# Erik Blachford

> Erik Blachford is a seed investor at Narrative Fund (San Francisco) backing Travel and E-Commerce. See 47 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Narrative Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/narrative-fund)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 47
- Last investment: Feb 2026
- Lead investor: 13%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/eblach
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/erikbl
- Website: https://x.com/erikbl
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/

Erik Blachford is a seed investor at Narrative Fund in San Francisco focused on Travel and E-Commerce. Erik Blachford is based out of San Francisco, California and is on the Board of Directors at Fora. Erik has previously served as CEO of Expedia, Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp's travel division, IAC Travel (including online travel businesses Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Classic Custom Vacations and Interval International), CEO atButterfield & Robinson and CEO at Terrapass, Inc.His prior positions at Expedia Inc. included SVP of Marketing & Planning and various roles in product management. Erik is an active private company investor, serving on boards including Glassdoor, Zillow, Siteminder, Liftopia and Terrapass, and participates in non-profit boards including EcoAmerica, The Cutting Ball Theatre and the US National Council of the World Wildlife Fund.Erik holds a bachelor's degree in English and certificate in theatre from Princeton University and a master's in business administration from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $425k–$6M |
| Series A | $2.3M–$11M |
| Series B | $1M–$35M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Travel | 17 | 36% |
| E-Commerce | 11 | 23% |
| Marketplace | 7 | 15% |
| Tourism | 6 | 13% |
| Hospitality | 6 | 13% |

61 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 13 | 28% |
| Series A | 11 | 23% |
| Series B | 8 | 17% |
| Series C | 4 | 9% |
| Funding Round | 3 | 6% |

9 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 28 | 60% |
| Canada | 2 | 4% |
| Austria | 1 | 2% |
| Australia | 1 | 2% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Wheel the World | Wheel the World is a social startup with the purpose of making the world accessible. By building a cutting-edge model of accessibility data, which is extracted, organized, and displayed on www.gowheeltheworld.com, we allow people with disabilities to find and book accessible travel experiences including hotels, tours, and activities with theaccessibility information they need in the most amazing destinations in the world.We believe that people with disabilities should experience the world like anyone else. Governments, travel companies, and tourism professionals are all joining the accessible travel movement given the exponential growth of people with disabilities traveling around the world. Our commitment is to provide detailed information about what is accessible and specialized customer support involved through the entire experience.An accessible destination is a combination of accessible accommodation, transportation, and activities. This is why we are partnering with local travel businesses creating 100% accessible services together that we offer online. We want to allow millions of people to travel to thousands of destinations! | $11M | Series A | Feb 25, 2026 |  |
| Otto | Otto is a startup developing an intelligent and autonomous AI travel adviser for business travelers. | $6M | Seed | Aug 22, 2024 |  |
| Otto | Otto is a travel tech company that uses AI to plan, book and execute business trips. | $6M | Seed | Aug 22, 2024 |  |
| SiteMinder | SiteMinder is the world’s leading open hotel commerce platform, ranked among technology pioneers for opening up every hotel’s access to online commerce. It’s this central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of tens of thousands of hotels, across 150 countries, to sell, market, manage and grow their business. The global company, headquarteredin Sydney with offices in Bangkok, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London and Manila, generated more than 100 million reservations worth over US$35 billion in revenue for hotels in the last year prior to the start of the pandemic. | $73.2M | Series D | Sep 14, 2021 |  |
| Madrona Venture Labs | Madrona Venture Labs is a startup studio that builds companies from scratch. Madrona Venture Labs is based in Seattle and housed at Madrona Venture Group. The studio makes use of money from its funds to incubate concepts and recruit a management crew to ultimately run the enterprise.Founded in 2014, MVL has spun out greater than a dozen firms,together with some that had been later acquired by Nordstrom, Uber, and Mailchimp. | $8M |  | May 29, 2021 |  |
| Madrona Venture Labs | Madrona Venture Labs is a startup studio that builds companies from scratch. Madrona Venture Labs is based in Seattle and housed at Madrona Venture Group. The studio makes use of money from its funds to incubate concepts and recruit a management crew to ultimately run the enterprise.Founded in 2014, MVL has spun out greater than a dozen firms,together with some that had been later acquired by Nordstrom, Uber, and Mailchimp. | $8M | Venture - Series Unknown | May 29, 2021 |  |
| Sherpa° | We're sherpa° and we’re passionate about freedom of movement. Our mission is to help travellers move freely around the world and to shift the way the world's leading travel providers approach border crossing. Through unmatched industry knowledge and expertise, we help our partners—from airlines to cruise lines to online travelagencies—open new ancillary revenue streams to help them reduce costs and operational risk while enhancing the customer journey and growing consumer confidence in travel.More than simply providing a product or service, we're moving travel forward. Away from stress and confusion, and towards ease and connection. So travellers can move freely wherever life takes them. This is the future of international travel. | $8.5M |  | Apr 30, 2021 |  |
| Sherpa° | We're sherpa° and we’re passionate about freedom of movement. Our mission is to help travellers move freely around the world and to shift the way the world's leading travel providers approach border crossing. Through unmatched industry knowledge and expertise, we help our partners—from airlines to cruise lines to online travelagencies—open new ancillary revenue streams to help them reduce costs and operational risk while enhancing the customer journey and growing consumer confidence in travel.More than simply providing a product or service, we're moving travel forward. Away from stress and confusion, and towards ease and connection. So travellers can move freely wherever life takes them. This is the future of international travel. | $8.5M | Series A | Apr 30, 2021 |  |
| CANOPY | CANOPY is an exceptional network of shared workspaces for both accomplished professionals and aspirational entrepreneurs alike - a sophisticated and diverse community of thinkers, creators, builders and innovators. They cater for those who appreciate a more inspiring, contemporary design environment, insist on generosity of space, and need adistraction-free, calm place of work for contemplation and concentration. Their members are more demanding, and won't settle for the contrived, compromised or dumbed down alternatives out there. They value being around others they feel a genuine affinity with, and being part of a valuable ecosystem that meaningfully creates more opportunities, and greater success. They believe the workspace you are a member of is part of your personal brand. It says something about who you are. It partly defines you. If you’re serious about your work, come to CANOPY. | $2M | Corporate Round | May 23, 2019 |  |
| Sleepbox | Sleepbox is a compact modular hotel room, that can be installed everywhere, including airports, offices, and hospitals for an hourly or overnight stay. They created a turn-key solution that allows their partners to easily open a hotel anywhere people need it. They make privacy and rest truly accessible for travelers. | $1.5M | Seed | Jan 05, 2019 |  |

10 of 47 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Madrona](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/madrona-venture-group) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [First Round Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/first-round-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Sand Hill Angels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sand-hill-angels) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [True Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/true-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [TSVC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/tsvcap) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Azure Capital Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/azure-capital-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Narrative Fund

VC Fund · San Francisco, United States

We invest in high-impact, early-stage founders using technology to leave the world a better place. We lead and follow.

3 contacts available at Narrative Fund.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Erik Blachford | Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/erik-blachford |
| Jamie Wong | Co-Founder and Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jamie-wong-74cc |
| Jamie Wong | Co-Founder and Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jamie-wong |

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [HOWZAT Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/howzat-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Travel Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/travel-investors)
- [Travel Angel Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/travel-angel-investors)
- [Travel Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/travel-investors-united-states)
- [Marketplace Angel Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/marketplace-angel-investors-united-states)
- [Hospitality Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/hospitality-investors)
- [Hospitality Angel Investors](https://shizune.co/investors/hospitality-angel-investors)

## FAQ

### What does Erik Blachford invest in?

Erik Blachford invests primarily in Travel, E-Commerce and Marketplace startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 47 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 Erik Blachford's check size?

Erik Blachford typically joins rounds of $425k–$6M at Seed, $2.3M–$11M at Series A and $1M–$35M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Erik Blachford participates in.

### When did Erik Blachford last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Erik Blachford closed in Feb 2026. Shizune tracks 47 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.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co