Ansa Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Ansa Capital is a New York City venture firm that describes its mission as bridging the gap between early venture and growth-stage investing. It makes high-conviction, thesis-driven investments in Series A and B companies, with some sources citing Series A through C. The firm looks for companies that solve increasingly important, large and hard problems, led by determined founders with domain expertise in fast-changing markets. Its stated recent themes are defense and government modernization, AI enablement and LLM tooling, cybersecurity, and AIOps and infrastructure software. Ansa says it seeks spaces driven by several tailwinds at once rather than a single trend.
Stage Focus
Series A and Series B are the core. Ansa's own site says it invests in Series A and B businesses. Its first fund announcement framed the target as emerging growth stage companies that are pioneering new markets, reinventing distribution models and modernizing legacy systems. It wants companies with a rapidly scaling revenue base of at least a few million dollars, and a path to 70%+ gross margins.
Check Size
The August 2022 first close announcement targeted initial investments of $5M to $15M. The firm says it aims to give founders 36+ months of runway and does not squeeze syndicate members to reach its own ownership threshold.
Lead Tendency
Both. Ansa led the Coram AI Series B (June 2026) and the Synthpop Series A according to Caplight, co-led the $35M Defense Unicorns Series A alongside Sapphire Ventures (March 2024), and appears as a co-investor in Selector, SpecterOps and the later Defense Unicorns round. It describes itself as collaborative with syndicate partners.
Recent Activity
Fund I is the only fund shown on the site. It had a $100M first close in August 2022, backed by Princeton University's endowment, Accolade Partners, Financial Investments Corporation, and individuals including Henry Kravis, George Roberts and Peter Chernin. The firm invests in only a handful of companies a year. Recent dated activity: Coram AI Series B (June 2026, with Battery Ventures, 8VC, UP.Partners and Mosaic Ventures), Selector (February 2026), Synthpop Series A (February 2026), Defense Unicorns (January 2026), SpecterOps Series B (March 2025). Fund status looks like actively deploying, though no second fund has been announced.
Portfolio Highlights
Current Fund I companies shown on the site: Coram AI (AI-native physical security), Synthpop (agentic AI for healthcare operations), SpecterOps (attack path management), Gravity Climate (carbon management and energy optimization), AI Squared (AI integration platform), Defense Unicorns (secure software for the DoD), Selector (AIOps network monitoring), Conduktor (secured data streaming) and Bland AI (phone call automation). Exits shown: Merkle Manufactory and one other company whose logo caption was not legible. The site separately lists companies the individual partners worked with at earlier firms, including Coinbase, CrowdStrike, Peloton, ForgeRock and Policygenius. Those are not Fund I holdings and are excluded from the portfolio list here.
Team
- Marco DeMeireles, General Partner and co-founder. Sourced and led the Coinbase investment at a prior firm and sits on the Defense Unicorns board.
- Allan Jean-Baptiste, General Partner and co-founder. Board member at Policygenius and Slice during earlier work, and active with AI Squared.
- Josh Chin, Principal.
- Wali Khan (Data and Product), Doug Aaron (Director of Finance and Operations) and Ashley Henry (Operations) support the team.
The GPs say they have deployed $500M+ across firms such as CapitalG, TCV, Lead Edge, KKR Growth and The Chernin Group.
Decision Process
Partnership of two GPs who say they do not outsource the work. The firm says it will not take meetings without genuine interest in investing, reads every email and moves quickly after a meeting that inspires them. It prefers to build relationships ahead of a fundraise.
Founder Preferences
Domain-expert founders who understand distribution and not only product, who can convert customers repeatedly and grow capital-efficiently. Founders praise the hands-on support: recruiting, board work, finance forecasting, and the Revenue Council and Advisory Network resources for go-to-market and operations.
Geographic Focus
New York based. Portfolio is US-centric, with companies in New York, the DC area (Defense Unicorns), Sunnyvale, Scottsdale and elsewhere. No explicit geographic restriction is stated.
Gaps
Total AUM beyond the $100M first close is not confirmed, and fund size at final close is not published. Portfolio stage data is only confirmed for companies with an Ansa announcement.