Fund IV $680M — Now Investing
Focus: Deep Tech · Climate · AI Infrastructure
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The Firm

Built by founders.
Trusted by builders.

Meridian Capital was founded in 2012 by operators who had been through the full cycle — idea, capital, scale, exit. We built this firm to be the investor we wished we'd had. Everything else follows from that.

2012
Founded
61
Portfolio Companies
$2.1B
Deployed
3.4x
Net TVPI (I–III)
Meridian Capital office
Our Story

We started because the
system was broken.

In 2012, Daniel Osei had just sold Gridflow to Siemens. Elena Vasquez had co-founded Novacite through a near-death funding experience. Kwame Asante had watched clean-energy companies die waiting for capital that never came. They didn't want to run another company. They wanted to fix what was wrong with venture.

The problem wasn't a shortage of money. It was a shortage of investors who had actually built anything. Most VC partners had gone straight from elite universities into finance. They could read a cap table but they'd never missed payroll, never managed a regulator, never had to fire a co-founder. Meridian was built to change that.

2012
Fund I — $85M
First close with 3 LP commitments. First investment: Arcadia Systems, $1.2M seed.
2016
Fund II — $240M · First Unicorn
Novacite IPOs on NASDAQ. Fund I returns 2.8x net to LPs. Nadia Sorel joins as GP.
2020
Fund III — $420M · Singapore Office Opens
Southeast Asia sourcing begins. 5 unicorns across Fund I–II portfolio. London office established.
2024
Fund IV — $680M · Now Deploying
Largest fund to date. Focus on deep tech, climate infra, and AI platforms. 61 active portfolio companies.
What We Stand For

Six principles we've
never negotiated on.

01
Operational Credibility

We earn the right to give advice by having done the work. Every GP at Meridian has founded, scaled, or operated at the executive level before investing a single dollar. We don't theorize — we remember.

02
Founder-First Terms

No participating preferred. No ratchets. No punitive anti-dilution. Our term sheets are founder-friendly by design, not by negotiation. We believe alignment is structural, not linguistic.

03
Radical Transparency

We publish our NPS scores, our pass rates, our full portfolio performance, and our process timelines. We give honest feedback on every pass. We expect the same from founders.

04
Conviction Over Consensus

We don't syndicate our decisions or seek social proof from other VCs. We form an independent view and we act on it. Our best investments looked wrong to the market for 18–36 months after we made them.

05
Long Time Horizon

We stay on boards through IPO or acquisition. We don't pressure companies into premature exits or push for an M&A process to manufacture a DPI number. We're playing a 10-year game alongside you.

06
Portfolio Over PR

We don't attend panels to talk about our portfolio. We don't issue press releases about investments. Every hour spent on firm brand is an hour not spent helping a founder — and we've made our choice.

The Partnership

Built by people who
have done the hard parts

Our four general partners have collectively founded 7 companies, taken 3 public, and led or participated in $4.2B in exits before ever managing a fund.

Daniel Osei
Why he invests
"I spent 11 years building things and hitting walls I didn't need to hit. I invest so founders don't hit the same ones."
Daniel Osei
Managing Partner
Fmr. CEO, Gridflow (acq. Siemens $1.1B) · MIT Sloan
Elena Vasquez
Why she invests
"Science moves faster than capital. My job is to make sure the best science gets the runway it deserves."
Elena Vasquez
General Partner — Deep Tech
PhD Materials Science, Caltech · Co-founder, Novacite (IPO 2020)
Kwame Asante
Why he invests
"The most important markets in the next decade will be built in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. I make sure Meridian is there first."
Kwame Asante
General Partner — Climate
Fmr. VP Policy, Tesla · Harvard Kennedy School
Nadia Sorel
Why she invests
"I've been the founder in the room with no leverage. I take board seats to make sure our founders always have an advocate."
Nadia Sorel
General Partner — AI & Consumer
Fmr. Head of Product, Stripe · Founder, Comet (Series C)
Strategic Advisors

The network behind
the network.

Our advisory board brings domain expertise, regulatory access, and market relationships across every sector we invest in.

Dr. Priya Mehta
Climate & Energy Policy

Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Energy. Architect of the IRA implementation framework. Advisor to 3 sitting heads of state on energy transition.

James Okafor
AI & Enterprise Software

Co-founder, DataBridge (acq. Salesforce, $2.4B). Board director at 4 public SaaS companies. 20 years building enterprise software at scale.

Dr. Yuki Tanaka
Deep Tech & Materials

Professor, MIT DMSE. 14 patents in advanced materials. Scientific co-founder of 3 deep tech companies across semiconductors and bioelectronics.

Sofia Andreou
Regulatory & Legal

Former General Counsel, European Investment Fund. Expert in cross-border venture structures, CFIUS, and EU regulatory frameworks for deep tech companies.

Marcus Webb
Healthcare & Life Sciences

Former CMO, Stanford Medicine. Led FDA strategy for 7 approved medical devices. Advisor to CMS, NIH, and the White House OSTP on health technology.

Amara Kone
Emerging Markets & Growth

Founded and scaled operations across 22 African markets. Former regional president, Africa, at two Fortune 500 companies. LP in Meridian I–IV.

Ready to build something hard and important?

We back companies that others think are too early, too technical, or too difficult to explain. Those are usually the best ones.

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