tech
She became a VC for a green card. Now she's backing billion-dollar AI bets.
After stints at Scale Venture Partners and SignalFire, Oana Olteanu is building a venture firm around the kind of drive that has defined her career.
TL;DR
- Oana Olteanu, previously at SignalFire, has started her own seed firm, Motive Force.
- Motive Force focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in AI, enterprise software, and robotics.
- Olteanu aims to identify and back overlooked founders and technical outsiders.
- Her past successful investments include Poolside (now valued at $12 billion) and MaintainX (valued at $2.5 billion).
- Olteanu's personal journey involved immigrating to the US for a green card and working her way up in the tech and VC industry.
- She believes the current market, with capital concentrating in mega-rounds, creates an opportunity for smaller, nimble funds like hers.
- The firm's name, Motive Force, is inspired by physics and describes founders who build proactively.