Asylum Ventures

ActiveVenture Capital

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Updated: Jan 22, 2026 ·

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Oct 1, 2025	REasy	$2.0M Seed	—	Chausson Partners, Summit Partners, Alexis Bonillo, Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Thibaud Elziere
Oct 1, 2025	Pool United	$5.0M Seed	—	01 Advisors, Kevin Hartz, Array Ventures, Craft Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, LAUNCH, Ligature, Long Journey Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, Path Ventures, Tribe Capital, Upfront Ventures, Alex Rodriguez, George Godula, Hiten Shah, John M. Mueller, Julia Hartz, Moshe Lifschitz, Pete Moore, Scott Banister, Zachary Hargreaves
Sep 1, 2025	Candytrail	$500K Seed	—	Peter Pan, Andreessen Horowitz, Cambrian Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Ensemble VC, Footwork, Kleiner Perkins, Y Combinator, Ken Denman, Sean Flynn
Jun 1, 2025	Fabriq	$25.0M Venture Round	—	Chausson Partners, Summit Partners, Alexis Bonillo, Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Thibaud Elziere
Apr 1, 2025	Camp Network	$30.0M Series A	—	1k(x), Andreessen Horowitz, Cambrian Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Ensemble VC, Footwork, Kleiner Perkins, Y Combinator, Ken Denman, Sean Flynn
Mar 1, 2025	Icertis	$50.0M Venture Round	—	B Capital Group, Berkeley Angel Network, Coinbase Ventures, FTAC Ventures, Greycroft, Ignition Partners, Innovation Endeavors, Merak Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Shailendra Singh, Baris Gultekin, Kelvin Beachum Jr.
Mar 1, 2025	Novatron	$11.0M Series A	—	ABB Technology Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Construct Capital, Highline Beta Inc., High Line Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, Root Ventures, Third Sphere, Ron Pragides, Ryan Melohn
Jan 1, 2025	Clay	$40.0M Series B	—	Alt Capital, Browder Capital, Electric Capital, Founders Fund, FTX Ventures, LaFont, Meritech Capital Partners, Mischief Venture Capital, Pareto Holdings, Redpoint Ventures, Saga, Sapphire Ventures, Stellar Capital, Summit Partners, TCV, The Hit Forge, Christina Cacioppo, Dharmesh Shah, Dylan Field, Fidji Simo, Immad Akhund, Jason Lemkin, Jonathan Neman, Joshua Reeves, Julian Shapiro, Justin Mateen, Max Mullen, Parker Conrad, Scott Belsky, Sean Rad, Siqi Chen
Dec 1, 2024	Herd Labs	$2.0M Seed	—	Liquid 2 Ventures, Matrix, Bre Pettis
Oct 1, 2024	Flora	$1.0M Seed	—	ABB Technology Ventures, AfterWork Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Construct Capital, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Everywhere Ventures (The Fund), Highline Beta Inc., High Line Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, Root Ventures, Third Sphere, Ron Pragides, Ryan Melohn
Aug 1, 2024	Grid Status	$8.0M Seed	—	Album VC, Alumni Ventures, C2 Investment, Energize Ventures, Jared Hecht, National Grid Partners, Night Capital, Path Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Joe Speiser, Kiran Bhatraju, Paul Graham, Ramez Naam, Rob May, Sam Parr, Steve Barham
Jul 1, 2024	Partior	$60.0M Series B	—	Berkeley Angel Network, Coinbase Ventures, FTAC Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Merak Ventures, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), Baris Gultekin, Kelvin Beachum Jr.
May 1, 2024	Atomgrid	$1.0M Seed	—	Berkeley Angel Network, Coinbase Ventures, FTAC Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Merak Ventures, Shailendra Singh, Baris Gultekin, Kelvin Beachum Jr.
May 1, 2024	PolyAI	$50.0M Series C	—	Canvas Ventures, Foundation Capital, General Atlantic, Insight Partners, Khosla Ventures, Mouro Capital, MS&AD Ventures, Jeff Immelt, Point72 Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Summit Partners, Gokul Rajaram, Jonathan Bush
Apr 1, 2024	Draftboard	$4.0M Seed	—	Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Animo Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Daft Capital, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, Ground Up Ventures, Lux Capital, Paradox Capital, Saga, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Twelve Below, Virginia Venture Partners, Austin Ogilvie, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Justin Mateen, Mattia Astori, Sahin Boydas, Sohila Zadran, Vineet Jain, William Miller
Apr 1, 2024	Perplexity	$63.0M Series C	—	20VC, 2.12 Angels, 355 Capital, Kevin Hartz, Accomplice VC, Ambush Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Angel investor, C2 Investment, Catalio Capital, Cedar Capital Group, Costanoa Ventures, DTCP, E1 Ventures, EQT Ventures, Family Office, Felicis Ventures, Fifty Years, Floodgate, Founders Fund, GSV Acceleration, Hanabi Capital, Hardware Club, Haun Ventures, Heroic Ventures, HOF Capital, Infinite Niches, Inflection, Insight Partners, Jefferies, Kindred Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, Matchstick Ventures, Maven Ventures, Mustard Seed, NFX, Northzone, Race Capital, Rakuten Ventures, Refactor Capital, Sherpalo Ventures, Spark Capital, Susa Ventures, The Hit Forge, Thrive Capital, Uncork Capital, Union Square Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Wayra UK, Y Combinator, Aaron Harris, Amjad Masad, Andy Coravos, Anne Wojcicki, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Charlie Songhurst, Chintan Patel, Fidji Simo, Jared Sleeper, Jonathan Lenson, Justin Kitch, Jutta Steiner, Mike Vernal, Mike Volpe, Miras Mami, Peter Sonsini, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Varsha Rao
Mar 1, 2024	DBOS, Inc.	$9.0M Seed	—	ABB Technology Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Construct Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Highline Beta Inc., High Line Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Root Ventures, Space Capital, The Engine, Third Sphere, Dylan Taylor, Ron Pragides, Ryan Melohn
Feb 1, 2024	UberPlug	$31K Seed	—	KRM Interests LLC, Tonjé Bakang Tonje, Greg Kidd, Jeremy Edberg
Jan 1, 2024	Requity Homes	$19.0M Venture Round	—	ABB Technology Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Construct Capital, Framework Venture Partners, Highline Beta Inc., High Line Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, Root Ventures, Third Sphere, Ron Pragides, Ryan Melohn
Jan 1, 2024	Inference.ai	$4.0M Seed	—	ABB Technology Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Cherubic Ventures, Construct Capital, Highline Beta Inc., High Line Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, Root Ventures, Third Sphere, Ron Pragides, Ryan Melohn
Oct 1, 2023	Kinetic Automation	$10.0M Series A	—	ABB Technology Ventures, Almaz Capital, Array Ventures, Balderton Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Construct Capital, Ali Tamaseb, Early Light Ventures, Energize Ventures, Haystack, Highline Beta Inc., High Line Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, InterWest, Juniper Networks, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Pareto Holdings, Point72 Ventures, Prosperity7 Ventures, Root Ventures, Samsung NEXT Ventures, Stride VC, Third Sphere, TTV Capital, Andrew Nutter, Andy Chung, Ayo Omojola, Gokul Rajaram, Harris Barton, Ian Hogarth, Jeremy Yap, Kiran Bhatraju, Marcus Exall, Rick Wagoner, Ron Pragides, Ryan Carlson, Ryan Melohn, Toby Moore, Trevor McFedries
Aug 1, 2023	Novatron	$5.0M Seed	—	ABB Technology Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Construct Capital, Highline Beta Inc., High Line Venture Partners, iNovia Capital, Root Ventures, Third Sphere, Ron Pragides, Ryan Melohn
Jun 1, 2023	Author Health	$120.0M Series A	—	Flare Capital Partners, General Atlantic, Point72 Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Ellie Wheeler
Jun 1, 2023	Repacket	$4.0M Seed	—	Angel Invest, AngelList, Atomico, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Broadhaven Capital Partners, Cambrian Ventures, DST Global, Felix Capital, Founder Collective, General Atlantic, Initialized Capital, NFX, Piton Capital, Seedcamp, Speedinvest, Y Combinator, Alex Alpert, Amit Gudka, Felix Jahn, Jonathan Lenson, Julius Köhler, Mandeep Singh, Marc McCabe, Mengxi Lu, Russ Heddleston, Stan Massueras, Tim Sadler, Will Szczerbiak
Jun 1, 2023	JustPaid	$4.0M Seed	—	Peter Pan, Accel, AirAngels, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomic, Avid Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, BoxGroup, Cambrian Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Craft Ventures, Ensemble VC, Footwork, Hustle Fund, Kleiner Perkins, MATH Venture Partners, Uncork Capital, Y Combinator, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Bobby Lo, James Beshara, Julian Shapiro, Ken Denman, Louis Beryl, Sean Flynn, Steven Kamali

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Asylum Ventures.

Leadership Team

Key people at Asylum Ventures.

Deep Dive

Asylum Ventures is a Brooklyn-based venture capital firm founded in 2024 that focuses on early-stage investments with a mission to treat founders as artists, emphasizing the creative and novel aspects of building companies. The firm is dedicated to supporting founders who pursue unusual and innovative ideas, often misunderstood for long periods, and commits to defending their creative efforts at all costs. Asylum Ventures operates with a small, intentional portfolio, making only a handful of investments per year, and deliberately avoids taking board seats to maintain a unique, founder-centric approach[1][2][3].

The firm was established by key partners including Mackenzie Regent (Chief Operating Officer and Founding Partner), Jon Wu, Lola Wajskop, and Nicholas Chirls, all based in Brooklyn. Since its founding, Asylum Ventures has maintained a focused investment philosophy that honors the creative act of company-building rather than following traditional venture capital industrialization trends. This approach reflects a deliberate evolution away from volume-driven investing toward a more artisanal, relationship-driven model[1][3].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Small by design, making very selective early-stage investments, emphasizing quality and creativity over quantity.
Founder-Centric Philosophy: Treats founders like artists, supporting novel and misunderstood ideas with a promise to defend their creative efforts.
Avoidance of Board Seats: Eschews traditional governance roles to maintain a less intrusive, more supportive relationship with portfolio companies.
Network Strength: Based in Brooklyn, leveraging a local and creative ecosystem rather than broad industrial VC networks.
Operating Support: Provides tailored, hands-on support aligned with the creative vision of founders rather than standardized operational frameworks.

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Asylum Ventures rides the trend of recognizing entrepreneurship as a creative act, countering the "industrialization" of venture capital that favors volume and standardized processes. The timing is significant as many founders with unconventional ideas struggle to find patient capital willing to support long-term, novel innovation. By focusing on this niche, Asylum Ventures influences the ecosystem by validating and nurturing creativity in tech startups, encouraging a more diverse and artistically driven approach to innovation.

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Asylum Ventures is poised to deepen its impact by continuing to back visionary founders who challenge norms and create new markets. Trends such as increased demand for authentic, founder-driven innovation and skepticism toward traditional VC models will likely shape its journey. Its influence may grow as a beacon for creative entrepreneurship, potentially inspiring other firms to adopt more founder-empowering investment philosophies. This positions Asylum Ventures as a distinctive player in venture capital, championing the art of company-building in an increasingly industrialized industry.

Sources

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Small by design, making very selective early-stage investments, emphasizing quality and creativity over quantity.
Founder-Centric Philosophy: Treats founders like artists, supporting novel and misunderstood ideas with a promise to defend their creative efforts.
Avoidance of Board Seats: Eschews traditional governance roles to maintain a less intrusive, more supportive relationship with portfolio companies.
Network Strength: Based in Brooklyn, leveraging a local and creative ecosystem rather than broad industrial VC networks.
Operating Support: Provides tailored, hands-on support aligned with the creative vision of founders rather than standardized operational frameworks.