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

• Apr 2026investment
  Susa participated in a $100M Series E round for Chapter, its most recently tracked deal per Startup Intros data. startupintros.com
• Feb 2025product
  Susa opened applications for its 2025 Fellows cohort, a four-month program pairing fellows 1:1 with a partner to source and diligence deals, with fellows able to deploy small checks and earn 20% carry on deals they originate. linkedin.com
• Oct 2023investment
  Humba Ventures, Susa's deep-tech sub-fund, invested in Danti, an AI-powered geospatial search company that also secured a $1.2M AFWERX contract from the U.S. Space Force. danti.ai
• Mar 2022investment
  Susa co-led WorkRamp's $40M Series C alongside Salesforce Ventures and Slack Fund. svdaily.com
• 2022fundraise
  Susa closed Fund IV at $125M (seed-stage) and Opportunity Fund II at $250M (Series B/C follow-ons into existing portfolio companies). alexanderjarvis.com
• May 2022investment
  Susa led LimaCharlie's $5.45M seed round, backing the Security Infrastructure as a Service platform. limacharlie.io

Notable investments

• ChapterSeries E ($100M)Apr 2026startupintros.com
• DantiSeedOct 2023danti.ai
• WorkRampSeries C ($40M)Mar 2022svdaily.com
• LimaCharlieSeed ($5.45M)May 2022limacharlie.io
• FlockSeries B ($20M)2022zoominfo.com
• RobinhoodSeedtracxn.com
• FlexportSeedlinkedin.com
• MuxSeedcollectiveliquidity.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

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