Chalfen Ventures

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Feb 17, 2026 ·

About

Chalfen Ventures is Mike Chalfen's VC firm that backs software startups aiming to grow and dominate new and often unusual markets, providing high touch, low ego support to European early-stage entrepreneurs.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Nov 1, 2025	Amenitiz	$45.0M Series B	—	Backed VC, Eight Roads Ventures, KFund, Point Nine Capital, Avi Meir
Aug 1, 2025	Tracelight	$4.0M Seed	—	Charlie Songhurst, Sam Shank
Aug 1, 2025	Hyperdrives	$4.0M Seed	—	Rethink Ventures, Charlie Songhurst
Apr 1, 2025	Isembard	$9.0M Seed	—	Amadeus Capital Partners, Antler, Atlantic Labs, Entrepreneur First, Hoxton Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Notion Capital, Prototype Capital, Sequoia Capital, Mandeep Singh, Paul Forster
Feb 1, 2025	Prior Labs	$9.0M Seed	—	Balderton Capital, Entrepreneur First, Global Founders Capital, La Famiglia, RTP Global, Visionaries Club, Charles Delingpole, Hanno Renner, Mandeep Singh, Paul Forster, Steve Anavi
Dec 1, 2024	Stackfix	$3.0M Seed	—	42CAP, Acequia Capital, Amino Collective, AngelList Syndicator, Connect Ventures, ENIAC Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Exceptional Ventures, Faber, Fuel Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Point Nine Capital, Propel Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Stellar Capital, Alexander Zhuravlev, Alex Zhuravlev, Andre Haddad, Andy Chung, Charles Delingpole, Charlie Songhurst, Guillaume Luccisano, Mandeep Singh, Mik Attisani, Paul Forster, Rachel Star, Rene Reinsberg, Romain Lapeyre, Tom Blomfield, Will Martin, Will Prendergast
Nov 1, 2024	Wordware	$30.0M Seed	—	10100, 6th Man Ventures, Acton Capital Partners, Adjacent, Albion VC, Alumni Ventures, Amplify Partners, Angel investor, Atomico, Audrey Capital, Blossom Capital, BlueRun Ventures, Broadway Angels, Climate Capital, Color Capital, Cool Climate Collective, Craft Ventures, Day One Ventures, Decibel Partners, Divergent Capital, DocuSign, Double Down, DST Global, Embedded Ventures, Emergence Capital, Essence VC, Aniq Kassam, Felicis Ventures, Felix Capital, FirstMark Capital, Flexcap, Flex Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Friends & Family Capital, Frontline Ventures, Fusion Fund, Ganas Ventures, General Catalyst, Global Founders Capital, Gradient Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, Indicator Ventures, Insight Partners, IVP, Kohala Ventures, La Famiglia, Lakestar, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Listen, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Matrix, Menlo Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Moxxie Ventures, Jonathan Golden, OpenCapital.vc, Openspace Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Paradigm, Paradox Capital, Partners Resolute, Pioneer Fund, Polymath Capital Partners, Prototype Capital, Radical Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, Runa Capital, Scribble Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Sherpalo Ventures, Shrug Capital, Spark Capital, Summit Partners, SV Angel, Web Smith, Techstars, The Hit Forge, Theory Forge Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Trammell Venture Partners, Treble Capital, Tribe Capital, Unlock Venture Partners, Untapped Capital, Valhalla Ventures, Vibe Capital, Y Combinator, Adam D'Angelo, Alex Pattis, Amjad Masad, Andrew Gazdecki, Andrew Gluck, Andrew Steinwold, Azeem Azhar, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Lang, Ben Tossell, Bob Young, Casey Neistat, David Peterson, Dharmesh Shah, Doug Monro, Elad Gil, Eric Ries, Gina Bianchini, Girish Mathrubootham, Gokul Rajaram, Jaime Schmidt, James Isilay, James Meekings, Jean Charles Samuelian, Jeff Hammerbacher, Jen Rubio Butterfield, Julia DeWahl, Kevin Stumpf, Kevin Weil, Kulveer Taggar, Kyle Vogt, Ligaya Tichy, Mark Chou, Mark Pincus, Mathilde Collin, Matt Mickiewicz, Moshe Lifschitz, Nkechi Iregbulem, Noah Sidman-Gale, Paul Graham, Paul Stahura, Peter Hunn, Peter Kazanjy, Ran Makavy, Sahin Boydas, Sam Corcos, Scott Belsky, Sergei Anikin, Sherry Coutu, Siqi Chen, Spencer Kimball, Stephen Cole, Thijn Lamers, Tim Ferriss, Tony Jamous, Vishal Rao, Will Brooks, Will Martin, Yann LeCun, Zachary Sims, Zach Segal
Nov 1, 2024	Polar Analytics	$19.0M Series A	—	20VC, Point Nine Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andre Haddad, Guillaume Luccisano, Romain Lapeyre
Sep 1, 2024	Yonder	$31.0M Venture Round	—	Accel, Backed VC, Founders Factory, Jigsaw VC, LocalGlobe, Moonshots Capital, Northzone, Glenn Solomon, Passion Capital, Playfair Capital, RTP Global, Samaipata, Seedcamp, Kunal Shah, Michael Pennington
Jun 1, 2024	Understory	$15.0M Series A	—	AngelPad, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Tom Hulme, Meritech Capital Partners, Glenn Solomon, Powerhouse Ventures, Prelude Ventures, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Richard Fearn
Jun 1, 2024	Huntress	$150.0M Series D	—	AIX Ventures, AngelPad, Bond, C2 Investment, Felicis Ventures, Tom Hulme, Hack VC, Insight Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Meritech Capital Partners, Glenn Solomon, Preston-Werner Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Sequoia Capital, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Jeff Hammerbacher, Richard Fearn, Yan-David Erlich
Apr 1, 2024	Augment Code	$230.0M Series B	—	Alchemy Ventures, Alkeon Capital, Amazon Alexa Fund, AngelPad, CapitalG, Cisco Investments, Equal Ventures, Founders Fund, Tom Hulme, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, March Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Next47, Glenn Solomon, Paladin Capital Group, ParaFi Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, The Hit Forge, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Anthony Pompliano, Arash Ferdowsi, Drew Houston, Ellie Wheeler, Kyle Vogt, Richard Fearn
Jan 1, 2024	General Index	$12.0M Series A	—	20VC, Felix Capital, Kima Ventures, LocalGlobe, Motier Ventures, Akin Babayigit, Maria Raga
Jan 1, 2024	OpenDialog AI	$8.0M Series A	—	Albion VC, Felix Capital, Lakestar, Azeem Azhar, Doug Monro, James Isilay, James Meekings, Ran Makavy, Sherry Coutu, Tony Jamous, Will Brooks, Will Martin
Oct 1, 2023	The Brief	$10.0M Series A	—	20VC, 3VC, 50 Partners, Air Street Capital, Big Idea Ventures, CRV, Dawn Capital, Heartcore Capital, Partech Ventures, Point Nine Capital, Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, Charlie Songhurst, Chris Murphy, Fidji Simo, Marat Kichikov
Sep 1, 2023	Numa	$58.0M Series C	—	Cherry Ventures, DN Capital, General Catalyst, Headline (formerly e.ventures), Insight Partners, La Famiglia, Left Lane Capital, Charlie Songhurst, Christian Reber, Hanno Renner, Michael Wax
Sep 1, 2023	Omada	$7.0M Seed	—	20VC, Albion VC, Andreessen Horowitz, E1 Ventures, Felix Capital, General Catalyst, Vidu Shanmugarajah, Christian Miele, Index Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Kima Ventures, Lakestar, LightShed Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Makers Fund, Motier Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Quassar Capital, Theory Ventures, Anjney Midha, Azeem Azhar, Doug Monro, Guy Podjarny, Henry Kravis, James Isilay, James Meekings, Mark Cuban, Ran Makavy, Sherry Coutu, Tony Jamous, Will Brooks, Will Martin
Aug 1, 2023	Translucent	$6.0M Seed	—	Albion VC, Felix Capital, Lakestar, LocalGlobe, Picus Capital, Y Combinator, Azeem Azhar, Doug Monro, James Isilay, James Meekings, Ran Makavy, Sherry Coutu, Tony Jamous, Will Brooks, Will Martin
Aug 1, 2023	deepset	$30.0M Series B	—	AngelList Syndicator, Angular Ventures, Balderton Capital, GV, Chris Schagen, Jan Deepen, Jeremy Yap, Martin Henk, Scott Belsky, Stefan Jeschonnek
Aug 1, 2023	Borderless	$3.0M Seed	—	9Yards Capital, Backed VC, SuperSeed, Charlie Songhurst, Mads Jensen, Rob Dobson, Will Martin
Jul 1, 2023	Polar Analytics	$9.0M Series A	—	Point Nine Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andre Haddad, Guillaume Luccisano, Romain Lapeyre
Jun 1, 2023	Trezy	$3.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, AngelList Syndicator, Angular Ventures, Backed VC, Balderton Capital, Blockchain Founders Fund, Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, Notion Capital, Playfair Capital, Seedcamp, White Star Capital, Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Chris Schagen, Jan Deepen, Jeremy Yap, Mandeep Singh, Martin Henk, Philippe Teixeira da Mota, Scott Belsky
Jun 1, 2023	Superstream	$6.0M Seed	—	Angular Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, eFounders, Felicis Ventures, Felix Capital, Kearny Jackson, Pareto Holdings, Stripe, Antoine Martin, Guy Podjarny, Jonathan Widawski, Scott Belsky, Youcef Es-skouri
Apr 1, 2023	Yonder	$15.0M Series A	—	Accel, Backed VC, Faber, LocalGlobe, Playfair Capital, Samaipata, Seedcamp, Amit Gupta
Apr 1, 2023	Kluster	$5.0M Series A	—	Albion VC, Downing Ventures, Felix Capital, Lakestar, SuperSeed, Azeem Azhar, Doug Monro, James Isilay, James Meekings, Mads Jensen, Ran Makavy, Sherry Coutu, Tony Jamous, Will Brooks, Will Martin

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Chalfen Ventures.

Mike Chalfen

Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at Chalfen Ventures.

Mike Chalfen

Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Chalfen Ventures is a London-based early-stage venture capital firm specializing in investing in software startups, particularly those aiming to grow and dominate new or unusual markets. The firm focuses on backing companies with strong growth potential, often in emerging sectors such as AI tools and software platforms. Founded and led by Mike Chalfen, the firm provides not only capital but also hands-on, low-ego support to entrepreneurs, helping them scale from product-market fit to market leadership. Its portfolio includes notable startups like Stackfix, Bridebook, Crossbeam, and Lokalise, reflecting a commitment to innovative software solutions that address evolving market needs[1][2][3].

Origin Story

Chalfen Ventures was founded in 2018 by Mike Chalfen, who operates as a solo VC, emphasizing close collaboration with founders without the distractions of a large partnership. The firm has evolved to focus on early-stage software companies across the UK and Europe, with a particular interest in AI-driven tools and platforms. Mike Chalfen’s background includes early investments in several unicorns such as Illumio, King.com, Snyk, and Tipalti, which informs his investment approach and network. The firm’s evolution reflects a strategic focus on supporting startups that can dominate niche or emerging markets through innovative software solutions[1][3][4].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Operates as a solo VC led by Mike Chalfen, allowing for personalized, high-touch support without partnership friction.
Network Strength: Leverages Mike Chalfen’s extensive experience and connections in the software startup ecosystem, including early backing of multiple unicorns.
Track Record: Early investments in successful companies like Illumio, King.com, Snyk, and Tipalti, alongside recent winners such as Bridebook and Lokalise.
Operating Support: Provides hands-on assistance to entrepreneurs, focusing on growth and market dominance rather than just capital infusion.
Focus on Unusual Markets: Targets software startups that aim to create or dominate new and sometimes unconventional markets, often involving AI and software tools[1][3].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Chalfen Ventures rides the wave of rapid innovation in software and AI, sectors experiencing explosive growth and transformation. The timing is critical as AI-enabled products proliferate, creating new market opportunities but also increasing complexity for businesses choosing software solutions. By investing in startups that help navigate or redefine these markets, Chalfen Ventures influences the broader ecosystem by enabling companies that provide essential tools for digital transformation and software adoption. This positions the firm as a catalyst for innovation in software-driven markets, particularly in Europe where such early-stage support is vital[1][2].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Chalfen Ventures is poised to continue its focus on early-stage software and AI startups, leveraging its founder’s expertise to identify and nurture emerging winners. Trends such as AI integration, software automation, and platform-driven business models will likely shape its investment trajectory. The firm’s influence may grow as it helps startups scale globally, especially those addressing complex software market challenges. Its solo VC model and deep founder engagement could serve as a blueprint for personalized venture capital in a competitive funding landscape[1][3][4]. This approach ties back to its mission of backing ambitious software startups that can dominate new markets with innovative solutions.

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Operates as a solo VC led by Mike Chalfen, allowing for personalized, high-touch support without partnership friction.
Network Strength: Leverages Mike Chalfen’s extensive experience and connections in the software startup ecosystem, including early backing of multiple unicorns.
Track Record: Early investments in successful companies like Illumio, King.com, Snyk, and Tipalti, alongside recent winners such as Bridebook and Lokalise.
Operating Support: Provides hands-on assistance to entrepreneurs, focusing on growth and market dominance rather than just capital infusion.
Focus on Unusual Markets: Targets software startups that aim to create or dominate new and sometimes unconventional markets, often involving AI and software tools[1][3].