Carle Stenmark
General Partner, VMG Technology at vmg-partners
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General Partner leading VMG Technology, VMG Partners' B2B software fund focused on tech serving the consumer ecosystem (retail, CPG, e-commerce, marketing, ops). Writes $4M-$40M meaningful minority checks from early through Series C. Recent lead: Scotch's $20M Series A (June 2026) for AI-native liquor retail infrastructure; VMG Technology's stated portfolio also includes Afresh, Attentive, Lyric, Tracksuit, Weee!, Boulevard, Gradial, and Rinsed.
Background
Carle Stenmark is a General Partner at VMG Partners, where he leads VMG Technology — the firm’s fund focused on B2B software that serves the consumer, retail, and manufacturing ecosystem 12. VMG Partners operates two verticals — VMG Consumer (brand investing) and VMG Technology (software) — and describes VMG Technology as writing $4M–$40M “meaningful minority” checks from early stage through Series C 2.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Stenmark grew up in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School 3. His VMG bio characterizes his approach as backing “founder-driven teams solving real problems” and building “consumer-centric businesses that generate organic adoption through word-of-mouth” 1.
VMG Technology’s portfolio-page listing spans mar tech, ad tech, supply chain, CFO tech, operations, payments, merchandising, loyalty, marketplaces, vertical AI, and CX tech 24.
Stated Thesis
VMG Technology publicly frames its strategy as leveraging “two decades of building breakout brands” in consumer investing to guide B2B software bets that serve the retail and manufacturing economy 2. On his personal profile page, Stenmark writes:
“Companies delivering tremendous end-user value with strong, easy-to-communicate brands spend significantly less on sales” because customer enthusiasm drives adoption naturally. 1
On the June 2026 Scotch Series A that VMG led, Stenmark described the target market this way:
“The beverage alcohol market is nearly $250 billion and, despite that, is still operating on systems built in the 1970s with on-prem servers.” 5
Inferred Thesis
Sample size caveat. This analysis uses the 26 companies listed on the VMG Technology portfolio page as VMG Technology’s declared investments 4. Only a subset of those deals is publicly attributable to Stenmark specifically as lead or board partner — that subset is 8 companies (per his own LinkedIn portfolio listing 3 and the Scotch press announcement 5). Where percentages are shown below, they are for the 26-company VMG Technology portfolio, not Stenmark personally.
Sector concentration: B2B software for the consumer / retail economy. All 26 VMG Technology portfolio companies build software or software-enabled services for the consumer ecosystem 4. Sub-sectors visible from the portfolio list include: - Retail / merchant infrastructure (Scotch, Boulevard, Nowsta, Nuvemshop, Zitcha) — 5 of 26 - Marketing / ad tech / brand analytics (Attentive, Tracksuit, Fermat, Auxia, Pray.com, Good Face Project) — 6 of 26 - Supply chain / operations / grocery (Afresh, Lyric, Milk Moovement, ParcelLabs, Specright) — 5 of 26 - Marketplaces / commerce (Weee!, Bobbie, Musely, Swell, Shogun Labs) — 5 of 26 - Vertical AI / marketing automation (Gradial, Claim, Daasity, Rinsed, Necessaire) — 5 of 26
Stages: early through Series C. VMG Technology explicitly targets “early to Series C” with $4M–$40M check sizes and takes “meaningful minority positions” 2. Stenmark led Scotch’s Series A in June 2026 5 and participated in Gradial’s Series C in June 2026 6.
Distinctive strategy signal from the Scotch investment. In Crunchbase News’ coverage, Stenmark described VMG’s thesis on Scotch as backing a company that addressed “enterprise-level complexity that competing startups overlooked” — targeting the hardest segment first rather than starting with SMBs. This “hardened product” playbook is consistent with VMG’s stated preference for durable market positions over land-and-expand SaaS 5.
Board / lead patterns. Verified lead investment (with board seat implied): Scotch Series A, June 2026 5. Verified participation: Gradial Series C, June 2026 (co-invested alongside Insight Partners as existing investor) 6. His LinkedIn identifies Weee! as a “long-term partnership since 2019” 3.
Geography: US-heavy. Named deals (Scotch — Denver; Gradial — Seattle; Afresh, Weee!, Boulevard — US) are US-based. VMG Partners is headquartered in San Francisco 1.
Portfolio
The table below lists VMG Technology portfolio companies that are either explicitly attributed to Stenmark (via his LinkedIn or press quotes) or are Series A/later rounds where he is likely the deal lead based on VMG Technology’s small partner count. VMG Technology’s full 26-company portfolio is on the firm’s website 4; the subset below highlights deals with primary-source Stenmark attribution.
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotch | 2026 | Series A (led $20M) | 5 |
| Gradial | 2026 | Series C (participated $65M) | 6 |
| Weee! | ~2019 (LinkedIn: “long-term partnership since 2019”) | Growth | 3 |
| Afresh | ~2020 (approx; VMG Technology portfolio) | Growth | 34 |
| Lyric | ~2022 (approx; VMG Technology portfolio) | Series B | 34 |
| Tracksuit | ~2024 (approx; VMG Technology portfolio) | Growth | 34 |
| Fermat | ~2023 (approx; VMG Technology portfolio) | Growth | 34 |
| Auxia | ~2024 (approx; VMG Technology portfolio) | Growth | 34 |
Additional VMG Technology portfolio companies where Stenmark’s individual role is not independently confirmed but that are on the firm’s Technology portfolio page: Claim, Zitcha, Rinsed, Milk Moovement, Good Face Project, Swell, Nowsta, Nuvemshop, ParcelLabs, Specright, Bobbie, Daasity, Attentive, Pray.com, Boulevard Labs, Necessaire, Shogun Labs, Musely 4.
In Their Own Words
On what VMG looks for in software companies (from his personal bio):
“Companies delivering tremendous end-user value with strong, easy-to-communicate brands spend significantly less on sales.” 1
On Scotch and the beverage-alcohol retail market (Series A, June 2026):
“The beverage alcohol market is nearly $250 billion and, despite that, is still operating on systems built in the 1970s with on-prem servers.” 5
On how the Scotch team approached market strategy — a rare direct look at his evaluation heuristic. Per Crunchbase News’ Series A coverage, Stenmark said Scotch modernizes one of the last major categories of retail by solving enterprise-level complexity that competing startups overlooked 5.
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials specifically about Carle Stenmark’s post-investment support were found. Jake Bolling, CEO and co-founder of Scotch, was quoted in the Series A coverage about Scotch’s product (“We’ve really focused our AI workflows on the ‘toily’ aspects of running one of these businesses”) but not about Stenmark or VMG’s role as an investor 5.
Connections
- General Partner, VMG Technology / VMG Partners — San Francisco office; leads B2B software investing 12
- Board / long-term partner, Weee! — LinkedIn describes as “long-term partnership since 2019” 3
- Speaker, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (June 2026) 3
- Speaker, RetailClub AI Festival (September 2026) — panel: “AI Vendor Selection: What’s Real, What’s Hype & What’s Here to Stay?” 3
- Board Member, Oakland Lacrosse Club (Nov 2018–present) 3
Sources
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Carle Stenmark team page — VMG Partners, accessed August 2026. https://www.vmgpartners.com/team/carle-stenmark/↩↩↩↩↩↩
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VMG Technology — VMG Partners technology fund overview page, accessed August 2026. https://www.vmgpartners.com/technology/↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Carle Stenmark LinkedIn profile summary — public profile, accessed August 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlestenmark/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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VMG Partners portfolio (Technology vertical), accessed August 2026. https://www.vmgpartners.com/companies/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Chris Metinko, “Scotch Raises AI Funding For Liquor Retail Tech,” Crunchbase News, June 4, 2026, accessed August 2026. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/scotch-raises-ai-funding-liquor-retail-tech/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Kerry Flynn, “Exclusive: Gradial raises $65M for agentic marketing,” Axios via Yahoo Finance, June 18, 2026, accessed August 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/exclusive-gradial-raises-65m-agentic-140005033.html↩↩↩