Version One Ventures

Version One is a two-general-partner firm and has been for more than a decade. Boris Wertz is founding partner. He built an online marketplace for used books in 1999 that sold to AbeBooks, where he became chief operating officer running 60 people; after Amazon acquired AbeBooks he moved into investing, later serving as a board partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He holds a PhD in business economics and business management from WHU in Koblenz and was named Pacific Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005.

Angela Tran is general partner and works from Silicon Valley while Wertz is in Vancouver. An engineer by training, she co-launched Insight Data Science, the Y Combinator-backed program that moves PhDs into industry roles, and holds a PhD in operations research and financial engineering from the University of Toronto. Leah Gosbee joined as chief financial officer in December 2021 from Pinnacle Fund Services.

Boris Wertz launched Version One in Vancouver in July 2012 and closed a first fund of $18.7 million that year, followed by a $35 million second fund in October 2014 and a $45 million Fund III.

In June 2021 the firm raised $100 million across two vehicles: $70 million for Fund IV, dedicated to pre-seed and seed, and $30 million for Opportunities Fund II, up from an $18 million inaugural opportunities fund. It repeated the structure in June 2026, closing $108 million across Fund V at $78 million and Opportunities Fund III at $30 million. The pairing is deliberate. The core fund stays small enough that a single seed outcome can return it, while the opportunities vehicle holds pro rata in the winners without forcing the seed fund to grow. Version One has named Seattle a key geography alongside Canada and the United States since the 2021 raise.