TSVC Corrects Foothill Ventures Advertising: No One At Foothill Was Involved In TAF1’s 2011 Zoom Investment

LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TSVC (formerly TEEC Angel Fund) has filed a motion for preliminary injunction in federal court seeking to stop what TSVC alleges are false and/or misleading statements in recently-discovered Foothill Ventures advertising concerning the historical investment record of TEEC Angel Fund (“TAF”).

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2010, TSVC has invested in more than 200 technology startups, helping build 12 unicorns and 5 IPOs from seed-stage investments, including Zoom, Carta, Ginkgo Bioworks, Iterable, Musely, Zūm, Plus, d-Matrix and Exa. Today, TSVC focuses on backing exceptional technical founders building the next generation of Physical AI companies.

What Foothill Advertised

TSVC's filing cites newly-discovered Foothill job advertisements stating:

“We grew out of the TEEC Angel Fund, which made seed-stage, highly successful bets on companies like Zoom Communications, Carta, Plus.ai, WeRide.ai and Ginkgo Bioworks, all subsequent Unicorns.”

TSVC's motion asks the Court to stop any more false and/or misleading advertising concerning that claimed investment history, including three factual corrections:

1. TEEC Angel Fund never invested in WeRide.ai.

TAF's investment records confirm no investment in WeRide.ai. The motion also cites an independent 2017 financial market report identifying Tsingyuan Ventures, now Foothill Ventures, as an investor in WeRide.ai's predecessor JingChi—not any TAF fund.

2. Zoom and WeRide.ai do not belong to one institutional investment history.

The motion alleges that combining a TAF investment such as Zoom with Foothill's WeRide.ai investment creates a false “mixed portfolio” that belongs to neither institution.

3. Only TAF1 made the 2011 Zoom seed investment.

TEEC Angel Fund I was the investor of record in Zoom, then called SaasBee. The motion states that no Foothill or Tsingyuan fund made, acquired, or succeeded that investment.

TSVC filed the preliminary injunction motion on September 1, 2026 in TEEC Angel Management, LLC, et al. v. Tsingyuan Ventures LLC, et al., Case No. 5:24-cv-08991-EKL, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Court has not yet ruled on the motion.

The filed motion, the Foothill advertising cited in it, and supporting public documentation are available on the official TEEC Angel Fund website:

www.teec-angel.com/litigation/