Alums From Bessemer, A16z And Index Launch New Firm With $350M For Seed And Series A Startups

Chemistry, a new early-stage VC firm founded by former Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures investors, announced its launch Wednesday with a debut fund of $350 million dedicated to writing checks to early-stage startups.

The firm was launched by Mark Goldberg, Ethan Kurzweil and Kristina Shen, formerly of Index, Bessemer and a16z, respectively. The new firm will seek out lead investments at the seed and Series A stages.

The trio told Forbes that their pitch to startup founders is they offer “the experience and track records they’d expect from a bluechip VC firm, with the extra attention that can be difficult to consistently receive from a larger fund.”

Shen previously invested in Sprig, Decagon and Tennr, among others. Goldberg was an investor in startups including Bridge and Plaid, and Kurzweil previously backed Twitch and PagerDuty, among others.

“One thing we were certain of: this new firm would strip away the excess and instead focus maniacally on the true essence — going all in with our founders from the earliest stages,” Kurzweil wrote on social media platform X. “We each said out loud what had been staring us in the face: venture capital isn’t meant to scale. Committing fully and wholeheartedly to each and every one of our investments may not be a recipe for rapid growth, but it’s our north star and built into the very fabric of Chemistry.”

“All three of us will actively support each investment. We are the portfolio services team,” he wrote. “No one else sits between us and our founders. We strive to bring excellence — one of our core firm values — to early-stage investing.”

Seed-stage investment has been relatively robust during the current venture downturn, according to Crunchbase data. While seed funding through the first half of 2024 was flat year over year, it remains above 2020 levels. At the same time, raising a Series A round has become more challenging for many startups.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman