About Essence VC
Essence VC is a venture capital firm founded in 2019. It is primarily based out of Seattle, United States. As of Jun 2026, Essence VC is an active investor, having invested in 70 companies, with 7 new investments in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Seed round in United States based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to High Tech and Enterprise Infrastructure. Most recently it participated in the $***** Seed round of Fearn Overall, Essence VC portfolio has seen 1 unicorn and 11 acquisitions including key companies like Orb, Torq and Graft. A lot of funds co-invest with Essence VC, with names like Alumni Ventures sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Essence VC has team of 10 people including 5 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 2 more
Portfolio Acquisitions
Portfolio Unicorns
Portfolio Soonicorns
Essence VC's List of Top Investments
Essence VC has a portfolio of 70 companies, one of which is a Unicorn. Their most notable investments are in Unkey and SeeMetrics.Their portfolio spans across United States, Germany, Israel and 6 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Enterprise Infrastructure and 11 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A and 2 more. Here is the list of top investments by Essence VC:1. Orb
Platform offering infrastructure monitoring solutions. It provides tools for invoicing, reporting, simulations, and pricing model management. It offers usage based billing that upscales developer first billing infrastructure. It also assists users in defining value matrics, encoding flexible usage based pricing models and calculating real time invoices and trends, and more.
Key facts about Orb
- Founded Year: 2019
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $44.1M
- Employee Count: 93 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Menlo Ventures, Agile Angel and 16 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Sep 17, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
2. Torq
Provider of security hyperautomation platform designed for autonomous security operations. The platform offers capabilities including AI agents, case management, and integrations. It supports security operations, incident response, and threat enrichment. The platform also facilitates cloud security, unauthorized access response, and alert triage.
Key facts about Torq
- Founded Year: 2019
- Location: Tel Aviv (Israel)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series D
- Total Funding till date: $332M
- Employee Count: 443 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Cerca Partners, Insight Partners and 12 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series D, Jan 11, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
3. Graft
Developer of an AI platform for enterprise knowledge management and search. The platform connects to various data sources, providing relevant answers and insights to improve engineering workflows. It refines requirements, aids in design decisions, and enhances onboarding through conversational AI. The platform offers secure, private answers with citations and adapts to individual user preferences.
Key facts about Graft
- Founded Year: 2021
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $29M
- Employee Count: 17 as on Dec 31, 2022
- Investors: New Enterprise Associates, Essence VC and 5 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, Jul 26, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
4. Flux AI
Developer of an AI-powered platform for PCB design and layout. The platform offers features such as automated component placement and routing, bill of materials generation, and design rule checks. It supports multi-layer designs and provides tools for schematic capture and layout editing. The platform facilitates collaboration with version control and permission management.
Key facts about Flux AI
- Founded Year: 2019
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $49M
- Employee Count: 120 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Liquid 2 Ventures, Alex and Bart's Angel Fund and 11 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Feb 27, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
5. Fiddler Labs
Developer of AI observability platform for monitoring, explainability, and responsible AI. The platform offers capabilities for model monitoring, LLM observability, and agentic observability. It provides tools for detecting model drift, assessing performance, and setting alerts. The platform also supports NLP and CV monitoring, explainable AI, analytics, and responsible AI practices.
Key facts about Fiddler Labs
- Founded Year: 2018
- Location: Palo Alto (United States)
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $100M
- Employee Count: 113 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Cisco Investments, Alpha Square Group and 25 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Jan 27, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Essence VC's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Essence VC has invested in 70 companies over the last 6 years, with an average of 8 new investments annually in the last 5 years. In 2025, it made 7 investments, while as of Jun 2026, it has made 3 investments in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in Fearn and most recent follow-on round was in Unkey.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 2 | 1 | 3 |
2025 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
2024 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
2023 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
2022 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
2021 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
2020 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Essence VC's Investments by Stage
Essence VC has made 27 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $6.42M, 13 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $17M, 1 investment in Series B stage with an average round size of $18.9M and 1 investment in Unattributed stage with an average round size of $10M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 27 |
Series A | 13 |
Series B | 1 |
Unattributed | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Essence VC's Investments by Sector
Essence VC has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, Enterprise Infrastructure, High Tech, Business Services and Consumer. Notably, it has invested in 64 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 64 Software companies, 64 Tech companies and at least 43 companies focusing on Saas.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 37 |
Enterprise Infrastructure | 15 |
High Tech | 15 |
Business Services | 3 |
Consumer | 2 |
Others | 10 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Essence VC's Investments by Geography
Essence VC has made most investments in United States (34), followed by Germany where it has made 2 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 34 |
Germany | 2 |
Canada | 1 |
Denmark | 1 |
Iceland | 1 |
Others | 3 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Essence VC's recent investments
Essence VC has made 3 investments in 2026 so far. Fearn and Unkey are the latest among them.Here are the most recent investments by Essence VC:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 10, 2026 | United States | Seed | 5387 | [+2] | |
Apr 23, 2026 | United States | Seed | 5962 | [+4] | |
Mar 12, 2026 | United States | Seed | 7351 | [+11] | |
Oct 21, 2025 | United States | Series A | 9236 | [+7] | |
Sep 26, 2025 | United States | Seed | 4746 | [+14] |
Unicorns in Essence VC's Portfolio
Essence VC has 1 unicorn in its portfolio - Torq. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is Torq which became a unicorn in 2026.Here is a list of unicorns in Essence VC's portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
67 | Provider of security hyperautomation platform designed for autonomous security operations | 2019 | Tel Aviv | Series D | yzzfmeh |
Acquired companies in Essence VC's Portfolio
11 companies from Essence VC's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Orb in Jun 2026 by Adyen for $*****.Here are Essence VC's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 11, 2026 | Mar 29, 2023 | Series A | 7848 | |
Jan 28, 2026 | Jul 20, 2023 | Seed | 9710 | |
Oct 22, 2025 | May 11, 2022 | Seed | 9498 | |
Apr 23, 2025 | Jan 23, 2024 | Seed | 8219 | |
Jun 17, 2024 | - | - | 2435 |
Team profile of Essence VC
Essence VC has a team of 10 members including 5 Partners, 2 Venture Partners and 1 Principal located in United States. Essence VC's team sits on the board of 1 company.Here is a list of all team members in Essence VC:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | Seattle | |||
Partner | - | - | ||
Partner | - | - | ||
Partner | - | - | ||
Partner | - | - | ||
Venture Partner | - | - | ||
Venture Partner | - | - | ||
Principal | - | - |
Co-investors of Essence VC
Over the past 6 years, 288 investors have co-invested in Essence VC's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Essence VC: Andreessen Horowitz, Alexa Fund and 29 others have invested in rounds before Essence VC. There are 2 companies where Andreessen Horowitz has invested before Essence VC and 1 company where Alexa Fund has invested before Essence VC.
- Top Co-investors of Essence VC: 216 investors entered a company along with Essence VC. These include investors like Alumni Ventures (3 companies).
- Invested after Essence VC: A total of 41 investors have invested in Essence VC's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Databricks (3 companies), Tristan Handy (2 companies) and Mayfield (1 company).
Recent News related to Essence VC
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Clair Health Raises $11.6M in Seed FundingFinSMEs•Jun 22, 2026•Clair Health, Brydge Club, AGI House, Andreessen Horowitz and 5 others
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Fearn Raises $5.5 Million Seed to End the Two-Tier Patent SystemPR Newswire•Jun 10, 2026•Kindred Ventures, Designer Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Fearn and 1 other
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Standard Kernel Raises $20M to Automate GPU Software OptimisationVentureburn•Mar 11, 2026•CoreWeave, Essence VC, Link Ventures, Felicis Ventures and 5 others
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SolveAI Secures $50M to empower employees to create enterprise software without codingStartup Rise EU•Feb 26, 2026•Google Ventures, Accel, Solve, Enrission India Capital and 11 others
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Cline Raises $32M in Seed and Series A Funding to Bring Agentic AI Coding to Enterprise Software TeamsTMC•Aug 01, 2025•Cline, Cox Exponential, Pace Capital, Essence VC and 2 others
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Cline Raises $32M in Seed and Series A Funding
FinSMEs•Jul 31, 2025•Cline, Cox Exponential, Pace Capital, Essence VC and 2 others
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US AI-powered software platform Clarify nets $22.5m total fundingTech in Asia•Jun 26, 2025•Clarify.ai, USVP, Gradient Ventures, Madrona and 4 others
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Nuon Exits Stealth with $16.5 Million to Enable Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) for Everyoneintelligence360•Jan 13, 2025•Nuon, M12, Uncork Capital, Redpoint Ventures and 4 others
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Nuon Exits Stealth with $16.5 Million to Enable Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) for EveryoneCIO Influence•Dec 17, 2024•Nuon, Essence VC, Redpoint Ventures, Uncork Capital and 4 others
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Distribution raises 19 million dollars to automate the tests of applications and AI modelsesdelatino.com•Oct 08, 2024•Distributional, Alumni Ventures, Essence VC, Oregon Venture Fund and 3 others
