Rana Yared

Background

Rana Yared is a General Partner at Balderton Capital, a London-based venture firm focused on European-founded technology companies ¹. She joined Balderton in February 2020 alongside David Thevenon (who came from SoftBank’s Vision Fund), making her Balderton’s first female general partner ²³. She co-leads Balderton’s Growth Fund ⁴.

Prior to Balderton, Yared spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs, joining as an analyst in 2006 ¹². She was named Managing Director in 2013 and Partner in 2018, making her one of Goldman’s fastest promotes in history ²⁵. At Goldman, she served first in the Principal Strategic Investments Group and later in GS Growth, where she led the US and European principal strategic investment teams, overseeing investments totaling $2 billion across 80 companies with a strong fintech focus ¹². She also served on Goldman’s Growth Equity Investment Committee ².

During her Goldman years, Yared represented the firm on the boards of Tradeweb, NAV, Vestwell, New York Shipping Exchange (NYSHEX), Pensando, Digital Reasoning, Veem, and Swapclear at LCH ²⁴. She spent five years on the board of fixed income trading platform Tradeweb until its IPO in April 2019 with a market capitalization of $6 billion ². She also brought the AI platform Kensho to Goldman Sachs, which was ultimately sold to S&P Global for $550 million in March 2018 ².

Yared holds a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MSc from the London School of Economics ¹. She relocated from New York to London in 2020, during the pandemic, while 34 weeks pregnant ³.

She was ranked No. 6 on Fortune’s Ledger 40 Under 40 list in 2018 for her work in fintech investing ⁶. She was also named to American Banker’s Most Powerful Women: Next list in 2019 ⁷ and Crain’s New York Business Notable Women in Tech in 2019 ⁸.

Stated Thesis

Yared has publicly stated that her primary investment focus is fintech, describing it as her “bread and butter” and saying plainly: “I love it” ³. However, she has noted that her most recent investments have shifted into defence and security ³.

On joining Balderton, Yared stated: “My greatest passion is working closely with founders and their teams to build new companies… I am excited to move back to the European side of the Atlantic” ². She has expressed strong conviction in the European tech ecosystem, stating: “The European opportunity is unbelievably exciting” and noting that “it’s substantially cheaper to found a company and grow it to a hundred million of ARR here in Europe” ⁹.

Yared has described her investment philosophy as focused on finding and supporting the best founders: “The best way for us to be the best venture capital firm is to invest in the best founders that have the best businesses and then help them change the world” ⁹. She spends the vast majority of her time on core investing activity: “85% of my time should be finding the best companies, and making my companies the best companies” ³.

On board governance, Yared values quality over quantity: “The best founders resist the urge to have giant boards” and emphasizes that “boards don’t run the company. Ever” ³. She describes VCs’ role as counselors rather than controllers: “We’re not there to be the friends of the founders, we’re there to be the counselors of the founders in good times and in bad” ⁹.

She has also spoken about the European defence tech opportunity, arguing against the common assumption that there will be one European winner: “In Europe there will be a bunch of new primes” ³.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 12 verified Balderton investments personally attributed to Yared (via board seats, lead roles, or direct quotes), the following patterns emerge. Note: sample size is limited; Yared’s full portfolio at Balderton likely includes additional investments where her role is not publicly documented.

Sector breakdown: Based on 12 verified investments: 5 fintech (42% — Scalable Capital, TreasurySpring, Ramp Network, Flywire, Lendable), 3 cybersecurity and defence tech (25% — Coro, Exein, Quantum Systems), 2 enterprise/AI (17% — Writer, Dash0), 1 proptech (8% — Huspy), 1 API infrastructure (8% — Kong). Fintech remains the dominant sector despite her stated shift toward defence, though defence and cybersecurity together form a significant 25% of verified deals.

Stage distribution: Of 12 verified investments: 1 seed (8% — Writer in 2020, though this grew to Series C), 3 Series A (25% — Ramp, TreasurySpring, Huspy), 1 Series B (8% — Dash0), 5 Series C or later (42% — Coro Series C, Quantum Systems Series C, Exein Series C, Kong Series E, Scalable Capital Series E extension), 2 secondary/liquidity (17% — Flywire, Lendable). Yared skews heavily toward growth-stage investments, consistent with her role co-leading Balderton’s Growth Fund.

Geographic patterns: Of 12 verified investments: 3 based in the US (Writer in San Francisco, Kong in San Francisco, Coro in Tel Aviv/Chicago), 2 in Germany (Scalable Capital in Munich, Quantum Systems in Munich), 2 in the UK (TreasurySpring in London, Lendable in London), 1 in Poland (Ramp Network in Warsaw), 1 in Italy (Exein in Rome), 1 in Spain/UAE (Huspy in Madrid/Dubai), 1 in the US (Flywire in Boston), 1 in Austria/Germany (Dash0). Notably, several investments are in companies headquartered outside Europe (Writer, Kong, Coro), reflecting Balderton’s growth fund mandate to invest in global companies.

Check size: Her investment range is reported as $1M to $20M with a sweet spot of $10.5M ¹⁰. Verified deal sizes suggest growth investments are significantly larger: Quantum Systems at €160M, Kong at $175M co-led, Scalable Capital at €60M, Coro at $60M, Huspy at $59M, Dash0 at $110M. These are firm-level commitments rather than individual check sizes.

Founder profile patterns: Yared appears to favor founders with deep domain expertise and technical backgrounds. She previously stated that at Goldman her investment in Tradeweb was driven by understanding of financial market infrastructure. Her board-level involvement spans companies led by founders with specific technical or industry expertise (Mirko Novakovic at Dash0 with deep observability experience, Florian Seibel at Quantum Systems with aerospace engineering background).

Co-investor patterns: Frequent co-investors across Yared’s deals include Jerusalem Venture Partners (Coro), Lakestar (Exein), Tiger Global (Kong), Accel (Dash0), HV Capital (Scalable Capital), and Peak XV/Sequoia (Huspy).

Notable gap vs. stated thesis: Despite describing fintech as her primary love, 3 of her 5 most recent verified investments (2025-2026) are in defence tech, cybersecurity, and observability infrastructure (Quantum Systems, Exein, Dash0), suggesting a meaningful strategic pivot toward infrastructure and security.

Portfolio

This table represents 12 unique companies attributed directly to Yared via board seats, lead investor role, or named quotes. Yared’s total investment count at Balderton is reported as 24 ¹⁰, meaning this table represents approximately 50% of her known investments. Her Goldman Sachs portfolio of ~80 investments across $2 billion is not included here.

In Their Own Words

“My greatest passion is working closely with founders and their teams to build new companies… I am excited to move back to the European side of the Atlantic.” — Rana Yared, Balderton joining announcement, February 2020 ²

“The best way for us to be the best venture capital firm is to invest in the best founders that have the best businesses and then help them change the world.” — Rana Yared, Oliver Wyman Innovators’ Exchange podcast, February 2024 ⁹

“Management teams run companies. We can only ever hope to provide one or two fantastic pieces of advice or guidance that changed the trajectory of a company a couple degrees.” — Rana Yared, Oliver Wyman Innovators’ Exchange podcast, February 2024 ⁹

“We’re not there to be the friends of the founders, we’re there to be the counselors of the founders in good times and in bad.” — Rana Yared, Oliver Wyman Innovators’ Exchange podcast, February 2024 ⁹

“The European opportunity is unbelievably exciting.” — Rana Yared, Oliver Wyman Innovators’ Exchange podcast, February 2024 ⁹

“It’s substantially cheaper to found a company and grow it to a hundred million of ARR here in Europe.” — Rana Yared, Oliver Wyman Innovators’ Exchange podcast, February 2024 ⁹

“Goldman is one of the best training grounds you can have for any job after regardless of what that job is.” — Rana Yared, Oliver Wyman Innovators’ Exchange podcast, February 2024 ⁹

“In Europe there will be a bunch of new primes.” — Rana Yared, on the defence tech opportunity, Sifted interview, 2025 ³

“85% of my time should be finding the best companies, and making my companies the best companies.” — Rana Yared, Sifted interview, 2025 ³

“Never forget: boards don’t run the company. Ever.” — Rana Yared, Sifted interview, 2025 ³

“Coro is poised to dominate this immense and hugely underserved segment of the market, and we believe that their growth will continue at an exponential rate.” — Rana Yared, Coro Series C announcement, April 2022 ¹²

“Scalable’s one-stop, digital-first, wealth building and generating platform brings a suite of top-class financial products to individuals across Europe, and is unparalleled in the market.” — Rana Yared, Scalable Capital funding announcement, December 2023 ¹⁴

“We are pleased to renew our partnership with Huspy by leading this round. The team is building technology that modernizes real estate and mortgage businesses, allowing brokers to reap substantial efficiency gains that translate into serving more clients, better.” — Rana Yared, Huspy Series B announcement, July 2025 ¹⁹

“We are partnering with Quantum Systems to help them continue to fulfill the promise of European sovereignty in defence and dual-use technology.” — Rana Yared, Quantum Systems Series C Extension announcement, November 2025 ¹⁷

“We’re thrilled to partner with Florian, Sven, and their exceptional team as they redefine the standard for aerial intelligence.” — Rana Yared, Quantum Systems Series C announcement, May 2025 ¹⁶

“Dash0 built the infrastructure layer that every AI-driven company will depend on. Mirko and the team combine deep technical credibility with a genuinely differentiated approach. We believe Dash0 will define the next era of production operations.” — Rana Yared, Dash0 Series B announcement, March 2026 ²⁰

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Searches for founder quotes about Rana Yared on social media, press, and podcast transcripts did not yield verbatim testimonials from portfolio company founders. Balderton’s own website does not feature individual partner-specific founder testimonials.

Connections

• Board member, Tradeweb (2014-2019, rejoined August 2022) — independent director on the board of the fixed-income electronic trading platform ¹²
• Board member, Coro — joined board as part of Balderton’s Series C investment ¹²
• Board member, Ramp Network — joined board as part of Balderton’s Series A investment ¹¹
• Board member, TreasurySpring — joined board as part of Balderton’s Series B investment ¹³
• Board member, Writer — board seat via Balderton investment ¹
• Board member, Scalable Capital — joined board as part of Balderton’s growth investment ¹⁴
• Board observer, Kong — joined as board observer as part of Series E co-lead ¹⁵
• Board member, Dash0 — joined board as part of Balderton’s Series B lead ²⁰
• Board member, Quantum Systems — led Series C and Series C Extension ¹⁶¹⁷
• Former Goldman Sachs Partner (2006-2020) — served on Goldman’s Growth Equity Investment Committee; represented GS on boards of NAV, Vestwell, Pensando, Digital Reasoning, Veem, NYSHEX, and Swapclear at LCH ²
• Board of Directors, Wabash College — nonprofit board service ¹
• Speaker, London Tech Week — regular conference participant ²¹
• Speaker, Milken Institute Asia Summit 2024 ²²

Sources