Essence VC

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Dec 24, 2025 ·

About

Essence VC invests in infrastructure companies before they exist, focusing on developing stories, founders, communities, and engineering teams.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Sep 1, 2025	Meet5	$9.0M Series A	—	backtrace capital, Peak
Sep 1, 2025	Modal Labs	$87.0M Series B	—	8VC, Amplify Partners, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, M12, Menlo Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Redpoint Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna Capital, Thrive Capital, Uncork Capital, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Nkechi Iregbulem, Quinn Slack, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin
Jun 1, 2025	Kerys Software	$7.0M Seed	—	backtrace capital, Episode 1 Ventures, Motier Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Peak, Playfair Capital, Seedcamp, Bertrand Schmitt, Charlie Songhurst, Thibaud Elziere
Jun 1, 2025	Salus Cloud	$4.0M Seed	—	Heavybit, Vertex Ventures
Apr 1, 2025	KLIPY	$1.0M Seed	—	Eunoia Capital Partners, M12, Oak HC/FT, Presto Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Uncork Capital, Nkechi Iregbulem, Quinn Slack
Apr 1, 2025	Tailscale	$160.0M Series C	—	Accel, Builders, C2 Investment, Cedar Capital Group, CRV, Cyberstarts VC, Defined, Forgepoint Capital, Greylock, GV (Google Ventures), Heavybit, M12, Mayfield, Glenn Solomon, Rain Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Resolute Ventures, The Hit Forge, Uncork Capital, Assaf Rappaport, Nkechi Iregbulem, Quinn Slack
Apr 1, 2025	Recce	$4.0M Seed	—	backtrace capital, Heavybit, Peak, Vertex Ventures, Y Combinator
Dec 1, 2024	Nuon	$17.0M Series A	—	Active Capital, Alt Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Artisanal Ventures, ATX Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Comal Ventures, Cusp Capital Partners, Firstminute Capital, Indicator Ventures, Lux Capital, M12, Mantis VC, Next Coast Ventures, Picus Capital, Precursor Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Zain Rizavi, Scheinman Angel Fund, Scribble Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Supercharge.vc, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Uncork Capital, Ameet Patel, Brian Sugar, Chris Schagen, Dylan Field, Guy Fighel, Kevin Weil, Neha Narkhede, Nkechi Iregbulem, Quinn Slack, Rajiv Bala, Ron Pragides, Spencer Kimball
Dec 1, 2024	Gentrace	$8.0M Series A	—	Kevin Hartz, Alpaca VC, Alven, Banana Capital, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Calibrate Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Craft Ventures, Jett Fein, Headline (formerly e.ventures), K9 Ventures, Operator Collective, Pioneer Fund, QED Investors, Square Peg Capital, SV Angel, Top Tier Capital Partners, Y Combinator, Alexis Bonillo, Antoine Martin, Cecilia Stallsmith, Claire Hughes Johnson, Guillaume Luccisano, Julius Genachowski, Khaled Helioui, Marco Palladino, Pierre-Yves Ricau, Surahbi Gupta, Ty Smith, Wayne Chang
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, Chalfen Ventures, 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, 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
Oct 1, 2024	Poolside	$500.0M Series B	—	7GC & Co, Alumni Ventures, Artisanal Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Bow Capital, Citi Ventures, Cusp Capital Partners, Double Prime LLP, Entrepreneur First, Felicis Ventures, Firstminute Capital, IVP, Kima Ventures, Madrona Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Motier Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Redpoint Ventures, #SecretFund, Unusual Ventures, Alexis Bonillo, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Ameet Patel, Ben Porterfield, Chris Schagen, Florian Douetteau, Guy Fighel, Matt Carbonara, Neha Narkhede, Rodolphe Ardant, Ron Pragides, Thibaud Elziere
Jun 1, 2024	Restate	$7.0M Seed	—	8VC, Alumni Ventures, Artisanal Ventures, Atomico, Benchmark, Broadway Angels, Cool Climate Collective, Craft Ventures, Cusp Capital Partners, Felicis Ventures, Firstminute Capital, Flex Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Ganas Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, March Capital, Next47, Otherwise Fund, Polymath Capital Partners, Prototype Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Vibe Capital, Akshay Kothari, Alex Pattis, Ameet Patel, Amit Agarwal, Andrew Gazdecki, Ben Lang, Ben Tossell, Bob Wood, Casey Neistat, Chris Schagen, David Peterson, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Gina Bianchini, Guy Fighel, Julia DeWahl, Louis Lehot, Mathilde Collin, Neha Narkhede, Nkechi Iregbulem, Peter Kazanjy, Sahin Boydas, Sam Corcos, Zachary Sims
Apr 1, 2024	Traceable	$30.0M Venture Round	—	AIX Ventures, Jacob Colker, Citi Ventures, IVP, Khosla Ventures, Madrona Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Unusual Ventures, Greg Brockman, Matt Carbonara
Jan 1, 2024	Oasis Security	$35.0M Series A	—	Accel, Boldstart Ventures, Cyberstarts VC, Sequoia Capital, Guy Podjarny, James Isilay, Jon Gelsey
Jan 1, 2024	Coana (acquired by Socket)	$2.0M Seed	—	Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Theory Ventures, Adam Gross, Charles Zedlewski
Sep 1, 2023	SigNoz	$5.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Conviction Partners, CRV, M12, Preston-Werner Ventures, Rain Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, SignalFire, Uncork Capital, Ameet Patel, Quinn Slack
Aug 1, 2023	Hephaestus Technologies	$2.0M Seed	—	Atypical Ventures, Climate Insiders, Quest Venture Partners, Allison Barr Allen, Matthew Dellavedova
Feb 1, 2023	Archetype	$3.0M Seed	—	Atomico, Broadway Angels, Cool Climate Collective, Craft Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Flex Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Ganas Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Polymath Capital Partners, Prototype Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Vibe Capital, Alex Pattis, Andrew Gazdecki, Ben Lang, Ben Tossell, Casey Neistat, David Peterson, Elad Gil, Gina Bianchini, Julia DeWahl, Mathilde Collin, Peter Kazanjy, Sahin Boydas, Sam Corcos, Zachary Sims
Jan 1, 2023	Broadcast	$2.0M Seed	—	AirAngels, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomico, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Broadway Angels, Cool Climate Collective, Craft Ventures, DFJ, Elephant Partners, Victor Noguera, Felicis Ventures, Flex Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Ganas Ventures, LGF, Montauk Ventures, Oak HC/FT, Octopus Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Pioneer Square Labs, Polymath Capital Partners, Primary Venture Partners, Prototype Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Shasta Ventures, SRB Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Trajectory Ventures, Tribe Capital, Vibe Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Alex Pattis, Andrew Gazdecki, Ashish Agrawal, Ben Lang, Ben Tossell, Bill Gates, Casey Neistat, Daniel Pourasghar, David Peterson, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Eric Wu, Evan Moore, Gina Bianchini, Julia DeWahl, Julian Shapiro, Kunal Shah, Mathilde Collin, Mike Vernal, Neil Parikh, Nkechi Iregbulem, Peter Beck, Peter Kazanjy, Richard Laxer, Sahin Boydas, Sam Corcos, Sri Batchu, Zachary Sims
Dec 1, 2022	Kapu	$8.0M Seed	—	75 & Sunny, Andreessen Horowitz, Artisanal Ventures, Audrey Capital, BlackWood Ventures, Cusp Capital Partners, Matt Ocko, Expert Dojo, Firstminute Capital, Founder Collective, Giant Ventures, Jett Fein, Insight Partners, Playground Global, Plug & Play Ventures, Rainfall Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, SineWave Ventures, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Spark Capital, Tenaya Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Ameet Patel, Amit Mukherjee, Biz Stone, Chris Schagen, Eric Wu, Guy Fighel, Jeremy Cai, Miki Kuusi, Neha Narkhede, Ryan Chan, Tom Blomfield
Nov 1, 2022	Locus Robotics	$120.0M Series F	—	Atlassian Ventures, Bond, Bull City Venture Partners, Cowboy Ventures, Kevin Ding, G2VP, Greenoaks Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Insight Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Scale Venture Partners, Susa Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Akash Garg, Scot Wingo, Sean Regan, Viral Bajaria
Sep 1, 2022	Slide	$12.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Atlassian Ventures, Bond, Bull City Venture Partners, Casa Verde Capital, CoinFund, Cowboy Ventures, CrunchFund, Crypto.com Capital, Ali Tamaseb, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Electric Capital, Framework Ventures, MATR Ventures, Polychain Capital, Sunset Ventures, The Hit Forge, Alexander Salnikov, Andrew Steinwold, Do Kwon, Gokul Rajaram, Mark Cuban, Scot Wingo, Sean Regan, Shayne Coplan, Stani Kulechov, Steve Aoki, Tegan Kline, Tony Sheng, Viral Bajaria
Jul 1, 2022	Better Stack	$19.0M Series A	—	7percent Ventures, Antler, Atomico, Audrey Capital, Base10 (Base10 Partners), Broadway Angels, C2 Investment, Cool Climate Collective, Craft Ventures, Creandum, DST Global, Felicis Ventures, Flex Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Founders Fund, Ganas Ventures, General Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Greylock, LGF, One Way Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Passion Capital, Polymath Capital Partners, Positive Sum VC, Prototype Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, Unusual Ventures, Vibe Capital, Alexandre Scialom, Alex Pattis, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Andrew Gazdecki, Ben Lang, Ben Tossell, Casey Neistat, Claire Hughes Johnson, David Petersen, David Peterson, Elad Gil, Gina Bianchini, Henry de Zoete, Immad Akhund, John Collison, Julia DeWahl, Mathilde Collin, Matteo Franceschetti, Nkechi Iregbulem, Oliver Jung, Pedro Franceschi, Peter Kazanjy, Philippe Teixeira da Mota, Sahin Boydas, Sam Corcos, Tanooj Luthra, Tom Blomfield, Tony Jamous, Zehan Wang
Jun 1, 2022	Maze	$40.0M Series B	—	Alt Capital, Atlassian Ventures, Bond, Bull City Venture Partners, Cowboy Ventures, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Felicis Ventures, HV Capital, LGF, Molten Ventures, Partech Ventures, RTP Global, Seedcamp, Akash Garg, Claire Hughes Johnson, David Petraeus, Gretchen Howard, Henry Kravis, Mathias Ockenfels, Mathilde Collin, Scot Wingo, Sean Regan, Viral Bajaria, William Hockey
May 1, 2022	GitStart	$5.0M Seed	—	Arrive, Atlantic Bridge University Fund, Bennu, Browder Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Flex Capital, Founder Collective, Future Africa, Gigascale Capital, Greylock, Horizon 3 Venture Studio, Operator Ventures, Presight Capital, Ribbit Capital, Silicon Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Aaron Levie, Amy Chang, Cecilia Stallsmith, Charles Delingpole, Christian Faes, Curtis Lee, Dylan Field, Elliot Shmukler, Eric Wei, Eric Wu, Gina Bianchini, Gokul Rajaram, Harris Barton, Hunter Horsley, Joshua Reeves, Marco Palladino, Mark Pincus, Matias Woloski, Mike Krieger, Pierre-Yves Ricau, Sam Altman, Scott Kleper, Tuomas Artman, Ty Smith

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Essence VC.

Timothy Chen

Managing Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at Essence VC.

Timothy Chen

Managing Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Essence VC is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2019, headquartered in Seattle, that specializes in investing in deeply technical, first-time founders primarily in software infrastructure, data tooling, and applied AI sectors. The firm typically leads pre-seed and seed rounds with check sizes ranging from $100K to $700K, focusing on startups that build transformative technologies in infrastructure and developer tools. Essence VC emphasizes supporting technical founders by providing not only capital but also strategic and operational guidance to help convert cutting-edge code into commercial products. Its portfolio includes over sixty companies, such as Jasper.ai, Warp.dev, and Flatfile, reflecting strong growth momentum in AI and infrastructure domains[1][2][3].

Origin Story

Essence VC was founded in 2019 by Timothy Chen, an engineer-turned-founder who previously built and sold his startup Hyperpilot to Cloudera. Chen’s personal experience as a technical founder shaped the firm’s mission to back engineers who often struggle to find investors fluent in their technical language. The fund was created to fill this gap by offering fast decision-making and deep technical empathy. Over time, Essence VC has evolved to maintain a flexible geographic mandate, investing primarily in North America but also backing exceptional technical founders in Europe and Israel. The firm has raised multiple funds, including a $27 million Fund III, and has seen early success with secondary sales of portfolio companies like Amplitude and Confluent[1][2][3].

Core Differentiators

Engineer-First Investment Model: Founded and led by a technical founder, Essence VC uniquely understands the challenges of deeply technical startups and tailors its support accordingly.
Fast Decision-Making: A streamlined, single-sponsor memo process enables term sheets within a week if intellectual property checks out, avoiding typical VC bottlenecks.
Strong Network and Community Development: The firm actively helps founders develop compelling narratives, leadership skills, and community traction, leveraging its experience with open source and developer ecosystems.
Focused Sector Expertise: Concentrates on software infrastructure, data tooling, and applied AI, avoiding consumer social apps and ad-tech, which do not align with its thesis.
Hands-On Support: Provides strategic and operational guidance beyond capital, including remote internships to expose aspiring investors to infrastructure deal flow and portfolio support[1][2][3][5].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Essence VC rides the wave of increasing importance of infrastructure, data, and AI technologies that underpin modern software ecosystems. The timing is critical as enterprises and developers demand more sophisticated tooling and infrastructure to handle data complexity and AI integration. By focusing on early-stage technical founders, Essence VC helps accelerate innovation in foundational technologies that enable the next generation of software products. Its influence extends through its portfolio’s success and its active role in community building, which fosters a vibrant ecosystem around infrastructure and developer tools. This positions Essence VC as a key player in shaping the future of software infrastructure investment[1][2][3].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Essence VC is poised to continue expanding its portfolio in AI and infrastructure, leveraging its deep technical expertise and founder-centric approach. Trends such as AI democratization, cloud-native infrastructure, and data-centric applications will likely shape its investment focus. As the firm raises new funds and supports follow-on rounds, its influence in the early-stage technical startup ecosystem is expected to grow, potentially becoming a go-to partner for engineers transitioning into founders. Essence VC’s commitment to fast, empathetic decision-making and community development will remain a competitive advantage in attracting and scaling breakthrough technical startups[1][2][3].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Engineer-First Investment Model: Founded and led by a technical founder, Essence VC uniquely understands the challenges of deeply technical startups and tailors its support accordingly.
Fast Decision-Making: A streamlined, single-sponsor memo process enables term sheets within a week if intellectual property checks out, avoiding typical VC bottlenecks.
Strong Network and Community Development: The firm actively helps founders develop compelling narratives, leadership skills, and community traction, leveraging its experience with open source and developer ecosystems.
Focused Sector Expertise: Concentrates on software infrastructure, data tooling, and applied AI, avoiding consumer social apps and ad-tech, which do not align with its thesis.
Hands-On Support: Provides strategic and operational guidance beyond capital, including remote internships to expose aspiring investors to infrastructure deal flow and portfolio support[1][2][3][5].