February 2026
Starting 2026 with Fund II Milestones
We closed on our first investment from Fund II, an important milestone for the firm and our team. By the end of 2025, we reached a meaningful threshold of capital raised for Fund II, giving us the confidence to begin active deployment. With that milestone achieved, we formally kicked off our diligence process, and while fundraising for Fund II continues, we are in a strong position to start making investments.As a reminder, our investment focus is pre-seed, industry-agnostic, with check sizes of up to $500k. We are grateful for the support of our LPs, including State Street, strategic corporate LPs and many others.
Sourcing Strategy
The first step in that process is sourcing. As we shared previously, our goal is to build a sourcing system that is institutional rather than dependent on any single individual's network. Over the past year, we have developed a structured, repeatable deal-flow engine that allows us to track companies with predictability.
A core part of this approach is what we call "Sourcing by Giving" where we provide tangible value to the ecosystem in a way that naturally creates inbound, high-quality deal flow. For example, through our founder fellowship programs (functionally accelerators), we expect to receive several hundred applications annually per program from early-stage founders. These programs allow us to build early relationships while maintaining a consistent and scalable sourcing pipeline.
In parallel, we actively track cold inbound outreach. We use an email-scraping system that routes founder emails into a shared database, where team members rotate responsibility for providing thoughtful, honest initial assessments.
Deal Flow Metrics
Since late Q4 2025, we have directly engaged with 219 companies and have been rigorously tracking our sourcing pipeline across dimensions including referral source, sector, founder demographics, business model, stage, and other key metrics. In addition, we have reviewed 217 cold inbound emails and received nearly 300 applications in January through our fellowship program in partnership with the City of New York, from which we selected 15 NYC-based founders. All of this without publicly sharing that we are actively deploying capital.
Investment Process
As our investors evaluate founders, promising opportunities are brought forward to our weekly deal review for approval to enter formal diligence. If approved, we conduct structured diligence culminating in an investment memo that evaluates the founding team, market, and product. Where conviction continues to build, we then run a Series A Readiness Workshop, working closely with the founder to assess growth velocity and the feasibility of achieving Series A milestones. Even though we invest at the pre-seed stage, it's critical for us to stress test financial models and key assumptions to ensure downstream financing is highly probable. From there, opportunities are brought to the Investment Committee for a final investment decision. You can review our step by step process here.
Beginning in December, we started conducting diligence on several exciting companies, allowing us to test and refine this process in real-world conditions. We're encouraged by both the quality of founders we're seeing and the discipline of the system we've built toevaluate them.
We look forward to sharing more as we continue deploying Fund II.
ECOSYSTEM: SEEN 2025
Strengthening the Pipeline & Expanding Our Ecosystem
Our second annual SEEN Summit for 2025 marked a major milestone in our continued effort to expand access, strengthen founder networks, and build meaningful connections across the early-stage innovation ecosystem. The summit convened an exceptional mix of founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem partners, including the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Industry City, NYCEDC, The Pitch and more, for a full-day experience focused on community building, tactical learning, and capital access.In December 2025, we welcomed a highly curated group of high-potential founders alongside leading venture capitalists, corporate partners, and industry operators. Programming focused on actionable insights across fundraising strategy, go-to-market execution, and founder resilience, while also creating intentional spaces for relationship-building and peer knowledge exchange — areas we consistently see drive long-term founder success.Beyond the immediate event impact, SEEN continues to strengthen our long-term founder pipeline and brand positioning within the early-stage ecosystem. The summit serves as a key touchpoint for sourcing emerging talent, strengthening alumni engagement, and expanding our network of ecosystem partners who support founders well beyond the event itself.As we look ahead, we view SEEN as a cornerstone platform for community-driven venture support — one that not only convenes promising founders, but helps build the infrastructure, relationships, and knowledge networks that position them fordurable success.
PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
Shannon Morales of Tribaja announced a new partnership with Zillow!
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