to my ideas, helping to form and shape them. She is a super connector who is always looking for opportunities to put folks together. Most importantly, Tess focuses on building relationships and understanding people.”
“She understands that life is about relationships and giving first. She holds friendships to being the core of life and celebrating growth together.”
Building at the frontier? Talk to Tess.
We meet founders early, often before the first prototype ships. Tell us what you're building and why now.