Fundraising Fox
Defiant
Venture capitalLondon · Seed–Series A · 11 people tracked
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Investment thesis
Defiant is a venture fund reimagining what a VC fund can look like through a thematically-led, data-driven and product-centric approach to investing in B2B software and fintech. It backs early-stage founders and builds proprietary software and benchmarking products to add value beyond capital. The firm draws parallels between the cloud era's 'picks and shovels' middleware companies and today's AI market, expecting a new generation of tools to emerge. It believes defensibility in the age of large language models comes from proprietary workflow data, built-in growth loops and rapid experimentation, driving disruption across the modern business tech stack.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 16, 2026.
Team · 11 people
from the firm's website & curated
A product builder who began his career as a quant trader and financial analyst at global investment banks before moving into product, where he founded and scaled several SaaS businesses and led one to exit.
Began investing at 16 and later worked as an engineer before joining institutions such as Rothschild, Vitruvian Partners, and Felix Capital. Over 10+ years he has supported more than 20 startups from seed to IPO across Europe, the US, and Asia.
Gary Jaitowal is Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner at Kathaka, where he serves as a board member and investor in more than 15 growth-stage technology platforms spanning late Seed through Series C. His earlier career included private equity investing in middle-market healthcare software at IndUS Growth Partners and strategy and product roles at GLG, a B2B marketplace backed by Bessemer Ventures and Silverake. He previously worked in academic healthcare research before moving into venture capital, with a focus on late Seed to Series C companies in the consumer and enterprise software segments.
Avi Ashkenazi is Senior Director of Product Design at Deel, where he leads multidisciplinary design teams. He previously worked in design at Shopify.
Cristina Lasagni is the founder of FUTURAYA LTD, a consultancy providing cybersecurity and cloud architecture services to small and medium enterprises and system integrators across EMEA, with a focus on Cloudflare technologies, multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), regulatory compliance (GDPR, NIS2, DORA), and cloud cost management. She works as a fractional Chief Revenue Officer and angel investor, and her prior experience includes roles at Cloudflare, Dropbox, and Cisco.
Leo Balan is a Senior Manager of Creative Cloud Monetisation Growth at Adobe. He has more than 16 years of industry experience, with a focus on B2B SaaS growth and product management.
Steve Pearce is a design and product leader with nearly 30 years of experience leading multidisciplinary design teams in Europe and globally. He currently serves as an Advisor at Defiant and has held vice president of design roles at companies including Monday.com, TravelPerk, Checkout.com, Skyscanner, Skype, and Microsoft. He has also worked as a founding partner, advisor, and board trustee.
What they invest in
from 3 of 3 portfolio companiesEnterprise Software ×2AI & Machine Learning ×1Consumer ×1Developer Tools ×1Hardware ×1IoT ×1Marketing Tech ×1SaaS ×1
HQs:United States×2India×1
Investments · 3 tracked
founders shown can be your intro path
Autonomous software development for the enterprise (AI)
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareCambridge, US
Brian Elliott(Founder)inSiddhant Pardeshi(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)Sid Pardeshi(Founder)in
BoardSanjot Malhi(Director)in
Co-investorsAsymmetric Capital PartnersBattery VenturesBosch VenturesFlybridge Capital PartnersLink VenturesLitquidity Ventures+10 more
Deako makes modular connected light switches that homeowners can customize and upgrade without turning off power.
ConsumerHardwareIoTSeattle, US
Derek Richardson(CEO)inAlexander Strunkin(CPO)Andrew MastGuru Iyer
BoardDoug Renert(Director)inBrian Weeks(Director)
Co-investorsAlumni VenturesGen CapitalLigo Partners LLCPartech VenturesTandem CapitalY Combinator+9 more
Rivia.ai provides a platform for creating and distributing interactive product demonstrations that SaaS companies can embed in websites, email, and advertising.
Enterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSBengaluru, IN
Samay Jain(Founder)inSAMAY JAIN(Founder)inPrabal Agarwal
Co-investorsY Combinator
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesBlitzy · blitzy.com · May 6, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- What stage does Defiant invest at?
- Defiant invests at the Seed, Series A stages.
- What is Defiant's typical check size?
- Defiant typically writes checks of $2M – $10M.
- What sectors does Defiant focus on?
- Defiant focuses on Enterprise Software, Fintech, SaaS.
- Where is Defiant located?
- Defiant is headquartered in London, GB.
- Does Defiant lead rounds?
- Yes, Defiant leads investment rounds.
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