Susa Ventures

Quick read

Susa Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. It backs 'spiky founders' at pre-seed and seed with checks of $1M–$3M, focusing on companies with compounding moats—proprietary data, network effects, or scale economies. Of its 100+ portfolio companies, 10% have become unicorns, including Robinhood and Flexport.

Key facts

Founded

2013

Founders

Chad Byers, Leo Polovets, Seth Berman

Employees

6-10

Sectors

ai, fintech, marketplace, enterprise, healthcare

Website

www.susaventures.com

Investment thesis

Susa backs pre-seed and seed-stage founders—primarily in AI, fintech, marketplaces, and enterprise software—who are building businesses with compounding defensive moats such as proprietary data, network effects, or economies of scale. The firm caps its fund size at $125–150M, limits partners to 6–8 active companies, and never takes board seats, keeping full control with founders.

Recent activity

• Q1 2025fundraise
  Susa Ventures launched a new $175 million seed fund, its largest seed vehicle to date. superscout.co
• 2025product
  Susa Ventures opened applications for its 2025 Fellows program, where selected fellows work 1:1 with a partner, source and diligence deals, deploy small checks, and access Susa's LP network and invite-only events. linkedin.com
• 2025investment
  Asymmetric Security closed a £3 million pre-seed round led by Susa Ventures. The company combines AI tools with expert investigators to speed up cyber incident response and forensic analysis. soapbox.vc
• 2025investment
  Foresight Health raised $8.5 million in seed funding from Susa Ventures, Quiet Capital, and Neo to build an AI-native healthcare provider focused on prevention and early diagnosis. linkedin.com
• 2025investment
  Haladir (YC W26) raised a $4.3 million seed round led by BoxGroup and Susa Ventures, with participation from Sunflower Capital, Valkyrie Ventures, XPRESS Ventures, and angels. linkedin.com
• 2025leadership
  Seth Berman, co-founder and General Partner, announced his departure from Susa Ventures to return to building, citing AI as a decisive factor. He stated he doesn't expect this to be his last experience in venture. linkedin.com
• Apr 2026investment
  Chapter closed a $100 million Series E round, the latest tracked Susa Ventures deal per available data. startupintros.com
• Jun 2026investment
  Tracxn reports Susa Ventures has completed 15 new investments in the past 12 months, bringing its total portfolio to 196 companies. tracxn.com
• Jun 2026investment
  Susa Ventures led Asymmetric Security's £3M pre-seed round. The UK company combines AI tools with human investigators to speed up cyber incident response and forensic analysis. soapbox.vc
• Jun 2026investment
  Susa Ventures co-led Haladir's (YC W26) seed round alongside BoxGroup, bringing the company's total funding to $4.3M. Haladir is building what it describes as operational superintelligence. linkedin.com
• Dec 2026investment
  Chad Byers published a Substack post announcing Susa's investment in Marble, dated December 12, 2025. susaventures.substack.com
• Dec 2025product
  Susa Ventures announced its 2025–2026 Susa Venture Fellows cohort of 10 fellows. The program lets fellows source and diligence their own deals alongside Susa partners. x.com

Notable investments

• ChapterSeries E ($100M)Apr 2026startupintros.com
• Foresight HealthSeed ($8.5M)2025linkedin.com
• HaladirSeed ($4.3M)2025linkedin.com
• Asymmetric SecurityPre-Seed (£3M)2025soapbox.vc
• HenrySeries A ($16.5M)2025linkedin.com
• ValderaSeries A ($15M)2025linkedin.com
• Asymmetric SecurityPre-SeedJun 2026soapbox.vc
• HaladirSeedJun 2026linkedin.com
• MarbleSeedDec 2025susaventures.substack.com
• FlockSeries B2025zoominfo.com
• PlenfulSeries A2025zoominfo.com
• CriticalenergySeed2025tracxn.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Chad Byers · General Partner
  LinkedIn
• Seth Berman · General Partner & Co-founder
  LinkedIn
• Courtney Buie · Partner

Sources

• Susa Ventures official website
• Susa Ventures – Startup Intros profile
• Susa Ventures Fund IV pitch deck breakdown
• Chad Byers – VC Sheet
• Seth Berman – VC Sheet
• Courtney Buie – NFX Signal
• Susa Ventures – Tracxn 2026 profile
• Susa Ventures Fellowship – Superscout
• Danti / Humba Ventures investment announcement
• LimaCharlie seed round – Susa Ventures lead
• https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/susa-ventures
• https://www.susaventurefellows.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/paloma-parsons/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-buie-lipkin-5690406b/
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/susa-ventures
• https://www.soapbox.vc/investors/susa-ventures
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadabyers/
• https://susaventures.substack.com/archive
• https://x.com/SusaVentures/status/2001739562150957104
• https://www.zoominfo.com/c/susa-ventures/357690979
• https://superscout.co/investor/susa-ventures
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaheer-sandhu/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethgberman/

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