# Causes

> Causes is a VC fund in San Francisco backing Internet and Politics. See 8 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 8
- Last investment: Mar 2017
- Lead investor: 13%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/causes-com/about/
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/causes
- Website: http://causes.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/causes

Causes is a VC fund in San Francisco focused on Internet and Politics. Causes.com is the world's largest online campaigning platform. We connect people who support a common cause and empower them to take action together. Causes members have raised over $48M for charities, collected 34M signatures for grassroots campaigns, and organized thousands of awareness campaigns. Since launching in 2007, Causes has helpedover 186M people in 156 countries connect with their cause. Investors include Sean Parker, Founders Fund, the Case Foundation and NEA. Causes, The company that delivers Causes is called Philotic, Inc., and is run day-to-day by President, Matt Mahan.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Causes. Shizune tracks 3 team members at Causes. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/causes?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $6.3M–$12M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Internet | 2 | 25% |
| Politics | 2 | 25% |
| Software | 2 | 25% |
| Education | 2 | 25% |
| CMS | 1 | 13% |

31 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 3 | 38% |
| Seed | 1 | 13% |
| Grant | 1 | 13% |
| Series B | 1 | 13% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 13% |

6 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 6 | 75% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 13% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| James Windon | VP, Business Development and Sales | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/james-windon |
| Jimmy Kittiyachavalit | VP Engineering | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jimmy-kittiyachavalit |
| Matt Wilson | Vice President, Impact Partnerships | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/matt-wilson-3 |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Emoticast | Emoticast is a platform to share music GIFs with sound across all platforms such as iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. | $5M | Seed | Mar 29, 2017 |  |
| Thrive Global | Thrive Global is a leading behavior change technology company helping individuals, corporations and communities improve their well-being and performance through our behavior change platform, storytelling and corporate services. Thrive was founded by Arianna Huffington and launched in 2016 with the mission of changing the way we work and live byending the collective delusion that burnout is the price we must pay for success. We offer companies and individuals sustainable, science-based solutions to enhance both mental and physical well-being and performance, purpose and our relationship with technology. We are committed to accelerating this culture shift around the world. Thrive Global is headquartered in New York City and has offices in San Francisco, Athens, Bucharest, Dublin, and Melbourne. For more information, visit www.thriveglobal.com. | $11.5M | Series A | Aug 11, 2016 |  |
| Tilt | Tilt. com is a free and simple way for individuals to collect money with a group, while enterprise tools like Tilt Pro allow businesses to host, brand, and customize their own crowdfunding experience.We all love doing things as a group. Like most experiences, it's not what you do – it's the people you do it with that really matters.So at Tilt, we’re excited to be building software that makes pooling resources with a group just a little bit easier. Since 2012, over 500,000 groups have used Tilt to turn their ideas, large and small, into reality. Our users have done a lot to make us proud, from thousands of tailgates, fantasy football leagues, and party buses, all the way to sending the Jamaican Bobsled Team to the Sochi Olympics, fundraising the construction of an entire elementary school in India, and bringing the Foo Fighters to perform in their home town.Tilt - make something happen! | $23M | Series B | Dec 16, 2013 |  |
| NJOY | NJOY is the trade name of NJOY, LLC, an independent American company that manufactures and distributes electronic cigarettes and vaping products. With offices located in New York City and Arizona, NJOY is a pioneer in vaping and a leader in a revolution against combustible cigarettes. The brand was founded in 2007 and has continued to serve as theinnovation and thought leader in the vaping category, which is experiencing significant growth. NJOY products are sold in all 50 states in the United States.NJOY markets its products online; and through a network of retail stores, convenience stores, and dealers in the United States. | $75M | Private Equity | Jun 10, 2013 |  |
| Tilt | Tilt. com is a free and simple way for individuals to collect money with a group, while enterprise tools like Tilt Pro allow businesses to host, brand, and customize their own crowdfunding experience.We all love doing things as a group. Like most experiences, it's not what you do – it's the people you do it with that really matters.So at Tilt, we’re excited to be building software that makes pooling resources with a group just a little bit easier. Since 2012, over 500,000 groups have used Tilt to turn their ideas, large and small, into reality. Our users have done a lot to make us proud, from thousands of tailgates, fantasy football leagues, and party buses, all the way to sending the Jamaican Bobsled Team to the Sochi Olympics, fundraising the construction of an entire elementary school in India, and bringing the Foo Fighters to perform in their home town.Tilt - make something happen! | $12M | Series A | Apr 26, 2013 |  |
| NationBuilder | NationBuilder is software for leaders. The company was founded in November 2009 by Jim Gilliam, in partnership with Co-Founders Jesse Haff and Lea Endres, and launched in April 2011. By the summer of 2012, the company had secured more than $14 million in Series A and Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Omidyar Network, and added BenHorowitz, Stacy Donohue, and Sean Parker to its board. Jim Gilliam became Executive chairman in fall of 2017 and welcomed Lea Endres to the role of CEO. NationBuilder is based in downtown Los Angeles with offices in New York, Washington DC, Vancouver, and London. | $6.3M | Series A | Mar 08, 2012 |  |
| Votizen | Votizen is a consumer technology company that harnesses social networks to create a connected electorate of voters.Votizen provides a new way to focus, measure, and exercise political influence by bringing voters together. As opposed to existing tools that help elected officials campaign, Votizen empowers its users to leverage their ownnetworks to self-organize in voting blocks and advance their causes and interests, redefining the political system with the voter at the center -- not the politician.The company has engineered an entirely new database of voting record rolls across the United States, taking public voting information and normalizing that data to the district level. Then, by mapping those rolls to a user's online identity (through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+), Votizen is able to create the first graphical representation of a voter's network, across states, political parties, and frequency of voting.Votizen was cofounded by David Binetti, Jason Putorti, and Matt Snider. The company is nonpartisan, for-profit, venture-backed, and based in Mountain View, CA: www.votizen.com | $750K |  | Feb 24, 2012 |  |
| University of California, San Francisco | UCSF scientist over twenty-five (25) years, twenty-three as Director of the Laboratory for Cell Analysis (LCA). Currently Director of the Lab for Advanced Cytometry (LAC) and the Sony Biotechnology Center at UCSF in the Department of Laboratory Medicine.• Built the LCA into one of the largest academic cytometry core facilities worldwide. • Directcontribution to grants totals well over $40M in extramural funding. • Helped design and build five commercial flow cytometers, two cell sorters, and two commercial confocal microscopes. Current work supports several developing technology fields including automated digital pathology and laser-based microdissection systems, next generation clinical cell sorters, spectral flow cytometry, chip-based cytometry and point-of-care devices, wide-field high-resolution deep tissue confocal microscopy, mass spec flow cytometry (CyTOF), and spectral in vivo imaging. Application development includes single cell genomics, new functional reporter probes for cell cycle, cellular biosensors, FRET/FRAP/FLIM reporters for monitoring protein and drug interactions, new encoded carrier technology for immune profiling and liquid arrays, and rapid identification systems for virology and microbiology. Hyun also participates in biomedical software and database design, and testing of new algorithms for cytometric data processing and presentation of results. | $10M | Grant |  |  |

8 of 8 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Andreessen Horowitz](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andreessen-horowitz) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [QueensBridge Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/queensbridge-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Advancit Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/advancit-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [AFSquare](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/afsquare) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [A-Grade Investments](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/a-grade-investments) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Atom Factory](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/atom-factory) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

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## FAQ

### What does Causes invest in?

Causes invests primarily in Internet, Politics and Software startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 8 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Causes's check size?

Causes typically joins rounds of $6.3M–$12M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Causes participates in.

### How do I contact Causes?

Public channels for Causes include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Causes?

The team at Causes includes James Windon (VP, Business Development and Sales), Jimmy Kittiyachavalit (VP Engineering) and Matt Wilson (Vice President, Impact Partnerships). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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