AY Ventures

AY Ventures

Amir Yaghmaei founded AY Ventures to manage capital generated by Donyaye Bazi, the Tehran-based board game and entertainment company he built into Iran's category leader before diversifying into digital gaming and early-stage technology. The office operates from San Mateo with additional presences in New York, Valencia, and Seoul — a geographic distribution that reflects a deliberate strategy of sourcing deal flow across concentrated entrepreneurial hubs in the US, Europe, and East Asia. AY Ventures primarily pursues direct equity investments in early and growth-stage technology companies, with a particular focus on enterprise software, fintech, digital health, and interactive entertainment. The firm participates in seed through Series B rounds, often alongside established venture funds on syndicated terms. While no full portfolio list has been published, publicly available deal records confirm participation in rounds alongside Sand Hill Road firms, indicating a co-investment posture that follows lead GPs rather than leading rounds independently. The firm does not market a fund structure; deployment follows a balance-sheet model consistent with single-family offices that prioritize direct exposure over fund commitments. Team size remains undisclosed, though the distributed office footprint suggests a lean principal-led structure with regional scouts or deal partners rather than a large institutional headcount. Yaghmaei maintains a low public profile and does not appear on major family-office ranking lists. No affiliated philanthropic foundations or club memberships have been publicly identified as of mid-2026. The most recent observable activity dates to early 2025, when the firm refreshed deal-flow sourcing patterns across its Valencia office to capture Southern European and North African tech founders migrating talent pools out of traditional startup cities. Structurally, AY Ventures operates at an uncommon intersection: a family office rooted in Iranian entrepreneurial wealth, headquartered in the US, and sourcing across three continents without adopting the multi-family or fund-manager models that peers often use to scale. This architecture keeps investment decisions centralized with the founder and avoids the reporting obligations that come with outside capital, while the multi-jurisdiction office footprint provides visa- and time-zone-advantaged access to founders in markets where institutional venture capital remains thinner.