by Dr. Gopi Sundaramurthy
We find startup teams using a novel, data-driven approach.
In the early days of venture capital, deal sourcing was simple. The Bay Area’s Sand Hill Road was the epicenter of startup activity, and investors there had a natural advantage: proximity. Nearly every startup seeking funding came to them. But the world has changed. Over the past two decades, the startup ecosystem has exploded in scale and geography. Today, there are over 100,000 startup financings annually worldwide, with talent hubs and innovation stretching far beyond Silicon Valley. The result? An unprecedented challenge for investors: finding the best teams in an increasingly vast and dispersed market.
At Ensemble, we’ve built a solution. Recognizing that no single investor can meet every startup team or analyze every opportunity, we’ve created the world’s leading data science platform for startup team analysis. Every day, a wealth of data points is generated as startup talent interacts—through investments, job changes, promotions, and more. Our platform leverages these data points to build sophisticated network graphs and identify both quantitative and qualitative insights around the factors that lead to success. Using vast quantities of data, we draw empirical insights that enable us to find exceptional teams no matter where they are. It sounds like magic, but it works.
This approach redefines what’s possible in venture capital. Historically, the investors with the strongest networks and the best Rolodexes had an edge. Ensemble’s platform re-establishes that edge—but at scale and with precision. We qualify a dramatically larger pool of opportunities than any traditional sourcing method, ensuring we never miss out on transformative ideas. And by automating much of the legwork, we free up our team’s time to focus on what matters most: deep diligence and providing value to our portfolio companies.
In a world where no investor can claim to have “met all the teams,” Ensemble’s data-driven platform ensures that we’re meeting the right ones. We’ve replaced the geographical and social edge of Sand Hill Road with a technological edge, enabling us to find and back the best startups, wherever they are building. This is how we invest in the future.
Welcome to the team, Hannah Vu!
We’re excited to welcome Hannah Vu to Ensemble VC as a Data Engineer, where she’ll help scale the back-end infrastructure that powers Unity, Ensemble's proprietary data platform.
Rare Earth Elements: The Next Big Thing Is Buried
In a world obsessed with software, the next decacorn might come from a mine. With China controlling 90% of rare earth processing, a new industrial frontier is opening for founders to rebuild the backbone of modern technology—starting with the ground beneath our feet.
Welcome to the team, Aidan Gold!
Ensemble is thrilled to add Aidan Gold to the team. Aidan leads the investment pipeline at the earliest stages of company development.
CHAOS Industries reaches $2B valuation in Series C led by Accel, NEA
CHAOS Industries, a next-generation DefenseTech startup backed by Ensemble at Series B, has raised $275M in a Series C led by Accel and NEA at a $2B valuation, cementing its status as one of Fund II’s breakout successes and validating Ensemble’s data-driven approach to early access in frontier sectors.
Khosla Ventures doubles down on Loti AI, leads $16.2M Series A round
We’re thrilled to share that Loti has announced its $16.2M Series A, led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Ensemble VC, Bling Capital, and FUSE.
Why Ensemble is backing Manifest on its mission to bring transparency to software supply chains in the AI era
Ensemble VC leads the Series A for Manifest, a cybersecurity startup founded by Palantir veterans to build the leading software transparency platform. Manifest creates SBOMs to expose hidden vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, helping major organizations like the U.S. Air Force and Fortune 500 companies secure their software supply chains. Learn how Manifest is shaping the future of AI-driven software security.
