Phosphor Capital just raised $34M to bet big on Y Combinator startups. The VC firm focuses exclusively on YC companies, banking on their solid track record and explosive growth potential.
Phosphor was started last year by Kulveer Taggar, a two-time YC alum who founded Zeus Living. Zeus raised $150M and hit a $200M valuation before selling to Blueground in late 2023 amid rising interest rates.
Taggar’s deep YC ties helped him lock in investors like YC CEO Garry Tan, who also backed Zeus Living through Initialized Capital. Phosphor is unique as a solo-led YC-dedicated fund, while others like Pioneer and Rebel Fund play in the same sandbox. 
The firm’s sweet spot is early-stage checks from $100K to $500K. Phosphor has backed 200+ YC startups so far, like AI meeting tool Circleback and automation platform Gumloop.
YC partner Jared Friedman called Taggar “an OG alum” with “incredible empathy” for founders because of his startup grind.
Kulveer is what you might call an OG alum from the early days of YC,
He’s close to me and to many of the folks who now run YC.Zeus was a really hard company to run. He has a tremendous number of battle scars from doing this hard thing in the physical world,
I hear this from founders that he has incredible empathy for what they are going through, because he went through it all himself.
Taggar says Phosphor is a “bet on Garry,” confident the YC CEO is steering the accelerator to new heights, especially in the AI startup wave.
Phosphor’s backing looks like a solid play for investors focusing on YC’s $500B-plus startup ecosystem, showing how insiders leverage alumni networks for outsized returns.
Check out Phosphor Capital for more info.
