Chemistry

Reviewed Updated Jul 24, 2026

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Location San Francisco, CA
Founded 2024
Fund Size $350M
Website https://www.chemistry.vc
Stage Focus
seed series-a
Sector Focus
fintech infrastructure developer-tools enterprise ai

Team

Ethan Kurzweil Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Kristina Shen Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Mark Goldberg Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Bohan Lou Principal
Jamie Viggiano Team Member

About

Chemistry is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in October 2024 by three veteran VCs: Ethan Kurzweil (formerly 16 years at Bessemer Venture Partners), Kristina Shen (formerly General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and 7 years at Bessemer), and Mark Goldberg (formerly Partner at Index Ventures for nearly a decade) 123.

The firm launched with a significantly oversubscribed $350 million debut fund focused on leading seed and Series A rounds 12. Chemistry is headquartered in San Francisco 4.

Prior to founding Chemistry, the three partners collectively led investments in over a dozen unicorns at the early stage, served on 50+ boards, and led nearly 100 investments 1. Notable investments from their prior roles include PagerDuty, Intercom, Twitch, Plaid, Persona, LaunchDarkly, and ServiceTitan 356.

The founding team brings complementary backgrounds: Kurzweil’s expertise spans developer platforms, data infrastructure, and gaming from his Bessemer tenure 3; Shen led B2B software investing at a16z 5; and Goldberg focused on early-stage software and fintech at Index, having previously been among Dropbox’s first business hires 6.

Stated Thesis

Chemistry publicly states that the firm was built around the question: “What would a venture firm look like if its success was fully aligned with its founders’ success?” 1.

The firm describes its approach as “stripping away the excess” of large venture platforms and focusing on “going all in with our founders from the earliest stages” 1. Chemistry targets two to three investments per year per partner, emphasizing depth of involvement over breadth 1.

Mark Goldberg has described Chemistry’s philosophy as “conviction-based investing rather than consensus-driven decisions,” optimizing for “outliers, not averages” 7. He has stated that the firm focuses on “non-obvious bets that appear contrarian initially” 7.

Ethan Kurzweil has said that Chemistry writes $3-30M checks with an average of $10-12M for Series A investments 8.

Inferred Thesis

Based on a limited sample of verified Chemistry investments (the firm launched in late 2024), analysis is preliminary:

Known Chemistry portfolio companies: Decagon (Series D participant), Assort Health, Serval, Datacurve 491011. With only 4 verified investments, the sample is too small for reliable sector percentages.

Qualitative patterns from verified investments: - Enterprise software and AI applications appear dominant (Decagon in AI customer support, Assort Health in healthcare AI, Datacurve in AI training data) 4910 - Serval reached unicorn status ($1B valuation) within months of its Series A, suggesting Chemistry targets high-growth trajectories 4 - The firm appears to lead rounds rather than participate, consistent with its stated approach 1

Patterns from partners’ prior portfolios (pre-Chemistry): The partners’ combined prior investments at Bessemer, a16z, and Index skew heavily toward fintech (Plaid, Bridge, Anrok, Lithic), developer tools (PagerDuty, LaunchDarkly, Intercom), and enterprise infrastructure (Persona, Pilot, ServiceTitan) 356. This track record suggests Chemistry will continue targeting these sectors.

Check size: $3-30M, averaging $10-12M at Series A 8.

Portfolio

Company Stage Year Sector Source
Decagon Series D (participated) 2026-01-28 AI / Enterprise Software 41115
Assort Health Series A (co-led $22M with First Round Capital; Quiet Capital participated) 2025-04-16 Healthcare AI / Voice AI 222324
Assort Health Series B (participated, $76M; Lightspeed Venture Partners led; Felicis, First Round Capital, A*, Liquid 2 Ventures, Quiet also participated) 2025-09-30 Healthcare AI / Voice AI 252627
Serval Series A ($47M; Redpoint led — Patrick Chase joined; First Round, General Catalyst, Box Group, Bessemer, Chemistry VC, Strike Capital, Sunflower Capital, Operator Partners + angels Sabrina Hahn, Alex Clayton, Colin Zima participated; $52M total) 2025-10-21 AI / IT Automation 41718
Datacurve Series A ($15M; Chemistry led — Mark Goldberg; angels/employees from DeepMind, Vercel, Anthropic, OpenAI participated; follow-on to $2.7M seed led by Balaji Srinivasan) 2025-10-09 AI / LLM Training Data 103132
ComfyUI Growth (participated, $30M at $500M valuation) 2026-04-24 AI / Generative Media 1216
Fathom Therapeutics Series A 2026-04-27 Biotech / AI Drug Discovery 13
Nova Intelligence Series A (led) 2026-05-05 AI / Enterprise / SAP Modernization 14
Meticulous Series A (led, $15M; Menlo Ventures + angels from Poolside, Dropbox, Vercel, OpenAI, Stripe, Adobe, Hex, Cursor participated) 2026-07-15 Developer Tools / AI Testing 192021
Atoms Growth (participated, $1.7B equity; Andreessen Horowitz led; Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, K5 Global, SV Angel, Alpha Square Group, A*, Abstract, Uber also participated) 2026-07-22 Physical AI / Industrial Robotics Active (Kalanick-led holding company for CloudKitchens + Pronto; Ben Horowitz joined board)

Note: This table represents Chemistry’s investments since its October 2024 launch. The partners’ extensive pre-Chemistry portfolios at Bessemer, a16z, and Index (including PagerDuty, Intercom, Plaid, Persona, Twitch, LaunchDarkly, ServiceTitan, and others) are attributed to their prior firms.

In Their Own Words

“We named it ‘Chemistry,’ a word we consistently used to describe the connection we shared with each other and with the founders we back.” — Chemistry founding team, Chemistry blog, October 2024 1.

“A plus people want to work with A plus people.” — Mark Goldberg, Managing Partner, GTMnow Podcast, 2026 7.

“The hardest lesson I’ve learned has probably been around managing co-founder relationships and co-founder dynamics.” — Mark Goldberg, GTMnow Podcast, 2026 7.

“I think oftentimes they [founders] want somebody to listen to them.” — Mark Goldberg, GTMnow Podcast, 2026 7.

What Founders Say

“Get a thoughtful, clear-eyed, and prescient response on demand.” — Esteban Castano, CEO of TRM Labs, on working with Ethan Kurzweil, Chemistry website 3.

“Low ego, high hustle; a no BS partner who gives us the right pushes at the right time.” — Rick Song, CEO & Founder of Persona, on working with Mark Goldberg, Chemistry website 6.

“Kristina has an ability to look past the consensus view.” — Vahe Kuzoyan, President & Founder of ServiceTitan, on Kristina Shen, Chemistry website 5.

Note: The above founder quotes are sourced from Chemistry’s own website and should be considered firm-curated testimonials.

Sources

  1. Chemistry blog, “Introducing Chemistry,” October 2024, accessed March 2026. https://www.chemistry.vc/post/introducing-chemistry↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. TechCrunch, “Bessemer, Index, and a16z alum launch VC firm Chemistry,” October 23, 2024, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/23/bessemer-index-and-a16z-alum-launch-vc-firm-chemistry/↩↩

  3. Chemistry website, “Team — Ethan Kurzweil,” accessed March 2026. https://www.chemistry.vc/team/ethan-kurzweil↩↩↩↩↩

  4. Tracxn, “Chemistry VC — 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/venture-capital/chemistryvc/__OuxpWiKecY_2-WCsvXCAE5kp5EGbmd782sBfwT9x84o↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. Chemistry website, “Team — Kristina Shen,” accessed March 2026. https://www.chemistry.vc/team/kristina-shen↩↩↩↩

  6. Chemistry website, “Team — Mark Goldberg,” accessed March 2026. https://www.chemistry.vc/team/mark-goldberg↩↩↩↩

  7. GTMnow Podcast, “VC 3: Investing Philosophy for 2026: What Founders Should Know — Mark Goldberg, Chemistry,” 2026, accessed March 2026. https://gtmnow.com/vc-3-investing-philosophy-2026-mark-goldberg-chemistry/↩↩↩↩↩

  8. SaaStr, “The Series A Landscape in 2025: Insights from Chemistry VC’s Ethan Kurzweil,” 2025, accessed March 2026. https://www.saastr.com/the-series-a-landscape-in-2025-insights-from-chemistry-vcs-ethan-kurzweil/↩↩

  9. Crunchbase News, “Alums From Bessemer, A16z And Index Launch New Firm With $350M For Seed And Series A Startups,” accessed March 2026. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/bessemer-a16z-index-alums-launch-early-stage-funding-firm-chemistry/↩↩

  10. Chemistry blog, “Staying ahead of the curve: Our Series A in Datacurve,” accessed March 2026. https://www.chemistry.vc/post/staying-ahead-of-the-curve↩↩↩

  11. Decagon blog, “Decagon’s $250 million commitment to the AI concierge future,” January 28, 2026, accessed March 2026. https://decagon.ai/resources/series-d-announcement↩↩

  12. TechCrunch, “ComfyUI hits $500M valuation as creators seek more control over AI-generated media,” April 24, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/24/comfyui-hits-500m-valuation-as-creators-seek-more-control-over-ai-generated-media/↩

  13. PR Newswire, “Fathom Therapeutics, Formerly Atommap, Raises $47 Million in Oversubscribed Series A Financing,” April 27, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fathom-therapeutics-formerly-atommap-raises-47-million-in-oversubscribed-series-a-financing-to-translate-physics-and-ai-enabled-small-molecule-design-into-next-generation-medicines-302754272.html↩

  14. Fortune, “Exclusive: Nova Intelligence raises $31.5 million to bring agentic AI to SAP’s $89 billion migration wave,” May 5, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/05/05/exclusive-nova-intelligence-ai-sap-chemistry-emma-qian/ — San Francisco-based Nova Intelligence announced a $31.5M Series A on May 5, 2026 led by Chemistry, with participation from existing investors Accel, Conviction, and SAP.iO. Co-founders: CEO Emma Qian, Sam Yang, and Professor Alexander Zeier (co-inventor of SAP HANA). Total raised exceeds $40M. Cross-referenced with Nova Intelligence’s earlier announcement of SAP.iO Fund’s strategic investment, “Nova Intelligence Announces Strategic Investment from SAP iO Fund to Accelerate Clean Core Transformation,” https://www.novaintelligence.com/post/saps-strategic-investment-in-nova-intelligence and Kyndryl press release, “Kyndryl and Nova Intelligence Announce Strategic Collaboration to Accelerate SAP Transformation for Customers,” August 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kyndryl-and-nova-intelligence-announce-strategic-collaboration-to-accelerate-sap-transformation-for-customers-302522156.html↩

  15. Bloomberg, “AI Customer Support Startup Decagon Valued at $4.5 Billion,” January 28, 2026. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-28/ai-customer-support-startup-decagon-valued-at-4-5-billion — Decagon’s $250M Series D announced January 28, 2026 was co-led by Coatue Management and Index Ventures with ChemistryVC, Definition Capital, and Starwood Capital joining as new investors; existing backers a16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, and Ribbit Capital continued participation. Cross-referenced with Decagon blog, “Decagon’s $250 million commitment to the AI concierge future,” January 28, 2026. https://decagon.ai/resources/series-d-announcement↩

  16. Finsmes, “ComfyUI Raises $30M Financing, At $500M Valuation,” April 2026. https://www.finsmes.com/2026/04/comfyui-raises-30m-financing-at-500m-valuation.html — ComfyUI’s April 24, 2026 $30M growth round at $500M valuation was led by Craft Ventures with Pace Capital, Chemistry, TruArrow, and others participating. Chemistry’s prior late-2024 Series A in ComfyUI was approximately $19M. ↩

  17. Marina Temkin, “Serval raises $47M to bring AI agents to IT service management,” TechCrunch, October 21, 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/21/serval-raises-47-million-to-bring-ai-agent-to-it-service-management/ — Primary source: confirms 2025-10-21 date, $47M Series A, Redpoint lead, First Round/General Catalyst/Box Group participation, CEO Jake Stauch quotes. ↩

  18. SiliconANGLE, “Serval raises $47M to bring AI-native automation to IT operations,” October 21, 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://siliconangle.com/2025/10/21/serval-raises-47m-bring-ai-native-automation-operations/ — Explicitly names Operator Partners plus Bessemer, Chemistry VC, Strike Capital, Sunflower Capital as syndicate participants; quotes Patrick Chase of Redpoint and Vernon Man of Perplexity. ↩

  19. “Meticulous raises $15m to accelerate the pace of software development,” Meticulous blog, July 15, 2026. Accessed July 16, 2026. https://www.meticulous.ai/blog/series-a↩

  20. “Meticulous Series A · $15M raised · (2026),” StartupHub.ai, July 15, 2026. Accessed July 16, 2026. https://www.startuphub.ai/investment_rounds/meticulous-series-a-202↩

  21. “Meticulous raises $15M to help developers ship AI-generated code faster,” Vestbee, July 2026. Accessed July 16, 2026. https://www.vestbee.com/insights/articles/meticulous-raises-15-m — Third independent tier-1 source confirming $15M Series A led by Chemistry with Menlo Ventures participation on 2026-07-15. ↩

  22. Allie Garfinkle, “Exclusive: Assort Health raises $22 million Series A led by First Round and Chemistry,” Fortune, April 16, 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://fortune.com/2025/04/16/exclusive-assort-health-raises-22-million-series-a-led-by-first-round-and-chemistry — Primary tier-1 press confirming $22M Series A co-led by First Round Capital and Chemistry (Kristina Shen’s first announced investment since leaving a16z), with Quiet Capital participating; total raised to $26M. ↩

  23. “Assort Health Raises $26M to Scale Specialty-Specific Voice AI for Healthcare,” Assort Health blog, April 15, 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://www.assorthealth.com/blog/assort-health-secures-26-million-in-funding-to-expand-specialty-specific-generative-ai-platform-for-managing-patient-phone-calls — Company primary source: names First Round Capital and Chemistry as co-leads with Quiet Capital, Four Acres, Tau Ventures, and angels from Athena Health, Astrana Health, Flatiron Health, Infinitus, Mammoth Biosciences, Mercury, PathAI, and Presto. ↩

  24. “Wilson Sonsini Advises Assort Health on $22 Million Series A Funding,” Wilson Sonsini, April 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://www.wsgr.com/en/insights/wilson-sonsini-advises-assort-health-on-dollar22-million-series-a-funding.html — Legal counsel primary source confirming $22M Series A co-led by First Round Capital and Chemistry. ↩

  25. Allie Garfinkle, “Exclusive: Assort Health raises $76 million Series B to build on voice AI healthcare platform,” Fortune, September 30, 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://fortune.com/2025/09/30/exclusive-assort-health-raises-76-million-series-b-to-build-on-voice-ai-healthcare-platform/ — Primary tier-1 press confirming $76M Series B led by Lightspeed, with Chemistry (returning), First Round (returning), Felicis, A*, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Quiet participating; brings total to $102M. ↩

  26. “Assort Health Raises $102M for Agentic AI in Healthcare,” Assort Health blog, September 30, 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://www.assorthealth.com/blog/assort-health-secures-102m-to-scale-nations-first-agentic-ai-platform-that-solves-longstanding-frustrations-tied-to-patient-access-and-experience — Company primary source confirming $76M Series B led by Lightspeed with Felicis, First Round Capital, Chemistry, A*, Liquid2, and Quiet participating. ↩

  27. “Assort Health Secures $102 Million to Scale Nation’s First Agentic AI Platform That Solves Longstanding Frustrations Tied to Patient Access and Experience,” PR Newswire, September 30, 2025. Accessed July 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/assort-health-secures-102-million-to-scale-nations-first-agentic-ai-platform-that-solves-longstanding-frustrations-tied-to-patient-access-and-experience-302570046.html — Independent newswire distribution confirming $76M Series B, Lightspeed lead, Chemistry among participating investors. ↩

  28. Rebecca Bellan, “Travis Kalanick’s robotics company raises $1.7B, led by a16z,” TechCrunch, July 22, 2026. Accessed July 24, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/travis-kalanicks-robotics-company-raises-1-7b-led-by-a16z/ — Primary tier-1 press confirming $1.7B a16z-led equity round in Atoms on July 22, 2026; Ben Horowitz joining board; Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber named participants. ↩

  29. “Kalanick’s Atoms raises $1.7B in a16z-led round for industrial AI,” Yahoo Finance, July 22, 2026. Accessed July 24, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/kalanick-atoms-raises-1-7b-212701007.html — Independent press confirmation naming Chemistry among equity participants: Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, Chemistry, A*, K5 Global, Abstract, SV Angel, Alpha Square Group, and Uber; debt from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, Barclays. ↩

  30. “Travis Kalanick’s Physical AI Startup Atoms Raises $1.7B in Funding, Led by a16z,” The AI Insider, July 23, 2026. Accessed July 24, 2026. https://theaiinsider.tech/2026/07/23/travis-kalanicks-physical-ai-startup-atoms-raises-1-7b-in-funding-led-by-a16z/ — Third independent confirmation of Chemistry’s participation in the $1.7B a16z-led Atoms round; full equity partner list matches. ↩

  31. Marina Temkin, “Datacurve raises $15 million to take on Scale AI,” TechCrunch, October 9, 2025. Accessed August 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/09/datacurve-raises-15-million-to-take-on-scaleai/ — Primary tier-1 press confirming 2025-10-09 announcement of $15M Series A led by Chemistry with Mark Goldberg as lead partner; angels from DeepMind, Vercel, Anthropic, and OpenAI participating; follow-on to $2.7M seed led by Balaji Srinivasan; direct quotes from co-founder Serena Ge. ↩

  32. “Wilson Sonsini Advises Datacurve on $15 Million Series A,” Wilson Sonsini, October 2025. Accessed August 2026. https://www.wsgr.com/en/insights/wilson-sonsini-advises-datacurve-on-dollar15-million-series-a.html — Independent legal-counsel primary source confirming $15M Series A led by Chemistry; Wilson Sonsini deal counsel to Datacurve. ↩