Catalyst Investors Research
Investment Thesis
Catalyst Investors is a New York-based growth equity firm, founded in 1999/2000 by Brian Rich, whose founding partners have worked together since the mid-1990s. The firm describes itself as "true growth investors" and partners with B2B companies at the inflection point from startup to expansion. Catalyst provides not just capital but a value-add platform of strategic, tactical, and financial tools intended to help management teams build enduring companies. Their public mission statement is "to earn superior returns by helping entrepreneurs build great growth companies." The firm has invested over $1 billion across more than 50 companies across five funds since inception, and is a registered SBIC manager.
Sector Focus
Catalyst is generalist within B2B/vertical SaaS, with recurring concentration in:
- Vertical SaaS for field services, construction, and trades (FieldPulse, eSUB)
- Healthcare technology and digital health (Tava, Sevaro, CoachCare, Ognomy, formerly Rivet)
- HR tech and recruiting software (Employ)
- Legal/contract tech (Linksquares)
- Hospitality and vacation rental software (Breezeway)
- Restaurant and food-service software (ChowNow) and craft beverage supply chain (formerly Ekos)
- Cloud infrastructure and managed services (Effectual, EDB)
- Robotics and physical AI (Burro in agriculture, Corvus Robotics in warehouse drones)
Partner Tyler Newton specifically calls out an active focus on vertical SaaS, HR tech, and sustainability.
Stage Focus
Catalyst is explicitly a growth-equity, not early-stage, investor. Per their published Investment Criteria, they target companies at the "inflection point from startup to expansion" with:
- $5mm+ of ARR already in place
- Post product-market fit, with a compelling market opportunity
- A target holding period of 5+ years
In practice this maps to Series B/C growth rounds, both primary expansion capital and secondary transactions.
Check Size
Catalyst's stated check size is $10mm–$20mm+ per the firm's own Investment Criteria page. Recent rounds they have led or co-led range from $20M (Corvus Robotics, Ognomy Sleep) up to being a named strategic investor in a $50M Series C (FieldPulse), suggesting flexibility to write smaller lead checks in $20M-scale rounds and participate at larger scale alongside other growth investors.
Lead Tendency
Catalyst frequently leads its rounds. Recent examples: led Corvus Robotics' $20M Series A-2 (August 2026), led Ognomy Sleep's $20M Series A (June 2026), and led Rivet's $20.5M Series B (2022). In FieldPulse's $50M Series C (August 2025) they joined as a new strategic partner alongside lead investor Fulcrum Equity Partners, showing willingness to participate as well as lead depending on syndicate structure.
Recent Activity
Catalyst has been actively deploying through 2025-2026:
- August 2026: Led Corvus Robotics' $20M Series A-2 (warehouse drone/physical AI), concurrent with the company naming co-founder Mohammed Kabir as CEO
- June 2026: Led Ognomy Sleep's $20M Series A (virtual sleep apnea care)
- August 2025: Joined FieldPulse's $50M Series C as a new strategic investor (field service management SaaS)
On the realization side, two notable events in the last year:
- January 2026: Portfolio company Rivet (revenue cycle analytics, Catalyst led the 2022 Series B) was acquired by Zelis Healthcare
- October 2025: Portfolio company Ekos (craft beverage supply chain software) was acquired by Next Glass
- August 2026: Weave Communications (NYSE: WEAV), which Catalyst backed pre-IPO and where partner Tyler Newton sits on the board, entered a definitive agreement to be acquired and taken private by Francisco Partners
This combination of new leads plus multiple realizations in the trailing 12 months indicates an actively deploying, actively harvesting fund posture.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable current portfolio: Breezeway (vacation rental operations), Burro (agriculture robotics), ChowNow (restaurant ordering SaaS), CoachCare (remote patient monitoring), Corvus Robotics (warehouse drones), EDB/EnterpriseDB (PostgreSQL database management), Effectual (cloud managed services), Employ (recruiting SaaS), eSUB (construction project management), FieldPulse (field service SaaS), Fusion Risk Management (operational risk software), Linksquares (contract lifecycle management), Ninety (business operations platform), Ognomy Sleep (virtual sleep medicine), pax8 (IT/cloud marketplace), Sevaro (teleneurology), Tava (mental health platform).
Notable exits and realizations: Mindbody (Catalyst invested 2009, IPO 2015), Weave Communications (IPO 2021 on NYSE, now being acquired by Francisco Partners), Rivet (acquired by Zelis, January 2026), Ekos (acquired by Next Glass, October 2025), plus earlier acquisitions referenced by third-party trackers including Conductor and Galvanize. Third-party aggregators (Tracxn) credit the firm with roughly 23+ acquisitions and 2 unicorns across its history.
Team
- Brian Rich, Managing Partner & Founder — Responsible for general management and investment policy; sits on the firm's Investment Committee; previously founded and managed TD Capital (USA) Inc.; BS in Industrial Engineering from SUNY Buffalo, MBA from Columbia Business School; started his career at Intel.
- Tyler Newton, Managing Partner — Leads portfolio investments with a current focus on vertical SaaS, HR tech, and sustainability; sits on the boards of Breezeway, ChowNow, Procurement Sciences, and Weave (NYSE: WEAV); previously on the boards of Ascentis, BrightFarms, Conductor, Datavail, EDB, Mindbody, and Rivet; member of the Investment Committee; joined Catalyst in 2000; BA in Economics from Middlebury College; CFA Charterholder.
- Kapil Desai, Partner
- John Buck, Principal
- Sidney Kullar, Principal
- Killian Bubrosky, Senior Associate
- Annie Veldman, Senior Associate
- Jack O'Brien, Associate
- Jay Sidhu, Associate
- Natalie Hallagan, Associate, Business Development
- Jamie Ku, Controller
- Lindsey Brown, Office Administrator
- Ryan McNally, Senior Advisor
The firm also maintains a broader Advisory Group and Entrepreneur Program beyond the core deal team.
Decision Process
Both managing partners (Brian Rich and Tyler Newton) are explicitly named as members of the firm's Investment Committee, indicating an investment-committee-driven decision process rather than a solo-GP or pure-partnership vote model.
Founder Preferences
Client testimonials on Catalyst's About page (from CEOs/founders of ChowNow, Presence, BrightFarms, WeddingWire/The Knot, and Mindbody) emphasize a hands-on, "perspires alongside their CEOs" operating style, strategic guidance on scaling SaaS go-to-market, and willingness to back founders through long hold periods (e.g., Mindbody from 2009 investment through 2015 IPO). This suggests Catalyst favors founders who want an operationally engaged growth partner rather than a passive check-writer, and who are already past product-market fit and scaling a proven B2B model.
Geographic Focus
Catalyst is headquartered in New York City (261 5th Avenue) and its named portfolio is overwhelmingly US-based (Dallas, Buffalo, Utah, etc.), with no stated international mandate on the website.