Most VCs follow mainstream trends, leaving highly specialised or complex sectors behind. They’re considered too niche, too technical, or too difficult to scale. Yet these are exactly the kinds of markets where deep expertise and focus can produce lasting businesses.
That’s the gap Somersault Ventures set out to fill. The San Francisco–based early-stage fund has closed its first $20 million vehicle to invest in seed-stage founders building software and marketplace companies in overlooked or highly technical verticals across the U.S. and Europe.
The firm typically writes seed checks of up to $1 million and follows on with as much as $3 million. Since beginning its investments in 2023, Somersault has backed companies such as Haulier Hero, SwingVision, Foresight, Intento, and Ridepanda. Its strategy centres on identifying “future monopoly potential.”
“We’re focused on ventures that can scale into multibillion-dollar outcomes by solving fundamental, enduring problems. However, we avoid extremely crowded markets and instead concentrate on categories where depth of insight matters and where sustainable leadership is achievable,” said Alex Turbanov, Founder and General Partner.
Finding and supporting founders capable of building lasting infrastructure
Somersault was founded by General Partners Alex Turbanov and Alex Nevinskiy, along with Venture Partner Julia Nechaieva. Turbanov and Nevinskiy first invested together as angels before launching the fund, while Turbanov and Nechaieva were MBA classmates at UC Berkeley Haas.
Nevinskiy notes, “Counterintuitive markets can often produce the strongest returns. By digging deep into specialised industries, we find founders with unique domain expertise and markets where competition is low, but the upside is meaningful.”
Somersault’s edge lies in its combination of first-principles investment thinking and hands-on product diligence. Venture Partner Julia Nechaieva, who spent more than 15 years in product leadership roles at Twitch, YouTube, and Google, plays a particularly active part in evaluating founders whose product instinct is critical to success.
Unlike larger funds such as Sequoia or Andreessen Horowitz, Somersault looks for deep, defensible verticals where specialised software or marketplaces can become the indispensable standard in their field.
What’s next?
With its $20 million fund fully raised, Somersault is now expanding its portfolio to include companies building next-generation infrastructure across logistics, automation, and other high-margin functional layers.
Over the next few years, the firm plans to support roughly two to three dozen startups, offering capital and a close operational partnership.
