# DFJ Growth

> DFJ Growth is a VC fund backing Software and Artificial Intelligence. See 149 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Menlo Park, United States
- Total investments: 149
- Last investment: Aug 2026
- Lead investor: 29%
- Last fund: May 2025
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dfj-growth/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/dfjvc
- Website: http://dfjgrowth.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dfj

DFJ Growth is a VC fund in Menlo Park focused on Software and Artificial Intelligence. DFJ Growth invests in growth stage technology companies that are scaling rapidly and poised for market leadership. DFJ Growth is the later stage investing practice of iconic technology-driven businesses.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for DFJ Growth. Shizune tracks 21 team members at DFJ Growth. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/dfj-growth?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 27 | 18% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 22 | 15% |
| Enterprise Software | 14 | 9% |
| Information Technology | 13 | 9% |
| SaaS | 10 | 7% |

185 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series C | 35 | 23% |
| Series B | 30 | 20% |
| Series D | 25 | 17% |
| Series E | 21 | 14% |
| Funding Round | 10 | 7% |

11 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 84 | 56% |
| China | 3 | 2% |
| Israel | 3 | 2% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 1% |
| Chile | 1 | 1% |

6 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Jennifer Kodner | Talent Partner | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jennifer-kodner |
| Justin Kao | Partner | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/justin-kao |
| Mikowai Ashwill | Associate | 2 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mikowai-https-www-linkedin-com-in-mikowaiashwill |
| Barry Schuler | Managing Director and Partner | 20 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/barry-schuler |
| Carol Wentworth | Marketing Partner | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/carol-wentworth |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cambridge Aerospace | Cambridge Aerospace is a defence tech startup that provides defense engineering and manufacturing services. | $300M | Series C | Aug 10, 2026 |  |
| Saronic | Saronic is building cutting-edge unmanned surface vehicles that enable maritime security and domain awareness by combining best-in-class hardware, software and artificial intelligence into one scalable, fully integrated platform. | $1.8B | Series D | Mar 31, 2026 |  |
| XBOW | XBOW operates autonomously, carrying out commands and analyzing the results to achieve higher-level objectives. | $120M | Series C | Mar 18, 2026 |  |
| XBOW | XBOW operates autonomously, carrying out commands and analyzing the results to achieve higher-level objectives. | $120M | Series C | Mar 18, 2026 |  |
| Goodfire | Goodfire's mission is to advance humanity's understanding of AI by examining the inner workings of advanced AI models (or “AI Interpretability”). As an applied research lab, Goodfire bridges the gap between theoretical science and practical applications of interpretability. | $150M | Series B | Feb 05, 2026 |  |
| Positron | LLM Inference Hardware | $233.9M | Series B | Feb 04, 2026 |  |
| Cellares | Cellares develops and operates integrated technologies for automated cell therapy manufacturing and quality control that help biopharmaceutical partners scale development to industrial production. The company’s offerings include the Cell Shuttle platform for end-to-end automation of the cell therapy manufacturing process and the Cell Q platform forautomated quality control, supported by integrated software and consumable cartridges. Cellares positions itself as an Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization that supports process transfer, scalable production, and regulatory pathways for clinical and commercial programs. Its services enable clients to transition manual processes onto automated systems and expand manufacturing capacity to meet broader patient demand. | $257M | Series D | Jan 28, 2026 |  |
| Paradigm | Paradigm is rebuilding the clinical research ecosystem by developing a platform that allows all patients equitable access to trials while improving trial efficiency and lowering barriers to participation for healthcare providers. | $78M | Series B | Dec 04, 2025 |  |
| Metropolis | Metropolis develops artificial intelligence and computer vision technology designed to simplify real-world transactions. The company’s platform enables frictionless interactions between people and physical environments by using visual recognition and data processing tools. Its primary focus is on transforming parking operations, allowing users toenter and exit parking facilities without manual payments or tickets. Metropolis applies its AI technology to automate identification, payment, and access processes, creating seamless and efficient mobility experiences. | $500M | Series D | Nov 06, 2025 |  |
| Modular | Modular provides an AI infrastructure platform designed for GPU portability and unparalleled performance in AI workloads. The platform features serverless inference endpoints, fine-tuning services, and training clusters to simplify the journey from AI development to production. Modular offers solutions for high-speed LLM serving and cross-hardwarestack management for NVIDIA and AMD environments. | $250M | Series C | Sep 24, 2025 |  |

10 of 149 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Lightspeed Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lightspeed-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 21 deals together
- [Sequoia Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sequoia-capital) — VC Fund, 17 deals together
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund, 13 deals together
- [Tiger Global Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/tiger-global) — VC Fund, 12 deals together
- [Accel](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/accel) — VC Fund, 10 deals together
- [IVP](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/institutional-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 10 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Sequoia Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sequoia-capital) — VC Fund
- [New Enterprise Associates](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/new-enterprise-associates) — VC Fund
- [Bessemer Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bessemer-venture-partners) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does DFJ Growth invest in?

DFJ Growth invests primarily in Software, Artificial Intelligence and Enterprise Software startups, most often at Series C and Series B stage. Most of the 149 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact DFJ Growth?

Public channels for DFJ Growth 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 DFJ Growth?

The team at DFJ Growth includes Jennifer Kodner (Talent Partner), Justin Kao (Partner) and Mikowai Ashwill (Associate), among 21 team members tracked by Shizune. 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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