Thomson Nguyen
About Thomson Nguyen
Thomson Nguyen is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Saga Ventures, an early-stage venture firm. Crunchbase also lists him as a visiting scholar at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, where he focuses on AI research. He is based in San Francisco, California. Per f4.fund, he studied Applied Mathematics at Cambridge and Mathematics at UC Berkeley.
He started in data science and fintech. He founded Framed Data, which Square acquired, and later served as Head of Capital Data Science at Square. He then became an Entrepreneur in Residence at Kleiner Perkins.
In 2019 he founded Nearside, a neobank for micro and small businesses that was formerly called Hatch. Crunchbase says Nearside was acquired for $130M and names Priority Financial as the acquirer. Other sources, including f4.fund, name Plastiq as the buyer and date the deal to 2022. Crunchbase counts three companies founded and two exits for him.
After the exit he spent time in New York talking with Max Altman and Ben Braverman about moving into venture. Those conversations led to Saga Ventures. Public sources date the firm's launch to 2024.
Little of Nguyen's personal angel activity is public. Crunchbase counts 6 investments and 6 portfolio companies for him, with 1 lead investment. NFX Signal lists one investment on record: Zeta, a $2M seed round in May 2020. Tracxn lists Weav as a portfolio company and as an exit.
Because most of his recent investing runs through Saga, the better guide to his activity is the fund's portfolio rather than a list of personal angel checks.
Nguyen's AI work covers research, investing and operating. He has been a visiting scholar in AI research at NYU's Courant Institute. At Saga he invests in AI infrastructure, developer tools and AI applications.
In an interview with Future Nexus, he described the current period of AI as an "innocent Wild West". F4.fund's research brief says he believes current models have significant untapped potential before regulation settles, and that he brings an engineering perspective to evaluating technical founders.
F4.fund groups Saga's AI-related companies as follows: Dedalus Labs (MCP gateway for AI agents), Hydra Host (bare metal GPU platform) and Ragie (RAG infrastructure) in infrastructure and developer tools. Profound (LLM search optimization), Gently (AI enterprise OS) and Exec (AI conversation platform for professional training) fall under enterprise software and AI applications. Dedalus Labs raised an $11M seed in October 2025, co-led with Kindred Ventures. Ragie raised $5.5M in August 2024. Evalyze lists Profound's $4M seed in August 2024 as his latest investment.
Saga describes itself as an early-stage firm backing ambitious founders who use technology, especially AI, on hard problems. Third-party profiles describe the first fund as $125M and seed-focused, launched in March 2024. Superscout says the firm planned about 30 investments. Saga invests mainly in US companies. F4.fund notes some investments in Canada, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
NFX Signal and Evalyze list a $2M to $2.5M check range for Nguyen at Saga, with a $2M sweet spot. They cover pre-seed and seed rounds across SaaS, AI, fintech, transportation tech, space, manufacturing and future of work. These figures come from third-party aggregators, not from Saga or Nguyen, so confirm them with the firm. F4.fund says Saga leads rounds. His own personal angel check size is not public.
Within the partnership, F4.fund says Nguyen supplies the technical and data science view. Braverman covers go-to-market and sales, and Altman is the third managing partner.
- Dedalus Labs: MCP gateway for AI applications; $11M seed in October 2025, co-led with Kindred Ventures (a Saga portfolio company per F4).
- Ragie: RAG infrastructure; $5.5M round in August 2024 (Saga portfolio company per F4).
- Profound: LLM search optimization; $4M seed in August 2024, listed as his latest investment by Evalyze.
- Hydra Host: bare metal GPU platform (Saga portfolio company per F4).
- Gently: AI enterprise OS (Saga portfolio company per F4).
- Exec: AI conversation platform for professional training (Saga portfolio company per F4).
- FleetWorks: fleet management software; $17M Series A in October 2025 (Saga portfolio company per F4).
- Zeta: $2M seed round in May 2020, listed on NFX Signal.
- Weav: listed by Tracxn as a portfolio company and exit.
- crunchbase.com/person/thomson-nguyen
- signal.nfx.com/investors/thomson-nguyen
- f4.fund/firms/saga-ventures
- heyfuturenexus.com/posts/saga-ventures-125m-bet-on-pandoras-box
- superscout.co/investor/saga-ventures
- evalyze.ai/investors/thomson-nguyen
- tracxn.com/d/people/thomson-nguyen/__ySPFa6D9xvJu7qoMRsPsXW_zsnAxqgqBw
- speakerdeck.com/thomson
Investing activity
Thomson Nguyen has made 6 investments according to Crunchbase across 6 portfolio companies, and has led 1 round, seen 2 exits and founded 3 companies.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Thomson Nguyen
Who is Thomson Nguyen?
Thomson Nguyen is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Saga Ventures in San Francisco. He previously founded Nearside and Framed Data, and he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Kleiner Perkins.
What stage does Thomson Nguyen invest in?
Public profiles list pre-seed and seed for Saga, which also describes itself as an early-stage firm. F4.fund describes the fund as seed-stage.
What check size does Thomson Nguyen write?
NFX Signal and Evalyze list $2M to $2.5M with a $2M sweet spot, based on his role at Saga. These come from third-party aggregators, and his personal angel check size is not public.
Does Thomson Nguyen invest in AI startups?
Yes. Saga's portfolio includes Dedalus Labs, Ragie, Hydra Host, Profound, Gently and Exec. Nguyen also lists AI research at NYU's Courant Institute as a focus.
What has Thomson Nguyen built as a founder?
He founded Framed Data, which Square acquired. He also founded Nearside, a neobank for small businesses acquired for $130M per Crunchbase. Crunchbase counts three companies founded.
How can founders contact Thomson Nguyen?
His public handle on Twitter/X is @itsthomson, per his Speaker Deck profile. Saga's website is sagavc.com.
Is Thomson Nguyen an angel investor?
Yes. Thomson Nguyen invests personally as an angel and is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Saga Ventures. Crunchbase counts 6 investments and 2 exits.
Where is Thomson Nguyen based?
Thomson Nguyen is based in San Francisco, California, United States.
How can founders reach Thomson Nguyen?
Founders on Lounge can see Thomson Nguyen's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Thomson Nguyen to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.