Counterpart Ventures was conceived over fried chicken and “therapy” sessions.
If that’s an exaggeration, it’s only a slight one: As Patrick Eggen and Joe Saijo—previously of Qualcomm Ventures and Recruit Strategic Partners respectively—were in 2016 considering starting Counterpart specifically to work with in-house, corporate venture firms, or CVCs, the two met over and over at Farmerbrown, a noted San Francisco soul food restaurant (now closed, but lovingly remembered). These “fried chicken chats” were for Counterpart business strategy, said Eggen, while they had an endless string of “coffee shot” meetings with sometimes-beleaguered CVCs.
“It was all about these one-on-one meetings,” said Eggen, now founding general partner with Saijo. “It was all about these relationships. And I had hundreds of these meetings—I call them coffee shots—where I was giving therapy to CVCs. How do I get deals done? Oh my God, my CFO left, what do I do now? Some accounting bobbleheads—they don’t understand venture investments, legal eagles, PR police, all that.”
These early “therapy sessions” turned into Counterpart Ventures, which has made its name connecting founders to a broad ecosystem of more than 650 CVCs and 1500 investors. The firm, founded in 2018, has now raised its third fund of $132 million, up from the $110 million Counterpart raised in 2021 for its fund two, Fortune can exclusively report. Counterpart, which currently has a five person team, makes investments in startups like Invent.ai and Oxide, helping them connect to CVCs as customers, partners, and capital providers. Amid the AI boom, CVC influence has perhaps never been more important.
“The lazy sentiment by most VCs is that CVCs are slow, bureaucratic, don’t help and suck time out of startups,” said Eggen. “That they’re tourists. But guess what? Roughly one-third of startups in the U.S. have a CVC on their cap table. This year, roughly half of deal value is represented by corporates. Now, granted, that’s driven a lot by these monster AI deals, but it shows the proof is in the pudding.”
Corporates have been big-ticket investors in AI’s biggest names over the last couple years, a trend that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere to judge by moves like Microsoft’s blockbuster investment into OpenAI and Alphabet’s double-down on Waymo. PitchBook estimates CVC participation has consistently lingered around 21% over the last decade in terms of deal count. Over the years, CVC participation in deal value has skewed upwards, hitting 56.1% in 2024 bolstered by AI, according to a 2025 PitchBook report.
“We think we’re hitting our stride, because fund three will focus on unlocking our community value, our corporate value to founders,” Eggen told Fortune. “Because that’s how we win deals, that’s how we raise another fund. That’s how we show real quantifiable value to founders.”
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.
Nina Ajemian curated the deals section of today’s newsletter. Subscribe here.
Venture Deals
- Abridge, a Pittsburgh-based AI-powered healthcare technology company, raised $300 million in Series E funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Khosla Ventures.
- Finom, an Amsterdam-based financial services platform for entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises, raised €115 million ($133.6 million) in Series C funding. AVP led the round and was joined by Headline Growth and existing investors General Catalyst, Northzone, and Cogito Capital.
- ForSight Robotics, a Yokneam Illit, Israel-based robotic eye surgery technology developer, raised $125 million in Series B funding. Eclipse led the round and was joined by Dr. Fred Moll, the Adani Group, Reiya Ventures, and other existing investors.
- Spinwheel, an Oakland-based AI-powered consumer credit data and payments platform, raised $30 million in Series A funding. F-Prime led the round and was joined by QED Investors, Foundation Capital, and Fika Ventures.
- Wispr, a San Francisco-based AI voice app developer, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Menlo Ventures led the round and was joined by Evan Sharp, Henry Ward, existing investors NEA, 8VC, Neo, and others.
- Snowcap Compute, a Palo Alto-based superconducting compute platform developer, raised $23 million in seed funding. Playground Global led the round and was joined by Cambium Capital and Vsquared Ventures.
- Eventual, a San Francisco-based multimodal data AI infrastructure developer, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by M12 Ventures and Citi.
- Delphi, a San Francisco-based AI-powered digital minds developer, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by Menlo & Anthropic’s Anthology Fund, Proximity Ventures, Crossbeam, and others.
- Chronicle Studios, a Los Angeles-based entertainment studio, raised $11.6 million in seed funding. Patron and Point72 Ventures led the round and were joined by Z Ventures, Sands Capital, and others.
- Quinn, a New York City-based AI-powered financial planning platform, raised $11 million in seed funding. Viola Fintech led the round and was joined by existing investors.
- Skyramp, a San Francisco-based AI-powered testing and debugging solution for engineering teams, raised $10 million in funding from Sequoia Capital.
- Blueprint Finance, a New York City-based DeFi infrastructure comapny, raised $9.5 million in funding. Polychain Capital led the round and was joined by Yzi Labs.
- Brij, a New York City-based AI-powered omnichannel marketing platform, raised $8 million in funding. Bright Pixel Capital and CEAS Investments led the round and were joined by Artemis Fund, Red Bike Capital, Lakehouse Ventures, angel investors, and others.
- Empo Health, a San Bruno, Calif.-based health-monitoring devices developer, raised $7 million in funding. Story Ventures led the round and was joined by VTC Ventures and existing investors Ulu Ventures, SeaX Ventures, Arben Ventures, and Gaingels.
- Motorica, a Stockholm-based GenAI character animation company, raised €5 million ($5.8 million) in seed funding. Angular Ventures led the round and was joined by Luminar Ventures.
- BackOps AI, a San Francisco-based AI-powered supply chain operations platform, raised $6 million in seed funding. Construct Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Gradient and 10VC.
- Gemist, a Los Angeles-based software platform provider for jewelry brands, raised $6 million in funding from Entrada Ventures, Artemis Fund, and Collide Capital.
Private Equity
- Citation Capital acquired a majority stake in Gallo Mechanical, a New Orleans-based HVAC and plumbing services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Cleanwater1, a portfolio company of Baird Capital, acquired Industrial Control Systems Online, a Ripon, Calif.-based automation and control systems company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Spins, backed by Webster Capital, Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic, and others, acquired Datasembly, a Tysons, Va.-based pricing and promotion intelligence solution. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- TSG Consumer Partners acquired a minority stake in DUDE Wipes, a Chicago-based personal hygiene wipes brand. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Unity Partners acquired a majority stake in Amplēo, a Salt Lake City-based fractional CFO, CMO, and CHRO services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Other
- Xero agreed to acquire Melio, a New York City-based bill payments platform for small and medium-sized businesses, for $2.5 billion in cash and equity.
- Nordic Semiconductor acquired Memfault, a San Francisco-based device observability and over-the-air update platform, for a consideration of $120 million on a cash and debt-free basis.
- CriticalPoint acquired Pura Vida Bracelets, a San Diego-based bracelet brand, from Vera Bradley. Financial terms were not disclosed.
