Ironfire Ventures

Managing Partner Ian Johnston leads the firm's investment decisions. He founded Ironfire in 2015 after previously co-managing an early-stage fund within a single-family office structure. The firm operates with a lean team and a centralized decision-making process typical of micro-VC managers.

Ironfire targets pre-seed and seed stages, with initial checks typically sized between $1 million and $3 million. The firm often leads those rounds and reserves capital for follow-ons. Its second fund was raised with approximately $50 million in target commitments.

The firm sources primarily from the Bay Area technology ecosystem. Its principal structural differentiator is a limited-partner base that includes Asian family offices and technology operators, giving Ironfire portfolio companies direct go-to-market pathways into Asia-Pacific — a distribution channel most US-only seed funds cannot offer.

Ironfire invests directly into operating companies. The firm does not operate a fund-of-funds strategy, nor does it publicly allocate to other venture capital managers. Its capital deploys exclusively into portfolio-company equity at the seed stage.

Ironfire has historically concentrated on enterprise software, applied AI, and deep tech. It has not been active in life sciences, consumer apps, climate hardware, or crypto, and its public portfolio does not indicate any negative screening beyond sector focus. These exclusions reflect mandate discipline rather than an explicit negative list.