Haven Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Haven Ventures ("Haven" — hay•vn: a place of safety or refuge, a sanctuary) positions itself as "the first check in category defining digital financial services at the earliest stages," targeting the infrastructure paradigms that will define the future of finance. The firm was founded by Joseph Guzel and McLain Southworth, former colleagues and partners at Crosslink Capital, who left to build their own fund betting on fintech and web3 infrastructure. Their public framing is "operators turned investors" who "love hard problems" and "hate consensus" — explicitly positioning themselves against consensus-driven, momentum investing. Marketing copy elsewhere describes the mandate as backing "bold disruptors" who "challenge the economic status quo."
In practice, while fintech and crypto/blockchain infrastructure remain the observable center of gravity (Hamsa, Volta Circuit, Sock, Trybo, Jeeves), Haven's realized portfolio has broadened into adjacent vertical SaaS and infrastructure plays that don't fit a narrow fintech definition — background-actor payroll software (Everyset), physical operations/logistics infrastructure (Brick Dynamics), fleet maintenance (Autolab), AI sales coaching (Knode), and dental revenue-cycle-management AI (Wieldy). This suggests the fund's actual behavior is closer to "infrastructure and operations software for underserved verticals," with fintech/crypto as the strongest and most consistent theme rather than an exclusive mandate.
Stage Focus
Haven writes first checks almost exclusively at pre-seed and seed. Public reporting on the fund's launch describes checks of up to $1M; third-party VC databases (InvestorMatch, VC Sheet) list a smaller sub-range of roughly $50K–$250K for some checks, suggesting Haven writes both small pre-seed checks and larger ~$1M seed checks depending on conviction. Tracxn data shows 4+ seed-stage investments with average round sizes near $4.7M, consistent with Haven co-investing rather than solely leading tiny rounds.
Check Size
Estimated range: $50K (small pre-seed) to $1M (lead seed checks), based on founder statements at launch and third-party aggregator data. No confirmed fund size is publicly disclosed (PitchBook references "Haven Ventures Fund I" without a stated size).
Lead Tendency
Mixed — Haven appears in both lead and co-investor positions. It co-led Apaluma's $5.55M seed round (with Overwater Ventures, alongside lead investors Crosslink Capital and Kickstart) and is listed as an additional investor in Everyset's $9M raise led by Crosslink Capital. Given the small check sizes relative to round sizes, Haven functions more often as a syndicate participant/co-lead than a sole lead investor on larger rounds.
Recent Activity
- July 2026: Co-led (with Overwater Ventures) a $5.55M seed round for Apaluma, a government/regulatory data platform, alongside lead investors Crosslink Capital and Kickstart.
- October 2025: Participated in Everyset's $9M raise (entertainment industry background-performer payroll and casting platform), led by Crosslink Capital.
- CBInsights reports 17 total investments to date, with the most recent prior to Apaluma being in March 2026.
Fund status reads as actively deploying, with Guzel and Southworth remaining the sole General Partners since the firm's 2022 founding.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable companies: Hamsa (blockchain-based clearing/settlement "Unified Ledger" for central banks and Tier-1 banks, processing $400B+ in 2025), Jeeves (LatAm/global corporate cards and expense management), Volta Circuit (non-custodial multi-sig digital asset custody, $120M+ secured), Sock (self-custodial crypto savings/investing app), Trybo (decentralized credit for D2C brands), Everyset (background-actor payroll software for film/TV), Brick Dynamics (outsourced physical operations layer for AV fleets, hardware, and events), Autolab/Flotas (fleet maintenance network in Mexico), Knode (AI-driven sales coaching), and Wieldy (AI revenue-cycle management for dental practices).
Team
- Joseph Guzel, General Partner — Co-founder of Haven Ventures; previously a Principal at Crosslink Capital, where he focused on fintech; brings a self-described immigrant, blue-collar background to his investing lens.
- McLain Southworth, General Partner (Managing Partner) — Co-founder of Haven Ventures; previously a partner at Crosslink Capital; Stanford Graduate School of Business; over 12 years as an entrepreneur/operator across fintech, digital health, and frontier tech before moving into investing.
Decision Process
Two-person General Partnership (Guzel and Southworth); decisions are made jointly between the co-founders rather than through a larger investment committee.
Founder Preferences
Public messaging emphasizes backing technical, operator-minded founders tackling structurally hard infrastructure problems rather than consensus, hype-driven categories — consistent with the "we hate consensus" framing and the pattern of co-investing alongside larger funds (Crosslink Capital, Kickstart, Overwater Ventures) on infrastructure-heavy deals.
Geographic Focus
Based in Los Angeles, California. Portfolio is geographically diverse: US-based companies (Everyset, Brick Dynamics, Knode, Wieldy, Sock), a Mexico-based fleet operation (Autolab/Flotas), and Jeeves, which operates across Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe. Haven is also listed as a "Proud Partner" of Alpha Network, an invite-only community for founders, CEOs, and technology leaders.