Hawke Ventures Research Document
Investment Thesis
Hawke Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused exclusively on Commerce Tech, MarTech, and AdTech. The fund believes that the future of e-commerce and digital marketing is built on specialized technology solutions that empower brands and marketers. Leveraging the operational expertise of its parent company Hawke Media (a $150M+ marketing agency), Hawke Ventures provides founders with not only capital but direct access to thousands of brand customers, case study opportunities, and strategic partnerships that accelerate product-market fit validation.
Sector Focus
Hawke Ventures maintains a hyper-focused investment strategy across three core verticals:
Commerce Tech: Technology platforms that power e-commerce operations, customer acquisition, retention, and optimization for consumer brands. This includes tools for inventory management, fulfillment, subscription management, and customer lifetime value optimization.
Marketing Technology (MarTech): Solutions that help brands manage marketing operations, customer communication, analytics, and campaign execution. The fund has demonstrated particular interest in email marketing, SMS platforms, and customer communication tools.
AdTech: Advertising technology platforms that enable brands to optimize ad spend, manage campaigns across channels, and measure advertising ROI. The fund focuses on B2B AdTech serving agencies and brands rather than consumer-facing ad networks.
The fund explicitly avoids pure consumer apps, hardware plays, and sectors outside their core expertise.
Stage Focus
Hawke Ventures operates as an early-stage investor with stated focus on:
- Pre-seed: $50K-$500K for founders with initial product concepts
- Seed: $500K-$2M for companies with product-market fit validation
- Occasional Series A follow-ons for proven portfolio companies
The fund typically leads or co-leads early rounds and positions itself as a founder-friendly partner rather than a purely financial investor.
Check Size
Based on public information and portfolio analysis:
- Pre-seed: $50K-$500K
- Seed: $500K-$2M
- Follow-on reserves: Significant allocation for existing portfolio companies
Typical initial check size: $500K-$2M for seed-stage opportunities.
Lead Tendency
Hawke Ventures positions itself as a lead investor and often leads rounds, particularly at the seed stage. The fund's approach suggests they seek meaningful board involvement and strategic input rather than passive follow-on participation. Recent investments indicate consistent lead positions with tactical involvement in portfolio company operations.
Recent Activity
Hawke Ventures has been actively deploying capital from its $25M fund:
2025 Activity:
- September 2025: Led investment in Tie (Digital Marketing/B2B Media) - raised $10M Series A
- Q3 2025: Continued active deployment across portfolio
- October 2025: Portfolio AGM and annual gathering indicating active portfolio management
Fund Status: Actively deploying from Fund II ($25M total raised across two funds)
Portfolio Highlights
Notable portfolio companies include:
Current Portfolio:
- Firmly: E-commerce platform backed by founders from Samsung global eCommerce leadership
- PostScript: Customer communication platform (featured on Forbes Billion Dollar Startup list)
- Tie: B2B digital marketing platform that raised $10M Series A (September 2025)
- Multiple undisclosed commerce tech and marketing companies
Historical Portfolio:
- First fund (2020-2022) invested in 18+ companies across commerce and marketing tech
- Strong track record of supporting founders who go on to raise significant subsequent capital
The portfolio demonstrates the fund's thesis around commerce tech and marketing automation with founder testimonials emphasizing the value-add and connectivity benefits.
Team
Core Investment Team:
Erik Huberman - General Partner
- GP at Hawke Ventures and Co-founder + CEO of Hawke Media
- 15+ years in marketing and e-commerce
- Built Hawke Media into $150M+ valued marketing agency serving 4,000+ brands
- Thought leader in marketing and e-commerce with publications in Forbes, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Inc.
- Forbes 30 Under 30, CSQ's 40 Under 40, Inc. Magazine's Top 25 Marketing Influencers
Tony Delmercado - Co-Founder
- Co-Founder of Hawke Media, Hawke Ventures, and Hawke Capital
- Proven operator with experience in profitable liquidity events and cultural transformation
- Specializes in operational scaling and zero-to-one venture building
- Deep expertise in sales, operations, and financial management
Mara Chaben - Principal
- University of Michigan alum
- Community building background from Summit
- Founded and sold ZenStop (B2B employee wellbeing app) to major brand clients including Snapchat, YouTube, Disney, Universal Music Group
- Active in startup ecosystem and community support
Decision Process
Hawke Ventures operates with a partnership model where Erik Huberman serves as the lead GP supported by co-founders and principals. The fund emphasizes data-driven due diligence, leveraging Hawke Media's internal testing and validation capabilities. Decision-making appears relatively agile, reflecting the fund's "value-add investor" positioning rather than committee-driven approval processes.
Geographic Focus
Primarily US-focused with base in Santa Monica/Los Angeles. Most portfolio companies appear to be US-based, though the fund maintains openness to geography for exceptional founders in their core sectors.
Founder Preferences
Hawke Ventures explicitly seeks founders who:
- Understand e-commerce, marketing, or advertising deeply
- Are building technology that solves real operational pain points for brands
- Are coachable and value operational support and customer introductions
- Can benefit from integration with Hawke Media's 4,000+ brand customer base
- Have founder testimonials that emphasize partnership and value-add relationship
Fund Status
The fund is actively deploying from its $25M fund II with consistent recent investments (September 2025 being most recent disclosed). The team structure, website sophistication, and portfolio activity indicate an established fund in active deployment phase with significant runway remaining.
Differentiation & Value-Add
Hawke Ventures' core differentiation is the integration with Hawke Media:
- Direct access to 4,000+ brand customers for product validation and case studies
- Data-driven diligence using real brand use cases
- Marketing support for portfolio companies through webinars, PR, social media
- Hiring and talent support for portfolio company scaling
- Partnership facilitation across portfolio companies and complementary tools
This value-add model positions them as operator-investors rather than pure capital providers, attracting founders seeking strategic support beyond funding.
