Peterson Ventures is now Salt VC. The Salt Lake City venture firm announced Sept. 2 that it has spun out of the Peterson Partners platform as an independent company, taking its existing seed and pre-seed funds with it.
The new name doesn’t change who’s running the show or how they invest. Salt VC is led by the same three general partners — Ben Capell, Ilana Stern and Taylor Jones — who continue to write pre-seed and seed checks for founders building AI-native products in fintech, healthcare, commerce and the future of work, according to the firm’s announcement.
A track record built inside Peterson Partners
Peterson Ventures launched in 2012 as the venture arm of Peterson Partners, the Salt Lake City investment firm Joel Peterson founded in 1995. Capell joined the venture team and helped scale it to four core funds, an opportunity fund and two healthcare-focused funds, most recently a $115 million Fund IV, according to the announcement. Peterson Partners itself has grown into a platform with roughly $2.63 billion in regulatory assets under management across dozens of funds spanning private equity, search funds and venture capital.
That venture track record includes stakes in six unicorns and two IPOs, including Allbirds, Ethos and Lucid Software, landed as the fund grew past $550 million in assets under management by 2022. Breeze Airways, which Peterson Partners backed through its private equity arm rather than its venture fund, sits alongside Lehi-based Via in the firm’s broader portfolio.
“While our name has changed, our team, funds, strategy and commitment to founders and LPs remain the same,” Ben Capell, general partner at Salt VC, says.
Why the spinout, and why now
The move lands at a tense moment for emerging venture managers. At a 2026 Utah Business roundtable last month, investors described a market where capital is concentrating in mega-funds chasing AI hyperscalers, leaving smaller shops fighting harder to prove themselves to limited partners. “LPs are going to people that they trust because a lot of trust was lost during that time period,” Ben Lambert, general partner at Pelion Venture Partners, says.
That dynamic frames why Salt VC is emphasizing continuity over reinvention. The firm kept its existing funds, its portfolio commitments and its three-partner leadership structure intact rather than using the split as a moment to restructure.
Peterson Partners, which also runs private equity and search fund businesses, will continue operating those units separately. Salt VC’s founders say the work now continues under the new name, with the same focus on backing founders early — before a company has a deck, a round or, often, even a name.
This article was adapted from a press release by an automated tool and reviewed and edited by an editor for accuracy before publication.
