# Tikhon Bernstam

> Tikhon Bernstam is a seed investor at Crystal Towers (San Francisco) backing Software and SaaS. See 43 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Crystal Towers](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/crystal-towers)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 43
- Last investment: Jul 2026
- Lead investor: 5%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/tikhon
- Website: https://x.com/tikhon
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tikhon

Tikhon Bernstam is an American entrepreneur who cofounded the companies Scribd and Parse.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $1M–$5.3M |
| Series A | $3M–$11M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 13 | 30% |
| SaaS | 6 | 14% |
| Financial Services | 6 | 14% |
| Enterprise Software | 6 | 14% |
| FinTech | 5 | 12% |

90 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 33 | 77% |
| Series A | 4 | 9% |
| Pre-Seed | 2 | 5% |
| Series B | 1 | 2% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 2% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 35 | 81% |
| India | 1 | 2% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 2% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Aina | Aina is a consumer hardware business driven by design that is creating the next generation of interfaces for the AI era. | $5.5M | Seed | Jul 16, 2026 |  |
| Kick | Accounting software that does the work for you | $9M | Seed | Oct 17, 2024 |  |
| Caliza | Provides an API that allows fintechs around the world to open digital dollar accounts for their users to save and transact. | $5.3M | Seed | Sep 13, 2023 |  |
| Caliza | Provides an API that allows fintechs around the world to open digital dollar accounts for their users to save and transact. | $5.3M | Seed | Sep 13, 2023 |  |
| Aviator | Aviator is a developer productivity platform that assists software teams in management.Aviator's software automates tedious workflows for developers. The company's tools help teams of all sizes build faster and more efficiently by eliminating necessary-but-mundane tasks that developers confront every day.Aviator was established in2021 by Ankit Jain in San Francisco, California. |  | Seed | Jan 01, 2023 |  |
| LemonEdge | LemonEdge is a low-code development platform with an integrated accounting engine, designed for financial services. They solve a wide range of complex financial challenges, across the entire industry through a flexible development approach and a suite of powerful tools tailored to the financial services. |  | Seed | Jan 21, 2022 |  |
| Aviator | Aviator is a developer productivity platform that assists software teams in management.Aviator's software automates tedious workflows for developers. The company's tools help teams of all sizes build faster and more efficiently by eliminating necessary-but-mundane tasks that developers confront every day.Aviator was established in2021 by Ankit Jain in San Francisco, California. |  | Pre-Seed | Jan 01, 2022 |  |
| Yendo | Yendo provides a credit card product that utilizes vehicle equity to offer consumers credit limits at various rates. The company's service works like a regular card, is accepted anywhere, and includes features like cash access and credit building options. Yendo offers a simple application process that results in a virtual card before thephysical card arrives. | $8.5M | Seed | Sep 30, 2021 |  |
| MergeQueue | MergeQueue collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. | $125K | Pre-Seed | Aug 31, 2021 |  |
| Secured Finance | Secured Finance is a platform provider for the cryptocurrency loans and derivatives market. | $4M | Seed | Jul 29, 2021 |  |

10 of 43 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Y Combinator](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/y-combinator) — VC Fund, 8 deals together
- [Initialized Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/initialized-capital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [SV Angel](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sv-angel) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Caffeinated Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/caffeinated-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Fort Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fort-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Crystal Towers

VC Fund · New York, United States

Crystal Towers is a VC fund backed by several Y Combinator founders. It will start out with between $90 million and $100 million to invest in the most promising YC companies out of every batch. The name Crystal Towers comes from an apartment complex in San Francisco where Y Combinator founders have lived. Crystal Tower has also been referred toas “Y Scraper,” another name that was weighed up for this fund.

3 contacts available at Crystal Towers.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Alex Bangash | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alex-bangash-2 |
| Arianna Simpson | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arianna-simpson |
| Tikhon Bernstam | Managing Member | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/tikhon-bernstam |

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## FAQ

### What does Tikhon Bernstam invest in?

Tikhon Bernstam invests primarily in Software, SaaS and Financial Services startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 43 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 Tikhon Bernstam's check size?

Tikhon Bernstam typically joins rounds of $1M–$5.3M at Seed and $3M–$11M 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 Tikhon Bernstam participates in.

### When did Tikhon Bernstam last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Tikhon Bernstam closed in Jul 2026. Shizune tracks 43 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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