Sean Cunningham

Sean Cunningham is the Managing Partner at NextGen Venture Partners in San Francisco, California, where he focuses on Seed to Series B investments across North America. Before assuming his current position, he served as a Partner at Menlo Ventures from 2015 to 2022 and held an earlier investment role at Benchmark. Over his decade-long venture capital career, he has completed more than 20 investments, including serving as a board member for Twilio through its initial public offering between 2016 and 2021. His recent transaction activity includes leading a $25 million Series A funding round for Shield AI in October 2024 and joining the board of Vectara in March 2025. A former two-time startup founder and graduate of Stanford University, Cunningham currently focuses on backing early-stage technology ventures within the enterprise software, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity sectors.