Exponent Founders Capital

This VC firm invests in early-stage tech startups with a focus on enterprise software, fintech, infrastructure, AI, and specialized SaaS solutions.

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Updated: Jan 22, 2026 ·

About

Exponent Founders Capital is a New York-based venture capital firm that takes a thematic driven approach towards investing in early-stage founders and companies across enterprise software, fintech + payments, infrastructure, applied AI, and vertical SaaS.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Oct 1, 2025	Meanwhile	$82.0M Series B	—	Acrew Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, General Catalyst, LGF, Mouro Capital, MS&AD Ventures, StillMark, Vouch Insurance, Dylan Field, Hunter Horsley, Karim Atiyeh, Parker Conrad, Sam Altman, Sam Blond, Sean Harper, Wences Casares
Sep 1, 2025	LightSpun	$13.0M Series A	—	Afore Capital, Brewer Lane Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Underscore VC, Garrett Koehn
Jul 1, 2025	Runloop AI	$7.0M Seed	—	Nascent, The General Partnership, Roneil Rumburg
Jul 1, 2025	MaintainX	$150.0M Series D	—	Amity Ventures, Bain Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, DST Global, Expa, Lobby Capital, Jeff Immelt, Nexus Venture Partners, Richard Jhang, Sequoia Capital, Tribe Capital, Y Combinator, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Brandon Deer, George Burke, Jake Zeller, Jonathan Swanson, Rob Bernshteyn
Jul 1, 2025	Volca	$6.0M Seed	—	11, MaC Venture Capital, Ron Pragides
May 1, 2025	Stitch	$10.0M Seed	—	Big Sky Health, Coinbase Ventures, Connect Ventures, Creative Juice, ENIAC Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Firstminute Capital, Freestyle Capital, Future Africa, General Catalyst, Luno Expeditions, Norrsken VC, Precursor Ventures, QED Investors, Quona Capital, Stellar Capital, Tekton Ventures, The Community Fund, Vera Equity, Andre Mohamed, Brad Garlinghouse, Charles Delingpole, David de Picciotto, Eric Hahn, Gabriel Weinberg, Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Jason Goldberg, Richard Chen, Tom Blomfield, Trevor Noah
Apr 1, 2025	Vivere Partners	$8.0M Series A	—	Acrew Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, General Catalyst, LGF, Mouro Capital, MS&AD Ventures, StillMark, Vouch Insurance, Dylan Field, Hunter Horsley, Karim Atiyeh, Parker Conrad, Sam Altman, Sam Blond, Sean Harper, Wences Casares
Apr 1, 2025	Stitch	$55.0M Series B	—	Big Sky Health, Coinbase Ventures, Connect Ventures, Creative Juice, ENIAC Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Firstminute Capital, Freestyle Capital, Future Africa, General Catalyst, Luno Expeditions, Norrsken VC, Pareto Holdings, Precursor Ventures, QED Investors, Quona Capital, Stellar Capital, Tekton Ventures, The Community Fund, Vera Equity, Andre Mohamed, Brad Garlinghouse, Charles Delingpole, David de Picciotto, Eric Hahn, Gabriel Weinberg, Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Jason Gardner, Jason Goldberg, Mandeep Singh, Richard Chen, Tom Blomfield, Trevor Noah
Apr 1, 2025	Meanwhile	$40.0M Series A	—	Acrew Capital, Bain Capital Crypto, General Catalyst, LGF, Mouro Capital, MS&AD Ventures, StillMark, Vouch Insurance, Dylan Field, Hunter Horsley, Karim Atiyeh, Parker Conrad, Sam Altman, Sam Blond, Sean Harper
Mar 1, 2025	Norm AI	$48.0M Series A	—	Abstract Ventures, Alliance of Angels, Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides Management, Bain Capital Ventures, Bold Capital Partners, Chemistry VC, Commerce Ventures, Creative Juice, Curie.Bio, Gradient Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kindred Capital VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NFX, Operator Partners, The Community Fund, Uncorrelated Ventures, Gokul Rajaram, Jason Henrichs, Mark Cuban, Mengxi Lu, William Hockey
Mar 1, 2025	Podqi	$3.0M Seed	—	Kevin Hartz, Adapt Ventures, at.inc/, Bain Capital, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, Global Founders Capital, Not Boring Capital, Shaan's All Access Fund, Soma Capital, Jeremy Cai, Karim Atiyeh, Mario Gabriele, Musaab Hakami, William Hockey
Mar 1, 2025	Mercury	$300.0M Series C	—	2048 Ventures, 8VC, Kevin Hartz, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Anti fund, Bain Capital Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures, Coatue, Convective Capital, Coughdrop Capital, CRV, Daft Capital, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Flex Capital, Founders Fund, Goat Capital, Infinite Niches, Invariantes Fund, Jetstream, Max Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Otherwise Fund, Pareto Holdings, Pioneer Fund, Primary Venture Partners, Renegade Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, The Hit Forge, Thirty Five Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Tribe Capital, Y Combinator, YOBE Ventures, Andre Iguodala, Andrew Berman, Bradley Horowitz, Eric Wu, Immad Akhund, Jonathan Swanson, Joshua Reeves, Joshua Webster, Matt Brezina, Russell Fradin, Russ Fradin, Ryan Shea, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Sri Batchu, Suhail Doshi
Feb 1, 2025	Together AI	$310.0M Series B	—	Addition, Airbus Ventures, Alumni Ventures, BEENEXT, Canaan Partners, Cantos Ventures, Chemistry VC, James Hardiman, First Round Capital, General Catalyst, Kindred Ventures, LGF, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Lux Capital, Main Sequence Ventures, Mischief Venture Capital, Morpheus Ventures, NEO, Offline Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Saxena Capital, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Sierra Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Vouch Insurance, XYZ Venture Capital, Brandon Leonardo, Chad Nitschke, Garrett Koehn, Gordon Wintrob, Marc Benioff, Max Mullen, Sam Altman
Aug 1, 2024	Garden	$7.0M Seed	—	468 Capital, Alt Capital, Alumni Ventures, B Capital Group, BoxGroup, Costanoa Ventures, Craft Ventures, Aniq Kassam, Founders Fund, Fram Venture AS, Greenlight Re, MassMutual Ventures, Mischief Venture Capital, Multicoin Capital, SciFi VC, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Summit Partners, Susa Ventures, Y Combinator, Kirill Silkin, Kris Riise, Liu Jiang, Peter Kazanjy, Ron Pragides
Jul 1, 2024	Granza Bio	$7.0M Seed	—	305 Ventures, American Express Ventures, Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, Carao Ventures, Cota Capital, Deciens Capital, E14 Fund, Felicis Ventures, Four Rivers Group, Giant Ventures, Interplay Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Romulus Capital, Sarona Ventures, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Streamlined Ventures, The House Fund, UpHonest Capital, Y Combinator, Biz Stone, Bobby Goodlatte, David Petersen, Eoghan McCabe, Eric Wei, Jason Robins, Jeremy Cai, Jesse Leimgruber, Luke Sherwin, Neil Parikh, Pamela Valdes, Sam Altman, Wayne Crosby
Jun 1, 2024	Norm AI	$27.0M Series A	—	Abstract Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides Management, Bain Capital Ventures, Chemistry VC, Commerce Ventures, Creative Juice, Curie.Bio, Gradient Ventures, Kindred Capital VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NFX, Operator Partners, The Community Fund, Uncorrelated Ventures, Gokul Rajaram, Jason Henrichs, Mark Cuban, Mengxi Lu, William Hockey
May 1, 2024	cside	$2.0M Seed	—	20VC, Accel, Benhamou Global Ventures, DNX Ventures, Fusion Fund, iNovia Capital, Lego Ventures, Mantis VC, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Otherwise Fund, Partech Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Zain Rizavi, Ridge Ventures, Scheinman Angel Fund, Scribble Ventures, TQ Ventures, Uncork Capital, Annelies Gamble, Ariel Maislos, Chris Cooper, Jeremy Cai, Karim Atiyeh, Kevin Weil, Lior Shiff, Mario Gabriele, Mario Götze, Riccardo Zacconi, Ron Pragides, Scott Belsky, Sohail Prasad, Yair Weinberger
May 1, 2024	Forward	$16.0M Seed	—	Abstract Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides Management, Bain Capital Ventures, Chemistry VC, Commerce Ventures, Creative Juice, Curie.Bio, Gradient Ventures, Kindred Capital VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NFX, Operator Partners, The Community Fund, Uncorrelated Ventures, Gokul Rajaram, Jason Henrichs, Mark Cuban, Mengxi Lu, William Hockey
Apr 1, 2024	Agora	$5.0M Seed	—	Artichoke Capital, Bonfire Ventures, Fuel Capital, Granite Asia, Lego Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Otherwise Fund, ParaFi Capital, Polygon, Qiming Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Version One Ventures, Annelies Gamble, Jeremy Cai, Karim Atiyeh, Mario Gabriele, Ron Pragides, Sohail Prasad, Tyler Willis
Apr 1, 2024	Torg	$3.0M Seed	—	7percent Ventures, Atlantic Food labs, Big Sky Health, Coinbase Ventures, Connect Ventures, Creative Juice, Dutch Founders Fund, ENIAC Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Firstminute Capital, Freestyle Capital, Future Africa, General Catalyst, Luno Expeditions, Norrsken VC, Precursor Ventures, QED Investors, Quona Capital, Speedinvest, Stellar Capital, Tekton Ventures, The Community Fund, Vera Equity, Andre Mohamed, Brad Garlinghouse, Charles Delingpole, David de Picciotto, Eric Hahn, Gabriel Weinberg, Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Jason Gardner, Jason Goldberg, Mathias Ockenfels, Richard Chen, Tom Blomfield, Trevor Noah
Mar 1, 2024	TollBit	$7.0M Seed	—	AIX Ventures, Alt Capital, Craft Ventures, Aniq Kassam, Gaingels, Giant Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Nepenthe Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Walden International, Ajay Shah, Peter Kazanjy, Ron Pragides
Mar 1, 2024	Synch	$3.0M Seed	—	8VC, Adverb Ventures, Alt Capital, Ben Taft's Genius Ventures, Construct Capital, Craft Ventures, Aniq Kassam, First Round Capital, Fuel Capital, Haystack, InterWest, LGF, Lux Capital, Matrix, Menlo Ventures, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator, Daniel Kan, Gokul Rajaram, Guillaume Luccisano, Liu Jiang, Nate Matherson, Peter Kazanjy, Rick Wagoner, Ron Pragides
Jan 1, 2024	unSkript, Inc	$4.0M Seed	—	Alt Capital, Benhamou Global Ventures, Craft Ventures, Aniq Kassam, Plug & Play Ventures, WestWave Capital, Liu Jiang, Peter Kazanjy
Jan 1, 2024	Benepass	$20.0M Series B	—	Bow Capital, Chemistry VC, FINTOP Capital, Portage Ventures, Workday Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, Alberto Cribiore, Gokul Rajaram, Kristian Segerstrale
Jan 1, 2024	Kiln	$17.0M Series A	—	1k(x), Dragonfly Capital Partners, Haun Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Leore Avidar

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Exponent Founders Capital.

Leadership Team

Key people at Exponent Founders Capital.

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Exponent Founders Capital is a New York-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in technology startups primarily in enterprise software, fintech, infrastructure, applied AI, and vertical SaaS sectors. Their mission centers on partnering with early-stage founders to help them scale from inception to $100M+ in revenue by providing not only capital but also operational expertise. The firm adopts a thematic, thesis-driven investment philosophy, emphasizing long-term support and backing non-consensus founders who have the potential to become category leaders. Exponent has invested across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, with a portfolio including breakout companies like Apollo.io, Chronosphere, and EvenUp, demonstrating strong growth momentum and early exits[1][3].

Origin Story

Exponent Founders Capital was co-founded in 2021 by Charley Ma and Mahdi Raza, both of whom bring extensive operator experience from high-growth fintech and software companies such as Plaid, Robinhood, Ramp, and Stytch. Before founding Exponent, they were prolific angel investors in startups like Built, Finch, Lithic, and Persona. Their combined backgrounds in scaling startups from zero to significant revenue milestones shaped their approach to venture investing, focusing on being highly involved and operator-first. The firm launched with $125 million in capital, including a $75 million Fund II, raised primarily from institutional investors like Carnegie Mellon University and LGT Capital Partners[1][3][5].

Core Differentiators

Operator-First Investment Model: Both founders have hands-on experience scaling startups, enabling them to provide practical, growth-oriented support beyond capital.
Thematic, Thesis-Driven Approach: Focus on enterprise SaaS, fintech, infrastructure, AI, and vertical SaaS, targeting sectors with strong growth potential.
Strong Network and Track Record: Early investments in companies that have reached unicorn status and successful exits, such as Apollo.io and Chronosphere.
Significant Ownership Stakes: Typically aiming for 5-10% ownership with check sizes ranging from $500K to $5M, often leading or co-leading rounds.
Geographic Reach: Active primarily in the U.S. and Europe, with a portfolio spanning multiple high-growth markets[1][3][4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Exponent Founders Capital rides the wave of digital transformation in enterprise software, fintech, and AI, sectors undergoing rapid innovation and disruption. The timing is favorable due to increasing demand for specialized SaaS solutions, infrastructure modernization, and AI adoption across industries. Their focus on early-stage companies allows them to influence the ecosystem by supporting foundational technologies and category-defining startups. By backing non-consensus founders and leveraging their operational expertise, Exponent helps accelerate the growth of startups that can reshape legacy industries and create new market standards[1][5].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Exponent Founders Capital is poised to deepen its impact by continuing to lead early-stage rounds and expanding its portfolio in high-potential sectors like applied AI and fintech. Trends such as AI integration in enterprise workflows, fintech innovation, and infrastructure modernization will likely shape their investment focus. As the firm matures, its influence may grow through successful exits and by setting benchmarks for operator-led venture investing. Their commitment to founder support and thematic investing positions them well to identify and scale tomorrow’s category leaders, reinforcing their role as a key player in the early-stage venture capital landscape[1][3][5].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Operator-First Investment Model: Both founders have hands-on experience scaling startups, enabling them to provide practical, growth-oriented support beyond capital.
Thematic, Thesis-Driven Approach: Focus on enterprise SaaS, fintech, infrastructure, AI, and vertical SaaS, targeting sectors with strong growth potential.
Strong Network and Track Record: Early investments in companies that have reached unicorn status and successful exits, such as Apollo.io and Chronosphere.
Significant Ownership Stakes: Typically aiming for 5-10% ownership with check sizes ranging from $500K to $5M, often leading or co-leading rounds.
Geographic Reach: Active primarily in the U.S. and Europe, with a portfolio spanning multiple high-growth markets[1][3][4].