# DFJ Mercury

> DFJ Mercury is a VC fund in Houston backing Software, Health Care and Biotechnology. See 60 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Houston, United States
- Total investments: 60
- Last investment: Jun 2018
- Lead investor: 30%
- Last updated: Aug 2026

DFJ Mercury is a VC fund in Houston focused on Software and Health Care. Early-stage venture fund, parent fund is Draper Fisher Jurvetson

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $725k–$6M |
| Series B | $2.4M–$20M |
| Debt Financing | $75k–$1.9M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 6 | 10% |
| Health Care | 5 | 8% |
| Biotechnology | 5 | 8% |
| Enterprise Software | 4 | 7% |
| SaaS | 3 | 5% |

48 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 14 | 23% |
| Series B | 9 | 15% |
| Debt Financing | 9 | 15% |
| Series C | 5 | 8% |
| Funding Round | 5 | 8% |

9 stages tracked in total.

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ambiq Micro | Ambiq Micro is an early-stage fabless semiconductor company that is developing ultra-low-power mixed-signal solutions for a new generation of wireless electronics.Ambiq Micro was founded in 2010 on the simple yet powerful notion that extremely low-power semiconductors are the key to the future of electronics. Through the use of their pioneeringultra-low-power technology, they help innovative companies around the world develop differentiated solutions that reduce or eliminate the need for batteries, lower overall system power, and maximize industrial design flexibility. | $11.4M |  | Jun 05, 2018 |  |
| GameSalad | GameSalad is a development platform that enables anyone to create their own games with a visual programming interface. It’s also a way of introducing programming concepts, game design, and digital media creation to students.Launched in 2010, GameSalad has been used by over one million aspiring game developers and has powered over 75 games thatreached the top 100 in the App Store. | $75K | Debt Financing | Sep 15, 2016 |  |
| Sinopsys Surgical | Sinopsys Surgical develops medical devices for surgical procedures for the lacrimal glands. The company was formerly known as DCS Surgical, Inc. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is based in Boulder, Colorado. | $100K | Debt Financing | Sep 02, 2016 |  |
| Ambiq Micro | Ambiq Micro is an early-stage fabless semiconductor company that is developing ultra-low-power mixed-signal solutions for a new generation of wireless electronics.Ambiq Micro was founded in 2010 on the simple yet powerful notion that extremely low-power semiconductors are the key to the future of electronics. Through the use of their pioneeringultra-low-power technology, they help innovative companies around the world develop differentiated solutions that reduce or eliminate the need for batteries, lower overall system power, and maximize industrial design flexibility. | $9.5M | Series C | Jul 27, 2016 |  |
| ShareThis | ShareThis transforms authentic human sharing behavior into actionable data outputs at scale for marketers and publishers. It has been collecting and synthesizing social share data since 2007. | $640K | Debt Financing | Jul 13, 2016 |  |
| Confluence Life Sciences | CLS is a drug discovery company focusing on rational drug design to discover and develop mechanistically novel kinase inhibitors for use in both human and animal health care. CLS’s kinase inhibitors target key signal transduction enzymes involved in the regulation of cancer growth and survival, or in the modulation of chronic inflammation. Unlikemany other kinase inhibitor programs, however, CLS is targeting novel binding sites (on kinase targets that have proved challenging) as well as previously “un-drugged” kinases. Driving CLS success in this effort is a team of world-class experts with extensive Pharma experience in kinase inhibitor discovery and development. CLS provides this team with the opportunity to pursue strategies and targets outside Pharma’s traditional focus. In addition, scientific and business collaborations are being established to enable the success of the business. The strategy is to develop and maintain a program pipeline: discover, develop, partner, repeat. | $2.4M | Series B | Jul 28, 2015 |  |
| Ambiq Micro | Ambiq Micro is an early-stage fabless semiconductor company that is developing ultra-low-power mixed-signal solutions for a new generation of wireless electronics.Ambiq Micro was founded in 2010 on the simple yet powerful notion that extremely low-power semiconductors are the key to the future of electronics. Through the use of their pioneeringultra-low-power technology, they help innovative companies around the world develop differentiated solutions that reduce or eliminate the need for batteries, lower overall system power, and maximize industrial design flexibility. | $15.6M | Series C | Nov 07, 2014 |  |
| Koupon | Koupon provides c-store retailers and CPG brands with the easiest way to connect and engage with shoppers to grow sales. Koupon works with brands to easily deploy personalized, channel-wide promotions, and helps retailers to secure additional brand trade spending and grow shopper engagement. Members of the Koupon Network - the leading C-storecollaborative with 30 of the top 50 C-store retailers and over 70 brands – realize the benefit from Koupon’s unmatched channel reach, proprietary technology and data, and campaign management services. Since its founding in 2011, Koupon has delivered over 4 billion offers. |  | Series C | Nov 04, 2014 |  |
| Illumitex | Illumitex is a manufacturer of precision LEDs, LED lights, LED grow lights, and digital horticulture solutions. It transforms traditional LED design and increases the functionality with the creation of an LED package that emits light in a uniform, highly-precise beam directly from the source. Its devices provide LED lights which are mainly based onoptics technology that predict, diagnose, monitor, and improve all aspects of operations that enable customers to improve the brightness and efficiency of flat-panel televisions, portable electronic devices, and digital projectors to be used for their vertical farms, greenhouses, and indoor gardening. | $4M | Debt Financing | Oct 14, 2014 |  |
| DNAtriX | DNAtrix is a Texas-based company developing modified viruses for the treatment of the most aggressive forms of cancer. The company’s initial focus is on glioblastoma, a devastating brain tumor that is currently incurable. Since viruses are already good at killing cells, scientists have harnessed this ability by modifying a common cold virus so thatit targets and kills cancer cells selectively. More than 35 patients have been treated with the cancer-killing virus, called DNX-2401, with excellent early results. Company’s lead product, DNX-2401, is the culmination of more than a decade of scientific and clinical research and is the most potent and effective oncolytic virus delivered to human brain tumors to date. DNAtrix is also working to expand its platform technology for treating other cancers, including brain metastases, ovarian and pancreatic cancer. Targeted cancer-killing viruses such as DNX-2401 represent an important new weapon in the fight against cancer. | $20M | Series B | Oct 14, 2014 |  |

10 of 60 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Mercury Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mercury-fund) — VC Fund, 35 deals together
- [Threshold](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/threshold) — VC Fund, 8 deals together
- [Access Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/access-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Austin Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/austin-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Dundee Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dundee-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [ff Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ff-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does DFJ Mercury invest in?

DFJ Mercury invests primarily in Software, Health Care and Biotechnology startups, most often at Series A and Series B stage. Most of the 60 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 DFJ Mercury's check size?

DFJ Mercury typically joins rounds of $725k–$6M at Series A, $2.4M–$20M at Series B and $75k–$1.9M at Debt Financing. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds DFJ Mercury participates in.

### When did DFJ Mercury last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for DFJ Mercury closed in Jun 2018. Shizune tracks 60 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### 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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