The Open Core Ventures (OCV) Catalyst Program is a 3 month OSS project incubator aiming to support open source maintainers in the growth of their open source projects. Projects such as developer tools, artificial intelligence infrastructure/implementation, and data transformation (or any that solves a real problem and has potential for commercial viability) will be considered for Catalyst and will receive support and mentorship from OCV team. There is potential for top-performing projects to become OCV companies at the end of the program — 4/11 Catalyst projects became OCV companies, or their authors became OCV CTOs, in 2025.
Participants in Catalyst will collaborate with OCV and their batch to establish and work towards clear, measurable objectives, focusing on metrics such as contributor growth, community expansion, and increased adoption. OCV provides $10,000 to support the growth of Catalyst projects, and it is not expected that authors work on their project full-time during Catalyst (most particpants hold full-time positions while in Catalyst). OCV is committed to advancing the growth of open source through providing the sponsorship resources and aims to amplify the impact of open-source projects and position them for long term success. Eight project authors will be accepted Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and are due by January 16, although may close sooner if all eight spots are filled.
Catalyst v1 kicks off on February 2, 2026.
Top Skills
What We Do
Open Core Ventures (OCV) is a venture capital firm that starts commercial open source software companies. Our team identifies open source software projects with traction, recruits passionate project founders and contributors, and launches new companies. OCV companies aim to create tangible value for the open source community by providing access to resources and reducing the barrier to entrepreneurship.
OCV believes in the power of open core, and the impact of open learning and collaboration. Our approach diverges from conventional venture capital because OCV starts companies and recruits founders; OCV does not invest in existing companies. The OCV model enables experienced, capable, and technical founders who otherwise would not have the resources to launch a successful startup.
OCV does not make investments in existing open core companies.
OCV is not currently accepting new limited partners.
