Matthew Stepka

Matthew Stepka is the founder and managing partner of Machina Ventures, an early-stage investment fund focused on what he calls enlightened AI that amplifies our humanity. He is based in San Francisco. He is also a lecturer at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, and a director on the board of Qoria (ASX:QOR, formerly Family Zone), a cyber safety company that protects children. He is a trustee of the Knight Foundation.

Stepka was vice president of business operations and strategy at Google. Per Business News, he was there from March 2007 to February 2016. He led and incubated strategic initiatives, especially mission-driven projects with high social impact. They included expanding internet access, developing clean energy, strengthening freedom of expression and democracy, robotics, pricing strategy, and extending Google's footprint in emerging markets, especially Africa.

Before Google he was vice president of pharmacy at drugstore.com, which Walgreens acquired. Before that he was chief operating officer of WorldRes, an online hotel reservations network. He was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company for over five years, working in healthcare, financial services, energy and technology, and earlier a systems consultant at Price Waterhouse. He co-founded CyberJava, one of the first internet cafes in the United States, and worked as a freelance software programmer from an early age.

Stepka holds a JD from UCLA School of Law and BS degrees in computer engineering and management from Case Western Reserve University. He is an inactive member of the State Bar of California and an inaugural Disruptor Foundation Fellow. He previously served on the board of the World Affairs Council of America.

Crunchbase lists 6 personal investments in 6 portfolio companies for Stepka, with 3 exits (2 by IPO) and no lead investments. The Crunchbase page names his latest listed personal investment as a seed round in Vesta. It does not publish the other company names or the dates.

Machina Ventures' LinkedIn page says the firm's first investments were in 2015. Crunchbase's company page lists one fund and 12 investments for Machina Ventures. An SEC Form D, as summarized by startupfundraising.com, shows a pooled investment fund called Machina Ventures II, L.P. with a total offering amount of $10,000,000. Stepka is listed as a director. Machina has not published a full portfolio list that we could find.

AI is the stated thesis of Stepka's investing. Machina Ventures describes itself as an investment firm focused on early-stage, artificial intelligence and data science enabled companies. Stepka's own pitch is enlightened AI that enhances our humanity.

A third-party profile on Superscout says the firm organizes its interest around three areas: amplified humans, programmable economies and enabling technologies. It also says the firm looks for companies that build AI into workflows to improve productivity. Treat that as a secondary description, not Machina's own wording.

Stepka writes and speaks about AI. He has written for the American Bar Association's Business Law Today, including a piece on how AI is reshaping the legal profession. He gave the inaugural Jennings Family Distinguished Lecture at Middle Georgia State University in 2024. There he said he was generally optimistic about AI's net benefits in education, though not dismissive of the potential for harm. His X bio describes him as a venture investor focused on the impact of AI and technology on society.

Machina Ventures invests at the early stage in AI and data science enabled companies. NFX Signal ranks Stepka among investors in AI at pre-seed and seed and in the San Francisco Bay Area. It also lists him among investors who were founders.

NFX Signal lists an investment range of $50K to $1M, with a sweet spot of $250K. These figures come from that profile, not from a statement by Stepka or Machina. Confirm them with him before you rely on them. Machina has not published a fund size, and the Form D figure above is the only public number we found.

His background suggests he is open to mission-driven and social-impact companies, because he led projects of that kind at Google and sits on the Qoria and Knight Foundation boards. That is an inference from his career, not a stated investment rule. His Berkeley faculty profile lists his expertise as AI, innovation, social impact, sustainability and renewable energy, and Africa and developing markets.

• Vesta: listed on Crunchbase as Stepka's most recent personal investment, a seed round. The date and terms are not public.

• crunchbase.com/person/matt-stepka
• sites.google.com/site/matthewstepka
• executive.berkeley.edu/faculty-directory/matthew-stepka
• machina.ventures/team
• linkedin.com/company/machina-ventures
• crunchbase.com/organization/machina-ventures
• signal.nfx.com/investors/matthew-stepka
• startupfundraising.com/investors/matthew-stepka-723251