Ten Coves Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Ten Coves Capital is a growth equity firm that backs "companies re-imagining, re-inventing and re-wiring the financial ecosystem." Founded in December 2020 by Dan Kittredge, Steve Piaker, and Ned May after spinning out of Napier Park Financial Partners' growth equity team (bringing along Manu Rana as Founding Partner and Senior Advisor), the firm positions itself as a value-add growth partner rather than a passive check-writer, drawing on the team's experience helping scale roughly forty FinTech companies.
Sector Focus
The firm invests exclusively in FinTech, organized around five sub-segments:
- Payments
- Banking and Lending
- Insurance and Benefits
- Asset Management and Capital Markets
- Data and Business Services
Several recent portfolio companies apply AI/ML to these categories (Blue J for tax research, Boosted.ai for explainable ML in institutional investing, Kasisto for conversational banking AI, BetterComp and Inbox Health for AI-driven compensation and patient billing).
Stage Focus
Ten Coves is a growth-equity investor, typically entering at Series A through Series D / late growth rounds once a company has clear revenue traction, rather than at seed. Deal sizes observed range from $15M (Projectworks Series A) to participation in a $122M Series D (Blue J).
Check Size
Not explicitly disclosed. Observed lead checks in recent rounds (BenefitBay $18M Series A, Circit $22M growth round, Aquilance $16M strategic growth investment, Projectworks $15M Series A, Procurify $50M Series C, MarginEdge's $80M Series D) suggest a typical initial check in the low-to-mid eight figures, with capacity to write larger checks and reserve for follow-ons out of a fund with $618M+ in committed capital across three funds (as of the 2022 Fund III close) plus a subsequently raised Fund IV.
Lead Tendency
Ten Coves leads or co-leads the large majority of its announced rounds — nearly every press release in its news archive is headlined "Led by Ten Coves Capital" (MarginEdge Series D, BenefitBay Series A, Circit, Aquilance, BetterComp Series A, Projectworks, Procurify Series C, SteelEye Series B, Cassini Systems, Canopy, TealBook Series B, Roostify, Sentieo, Boosted.ai Series B).
Recent Activity
Actively deploying. In the trailing 12 months: led MarginEdge's $80M Series D (August 2026, alongside Schooner Capital), BenefitBay's $18M Series A (May 2026), Circit's $22M growth round (February 2026), and Aquilance's $16M strategic growth investment (January 2026). The firm has closed at least four funds (Ten Coves Capital I-IV, LP per SEC ADV filings), most recently confirmed publicly with the oversubscribed $293M Fund III hard-cap close in January 2022, bringing total committed capital under management to $618M at that time.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable current and past portfolio companies include Bill.com (IPO, December 2019), Plaid (sold a stake in Quovo to Plaid, later acquired by Visa deal fell through, remains independent), AlphaSense (acquired Sentieo and Tegus, now a multi-billion-dollar market intelligence platform), Lendio, Kasisto, TouchBistro, 7shifts, MarginEdge, Blue J, SteelEye (merged with FundApps in 2025 to form a unified regulatory compliance platform), Procurify, Boosted.ai, Inbox Health, and Q4 Inc. (went public on the TSX in 2021, later acquired by Sumeru Equity Partners in 2024). Named to Inc.'s Founder-Friendly Investors List for four consecutive years (2022-2025).
Team
- Dan Kittredge — Managing Partner
- Steve Piaker — Managing Partner
- Ned May — Managing Partner
- Steve Lula — Partner
- Manu Rana — Founding Partner and Senior Advisor
- Mike Lipin — Principal
- Tanu Suneja — Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer
- Rich Brereton — Senior Associate
- Max Jacobs — Senior Associate
- Jake Tinkler — Senior Associate
- Chris Whipple — Associate
Decision Process
Partnership model with three Managing Partners (Kittredge, Piaker, May) who co-founded the firm together, supported by a Founding Partner/Senior Advisor and a Partner. Deal announcements consistently attribute leadership to the firm collectively rather than a single named decision-maker, consistent with a partnership-style process.
Founder Preferences
Ten Coves backs growth-stage FinTech founders who have already found product-market fit and are scaling into "durable, strategically significant businesses" — the firm markets itself on "decades of focused experience with extensive networks" as a value-add partner for scaling, not just capital.
Geographic Focus
US-based, headquartered at 1019 Post Road, Darien, CT, with an additional office at 500 Lexington Ave, New York, NY. Portfolio companies are predominantly US and Canada-based (e.g., TouchBistro and 7shifts are Canadian), with occasional international investments (Circit is Ireland-based).