About Essence VC
Essence VC is a venture capital firm founded in 2019. It is primarily based out of Seattle, United States. As of Oct 2026, Essence VC is an active investor, having invested in 73 companies, with 6 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 Monid AI Overall, Essence VC portfolio has seen 1 unicorn and 12 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 12 people including 5 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 2 more
Portfolio Unicorns
Portfolio Soonicorns
Deals in last 12 months
Essence VC's List of Top Investments
Essence VC has a portfolio of 73 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 5 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Enterprise Infrastructure and 12 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 Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Scribble Ventures, Greylock Partners 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: 473 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Cerca Partners, SentinelOne and 12 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series D, Jan 11, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
3. 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: 128 as on Aug 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
4. 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)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $100M
- Employee Count: 118 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Alpha Square Group, LDV Partners and 25 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Jan 27, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
5. 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: Google Ventures, Essence VC and 5 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, Jul 26, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
Essence VC's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Essence VC has invested in 73 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 Oct 2026, it has made 6 investments in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in Monid AI and most recent follow-on round was in Unkey.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 5 | 1 | 6 |
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 30 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $7.34M, 12 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $16.2M, 2 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $30.5M and 1 investment in Unattributed stage with an average round size of $10M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 30 |
Series A | 12 |
Series B | 2 |
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 67 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 67 Software companies, 67 Tech companies and at least 47 companies focusing on Saas.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 40 |
Enterprise Infrastructure | 16 |
High Tech | 16 |
Business Services | 3 |
Consumer | 3 |
Others | 11 |
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 (36), followed by Germany where it has made 2 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 36 |
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 6 investments in 2026 so far. Monid AI and Namespace Labs 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct 06, 2026 | United States | Seed | 1423 | ||
Oct 05, 2026 | United States | Series B | 7793 | ||
Sep 20, 2026 | - | Seed | 5667 | [+3] | |
Jun 10, 2026 | United States | Seed | 6195 | [+2] | |
Apr 23, 2026 | United States | Seed | 6767 | [+4] |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
70 | Provider of security hyperautomation platform designed for autonomous security operations | 2019 | Tel Aviv | Series D | i{polrg |
Acquired companies in Essence VC's Portfolio
12 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 | 3450 | |
Jan 29, 2026 | Jul 31, 2025 | Seed | 1230 | |
Jan 28, 2026 | Jul 20, 2023 | Seed | 6129 | |
Oct 22, 2025 | May 11, 2022 | Seed | 7317 | |
Apr 23, 2025 | Jan 23, 2024 | Seed | 4717 |
Team profile of Essence VC
Essence VC has a team of 12 members including 5 Partners, 1 Venture Partner and 1 Principal located in United States. Essence VC's team sits on the board of 1 company.Here is a list of top team members in Essence VC:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | Seattle | |||
Partner | - | - | ||
Partner | - | - | ||
Partner | - | - | ||
Partner | - | - | ||
Venture Partner | - | - | ||
Principal | - | - |
Co-investors of Essence VC
Over the past 6 years, 306 investors have co-invested in Essence VC's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Essence VC: Andreessen Horowitz, Alexa Fund and 37 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: 224 investors entered a company along with Essence VC. These include investors like Alumni Ventures (3 companies).
- Invested after Essence VC: A total of 43 investors have invested in Essence VC's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Databricks (3 companies), Capital One Ventures (2 companies) and Tristan Handy (2 companies).
Recent News related to Essence VC
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