Mark Ellis

What’s old is new. Funny to watch VCs flood back to out-of-favor business models—hardware-enabled software, marketplaces, consumer tech—which are now viewed as more defensible because AI can't easily replicate physical infrastructure, network effects, or brand.

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Dayna Grayson is a leading VC who has “sat in every chair” at a young age. She founded Construct Capital with Rachel Holt, an early leader at Uber. Together, they are tackling the digitization of industry. Dayna will discuss macro trends, what it takes to be a founder, and the potential for AI. She is one of the few who have successfully blended a career of operations and investing.  Check out our discussion at: https://lnkd.in/eYBUGjbW #leadershipdevelopment

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Big milestone for Firmable. We’ve raised $14m Series A led by Airtree. Sales has moved through a few big waves: intuition-led, CRM-led, data-led. We’re now entering the next one – intelligence-led sales. The opportunity isn’t just better data. It’s turning that data into clear direction and action, without adding more work for sales teams. That’s what we’re building at Firmable: a foundation of trusted external data, layered with intelligence that helps sellers know who to focus on and when. Led by Airtree, this round supports our expansion across Asia and into the US – and accelerates the build-out of AI agents that take the admin work off sales teams so they can focus on what they do best. Proud of the team, grateful to our customers and investors. We’re just getting started. Read the exclusive in the AFR. https://lnkd.in/gr66uknb Leigh Jasper | Tara Salmon | Karthik Venkatasubramanian| Chester Thompson| Chath Widanapathirana

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Thrilled for OVNI Capital to be backing RIFT in a pre-seed round led by AlleyCorp (Luc Ryan-Schreiber). Rift is building the first real-time aerial intelligence network, a new layer of infrastructure for persistent, on-demand visibility where it matters most. This funding will scale production of their autonomous stations, accelerate deployment in high-stakes environments, and expand the team leading the next phase. 🗞️ Explore the full story: - StartupMafia: https://lnkd.in/dARrg25N - BFM Business (FR): https://lnkd.in/eADSUsn7 - Les Échos (FR): https://lnkd.in/eFG3zAy5 👨‍🚀 Join the mission → https://lnkd.in/erm_SrTG

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Diving into Atlanta-based VC deal activity in 2025: Last week, I shared a post on ATL 2025 Early-Stage VC deal flow (link in comments), focusing on investments into Atlanta-based startups. This week, I’m shifting the lens to Atlanta-headquartered VC firms (ATL VC)—specifically, the number of early-stage deals they participated in. I’m focusing on deal count because it’s difficult to isolate how much capital in each round came from individual investors. In 2025, ATL VCs: • Participated in 230 early-stage VC deals • Led 41 of those deals Deal participation by sector: • 🤖 AI-enabled: 67 deals | 40% • 💻 SaaS: 36 deals | 26% • 🌱 Climate / Cleantech: 26 deals | 15% • 💳 FinTech: 21 deals | 12% • 🏭 Manufacturing: 12 deals | 7% • 🚀 Space Tech: 2 deals | <1% A few observations: • While Space Tech accounted for only two deals, both involved Atlanta-based startups and together represented 21% ($167M) of all Atlanta-based startup funding last year. This category is likely to grow meaningfully, and Atlanta is well-positioned to be a major player. • Climate and Cleantech often aren’t associated with ATL VC activity, yet the sector ranked third by deal count, ahead of FinTech. That said, only 7 of the 26 deals involved Atlanta-based startups. We can—and should—do better in 2026. • Despite the strong pipeline of Georgia Tech–educated AI engineers, there’s a notable gap between the share of AI-enabled deals ATL VCs participate in (62%) and the share of AI-enabled deals from Atlanta-based startups (34%). This is a trend worth watching closely in 2026. Would love to hear your thoughts if you are either an Atlanta-based VC or startup that raised/ tried to raise capital last year: Bill Nussey, Sean O'Brien, Michael Cohn, Andy Marshall, Aly Merritt, Jennifer Singh, Hannah Turner, Donnie Beamer Jr., CFA, Raghupathy Sivakumar, Anthony Oni, Elizabeth Blankenship-Singh, Chadd Evans, CFA, CAIA, Anthony Clark, Sean Banks, Christopher Klaus, Hernando B., Mike Dowdle, Blake Patton, Frank Tighe, parichit kumar, De'Havia Stewart, Henk Both, Erin Keller, Barry Givens

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"Don't listen to the ecosystem. Listen to the founders." I've worked to get more capital flowing to founders for the last 15 years -- seven years at Kiva, and eight years at Wefunder. I've seen thousands of people and organizations ("ESOs" -- I have always hated the acronym) try to empower entrepreneurs and build thriving local startup ecosystems. Most "practitioners" get it horribly wrong. Zap ⚡️ gets it right. If you're working to build your local startup ecosystem, I would highly recommend watching this discussion, which I had with her last year. A big part of her success -- listening to what *founders* want, and trying to serve them. A customer-centric approach to her mission. It's not rocket science, but it's sadly far too rare in this field. https://lnkd.in/ervE8UHS

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I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb

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Last year’s Series A was a milestone, but it wasn’t a stopping point. As proof that we’ve only been moving faster than before, I’m excited to share that Numeric raised a $51M Series B, led by investors like IVP, Menlo Ventures, Founders Fund, and more. Over the past year, we've launched AI-powered flux analysis that accountants actually trust, built out cash management tooling, and worked with some of the best finance teams in the industry. This raise funds what’s next: more AI agent capabilities, building a strong finance data layer, and expanding the team. If you're interested in working on hard problems in finance infrastructure, let's talk. More on the round: https://lnkd.in/gvkWqiDx

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