Investors / United States / Ascend
Ascend
Venture capital · Seattle, WA, United States · North America
Ascend is a first-check venture capital firm that invests at the start of technology companies, typically writing initial checks of $250K to $750K. It supports founders with operating experience, advice, and introductions from a team based in Seattle.
Invests inAI & Machine Learning
In its own wordsaisoftwarefrontier techroboticsautonomydefense
Your fit with Ascend
Four questions about your startup
See how your round matches what it backs, point by point.
Or find every investor that fitsAscend lists 74 checked portfolio companies on its own site. Its largest themes are AI & Machine Learning (37%), Fintech (9%) and Healthcare & Biotech (8%). 98% of its companies are based in United States. It invests most often alongside Madrona, AI House and FUSE.
No funding round on record names Ascend yet, so the figures come from its portfolio page.
Round figures show recent activity, not Ascend's whole history. Rounds on record name 0 companies; its own site lists 74. Funding rounds are complete from mid-2025, so counts and the yearly trend undercount a firm that invested before then. The portfolio, themes and places come from its own site and are not affected.
Investment themes
share of its checked companiesThis firmAll checked companies
Show as a table
| This firm | All checked companies | |
|---|---|---|
| AI & Machine Learning | 37% | 18% |
| Fintech | 9% | 12% |
| Healthcare & Biotech | 8% | 15% |
| Enterprise Software | 8% | 8% |
| Cybersecurity | 5% | 4% |
| E-commerce & Marketplaces | 5% | 6% |
| Education | 5% | 7% |
| Industrial & Manufacturing | 5% | 7% |
Invests most often with
firms sharing its portfolio companiesShow as a table
| Share | |
|---|---|
| Madrona | 6 |
| AI House | 5 |
| FUSE | 5 |
| Y Combinator | 5 |
| Point72 Ventures | 4 |
| 8VC | 3 |
| EPIC Ventures | 3 |
| Flying Fish Ventures | 3 |
Investor profile
percentile among all firmsShow as a table
| Measure | Percentile of all firms | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio size | 92th | 74 companies |
| Recent activity | 46th | 0 rounds in 12 months |
| Early stage | 54th | 0% of entries at pre-seed or seed |
| Evidence | 52th | 0% of companies confirmed by a round |
| Sector focus | 68th | 37% in its largest sector |
| Reach | 42th | 2 countries |
Its portfolio companies
where they are based, and what their own sites showSite status
- Site answers7399%
- No longer answers00%
- Points to another company11%
- Parked or sold domain00%
A site that stops answering three checks in a row is counted as no longer answering; that is not proof of closure. A site that points to another company is often an acquisition.
Co-investor network
who it backs companies with, and who they back togetherCompare Ascend head to head
portfolio size, rounds, entry stages, themes and the companies both backThree or more firms at once: portfolio overlap.
In the news
1 headline naming AscendEach headline is matched with evidence and opens on its outlet.
Portfolio
74 companies checked against their own sites| Company | What it does | Themes | First round with it | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adyn provides at-home birth control tests and personalized prescriptions based on genetic background and hormone levels | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Aerolane develops and deploys aerotowing systems, including engineless cargo gliders, to improve air cargo economics and capabilities | AI & Machine LearningAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page | ||
| Athanor builds infrastructure to prove or disprove computational claims about programs, circuits, or protocols. | AI & Machine LearningCybersecurity | Portfolio page | ||
| Atypical delivers the transformative power of generative AI to educators, content creators, and learners of all backgrounds. | EducationAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page | ||
| Audivi AI is the first drive-thru AI voice ordering system to deliver on what the restaurant industry has been asking for | AI & Machine LearningFood & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| Avante provides an enterprise AI platform for benefits teams to manage and improve employee benefits | Healthcare & BiotechFintech | Portfolio page | ||
| AZX delivers AI solutions for energy, real estate, supply chain and other infrastructure industries. | AI & Machine LearningReal Estate & Construction | Portfolio page | ||
| The company offers personalized coffee subscriptions with specialty coffees from independent roasters. | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| Betterment provides automated investing and financial planning services. | FintechFintech | Portfolio page | ||
| Blume sells skincare products | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| CHAOS Industries designs and manufactures defense systems, including radar and interceptor products, for military use. | AI & Machine LearningAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page | ||
| Clarify provides an autonomous customer relationship management (CRM) system that handles tasks such as prospecting, enrichment, reporting, and call intelligence | AI & Machine LearningEnterprise Software | Portfolio page | ||
| Complement takes care of a company's entire business flow without replacing the existing ERP or team's best thinking. | Industrial & Manufacturing | Portfolio page | ||
| Crowd Cow delivers premium meat, Wagyu, and seafood to customers | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| Endurance Energy is a company that has a contact page and a careers section, but its specific activities are not described on the page. | EducationHealthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Envive AI provides an intelligence layer for eCommerce that continuously adapts shopping experiences to turn shopper context into revenue | AI & Machine LearningE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| Envoy provides a workplace and visitor solutions platform | EducationHealthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Fabric connects brands' data and systems to AI engines for product recommendations | AI & Machine LearningE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| Finpilot does the recurring work of the investment office with speed, consistency and analytical depth | FintechAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page | ||
| Ganaz provides software for managing agricultural workforce and payroll | AI & Machine LearningAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page |
About this data
site last read 5 Nov 2026- Site
- ascend.vc
- Last read
- 5 Nov 2026
- Watching since
- 6 Nov 2026
- Companies checked
- 74
Rates come from what VCinfo has observed since observation_start. Firms tend to remove companies that closed, so early rates understate reality. A company leaving a portfolio page does not mean it closed or exited. An unreachable site means our checks failed, nothing more.
Get Ascend's profile as data
Pull Ascend's portfolio, co-investors and changes through one API key or MCP, open every portfolio row, compare it with other firms, and get an email when it adds a company or files a fund.
Work email, sign-in link by email. Already have an account? Log in- Ask AI5 plain-English investor searches a day
- Full listsEvery portfolio row and two-firm overlap
- API and MCP100 REST or MCP calls a month, one key
- AlertsFollow 5 investors for portfolio and fund changes
$ curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
https://api.vcinfo.io/v1/firms/ascend.vc
# also
GET /v1/firms/ascend.vc/portfolio
GET /v1/firms/ascend.vc/coinvestors
GET /v1/firms/ascend.vc/news