Kindred Capital

# High-Level Overview

Kindred Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in London that has fundamentally reimagined the venture capital model through an equitable ownership structure.[1][3] Founded in 2015, the firm operates with a mission to create the venture firm that founders would want to work with, prioritizing transparency, speed, and founder alignment above traditional VC practices.[3] The firm invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies across Europe, with a particular focus on technology-enabled startups and mission-driven entrepreneurs.[2] What distinguishes Kindred's approach is its core philosophy: every founder backed by the firm becomes a co-owner of the fund itself, fundamentally aligning incentives between investors and entrepreneurs.[1][3]

Kindred's investment philosophy centers on backing exceptional people—what they describe as "outliers, optimists and operators" who are creating the world they want to live in.[3] Rather than simply providing capital, the firm builds comprehensive support networks around its founders, offering strategic guidance, operational support, and access to a diverse ecosystem of experienced advisors and international investors.[2][3] This holistic approach reflects Kindred's belief that early-stage venture capital success depends on the quality of people and the strength of partnerships, not just financial metrics.

Origin Story

Kindred Capital emerged from the lived experience of its founders, who created the firm based on what they wished had existed when they were running startups themselves.[3] Launched in 2015, the firm was born from a genuine frustration with traditional venture capital structures and a conviction that the industry needed fundamental reform. The founding partners—including General Partners Chrys Chrysanthou and John Cassidy—built Kindred with a relentless focus on what founders actually need rather than what serves investor convenience.[5]

The firm's evolution has been marked by disciplined fund management and growing institutional validation. By 2020, Kindred had closed its second fund, and by April 2023, the firm had successfully closed a third fund, demonstrating sustained investor confidence in its model.[5] Notably, British Patient Capital committed $26.7 million to Kindred's third fund, signaling that institutional investors recognize the value of the firm's approach to founder-aligned venture capital.[5]

Core Differentiators

Founder Co-Ownership Model

The most distinctive feature of Kindred Capital is its structural innovation: every founder in the portfolio becomes a co-owner of the fund.[1][3] This goes far beyond typical founder-friendly terms—it creates genuine alignment where founders benefit directly from the success of other portfolio companies, fostering a collaborative rather than competitive dynamic within the portfolio.

Operational Excellence and Speed

Kindred operates a partner-only investment team, meaning founders interact exclusively with decision-makers rather than junior associates or analysts.[3] This structure enables the firm to move at "entrepreneur's speed," reducing friction in the investment process and demonstrating respect for founders' time constraints.

Radical Transparency

The firm publishes its term sheets publicly, believing that deal terms should never get in the way of a good partnership.[3] This transparency reduces information asymmetry and builds trust—a critical differentiator in an industry often criticized for opacity and founder exploitation.

Ecosystem Building

Rather than passive capital deployment, Kindred actively constructs networks around each founder, assembling what the firm calls "an army" of diverse, experienced advisors and operators.[3] This network approach transforms the firm from a financial intermediary into a genuine operating partner.

Selective, High-Conviction Investing

Kindred focuses exclusively on pre-seed and seed-stage companies, allowing the firm to develop deep expertise in early-stage dynamics and founder psychology rather than spreading resources across multiple stages.[3]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Kindred Capital represents a broader movement toward founder-centric venture capital that challenges the traditional power dynamics of the industry. The firm is riding several converging trends: the increasing sophistication of early-stage founders, the growing recognition that founder well-being correlates with company success, and the rise of alternative fund structures that question whether the traditional 2-and-20 model truly serves innovation.

The timing of Kindred's emergence and growth is significant. Founded in 2015, the firm arrived during a period when venture capital was becoming increasingly professionalized and systematized, yet simultaneously facing criticism for poor founder outcomes and misaligned incentives. By offering a structural alternative—co-ownership rather than extraction—Kindred positioned itself as a counterweight to extractive VC practices.

The firm's influence extends beyond its direct portfolio. By demonstrating that founder co-ownership is operationally viable and attractive to institutional capital, Kindred has influenced how other venture firms think about alignment and founder relationships. The firm's public commitment to transparency, particularly through published term sheets, has raised industry standards and created pressure on competitors to adopt more founder-friendly practices.

Kindred's portfolio—which includes notable exits and growth stories like RobCo (raising $43M for modular robotics), Cradle (raising $24M for GenAI drug development), and Lottie (raising $21M for care home marketplace solutions)—demonstrates that the founder-aligned model produces competitive returns while building companies with genuine social impact.[3]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Kindred Capital has successfully proven that venture capital can be both profitable and equitable, challenging the false choice between financial returns and founder well-being. As the firm moves forward, several dynamics will shape its trajectory: the continued validation of its model through portfolio company success, the potential for the co-ownership structure to become more widely adopted across the industry, and the firm's ability to scale its operational support without losing the intimacy that makes it effective.

The broader venture capital industry is slowly recognizing that founder alignment isn't a nice-to-have—it's a competitive advantage. Kindred's influence will likely grow as more founders demand better terms and more institutional investors recognize that founder-friendly practices correlate with better outcomes. The firm's future success depends on maintaining its founder-first ethos while managing the inevitable tensions that arise as it grows larger and manages multiple funds with different vintages and investor bases.

What makes Kindred particularly compelling is that it has solved a fundamental problem in venture capital: how to align the interests of capital providers with the interests of founders. In doing so, the firm has created a template for what venture capital could become—not extractive, but collaborative; not opaque, but transparent; not transactional, but relational. Whether this model becomes the industry standard or remains a valuable niche will be one of the most interesting questions in venture capital over the next decade.