N47

N47 Research

Investment Thesis

N47 (formerly Next47, and before that Siemens Venture Capital) is a global venture firm built around a philosophy it calls "Product First": it invests at the moment a real, shipped product first shows genuine user love, rather than at the idea stage or after consensus has already formed around a company. The firm looks for founders whose early builds reveal "user love, builder instinct, learning velocity, and craftsmanship" — signals it argues rarely show up in a spreadsheet or pitch deck. Its enterprise and deep-tech roots (it began as Siemens' corporate venture arm before spinning out as an independent fund) give it what it describes as sector fluency rather than pure pattern recognition, particularly in industrial, infrastructure, security, and applied-AI categories.

Sector Focus

N47 organizes its own portfolio into three internal buckets — Applications, Infrastructure, and Systems — that map onto a broad set of enterprise and deep-tech categories:

• Enterprise software and vertical SaaS (BuildOps, Bizzabo, DataGrail, Metadata, Vitally, TigerEye, Aforza)
• Developer tools, data, and cloud infrastructure (Apollo GraphQL, VAST Data, Sysdig, Cohesity, Yellowbrick Data, Logz.io, Zesty, Luminary Cloud)
• Security and trust (Claroty, Noname Security, Armorblox, Harmonic Security, Halcyon, Radiant Security)
• Robotics, automation, and industrial systems (Skydio, Tractian, Built Robotics, Avidbots, Gecko Robotics, Locus Robotics, Wandelbots)
• Logistics and supply chain (Bringg, cargo.one, Turvo, Sennder, Scoutbee, Skylo)
• Hardware and sensing (Aeva, Varjo, Markforged, Sila)
• A growing cluster of applied-AI infrastructure bets (Encord, Euno, Echo, Kai)

Stage Focus

N47's portfolio spans Seed through late-stage growth rounds, with Series A as the most common entry point. The firm also runs a dedicated seed program (led by Jenny Graetzel, "Partner, Seed Funds"), and continues to participate in growth rounds (Series D–F) for existing portfolio companies such as Sysdig, Locus Robotics, and Apollo GraphQL.

Check Size

No specific check-size range is published on the site; given the firm's Seed-through-growth mandate and multi-region team, checks likely span roughly $1M at seed to $20M+ at Series A/B, with larger follow-on reserves for growth rounds. This is inferred, not confirmed, and should be treated as low confidence.

Lead Tendency

N47 explicitly positions itself as a lead investor: its Builders page states "We lead. We commit... Not as the loudest voice, but as the right one when it matters most."

Recent Activity

N47 remains actively deploying in 2026. Its most recent publicly discussed investment is Euno, an Israel-based enterprise-AI infrastructure company, where partner Moshe Zilberstein published the firm's investment rationale on September 9, 2026. The firm also backed Enzo Health's Series A (announced May 2026, per CB Insights) and continued to add new companies in 2026 including Sona (Europe, Series B) and XBuild (Series A). On the liquidity side, several portfolio companies have recently been acquired: TigerEye (by Lennar, 2026), Radiant Security (by Cribl, 2026), Scoutbee (by Coupa, 2025), Markforged (by Nano Dimension, 2025), Noname Security (by Akamai, 2024), and Alaiko (by Zenfulfillment, 2024).

Portfolio Highlights

Marquee names include Verkada (cloud physical security), Skydio (autonomous drones), VAST Data (AI data platform), BuildOps (commercial contracting software), Tractian (industrial predictive maintenance), and Encord (data platform for computer vision/multimodal AI). Notable exits/IPOs include Aeva (NYSE: AEVA, 2021) and the acquisitions listed above. The portfolio totals more than 50 companies discovered on the public site (a subset of the ~360 investments reported by CB Insights across the fund's full history under the Next47/N47 name).

Team

• Lak Ananth, Global Managing Partner — Silicon Valley; Applications, Infrastructure, Systems; former engineer in Silicon Valley during the dotcom era, invested in/around Adallom, Meraki, ThoughtSpot, VAST; led Verkada and Tractian investments.
• Matthew Cowan, General Partner — Silicon Valley, Israel; Applications, Infrastructure; co-founded Breezeworks; ex-Intel; joined N47 in 2017; focused on applied AI at the application layer.
• T.J. Rylander, General Partner — Silicon Valley, Europe; Infrastructure, Systems; a decade at In-Q-Tel prior to N47 (FireEye, Cloudera, Pure Storage through IPO); focuses on infrastructure, dev tools, cybersecurity, and robotics; led the Skydio investment.
• Moshe Zilberstein, General Partner — Israel; Applications, Infrastructure; leads N47's Israel investing; prior venture career at Norwest Venture Partners (gong.io, VAST Data); co-founded Odigo.
• Jonathan Barek, Chief Operating Officer — Silicon Valley.
• Vivian Cheng, Partner — Silicon Valley; Applications, Systems.
• Colton Dempsey, Partner — Silicon Valley; Infrastructure, Systems.
• Fred Ellis, Partner — Europe; Applications.
• Jenny Graetzel, Partner, Seed Funds — Silicon Valley.
• Assaf Jacobi, Venture Partner — Israel; Applications, Infrastructure.
• Will Smith, Venture Partner — Silicon Valley; Applications, Infrastructure.
• Gadi Fisher, Senior Associate — Israel; Applications, Infrastructure.
• Gautham Pasupathy, Senior Associate — Silicon Valley; Applications, Infrastructure.
• Henry Tantum, Associate — Silicon Valley; Infrastructure, Systems.

Decision Process

N47 operates as a multi-region partnership with GPs owning distinct geographies (Silicon Valley, Europe, Israel) and sector lanes (Applications, Infrastructure, Systems) rather than a single solo-GP or committee model. The firm also fields a dedicated GTM team (1,000+ enterprise relationships) and a talent function to support portfolio hiring post-investment.

Founder Preferences

N47 says it looks for founders who show "user love" (organic pull from real users, not just friendly beta testers), "builder instinct" (grounded confidence from real-world experience), "learning velocity" (fast iteration on feedback), and "craftsmanship" (deliberate, high-taste product decisions). It explicitly meets founders after a real product exists and is gaining early traction — "not at the sketch-on-a-napkin" stage.

Geographic Focus

Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, with additional offices in San Francisco, London (UK), Munich (Germany), and Tel Aviv (Israel) — reflecting coverage across Silicon Valley, Europe, and Israel, consistent with its three regional GP leads.