Essence Venture Capital
Venture capitalSeattle · Pre-Seed–Seed · 2 people tracked
Also known as TIMOTHY CHEN ADVISORS, LLC
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Investment thesis
An engineer-first solo GP Timothy Chen investing in infra startups at repo/demo or GitHub-alpha stage, uniquely comfortable backing founders before products exist and highly technically driven.
Source: firm website, verified Sep 15, 2026.
Team · 2 people
from curated & public directories
Founder mafia
The Essence Venture Capital mafia →6 people who came through Essence Venture Capital went on to found or lead other companies.
What they invest in
from 94 of 111 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×70Developer Tools ×61Enterprise Software ×43Data & Infrastructure ×36SaaS ×35Cloud Computing ×17Cybersecurity ×14Fintech ×7
HQs:United States×56Canada×1United Kingdom×1Ireland×1Sweden×1
Investments · 111 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2026 · 12025 · 12024 · 22023 · 42022 · 32021 · 415 dated
DeepSource is a static application security testing (SAST) platform that analyzes source code to detect security vulnerabilities and code quality issues with minimal false positives.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Sanket Saurav(Co-founder & CEO)Jai Pradeesh(Co-founder & President)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFundersClubHack VCRogue CapitalTango.vc
DeepSource provides developer tools for code quality and security.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US
Sanket Saurav(Co-founder & CEO)inJai Pradeesh(Co-founder, President)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFundersClubHack VC645 VenturesY CombinatorLiquid Ventures
Adelphi builds data middleware and discovery technology for intelligence and defense organizations, enabling secure collaboration and real-time access across fragmented, multi-domain data environments in compliance with security requirements.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDefense TechEnterprise SoftwareGovTech
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFlex Capital Partners
Alkymi provides an AI-powered platform that extracts and automates data from unstructured documents, turning it into workflow-ready data via APIs.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareFintechNew York City, US
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsIntel CapitalWork-BenchCanaan Partners
Apollo provides an AI-powered platform designed for go-to-market teams to improve sales and marketing productivity.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSales TechSan Francisco, US
Tim Zheng(Founder/CEO)inRay Li(Founder)inMatt Curl(Chief Executive Officer)inMarcio Arnecke(Chief Marketing Officer)inAdam Carr(Chief Revenue Officer)inPhil Moon(Chief Financial Officer)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsA*Angel Collective Opportunity FundBain Capital VenturesNewView CapitalPathlight VenturesSand Hill Angels+9 more
Arcol is a building design authoring platform that integrates construction and preconstruction intelligence into the design process, supporting collaboration between teams and AI agents.
Construction TechPropTechSaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsCraft VenturesCowboy VenturesVibe Capital
Artillery is a performance testing toolkit that provides load testing, Playwright-based end-to-end testing, and production monitoring capabilities for web applications and APIs.
Data & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSLimerick, IE
Hassy Veldstra(Founder)inHasan Minatullaevich Veldstra(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardEliot Durbin(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsY Combinatorboldstart venturesFirst Round CapitalGeneral CatalystLowercase CapitalSignia Venture Partners
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Atmanity is a platform for creating and discovering AI-generated avatars, offering a library of thousands of avatars that users can browse and make their own.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerCreator Economy
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAddin VentureGFR Fund
Axolotl is an open-source tool for fine-tuning and customizing large language models across different AI architectures, supporting techniques like LoRA, qLoRA, and PEFT with faster training.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAfore CapitalFikaLeadout CapitalChapter One
Chroma Sync is a serverless data ingestion service for Chroma Cloud that connects S3 buckets, GitHub repositories, and websites, then parses, chunks, and embeds the content for search.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAlt CapitalAir Street CapitalAIX VenturesAngel Collective Opportunity FundBloomberg BetaQuiet Capital
Clarify builds a modern CRM platform that consolidates customer data from multiple sources, automates workflows, and provides insights to drive business growth.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSales TechDover, US
Patrick Thompson(Co-Founder / CEO)inOndrej Hrebicek(Co-Founder / CTO)inAustin Hay(Executive Officer, Director)inPranav Priyush(CEO)
BoardMatt Garratt(Director)inZachary Bratun-Glennon(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAscend Venture CapitalFikaGradient VenturesInvariantes FundMadrona Venture GroupRecall Capital+5 more
Cleanlab develops machine learning tools for data quality and model improvement, serving enterprises and ML practitioners across industries.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
Curtis Northcutt(Founder)inJonas Mueller(Co-founder)inAnish AthalyeinAnishathalye(Co-founder)Ulyana Tkachenko(Co-founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsMenlo VenturesPreston-Werner VenturesSamsung NextTq Ventures LlcAME Cloud VenturesBain Capital Ventures+1 more
Cline is an open source AI coding agent runtime that developers use inside their IDE, terminal, or embedded via an SDK to plan and execute coordinated multi-file code changes, run terminal commands, and automate workflows in CI pipelines.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Saoud Rizwan(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investors1984 Ventures Management, LlcEmergence CapitalESSENCE VCPace CapitalZero Prime Ventures
Coana provides static analysis tools that identify reachable security vulnerabilities in software dependencies, filtering out false positives to help developers prioritize genuine threats.
CybersecurityDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Anders Møller(Professor)Benjamin BarslevMartin TorpAnders Søndergaard
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsESSENCE VCSequoia Capital
Coiled is a lightweight compute platform that enables data engineers and scientists to scale Python code to thousands of cloud machines without Kubernetes or Docker.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Matthew Rocklin(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsBessemer Venture PartnersChemistryCostanoa VenturesIA Ventures
Comfy is an open-source tool for building repeatable visual AI workflows by chaining multiple AI models together.
AI & Machine LearningCreator EconomyDeveloper ToolsSan Francisco, US
Yoland Y.(Founder)inYaozhong Yan(Executive Officer, Director)Junhan Huang(Director)
BoardChristopher Paik(Director)Yannik Marek(Director)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAbstract VenturesCraft VenturesFoundersTranspose Platform ManagementChemistryCursor Capital+2 more
Comm is an encrypted messaging platform for communities that combines Signal's end-to-end encryption model with personal servers to support community features like channels, roles, and threads.
Crypto & Web3SocialNew York City, US
Ashoat Tevosyan(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsVibe CapitalElectric CapitalEniac Ventures
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Crash Override monitors code written by humans and AI agents, inspects each build layer, applies cryptographic tagging to artifacts, and tracks their provenance in production environments.
CybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareNew York, US
Mark Curphey(Director)inJohn Viega(Executive Officer, Director)in
BoardJay Allan Leek II(Director)Erik Nordlander(Director)inMichael Droesch(Director)inGerhard Eschelbeck(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsBessemer Venture PartnersFirestreak VenturesSyn Ventures Seed Management LlcGV (Google Ventures)SYN Ventures
Datafold builds AI-powered agents and tools that automate complex data engineering tasks including migrations, optimization, CI/CD, and data quality validation.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSNew York City, US
Gleb Mezhanskiy(Founder)inAlex Morozov(Founder)in
BoardAaron Jacobson(Director)inPeter Sonsini(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAmplify PartnersAngel Collective Opportunity FundAvant LabsGood News VenturesHustle FundNew Enterprise Associates (NEA)+3 more
An AI security and trust platform securing live voice and video calls with real-time context analysis, deepfake detection, and social engineering response automation.
San Francisco, US
Aman Ibrahim(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFoundersResponsibly VenturesRipple VenturesTransform Capital ManagementYAR Ventures
DevZero is a Kubernetes platform that optimizes large-scale Kubernetes environments by reducing resource waste, improving CI/CD reliability, and providing visibility into costs using telemetry, machine learning, and automation.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper Tools
Debo Ray(Co-Founder, CEO)Rob Fletcher(Co-Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Enterprise SoftwareFintechSaaSSan Francisco, US
Adam Hiatt(Executive Officer, Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsPoint72 Ventures
Dragonfly is a Redis-compatible, multi-threaded (thread-per-core) in-memory data store that delivers higher throughput and better memory efficiency on a smaller hardware footprint.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Oded Poncz(Founder)Roman Gershman(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsQuiet Capital
effx built a platform to help engineering teams collaborate and work more productively, with a focus on microservices architectures.
Developer ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsCowboy VenturesESSENCE VCKleiner PerkinsTokyo BlackModern Technical
Encore is a backend development platform that lets developers declare cloud infrastructure directly in application code, run a local environment mirroring the cloud, and automatically provision production infrastructure in their own AWS or GCP accounts.
Cloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSaaSStockholm, SE
Marcus Kohlberg(Founder)inAndré Eriksson(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAlliance VCESSENCE VCKleiner PerkinsAlliance VentureCrane Venture PartnersDig Ventures Management Limited
Eventual develops data infrastructure for teams building physical AI, particularly focused on handling video and sensor data at scale.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeep TechDeveloper Tools
Dylan DiMarchi(Founder)inJay Chia(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsCRV (Charles River Ventures)Felicis VenturesAlleyCorpLaude VenturesUpfront Ventures
Everest is an AI platform that automates regulatory, clinical, and commercial document workflows for pharmaceutical, medtech, and contract research organizations (CROs), generating submission-ready documents and associated statistical analyses from source data.
AI & Machine LearningBiotechEnterprise SoftwareMedical Devices
Mark G. Grondin(CEO)Ashley Ferreira(CEO)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsTq Ventures LlcQuiet Capital
Fearn is a patent prosecution firm that handles patent drafting and filing for technology teams, founded by former Big Law patent professionals and PhDs.
AI & Machine LearningLegalTech
Han Kim(Co-founder & CEO)in
Co-investorsDesigner FundKindred VenturesA16Z SpeedrunESSENCE VC
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Fiddler AI provides an AI observability and control platform offering experiments, monitoring, guardrails, and governance for enterprise AI agents and compound AI systems.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwarePalo Alto, US
Krishna Gade(Founder & CEO)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundaVentureBenhamou Global VenturesCisco InvestmentsDallas Venture CapitalDentsu Ventures+20 more
Flarion provides performance-optimization technology for distributed data-processing engines such as Spark, Hadoop, and Ray, using tools like Polars and Apache Arrow to improve speed and memory efficiency.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Udi Tizan(Founder)inRan Reichman(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsHetz VenturesSierra Ventures
Flatfile provides a platform that automates data onboarding by mapping, transforming, and validating raw customer data with AI assistance.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
David Boskovic(Co-founder)Eric Crane(Co-founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAfore CapitalGradient VenturesScale Venture PartnersTiger Global ManagementTwo Sigma VenturesWorkday Ventures
Flowglad is a platform that unifies cross-system automations, context, and knowledge for professional service teams.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaSNew York City, US
Agree Ahmed(Co-Founder)inHarrison Telyan(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFinancial Venture StudioRestive VenturesSouth QuadY Combinator
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Flox provides reproducible development environments built on Nix, letting developers bundle the tools and frameworks they need across the software lifecycle.
Cloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Ron Efroni(CEO)inMichael Brantley(CTO)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsHetz VenturesNew Enterprise Associates (NEA)Angel Collective Opportunity FundFirestreak VenturesAdditionD.E. Shaw+4 more
Flux develops a browser-based tool for hardware design collaboration that enables teams to work together efficiently.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsHardwareSan Francisco, US
Matthias Wagner(Founder)inLance Cassidy(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investors8VCBehind Genius VenturesOutsidersPreston-Werner Ventures
Fused is an end-to-end Python platform with data-aware AI that lets data teams and individuals explore data using natural-language prompts, build charts, and share results, including geospatial analysis.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureSaaSNew York, US
Isaac Brodsky(Founder)Sina Kashuk(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFontinalis PartnersMyriad Venture Partners
Gable builds a data collaboration platform centered on data contracts, integration and unit testing, diffs, and monitoring to catch data quality issues at upstream sources before they reach analytical environments.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Daniel Dicker(Founding Engineer)inChad Sanderson(Co-founder & CEO)inJames Frost(Co-founder & CPO)inAdrian(Co-founder & CTO)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundB Capital GroupB4 CapitalCrane Venture PartnersRoosh Venturesx15ventures (Commonwealth Bank)+1 more
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Genmo is a research lab building frontier AI models for video generation, positioning its models as world simulators for embodied AI and synthetic environments.
AI & Machine LearningCreator EconomyDeep TechMedia & EntertainmentSan Francisco, US
Ajay Jain(Founder)inParas Jain(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundEastlink Capital PartnersNew Enterprise Associates (NEA)ESSENCE VCGold House VenturesHouse+1 more
Iris is a natural-language-to-SQL analytics tool that lets executives and business teams ask questions in plain language and get data answers in under a minute.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureSaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Kite builds payment infrastructure for an "agent-native" web, providing autonomous AI agents with verifiable identity, programmable governance, and stablecoin-based settlement.
AI & Machine LearningCrypto & Web3Developer ToolsFintechSan Francisco, US
Scott Shi(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsCoinbase Ventures8VCGeneral CatalystRR2 CapitalSamsung Next
Good Start Labs builds game-based learning environments, benchmarks, and data-generation pipelines that produce verifiable rewards and real human feedback to train and evaluate AI models.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeep TechGaming
Alex Duffy(Founder)inTyler(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsInovia CapitalTIRTA Ventures
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Groundlight builds machine learning and computer vision technology to enable robotics applications.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsRoboticsSeattle, US
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsMadrona Venture GroupFounders' Co-opGreycroft Partners
Herald provides an AI-powered platform and API for insurance brokerages, including an intelligence engine, an email-based AI agent that extracts client data and sends submissions, and connectivity to carriers, MGUs, MGAs, wholesale brokerages, and program managers.
AI & Machine LearningInsurTechSaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAfore CapitalBrewer Lane VenturesUnderscore VC
A full-stack monitoring platform that helps developers identify performance issues and bugs in web applications through session replay and error tracking.
Developer ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSeattle, US
Jay Khatri(Cofounder, CEO (acquired by LaunchDarkly))inVadim Korolik(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAfore CapitalCraft VenturesFuel CapitalMakers FundNeoRamtin Naimi+6 more
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HumanSignal offers labeling and evaluation automation within Label Studio Enterprise, using prompts and LLMs to generate pre-labels, run active-learning retraining loops, and score model outputs against rubrics.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper Tools
Michael Malyuk(Founder)inNikolai Liubimov(Founder)inMax Tkachenkoin
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsBow CapitalSwift VenturesUnusual VenturesRedpoint Ventures500 Global
Stream processing cloud that lets developers turn data into real-time action at scale.
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsCusp Capital468 CapitalCortical VenturesESSENCE VC
IOP Systems operates inference infrastructure for machine learning models in customer cloud environments, leveraging experience optimizing large-scale distributed systems.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper Tools
YaoYueMihir Nanavatiin
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFoothill VenturesScribble Ventures
Jasper provides an AI-powered platform for marketers and creators to generate and refine content.
AI & Machine LearningCreator EconomyEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSAustin, US
Chris Hull(Founder/Vice President of Customer Success)inJP Morgan(Founder/CTO)inDave Rogenmoser(Founder)inJohn Philip Morgan(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)Shane Orlick(Executive Officer)inTimothy Youngin
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAAF Management Ltd.Angel Collective Opportunity FundBessemer Venture PartnersCoatue ManagementHubSpot VenturesIVP (Institutional Venture Partners)+7 more
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Keycard provides identity and access control for AI agents, enforcing policies on agent tool and API access while issuing short-lived, task-scoped credentials.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsModern TechnicalTapestry VCVermilion Cliffs VenturesAcrew CapitalAndreessen Horowitzboldstart ventures
LanceDB is an AI-native multimodal lakehouse platform that unifies training data across multiple systems to accelerate model development and dataset creation at scale.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Chang She(Founder)inLei Xu(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundCRV (Charles River Ventures)Swift VenturesThe E14 FundTheory VenturesWayfinder Ventures+6 more
LaunchNotes is a platform that connects product feedback, roadmap, and release communication so stakeholders know what is shipping and why it matters.
Developer ToolsMarketing TechSaaSCalifornia, US
Tyler Davis(Co-founder & CEO)inJake Brereton(Co-founder & COO)inEvan Michner(Director of Product)inAdam Wardlow(Director of Product Marketing)inJack Sneeringer(Director of Sales)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAtlassian VenturesBull City Venture PartnersCowboy VenturesInsight PartnersMoonPay
Legion Intelligence builds AI agents that perform work—search, chat-based answers, content drafting, and multi-step workflow automation—across an organization's existing systems and documents, with source attribution, human-in-the-loop approval, and access governance.
AI & Machine LearningDefense TechEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Jason Schnitzer(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsNava VenturesXYZ Venture Capital
Letta is an AI research lab building self-improving digital agents that use memory-native reinforcement learning and programmatic context management to learn continuously from experience over time.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Sarah Wooders(Cofounder)inCharles Packer(Founder)inSarah Wooders, PhD(Founder)in
BoardIon Stoica(Advisor)Joey Gonzalez(Advisor)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFelicis VenturesESSENCE VCAngel Collective Opportunity Fund
Levo provides a runtime security platform that integrates API and AI security directly into the software development lifecycle, helping enterprises detect and prevent vulnerabilities before code reaches production.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Buchi(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Disarray is an AI research company focused on autonomous agents for long-running tasks and automating model development through agentic search and context graphs.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeep TechDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Doris Xin(Co-founder & CEO)Moustafa Abdelbaky(Co-founder & CTO)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investors.406 VenturesLaude Ventures
Liveblocks provides real-time collaboration infrastructure for HR and talent platforms, enabling multiplayer editing, commenting, and notifications across recruiting, performance management, and workforce planning workflows.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsHR TechSaaSSales Tech
Guillaume Salles(Co-founder)Steven Fabre(Co-founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Maestro is an open-source mobile UI testing tool that runs human-readable YAML end-to-end tests on iOS simulators and Android emulators, with a CLI, visual test IDE (Studio), cloud runner, and an MCP server for AI agents.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSan Francisco, US
Jacob Krupski(Founder)inLeland Takamine(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsModern TechnicalAcronym Venture CapitalDraper AssociatesDraper DragonNetEaseNew Stack Ventures+3 more
Mage is an AI-native platform for building, running, and repairing data and AI workflows, where users describe a workflow in natural language and the platform generates the sources, code, dependencies, checks, and schedules.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsSanta Clara, US
Georges Mangin(Founder)inTommy Dang(Founder)inXiaoyou Wang(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsDesigner FundGradient VenturesLigature VCSINEWAVE VENTURESAnorak Ventures
Magic Patterns generates user interface designs that match existing product styling and enables rapid prototyping of new features.
Developer ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSaaSSan Francisco, US
Alex Danilowicz(Founder)inTeddy Ni(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsStandard CapitalY CombinatorESSENCE VCTwenty Two Ventures
Mesh provides a real-time B2B verification API that helps companies verify and onboard legitimate U.S. businesses, including SMBs and licensed professionals, by checking business registration, professional licenses, and business risk signals.
Enterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAfore CapitalAscend Venture Capital
Mixpeek provides a multimodal AI data platform for advertising technology companies to analyze images, videos, audio, and text content for contextual targeting, creative performance attribution, brand safety, and audience insights.
AdTechAI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsMarketing TechSaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsESSENCE VCWork-Bench
Modal provides a cloud platform that lets developers define compute, hardware, and application logic in Python and deploy to the cloud, with fast-booting containers and autoscaling GPUs.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsNew York, US
Erik Bernhardsson(Founder)inAkshat Bubna(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAmplify PartnersLux CapitalRedpoint VenturesCreandumGeneral CatalystAbstraction Capital+9 more
Moment is a document and internal-tooling tool with a built-in reactive programming environment using React and Tailwind CSS, storing documents as plain Markdown files on disk in git/Jujutsu repositories.
Developer ToolsFuture of WorkSaaSSeattle, US
Lita Cho(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Monograph is firm management software for architecture and engineering firms that integrates project data, time tracking, and expense management into invoicing.
Construction TechEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
Robert Yuen(Co-founder)Alex Dixon(Co-founder)Moe Amaya(Co-founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsDesigner FundHomebrewParade VenturesBase10 PartnersIndex Ventures
MotherDuck provides a serverless cloud analytics database built on DuckDB, enabling users to query and understand their data more easily.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureSeattle, US
Jordan Tigani(Co-founder and Chief Duck-Herder)inHannes Mühleisen(Co-founder)Mark Raasveldt(Co-founder)Tino TereshkoinRyan Boyd(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAmplify PartnersAndreessen HorowitzBattery VenturesEastlink Capital PartnersFelicis VenturesFirestreak Ventures+8 more
Nectry provides a governance and control plane for enterprise AI agents, chatbots, and apps, letting companies build specialized, policy-scoped agents and bring existing AI (in Copilot, Salesforce, or low-code tools) under audit-ready control.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityEnterprise Software
Daniel Winograd-Cort(Founder)inAdam Chlipala(Chief Scientist)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFoothill VenturesSamsung NextThe E14 Fund
Nilo is a browser-based 3D creative suite that lets users generate, customize, rig, animate, and export 3D assets and skins for Roblox from sketches, images, or text prompts, without using tools like Blender.
AI & Machine LearningCreator EconomyGamingSan Francisco, US
Nuno Leiria(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Nuon is a platform that lets software developers run their applications natively inside their customers' cloud accounts, supporting the BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) deployment model for B2B applications.
Cloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareBeverly Hills, US
Jon Morehouse(CEO, Founder)inJames Wu(Director)in
BoardAndrew McLoughlin(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsDeep AcreHawk Hill VenturesMantis CapitalRed Swan VenturesUncork CapitalAlumni Ventures+2 more
Ollama provides a platform for building with and running open-source language models locally and in the cloud.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwarePalo Alto, US
Jeffrey Morgan(Founder)inMichael Chiang(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundPace CapitalTheory VenturesY Combinator8VCBenchmark+2 more
OpenInfer builds inference infrastructure and tools that enable AI models to run efficiently on resource-constrained platforms and edge devices.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSan Mateo, US
Behnam Bastani(Co-Founder & CEO)inReza Nourai(Co-Founder & CTO)inKam Eshghi(Chief Business Officer)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsCota CapitalMFV PartnersOperator StackTau Ventures
Orb provides billing and revenue infrastructure for software companies, enabling usage-based and hybrid pricing models.
Data & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaSSan Francisco, US
Alvaro Morales(Co-Founder & CEO)inKshitij Grover(Co-Founder & CTO)inJosh Buckler(Head of Sales)inBas de Goei(Head of Marketing)inJustin Chuan(Head of Design)in
BoardSaam Motamedi(Board Member / Investor Representative (Partner, Greylock))in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundData Community FundESSENCE VCFOG VenturesGreylock PartnersMayfield Fund+9 more
Phonic develops technology to enable natural conversations with voice AI systems at human-like levels of reliability and simplicity.
AI & Machine LearningDeep TechDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Moin NadeemNikhil MurthyArun WongprommoonKendrick ShenJudson LamQiong Zhou Huang
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
San Francisco-based Poggio Labs builds AI "revenue agents" that generate continuously updated account plans inside Salesforce.
San Francisco, US
Connor Doyle(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)inMatthew Slotnick(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAccelSpark Capital
ProjectDiscovery offers Neo, an autonomous AI-powered security testing platform that continuously scans web applications, APIs, and cloud infrastructure to identify and verify vulnerabilities with high accuracy and minimal false positives.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Rishiraj Sharma(Founder)inSandeep Singh(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundCRV (Charles River Ventures)Lightspeed Venture PartnersMango CapitalPoint72 VenturesRain Capital+1 more
Hoboken, US
Andrew Stein(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)Noah Carr(Director)
BoardEric Schmalzbauer(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsPoint72 VenturesREFASHIOND Ventures
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsVela PartnersVermilion Cliffs Ventures
Readyset is a database scaling platform that sits in front of existing MySQL and PostgreSQL databases to accelerate read performance with sub-millisecond latencies.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsBeverly Hills, US
Alana Renda(Founder)inNatalie Lao(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAmplify PartnersIndex VenturesThe E14 FundZero Prime VenturesAmplify Partners CV
Cloud infrastructure security startup whose guardrails platform made secure, compliant resource provisioning the default for developers.
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzFelicis VenturesGeneral PartnershipZenda
Restate is a lightweight runtime that turns AI agents, workflows, and backend services into durable processes with durable execution, consistent state, and reliable communication.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSanta Clara, US
Igal Shilman(Director)inTill Rohrmann(Director)inStephan Ewen(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)inAhmed Farghal(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsfirstminute capitalRedpoint VenturesCusp CapitalExceptional CapitalHetz VenturesNorthzone
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Rosebud AI provides generative AI tools that enable users to create games and immersive interactive experiences without requiring extensive technical expertise.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerCreator EconomyDeveloper ToolsGamingSan Francisco, US
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investors2am VCAngel Collective Opportunity FundFoothill VenturesKhosla VenturesY CombinatorAnimoca Brands
Runebook builds user interfaces for large language models, including Tome, a local LLM client with MCP support.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsSan Francisco, US
Peter Cho(Executive Officer, Director)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Herald is an AI-powered incident investigation platform that detects anomalies in software environments, automatically identifies root causes of issues, and prevents customer impact through autonomous analysis.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
Vikram Sreekanti(Co-founder & CEO)Chenggang Wu(Co-founder & CTO)Joey Gonzalez(Co-founder & Chief AI Officer)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsRedpoint VenturesZero Prime Ventures
Sardine provides a fraud investigation platform that contextualizes risk across customers, devices, transactions, and businesses within an organization's ecosystem.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityFintechSan Francisco, US
Soups Ranjan(Founder & CEO)inAdi G(Founder)Zahid Shaikh(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investors11.2 CapitalActivant CapitalAndreessen HorowitzCannage CapitalCoinbase VenturesCross Creek Advisors+14 more
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Saris builds an AI platform for banks and credit unions to automate workflow tasks and enhance employee productivity without replacing human workers.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFintech
James Dang(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investors8VCAudaciousBTECH CONSORTIUMHomebrew
Sentio provides a decentralized, AI-powered modular data and compute network for Web3 developers, offering tools such as a data processor and hosted subgraphs.
Crypto & Web3Data & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsSeattle, US
Fuyao Zhao(Founder)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Signadot provides a Kubernetes-native developer platform that simplifies the development of cloud-native applications by enabling faster feedback loops and collaborative testing at scale.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Arjun Iyer(Founder)inAnirudh Ramanathan(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsRedpoint VenturesY CombinatorZenda
Torq offers an AI-based Security Operations Center (SOC) platform that helps security teams triage, investigate, and respond to threats.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecuritySaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
A platform that enables users to deploy and manage multiple AI agents for operational tasks.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise Software
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsbacktrace capitalPeak
Blacksburg, US
Ray Jenkins(Executive Officer, Director)Mike Heffner(Executive Officer, Director)in
BoardJoseph Ruscio(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsHeavybitUncork Capital
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Superframe is a customer intelligence platform that consolidates customer signals into a context layer for AI-powered go-to-market teams, providing cited answers to GTM questions.
AI & Machine LearningSaaSSales TechPalo Alto, US
Derek Steer(Executive Officer, Director)inNick Bruun(Executive Officer, Director)
BoardDan Scholnick(Director)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsDesigner FundESSENCE VC
Open lakehouse storage platform by the creators of Apache Iceberg (Databricks)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAndreessen HorowitzSV AngelUnusual VenturesValkyrie Ventures Management, LlcAltimeter CapitalZetta Venture Partners
Teleskope offers a data security platform with a "Data Reasoning Layer" that discovers, classifies, and automatically remediates sensitive data exposure across an organization's environment.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareNew York, US
Elizabeth Nammour(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)inJulie Trias(Director)
BoardBrian Schechter(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsA'Z AngelsCorrelation VenturesPrimary Venture PartnersLerer HippeauM13
Eva is an AI-powered research platform that conducts and maintains systematic reviews and meta-analyses by continuously updating them as new clinical trials emerge.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareHealthtechMedical DevicesSan Francisco, US
Cyrus Nouroozi(Co-Founder)inAmir Mehr(Co-Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsY Combinator
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Truffle Security develops TruffleHog, an open-source secrets scanning tool that identifies and remediates exposed credentials such as encryption keys in cloud and SaaS environments before exploitation.
CybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Dylan Ayrey(Founder & CEO)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAbstract VenturesAndreessen HorowitzExpaHarpoon VenturesESSENCE VCIntel Capital+2 more
Turso is a database engine built as a Rust rewrite of SQLite, adding concurrent writes, native vector search, cloud-native replication, and browser/on-device support via WebAssembly.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsLondon, CA
Glauber Costa(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsFirst Star VenturesMango CapitalNorwest Venture PartnersPreston-Werner Ventures
Uniform is a composable digital experience platform that enables brands to create, personalize, and deliver omnichannel experiences by integrating content, data, and technology from multiple sources.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSSan Francisco, US
Henry Birkholm Petersen Lars(Executive Officer, Director)Bjarne Hansen(Director)Adam David Conn(Executive Officer, Director)Olexandr Shyba(Director)
BoardTeddie Wardi(Director)inShruti Gandhi(Director)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsArray Ventures Management LlcInsight PartnersElad Gil
Unify provides AI agents that handle routine business tasks across communications, sales, operations, and engineering by executing pre-built workflows or custom automation.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkSaaSLondon, GB
Daniel Lenton(Founder)inDouglas Kitani(Executive Officer, Director, Promoter)
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsA.Capital VenturesAbstraction CapitalBattery VenturesJ12 VenturesLeonis CapitalLunar Ventures+10 more
Unkey is an API management platform for developers, designed to handle API workflows including integration and scaling.
Cloud ComputingData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsSaaS
James Perkins(Co-founder)inAndreas Thomas(Co-founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsUncork CapitalESSENCE VCDeep AcreHomebrewPreston-Werner VenturesTokyo Black
Unstructured transforms complex, unstructured data (64+ file types) into clean, structured data suitable for AI and analysis, handling ETL, security, compliance, and integrations across enterprise systems.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise Software
Brian S. Raymond(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAngel Collective Opportunity FundAnsa CapitalM12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund)Madrona Venture GroupMango CapitalMenlo Ventures+5 more
Warp builds an agentic development environment that began as a re-imagined terminal and now lets developers dispatch AI agents to write, deploy, and debug software.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Zach Lloyd(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsBoxGroupContraryNext Play VenturesBattery Ventures
Wizia applies behavior-change and personalization techniques from retail marketing to healthcare, prompting people to complete actions like screenings, prescription refills, and lower-cost care.
AI & Machine LearningDigital HealthEnterprise SoftwareHealthtechInsurTechSaaS
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsAfore CapitalFoundation Capital
Workbrew is a management platform for Homebrew that lets teams centrally deploy software from a library of 15k+ packages, enforce policies, manage vulnerabilities, and keep packages patched.
CybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareConcord, US
Vanessa Gennarelli(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsOperator Collective
Vectara is an enterprise AI agent platform for building, deploying, and governing AI agents with retrieval-augmented generation, offering high accuracy and low hallucination rates.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareCupertino, US
Tallat M. Shafaat(Founder)inAmr Awadallah(Founder)in
PartnerTimothy Chen· solo GP
Co-investorsRace CapitalBrighter CapitalFusionMDSV CAPITALPage One VenturesSamsung Next+5 more
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
Exits · 8
8 acquisitions · showing 2Basisacq. by DigitsDodgeballacq. by Spreedly
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companies
Stay tuned · entrepreneurindia.com · Aug 19, 2026
Chroma · contagionlive.com · Aug 18, 2026
Dodgeball · uk.news.yahoo.com · Aug 15, 2026
Letta · theagentsindex.com · Jul 27, 2026
Clarify AI · geekwire.com · Jul 21, 2026
Tabular · digitaltoday.co.kr · Jul 20, 2026
Jasper.ai · jasperlocal.com · Jul 17, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Essence Venture Capital made?
- Essence Venture Capital has 111 tracked investments, 8 of which have exited, including 3 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does Essence Venture Capital invest at?
- Essence Venture Capital invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
- What is Essence Venture Capital's typical check size?
- Essence Venture Capital typically writes checks of $10K – $10M.
- What sectors does Essence Venture Capital focus on?
- Essence Venture Capital focuses on Crypto & Web3.
- Where is Essence Venture Capital located?
- Essence Venture Capital is headquartered in Seattle, US.
- Does Essence Venture Capital lead rounds?
- Essence Venture Capital typically participates in rounds rather than leading them.
Co-investors · 34
Since 1999, Redpoint Ventures has partnered with visionary founders to create new markets and redefine existing ones. The firm invests early in startups building category-defining companies, from AI and infrastructure to security. Redpoint has backed hundreds of companies, including Netflix, Snowflake, Stripe, Ramp, Twilio, Ramp, and Hims, and today backs the next generation of AI leaders like OpenAI, Legora, Modal, Abridge and Physical Intelligence. Redpoint is based in San Francisco and has offices in New York City and Woodside. For more information visit: http://www.redpoint.com/
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, known for pioneering the platform model with a large team of operators supporting founders across stages.
Craft Ventures is a venture capital firm run by a team of former founders, operators, and investors who partner closely with founders to help build and scale technology companies.
Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC) is a seed-stage venture firm that invests early in founders, with a focus on AI-native companies building leverage and scale.
Cowboy Ventures is an early-stage venture firm focused on partnering with startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, offering hands-on support to help build enduring companies.
Mango Capital is an early-stage venture firm investing in enterprise software founders at inception, before product-market fit, with a focus on agent infrastructure and intelligent applications.
Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm that partners with founders to build technology companies.
Vibe Capital is a $10M venture fund investing in Web3, AI, and Deep Science startups at the pre-seed and seed stage.
Coinbase Ventures is the venture investment arm of Coinbase that backs early-stage founders building across the crypto and Web3 ecosystem.
468 Capital is a technology investment firm with offices in Berlin and San Francisco that invests across multiple stages in software, AI, and internet companies. The firm focuses on thesis-driven investments in businesses with experienced founding teams.
M12 is Microsoft's venture fund, investing in companies building AI-native platforms and applications for business use cases.
Cusp Capital is a technology-focused venture capital firm that invests in companies it considers to be on the cusp of change, backing entrepreneurs across selected investment theses.
▶22 more co-investors
Alumni VenturesRed Swan VenturesAIX VenturesPeakHeavybitfirstminute capitalbacktrace capitalBull City Venture PartnersEverywhere VenturesAtomicoBowery CapitalDCM VenturesAwesome People VenturesSeed Club VenturesGutter CapitalAthletico VenturesAngular VenturesRembrandt Venture PartnersGanas VenturesQuest Venture PartnersTrail Run CapitalArtisanal Ventures
Firms observed investing alongside Essence Venture Capital, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Essence Venture Capital's recorded portfolio.
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