I started Ascend in 2019. It was a scrappy effort with a homemade website and a very Seattle investment mentality. I wanted to build Seattle’s version of my favorite Valley pre-seed funds. In a venture market that’s traditionally been conservative, I saw a chance to build a moonshot factory.
Ascend became an actual firm in 2022, when we raised our second fund and hired Jen and Nate. We sharpened our thesis and portfolio construction, started investing in SF, NYC, and beyond, and slowly grew from a fund into a firm. We kept the homemade website.
Today, we're announcing our $17 million third fund. We are backed by a few funds of funds, family offices, and a bunch of our favorite founders. Our second fund and third fund are now top decile performers. We’ve earned the right to play on the biggest stage.
We intentionally kept this fund small. We believe pre-seed is still a craft business. We want to know the founders, do the work, and back the rare people you would quit your job to work for.
We also engaged Dakotomy to rethink the Ascend brand for where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. We’re Seattle first, but not Seattle only. We invest in AI and deep tech, at inception, and we’re more moonshot-focused than ever.
From Seattle, with Love,
Kirby Winfield
