Essence VC
Facts
- HQ
- Seattle, WA, US
- Sectors
- Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
- Founded
- 2019
- Employees
- 17
Fearn launches AI-native patent law firm with $5.5M seed from Kindred Ventures and a16z speedrun
Fearn, an AI-native patent law firm, launched with $5.5 million in seed funding led by Kindred Ventures and a16z speedrun to speed and cut costs of U.S. patent filings. The firm promises review-ready applications in as little as 24 minutes, provisional filing within three business days, and a fixed $9,000 fee with its own fee at risk if an examiner allows nothing.
Foundation Models Go Vertical with leaders from Open AI, Mistral, Clarify and Oumi
In this episode of Shift AI, Manos, CEO of Umi, Patrick Thompson, CEO of Clarify, Brian Hall, CMO of Mistral AI, and Ben Gaffney, Deputy General Counsel at OpenAI, join host Boaz Ashkenazy for a live panel recorded at Seattle Tech Week on who actually owns intelligence in the enterprise AI era. One panelist argues that any enterprise still treating a frontier model as its core intelligence layer is renting something it should own, and predicts that in two years we'll look back at CTOs defending that approach the way we look back at driving a Ferrari to the grocery…
Tim Chen’s Essence VC Raises New $7 Million Fund to Boost Infrastructure Startup Investments
Essence VC, led by Tim Chen, is raising a new $7 million fund to lead larger pre-seed rounds and have greater investment flexibility, focusing on infrastructure startups. This fund is separate from their previous $41 million fund raised last year.
Tim Chen Raises $41 Million for Fourth Fund at Essence VC, Emerging as a Leading Solo Investor Backing Infrastructure Startups
Tim Chen, initially rejected by Seattle venture capital firms for being 'too nerdy,' launched his own firm, Essence VC, which has grown to raise $41 million for its fourth fund and gained a strong reputation backing infrastructure startups. His technical background and experience as a software engineer have made him a sought-after solo investor, with notable portfolio successes including the $2.2 billion acquisition of Tabular by Databricks.
Autonomous CRM: How Clarify Is Reinventing a $100B Category
Thompson and Austin Hay, co-founders of Clarify, the startup that's pioneering the idea of autonomous CRM. Their vision? A CRM that actually does the work for sellers of driving outreach, managing pipeline, and surfacing insights without constant manual input. Patrick and Austin share: • Their journey from Iteratively, Ramp, and Amplitude to founding Clarify • Why the CRM market is ripe for disruption with AI • How Clarify's unique pricing model flips the script (free CRM, pay only when the AI agent works for you) • The concept of autonomous GTM teams and the rise of the Go-to-Market Engineer •…
Seattle Startup Groundlight Uses AI, Strobe Lights, and Radio to Stop Raccoons Invading Home via Cat Door
A Seattle AI startup called Groundlight helped solve a homeowner's raccoon problem using a system combining strobe lights, public radio, and AI to prevent raccoons from entering through a microchip-detecting cat door. The raccoons had learned to bypass the specialized cat door's intruder mode, but the AI-based solution effectively deterred them.
Seattle Venture Firm Essence VC Raises $27M to Fund Early-Stage Tech Infrastructure Startups
Seattle-based venture capital firm Essence VC, led by managing partner Timothy Chen, has raised $27 million for its third fund to invest in early-stage startups focused on software development tools, data infrastructure, and AI. The firm targets pre-product startups and has made seven investments since December, including in Jasper AI and MotherDuck.
Seattle Startup Groundlight Raises $10M Seed to Revolutionize Warehouse Monitoring with AI and Natural Language Computer Vision
Seattle startup Groundlight, co-founded by former Amazon and Picobrew execs Leo Dirac and Avi Geiger, emerged from stealth with a $10 million seed fund to simplify warehouse monitoring using AI-powered computer vision. Their platform enables businesses to query real-time video feeds through natural language prompts for instant, customizable insights.
Seattle-based Sentio Raises $6.4M Led by Lightspeed to Expand Blockchain Observability Platform
Sentio, a Seattle startup co-founded by Fuyao Zhao and Chongzhe Li, raised $6.4 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners to expand its blockchain application monitoring tool and increase its team size. The company plans to grow its headcount from 10 to 15-20 employees by next year with support from investors including Hashkey Capital and GSR Ventures.
People
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Tim Chen Founder, Founder and Managing Partner
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Chad Sanderson Limited Partner
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Patrick Thompson Limited Partner
