# Cathay Innovation

> Cathay Innovation is a VC fund backing Software and Artificial Intelligence. See 106 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 106
- Last investment: Jun 2025
- Lead investor: 42%
- Last fund: May 2025
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cathay-innovation
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/Cathayinnov
- Website: http://cathayinnovation.com/c-entrepreneurs
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cathay-Innovation-1138603876164624

Cathay Innovation is a multistage venture capital firm affiliated with Cathay Capital, investing in founders building transformative businesses across Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Its platform connects founders with investors and its ecosystem of leading Fortune 500 corporations to help startups scale and transformindustries with consumer-to-enterprise and AI solutions in commerce, fintech, digital health, and mobility/energy. Cathay Innovation now manages over €2.5B AUM with offices in Paris, Berlin, Madrid, San Francisco, Mexico City, Shanghai, and Singapore and has invested in over 150 startups, including Chime, Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD), Glovo, Wallbox (NYSE: WBX), Owkin, Ledger, ZenBusiness, Alma, Descartes Underwriting, and more.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Cathay Innovation. Shizune tracks 12 team members at Cathay Innovation. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/c-entrepreneurs?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $8M–$38M |
| Series B | $15M–$59M |
| Series C | $24M–$200M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 18 | 17% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 18 | 17% |
| Financial Services | 17 | 16% |
| FinTech | 15 | 14% |
| Health Care | 11 | 10% |

121 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series B | 36 | 34% |
| Series A | 27 | 25% |
| Series C | 14 | 13% |
| Seed | 9 | 8% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 4 | 4% |

11 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 19 | 18% |
| France | 18 | 17% |
| China | 8 | 8% |
| Spain | 7 | 7% |
| United Kingdom | 4 | 4% |

18 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Brian Schwarzbach | Investor | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brian-schwarzbach-de31 |
| Costanza Carissimo | Director | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/costanza-carissimo |
| Denis Barrier | Co-founder and CEO | 15 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/denis-barrier |
| Jacky Abitbol | Managing Partner | 32 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jacky-abitbol |
| John Li | Partner | 3 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-li-1c00 |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nabla | Nabla develops AI-powered tools focused on healthcare, particularly in medical imaging and diagnostics. The company creates solutions that assist medical professionals in detecting and analyzing conditions through advanced machine learning algorithms. Nabla's technology aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy and streamline clinical workflows byintegrating with existing healthcare systems. The company collaborates with medical institutions to improve patient outcomes using AI-driven insights. Its offerings include software platforms designed for radiology and pathology applications. | $70M | Series C | Jun 17, 2025 |  |
| Abacum | Abacum is a SaaS that helps finance teams deliver business insights. Abacum is the first collaborative workflow and planning platform for SMB's finance teams to boost productivity and strategic impact. The company believes in empowering people with the best collaborative tools for them to multiply their strategic impact in the organization andbe more fulfilled. | $60M | Series B | Jun 11, 2025 |  |
| Flowdesk | Flowdesk is a regulated, full-service digital asset trading and technology firm that specializes in market making, OTC, and treasury management services. Company registered in France - no. 883604647Registered Digital Asset Service Provider with the AMF for digital assets custody, purchase/sale of digital assets for legal tender and tradingof digital assets for other digital assets number: E2021-019 | $91.8M | Venture - Series Unknown | Mar 04, 2025 |  |
| Bioptimus | Bioptimus is a developer of a universal AI foundation model that connects biology at all sizes, from molecules to cells, tissues, and entire organisms. The company's technology turns multiscale data into actionable representations, allowing clients to spark breakthrough discoveries and expedite biomedical innovation. | $41M | Series A | Jan 14, 2025 |  |
| Nelly | Nelly provides a tool for medical practices that simplifies patient onboarding and payments. It creates the basis for stress-free and clear work in your practice by drastically reducing the administrative effort for doctors, MFAs, ZFAs, and patients with Nelly. 90% of all healthcare professionals perceive bureaucracy and administrative burdens asthe biggest problem in the workplace.The company's mission is to reduce the administrative effort in the healthcare sector by simplifying documentation and payment processes in order to make the practice visit more patient- and employee-friendly. | $51.5M | Series B | Jan 14, 2025 |  |
| AQEMIA | AQEMIA is a pharmatech company developing a drug discovery platform to discover new drugs for specific therapeutic targets. Its platform combines quantum-inspired physics and machine learning to scale the drug discovery process, generating a growing pipeline of new drug candidates. The company utilizes advanced techniques, including generative AIand atomic scale physics, to design novel drugs tailored for specific therapeutic targets. | $38M | Series A | Dec 10, 2024 |  |
| Range | Range is a personal finance platform providing online access to financial planners and tools to tracks, plan, and share your finances. | $28M | Series B | Nov 26, 2024 |  |
| Ghost | Ghost is a marketplace that connects leading retail brands with surplus distribution partners. Ghost combines real-time data with intelligent solutions to help brands monetize their excess inventory discreetly and sustainably. By providing liquidity, protection, and transparency, the Ghost platform serves as the backbone for retailers to diversifyand optimize their inventory lifecycle. | $40M | Series C | Oct 15, 2024 |  |
| Entalpic | Entalpic is an AI-driven discovery platform for sustainable industries aiming to optimize carbon-intensive sectors. | $9.4M | Seed | Sep 04, 2024 |  |
| Payflow | Payflow is an employee benefit that companies can offer to their employees. Payflow provides employees instant access to earned salary to improve their financial well-being. Companies benefit from improved productivity and engagement, with no impact on cash-flow.Payflow was founded in 2020, and it is a Rocket Internet backed venture based inSpain. | $6.5M |  | Jul 24, 2024 |  |

10 of 106 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Cathay Innovation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/cathay-innovation-fund) — VC Fund, 110 deals together
- [Seaya](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/seaya-ventures) — VC Fund, 14 deals together
- [Bpifrance](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bpifrance) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Endeavor Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/endeavor-catalyst) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Bossa Invest](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bossanova-investimentos) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Eurazeo](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/eurazeo-com) — VC Fund, 5 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Cathay Innovation invest in?

Cathay Innovation invests primarily in Software, Artificial Intelligence and Financial Services startups, most often at Series B and Series A stage. Most of the 106 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Cathay Innovation's check size?

Cathay Innovation typically joins rounds of $8M–$38M at Series A, $15M–$59M at Series B and $24M–$200M at Series C. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Cathay Innovation participates in.

### How do I contact Cathay Innovation?

Public channels for Cathay Innovation include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Cathay Innovation?

The team at Cathay Innovation includes Brian Schwarzbach (Investor), Costanza Carissimo (Director) and Denis Barrier (Co-founder and CEO), among 12 team members tracked by Shizune. The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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