Counterpart Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Counterpart Ventures is the first institutional VC fund exclusively founded by former corporate venture capital (CVC) leaders. Founded in 2018 by Patrick Eggen (former Managing Director of Qualcomm Ventures North America) and Joe Saijo (former President of Recruit Strategic Partners), the firm occupies a distinctive position in the venture ecosystem by bridging traditional VC and corporate VC.
Their core thesis: corporate VCs represent an underutilized but powerful force for startup success. Rather than viewing CVCs as slow or bureaucratic — the 'lazy sentiment' in the industry — Counterpart Ventures leverages their Counter Club community (750+ unique CVCs, $320B in capital deployed, representing ~1/3 of CVCs globally) to give founders what most VCs cannot: direct warm introductions to Fortune 500 customers, strategic partners, and additional capital sources.
The firm backs B2B SaaS founders at Seed and Series A who are solving nontrivial problems in large markets, particularly where enterprise software modernization, workflow automation, or data infrastructure improvements can unlock significant value.
Stage Focus
Counterpart Ventures is primarily a Seed and Series A investor, with selective participation across adjacent stages:
- Pre-Seed: Small checks for exceptional teams pre-product (e.g., BackEngine, Zelody)
- Seed: Lead or co-lead $1M–$5M rounds for companies with early product traction
- Series A: Lead or participate in $5M–$20M rounds for companies with PMF
- Series B: Follow-on investments in existing portfolio (Cloudbeds, Lily AI, Particle, SqlDBM, Invent.ai)
The firm's sweet spot is Seed-to-Series A, where their CVC network provides the highest leverage for enterprise business development introductions.
Check Size
- Typical range: $1M–$5M
- Lead tendency: Leads over 50% of deals
- Fund II ($110M, 2021) targeted ~30–40 portfolio companies, implying average initial checks of ~$2M–$3M with reserves
- Fund III ($132M, closed June 2025) continues this disciplined approach
Recent Activity
Counterpart Ventures is actively deploying Fund III, which closed at $132 million in June 2025 (up from Fund II at $110M in 2021):
- February 2026: Investment in Onshore (Business/Productivity Software)
- August 2025: Led Arintra's Series A round (AI-powered solutions)
- 2024: Investments in Zelody (Pre-Seed), InfinitForm (Seed), Budgie Health (Seed) as early Fund III investments
- Fund III closed: June 2025 at $132M
Total known AUM across Fund II and Fund III is approximately $242M+.
Portfolio Highlights
Counterpart Ventures has 29 known portfolio companies spanning B2B SaaS, enterprise software, fintech, HR tech, and developer tools:
Notable Exits:
- Glidian (acquired) — healthcare claims automation
- Intricately / HG Insights (acquired) — B2B technology intelligence data
- Sense360 (acquired by Medallia) — consumer insights analytics
Marquee Active Portfolio:
- Oxide Computer (Series A) — enterprise on-premise cloud hardware/software
- Invent.ai (Series B) — AI-powered product discovery for CPG manufacturers
- Lily AI (Series B) — AI product attribution for retail
- Cloudbeds (Series B) — hospitality management platform (global)
- RemoFirst (Series A) — global employer of record for remote teams
- Particle Industries (Series B) — enterprise IoT platform
- Leapfin (Series A+) — automated financial reconciliation
AI-Era Investments (Fund III):
- Rippey AI — AI for financial services workflows
- Soulside — AI-powered software
- Omnibound — AI-driven growth platform
- Arintra — AI-powered solutions (Series A, 2025)
Counter Club: Unique Differentiator
The Counter Club is described as the largest network of corporate VCs globally:
- 754+ unique CVC organizations
- 1,800+ individual CVC investors
- $320B in capital deployed across member organizations
- Represents approximately 1/3 of all CVCs worldwide
- Invite-only; free for qualified, actively investing CVCs
- Spans 30+ countries across every industry
This network provides portfolio founders with four core advantages: sourcing/warm introductions to customers, diligence support via industry experts, direct introductions to enterprise partners and buyers, and syndication/liquidity access via CVC co-investors.
Team
Patrick Eggen, Founding General Partner 13+ years venture experience, 100+ transactions, 30+ exits. Former Managing Director of Qualcomm Ventures North America (~$500M AUM), founding Qualcomm's Global Early Stage Fund with 70+ investments including Zoom, Matterport, and Cruise Automation. Background in investment banking at Citigroup (Chicago, London, Hong Kong). MBA from Kellogg; BA from Northwestern.
Joe Saijo, Founding General Partner Former President and Managing Partner of Recruit Strategic Partners (2014–2017), managing 100+ portfolio companies globally and investing in 30 US startups including Palo Alto Networks, DocuSign, 99designs, Noom, DataRobot, and ShipBob. Started career as software engineer at Hitachi in Japan. Deep expertise in B2B SaaS and marketplace technologies.
Mikey Kailis, Principal 10+ years working with entrepreneurs across Australia and the US. Founding team member at Counterpart (Fund I). Focuses on Seed and Series A software founders with repeatable sales motions. Key portfolio: InfinitForm, Oxide, Remofirst, Soulside, Upflowy, Vendition.
Tanvi Narain, Principal 7 years in financial services (Discover Financial, Visa, Plaid) spanning product, marketing, and BD. MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern). Focus areas: fintech, payments infrastructure, banking software. Key portfolio: Budgie Health, Invent.ai, Leapfin, Lily AI, Pico MES, SqlDBM, Zelody.
Abbie Wolf, Director of Platform Manages portfolio support programs and Counter Club community operations.
Shoko Kanehara, Director, Business Development Drives corporate partnerships and Counter Club member relationships.
Al Lalani, Operating Partner Serial entrepreneur; founded and scaled Annex Cloud as CEO (200+ employees, customers in 50+ countries, recognized by Forrester and Gartner, acquired by PE). Advises portfolio companies on GTM strategy, scaling, and team building post product-market fit.
Decision Process
Partnership model with 2 founding GPs making final investment decisions. Small team of 5 full-time (2 GPs + 2 Principals + 1 platform director). Known for operating lean — described internally as running like a startup. Warm introductions helpful given CVC community but not formally required.
Founder Preferences
- Technical or domain-expert founders building B2B software
- Companies with early customer traction and initial revenue
- Founders who can leverage CVC networks for customer acquisition
- 'Repeatable sales motion where the bigger unlock lies years ahead' (Kailis)
- Teams where enterprise CVC community adds meaningful strategic value
- Strong preference for founders in SF Bay Area and major US tech hubs
Geographic Focus
Primarily US-based — headquartered in San Francisco (500 3rd Street, Suite 240), with additional presence in Los Angeles. Selective international investments through CVC network relationships.