Seed & pre-seed
We write the first institutional check — often before revenue — and lead the round so you have a decisive partner from day one, not a committee.
Early-stage venture capital
We back the first believers.
We lead pre-seed and seed rounds in technical founders building category-defining companies — writing the earliest check and staying close for every round after it.
$420M
Assets under management
38
Portfolio companies
11
Exits & IPOs
2013
Founded
Who we are
A fund built for the earliest days
We believe the most important capital a company ever raises is the first. Our job is to find the founders worth backing before the market agrees — and then earn the right to keep backing them.
We started this fund in 2013 with a simple conviction. The best companies we admired — the ones that quietly reshaped how millions of people work, pay, and build — almost all looked unfundable at the start. They were a technical founder and a rough prototype, too early for the funds writing later checks and too ambitious for the ones playing it safe. Somebody had to believe first. We set out to be that somebody, and to keep our fund small enough that a single conviction bet could still move the whole return.
More than a decade on, that principle still runs through everything we do. We lead pre-seed and seed rounds, not because it is fashionable, but because the earliest stage is where a single partner's judgment matters most and where founders are most underserved. When there is no traction to hide behind, you have to get the read on the team, the market, and the wedge exactly right. That discipline is the whole point — it is why our early bets have compounded, and why founders introduce us to the next founder, and the one after that.
How we're built
Deliberately concentrated
We are deliberately concentrated. There is no analyst layer between you and the partner who decides — the person who takes your first meeting is the person who writes the memo, wires the check, and picks up the phone at 11pm before a board vote. That means fewer companies per partner, more attention on each, and a level of hands-on support that larger, spray-and-pray funds simply cannot sustain. If you want a name on your cap table, we are the wrong choice. If you want a partner who will fight for the company you are actually trying to build, we should talk.
Portfolio
A few companies we backed early
Every company below started the same way — an unproven founder, a hard problem, and a conviction check written before the round was easy.
Fintech · 2025Meridian
The operating account for the next generation of businesses
We led Meridian's pre-seed to back a banking platform built for founders the incumbents ignore.
$18M
ARR
9,000+
Businesses
Pre-seed
Our stage
Applied AI · 2025Atlas
AI agents that close the books on their own
We seeded Atlas to bring reliable, auditable AI agents to the back office of mid-market finance teams.
6.4×
ARR growth
140
Customers
$4B+
Payables run
Climate & Energy · 2024Nordic
Grid-scale storage for a fully renewable grid
We backed Nordic's frontier bet on long-duration energy storage with patient, conviction capital.
$310M
Valuation
2
Utility contracts
Seed
Our stage
Vertical SaaS · 2024Form
The system of record for independent clinics
We led Form's seed to build the software backbone healthcare's long tail actually runs on.
1,200
Clinics
148%
Net retention
62%
Payments mix
Deep Tech · 2024Lumen
Purpose-built compute for real-time AI inference
We wrote Lumen's first check to rethink the hardware stack under low-latency AI.
$9M
ARR
3.5×
Latency cut
Pre-seed
Our stage
Marketplace · 2023Gallery
The marketplace where independent makers get paid
We seeded Gallery to give independent creators a commerce platform that finally works in their favour.
$120M
GMV run-rate
24,000
Active sellers
Seed
Our stage
Building something this early?
Send us a two-line note on what you're building — a partner reads every one.
How we work
Four ways we put capital to work
We stay concentrated on purpose. The partner you pitch is the partner who leads the round, joins the board, and rolls up their sleeves — from the first check to the last.
Series A leadership
When a company finds its wedge, we lead the A, set the terms, and take a board seat — the same conviction, a larger check.
Platform & talent
A dedicated team helps portfolio founders hire their first ten engineers, land their first ten customers, and open the doors that matter.
Follow-on capital
We reserve two dollars for every one we invest, so our best companies never have to go looking for a lead in the round that counts.
What we believe
Three things that never change
Founders first
We back people before markets. A great founder in a rough market beats a mediocre one in a hot space every single time, so we obsess over the team.
Conviction over consensus
We would rather lead one round we deeply believe in than follow ten that everyone likes. Concentrated bets, held with patience, are how early funds return.
Built for the long game
Company building takes a decade, not a quarter. We invest patient capital and stay engaged through the hard middle, not just the exciting start.
In their words
What founders say
We'd rather let the founders we've backed do the talking. Here's a little of what they've told us.
They wrote the first check when the product was a prototype and a promise. Two years later they're still the first call I make before every hard decision — not the last.
Most funds send an associate and a template. This partner sat with our data for a weekend and came back with a sharper thesis for our own company than we had ourselves.
When our launch slipped and the round got hard, they doubled down and helped us close two other investors in a week. Conviction when it actually counted.
Building something early?
Tell us what you're building. We read every serious pitch and reply within two business days.