Marcos Martinez Villalba

Marcos Martinez-Villalba is a Partner at Vinthera, where his team describes him as having spent more than 10 years in venture capital investing across AI infrastructure, defense, and B2B software. Vinthera lists recent notable investments associated with him including VAST Data, HavocAI, and Kindo.

Before Vinthera, Martinez-Villalba was a Partner at Drive Capital. Vinthera says that at Drive he led investments in autonomous defense, AI infrastructure, and security platforms, and notes Drive as the largest venture firm headquartered outside San Francisco and New York with more than $2.2 billion in AUM.

Earlier, he spent six years at Revel Partners, where he focused on early-stage B2B SaaS and marketplaces. Revel’s own profile lists him as a Principal and says that before Revel he was an Investment Associate at Middleland Capital and Lavrock Ventures, working on global early-stage technology opportunities and enterprise software investments.

He began his career as a founder, building Artelisted, an online marketplace connecting emerging artists with buyers. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and an MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

• At Vinthera, his current focus is growth-stage investing in AI infrastructure, defense, and B2B software, aligned with the firm’s stated focus on “category defining companies.”
• Vinthera describes its strategy as partnering with “the next generation of category leading companies and their earliest backers,” combining fund investments with direct investments.
• Vinthera’s portfolio page says the firm partners with growth-stage founders building category-winning companies in large markets undergoing rapid change, naming AI infrastructure, blockchain, and defense as examples.
• At Revel, his historical sweet spot was Seed through early Series A B2B SaaS and marketplaces, especially companies with a completed initial product, early revenue, and up to about $1 million ARR.
• In his 2019 AlleyWatch interview, he said Revel looked for large markets where a recent change creates a technology opening, and favored founders who could answer the “why now” question with logic and data.
• He has said he values founding teams that are opinionated, fast-moving, highly competitive, and clear about their business; quantitatively, he cited $100,000 to $1 million ARR, net negative churn, and roughly 15%+ compounded monthly growth as attractive early-stage signals.