Priya Saiprasad is the co-founder and a general partner of Touring Capital, an investment firm focused on AI software. Her career has moved through venture investing, enterprise technology, and mergers and acquisitions; her public conversations explore how investors can support founders, what makes software defensible in the AI era, and how companies should scale.
Who is Priya Saiprasad?
Touring Capital’s biography describes Saiprasad as having spent 13 years in venture capital, M&A, and enterprise technology before co-founding the firm. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration from UC Berkeley Haas and was named to Forbes’ 2018 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital list. Touring also notes that she lived in 12 countries as a child.
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Her path crosses several parts of the technology investment ecosystem: operating around enterprise technology, evaluating companies as an investor, and working on acquisitions. That mix helps explain why her interviews range from personal lessons about investing to questions of product and company strategy.
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How did Saiprasad build her career?
From M&A to venture investing
Before joining venture firms, Saiprasad was a deal lead on Square’s M&A team, where she worked on acquisitions at the intersection of software and machine learning. She later joined Mayfield Fund and was a founding member of M12, Microsoft’s venture fund. At M12, Touring’s profile says she led investments in Go1, Workboard, PandaDoc, Element AI, and Bonsai.
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Investing at SoftBank Vision Fund
Her most recent role before Touring was partner at SoftBank Vision Fund. Touring’s biography says her investments there included Pixis, Vendr, Observe.ai, CommerceIQ, Sendoso, and Skedulo. These are examples from the firm’s account of her career, not a complete list of her investment work.
Starting Touring Capital
Saiprasad co-founded Touring Capital after those roles. The firm describes its sector as AI software and says it invests in software companies using AI to supercharge the workforce. Its stated operating pillars are “Authentic Intelligence,” “Extend Possibilities,” and “Steadfast Excellence”; these are Touring’s own descriptions of its approach.
What does Saiprasad say about founder-first venture capital?
In a Fall 2023 profile by UC Berkeley Haas, Saiprasad said she had thoughts on addressing systemic biases in venture, building a founder-first firm, and using AI advances in the next generation of software productivity. The profile also attributes this practical test of investor support to her: “You know if a VC is founder-friendly based on how they react when times get tough in the company.”
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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →That idea shifts the measure of founder-friendliness from a firm’s pitch to its conduct under pressure. An investor’s support is most visible when a company faces setbacks, difficult decisions, or a need to adapt—not only when progress is smooth. The Desi VC episode listing also signals that Saiprasad discusses investor insecurity, investments that have not worked out, and how investors can assist founders whose challenges they have not personally experienced.
The Haas profile quotes Saiprasad describing her perspective as shaped by being a millennial, a woman, and having a global outlook, alongside her experience in entrepreneurship. The source’s quoted text contains a spelling error; this paraphrase preserves the point without reproducing it.
How does AI fit into her investment perspective?
Saiprasad told UC Berkeley Haas that advances in AI had been developing over the preceding decade and were approaching broader scale and adoption. In Touring’s current description, AI software is the firm’s sector, with an emphasis on software that can increase workforce capability. Together, those statements connect her view of AI not simply to new technology, but to its potential role in the next generation of productivity software.
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A January 5, 2026 Scaleup Flight episode listing frames its conversation with Saiprasad around the practical questions that follow: technology moats in AI, capital efficiency, talent choices, go-to-market defensibility, board dynamics, and how founders choose investors. The listing describes Touring as a $330 million early-growth fund backing SaaS and AI companies. That fund-size figure is specific to the podcast listing; it should not be treated as an independently confirmed current figure.
What do the available interviews cover?
The available listings are separate conversations from different shows and dates, not evidence of one continuous interview series. Their subjects offer distinct entry points into Saiprasad’s career and views.
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| Show and date | Focus of the conversation | Best suited to readers interested in |
|---|---|---|
| Desi VC, date not stated in the listing cited here | How Saiprasad entered venture; surprises and insecurities in investing; lessons from investments that did not work out; supporting founders; competition, prestige, and advice to her younger self. | The personal side of venture and investor judgment. The listing includes timestamps and questions, which are prompts rather than transcript quotations from Saiprasad. |
| Women in Venture Capital, March 20, 2024 | Her move into venture, lessons from mid-to-growth-stage investing, why she started Touring, the AI-enabled software focus, gender dynamics, and advice for aspiring investors, including creating a personal board of directors. | Career development, industry dynamics, and building an investing practice. |
| The Scaleup Flight, January 5, 2026 | AI-era technology moats, capital efficiency, talent decisions, go-to-market defensibility, board dynamics, and choosing investors. | Founder decisions involved in scaling software companies. |
Because each show approaches a different audience and set of questions, the listings are more useful as complementary snapshots than as chapters in a single series. The Desi VC listing emphasizes personal experience and investor lessons; Women in Venture Capital connects her career to industry dynamics; The Scaleup Flight focuses on scaling and strategic decisions.
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