Sancus Ventures

Sancus leverages a community of over 500 software infrastructure experts, including CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and senior directors from S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, and fast-growing tech firms. These practitioners spot emerging infrastructure needs early and refer founders building solutions to those problems. The firm does not cite banker-sourced or auction-based deal flow as a primary channel.

Sancus is structured as a venture capital firm investing directly into seed-to-Series A software infrastructure startups. It is not an accelerator or a venture studio; portfolio companies are independent and the firm does not originate ideas internally. The community supports with engineering talent, customer introductions, and board-level advising rather than hands-on product building.

The firm concentrates on early-stage software infrastructure, including artificial intelligence and machine learning tooling, open-source frameworks, developer productivity and CI/CD stacks, database and data infrastructure, and select Web3/crypto infrastructure. Public portfolio names include Anyscale (distributed computing), Artie (real-time data sync), and Taiko (Ethereum rollups).

Sancus is an institutional venture firm led by Lake Dai and supported by a network of advisors from companies such as OpenAI, Coinbase, and a16z. It does not manage a single family's wealth and has not disclosed any family-office structure. The firm's capital is deployed from venture funds rather than a balance sheet.

Lake Dai serves as an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, teaching applied AI in the Master of Engineering program since 2016. The firm has not disclosed a formal partnership, licensing arrangement, or exclusive deal-flow relationship with CMU. Her academic role provides a presence in the graduate technical talent pipeline but does not represent an institutional link to university endowments.

Sancus's disclosed activity is in direct equity investments into startups. It has not published information about investing into external venture funds as a limited partner or operating a fund-of-funds strategy. The firm's model prioritizes active involvement through advisor placements and community go-to-market support.

Lake Dai as Founder and Managing Partner leads investment activity, supported by Vice President Angela Hsu. The firm's public advisor group — which includes Ted Nyman, Sherwin Wu, and Riyaz Faizullabhoy — contributes technical due diligence and portfolio support but the website does not confer them explicit voting authority on investment committee decisions.