Kevin Lin
About Kevin Lin
Kevin Lin co-founded Twitch and served as its chief operating officer. Twitch grew out of Justin.tv and was acquired by Amazon in 2014. In January 2018 he moved from COO to a role leading Culture, Strategy and Innovation. He announced in November 2020 that he was leaving the company.
In 2021 he founded Metatheory, an interactive entertainment company focused on games and virtual worlds that use blockchain technology. Metatheory announced a $24M Series A in May 2022. He is its co-founder and CEO.
He is also co-founder and general partner at Lifelike Capital, a partner at AUM Group (a film financing group), and a co-founder of Gold House. One bio lists board roles at Krafton, Oura, Baobab and OneMoreMultiverse. He is based in San Francisco.
Crunchbase lists 116 personal investments, and other databases show different counts depending on coverage. One profile describes him as an angel with more than 100 investments, mostly at pre-seed, seed and early Series rounds. Crunchbase also lists Series B participation in Karat Financial.
Recent seed rounds on Crunchbase include Origin Lab, Catena, Mentra, Asterix, Cosmology, Nest Wallet and Forge. CB Insights records a Catena Labs seed round on 2025-05-20 and a Nest Wallet seed round in February 2024.
Origin Lab announced an $8M seed round in May 2026, led by Lightspeed. SV Angel, Eniac, Seven Stars and FPV also took part, with angel funding from Lin and Kyle Vogt. Origin Lab works with game publishers to turn licensed video game worlds into structured, rights-cleared training data for world-model builders.
Catena Labs (seed, May 2025) and Mentra, Asterix and Cosmology also appear in his recent Crunchbase seed investments. We have not confirmed their business details, so we do not describe them here.
His NFX Signal profile lists pre-seed and seed investing in games, gaming and esports, media and content, and Web3. It gives an investment range of $5K to $50K with a sweet spot of $25K. Those figures come from a third-party profile, not from Lin directly. Tracxn lists gaming and enterprise applications as his top sectors, with the United States and India as top locations. We found no public statement from him on what he looks for in a pitch.
- Origin Lab: licensed game-world data for AI world models; $8M seed, May 2026.
- Catena Labs: seed round recorded May 2025.
- Nest Wallet: seed round recorded February 2024.
- Forge: seed round recorded October 2023.
- Scriptic: seed round recorded June 2023.
- Karat Financial: Series B participation listed on Crunchbase.
- crunchbase.com/person/kevin-lin
- signal.nfx.com/investors/kevin-lin
- techcrunch.com/2026/05/13/origin-lab-raises-8m-to-help-video-game-comp
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Lin_(entrepreneur))
- 42geeks.com/kevin-lin
- askforfunding.com/investor/kevin-lin-angel-investor
- cbinsights.com/investor/kevin-lin
- tracxn.com/d/people/kevin-lin/__1HnjN2ej79A8Z1y4z6GSzFfRMYLoMxWMOt6BTL
Investing activity
Kevin Lin appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $8M. The most recent is Origin Lab (Seed, $8M, May 2026).
Kevin Lin most often invests alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners, Seven Stars Ventures, SV Angel and Kyle Vogt, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Kevin Lin
Does Kevin Lin invest in AI startups?
Yes. He was an angel in Origin Lab's $8M seed round in May 2026. His wider portfolio also leans toward gaming, media and Web3.
What check size does Kevin Lin write?
His NFX Signal profile lists a range of $5K to $50K with a $25K sweet spot. This is third-party data, and we found no public statement from Lin on check size.
What stage does Kevin Lin invest in?
Mostly pre-seed and seed, with some early Series rounds. NFX Signal lists pre-seed and seed.
Who is Kevin Lin?
He is a co-founder and former COO of Twitch. He is CEO of Metatheory and a co-founder and general partner at Lifelike Capital.
Which sectors does Kevin Lin back?
NFX Signal lists games, gaming and esports, media and content, and Web3. Origin Lab shows he also backs AI data infrastructure.
Where is Kevin Lin based?
Crunchbase and NFX Signal list San Francisco, California.
Is Kevin Lin an angel investor?
Yes. Kevin Lin invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Kevin Lin invested in?
Kevin Lin's AI investments include Origin Lab. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Kevin Lin invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Kevin Lin has invested at Seed, with a median round of $8M.
Who does Kevin Lin co-invest with?
Kevin Lin's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Lightspeed Venture Partners (1 deal), Seven Stars Ventures (1 deal), SV Angel (1 deal), Kyle Vogt (1 deal) and Eniac Ventures (1 deal).