Charles Lax
Founder @ Flatiron Partners
Needham, United States
Charles Lax is a Series A investor at Flatiron Partners in Needham focused on Software and ISP. Charley is the founder and Managing General Partner of GrandBanks Capital, focusing on investments in Internet infrastructure, software and software services, security and storage applications, mobile media, financial technologies and services, and wireless technologies and services. Charley's investment career includes investments in 48portfolio companies, which have resulted in 36 exits thus far. His track record includes 15 companies that went public, of which 10 achieved market caps in excess of $1 billion. The combined value of exits during Charley’s venture career has been over $6.1 billion which includes the $4.3 billion purchase of GeoCities by Yahoo!. Charley was recently named one of the top 50 venture capitalists on the east coast by AlwaysOn. Charley currently serves on the boards of a number of GBC companies, including; GlassHouse Technologies, KnowledgeVision, SendMe Mobile, SilverRail Technologies, TIM Group.Charley has sponsored and managed investments in Art Technology Group (Nasdaq:ARTG), Backweb (Nasdaq:BWEB)(sold to Oracle Corp), E*Trade (NYSE:ET), FreeLoader (sold to Individual Inc.), Firefly Networks (sold to Microsoft), GeoCities (Nasdaq:GCTY; sold to Yahoo!), Gamesville (sold to Lycos), GSI Commerce (Nasdaq:GSIC)(sold to eBay, Inc.), Impulse Buy Network (sold to Inktomi), Interliant (Nasdaq:INIT), InvesTools (sold to Telescan), Launch Media (Nasdaq:LAUN; sold to Yahoo!), Mainspring (Nasdaq:MSPR; sold to IBM), Email Publishing/Message Media (Nasdaq:MAIL), Multex Systems (Nasdaq:MLTX; sold to Reuters), Personalogic (sold to AOL), Talk City (Nasdaq:TCTY), TheStreet.com (Nasdaq:TSCM), Third Age Media (sold to MyFamily), Webhire, Yoyodyne Entertainment (sold to Yahoo!), Exactis (Nasdaq:XACT; sold to 24/7 Media), 1800Flowers.com (Nasdaq:FLWS), Connected Corporation (sold to Iron Mountain, Inc. Nasdaq:IRM), Colubris Networks (sold to Hewlett-Packard Company(NYSE:HPQ)), Incipient (sold to Texas Memory Systems (Nasdaq:TMS)), Coradiant (sold to BMC Software (Nasdaq: BMC)), OutStart (sold to Kenexa (NYSE:KNXA)), Vela Systems (sold to Autodesk (Nasdaq:ADSK)), and most recently Ember Corporation (sold to Silicon Laboratories (Nasdaq:SLAB) and Savored (sold to Groupon)
- Total investments:
- 9
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 44%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Charles Lax invests in
Stages Charles Lax invests in
Countries Charles Lax invests in
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 2 (22%)
- ISP 1 (11%)
- SaaS 1 (11%)
- Mobile 1 (11%)
- Travel 1 (11%)
Stage
- Series A 4 (44%)
- Series B 3 (33%)
- Series C 1 (11%)
- Series E 1 (11%)
Country
- United States 4 (44%)
- United Kingdom 1 (11%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Defense Mobile
|
Defense Mobile Corporation is a newly formed 4G LTE based mobile operator built on the guiding belief that those who have served deserve more. | $20M / Series A / Jan 09, 2015 | |
SilverRail Technologies
|
SilverRail is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of passenger rail ticketing, travel distribution technology, and global rail access. SilverRail's technology is purpose built for rail. Our product suite spans the full customer experience. It was founded in 2009 and headquartered in London, England. | $15M / Series B / Mar 21, 2012 | |
KnowledgeVision
|
KnowledgeVision Systems Incorporated provides on-demand tools to create interactive and multi-media Web presentations for companies and organizations. It offers an enterprise solution for creating on-demand synchronized video business presentations for the Web. The company's tool is used in sales and marketing presentations, productdemonstrations, training, and organizational development sessions, CEO and senior management communications, knowledge sharing presentations, periodic financial reporting, and virtual roadshows, an on-demand replay of webinars, and interactive white papers. KnowledgeVision Systems Incorporated was founded in 2010 and is based in Concord, Massachusetts. | $2M / Series A / Jan 04, 2011 | |
|
SilverRail Technologies
|
SilverRail is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of passenger rail ticketing, travel distribution technology, and global rail access. SilverRail's technology is purpose built for rail. Our product suite spans the full customer experience. It was founded in 2009 and headquartered in London, England. | $9M / Series A / Jul 21, 2010 | |
Colubris Networks
|
Colubris Networks provides wireless local area network solutions for enterprises and service providers. Its products include Colubris Wireless MultiService Access Points, which enable organizations to create wireless networking with direct source-to-destination traffic forwarding; Wireless Client Bridge that transforms non-wireless infrastructuredevices into wireless-ready mobile equipment; and MultiService Controllers, which manage wireless network configuration and operation. | $14M / Series E / Nov 03, 2006 | |
|
Colubris Networks
|
Colubris Networks provides wireless local area network solutions for enterprises and service providers. Its products include Colubris Wireless MultiService Access Points, which enable organizations to create wireless networking with direct source-to-destination traffic forwarding; Wireless Client Bridge that transforms non-wireless infrastructuredevices into wireless-ready mobile equipment; and MultiService Controllers, which manage wireless network configuration and operation. | $15M / Series C / Mar 08, 2005 | |
|
Colubris Networks
|
Colubris Networks provides wireless local area network solutions for enterprises and service providers. Its products include Colubris Wireless MultiService Access Points, which enable organizations to create wireless networking with direct source-to-destination traffic forwarding; Wireless Client Bridge that transforms non-wireless infrastructuredevices into wireless-ready mobile equipment; and MultiService Controllers, which manage wireless network configuration and operation. | $13M / Series B / Mar 08, 2004 | |
Support.com
|
Support.com Cloud is designed to function like a GPS for customer support.Their Support.com Agent Support application offers an easy-to-use interface that makes it simple for support agents to launch Guided Paths® that walk them through the exact steps they need to solve even the knottiest end-user technical problems. Full-feature remote accessto the user’s connected technology is built right in, and detailed data is gathered throughout the entire interaction, providing valuable insights to support center management and a feedback loop for the continual improvement of Guided Paths. | $17M / Series B / Jun 30, 1999 | |
|
Support.com
|
Support.com Cloud is designed to function like a GPS for customer support.Their Support.com Agent Support application offers an easy-to-use interface that makes it simple for support agents to launch Guided Paths® that walk them through the exact steps they need to solve even the knottiest end-user technical problems. Full-feature remote accessto the user’s connected technology is built right in, and detailed data is gathered throughout the entire interaction, providing valuable insights to support center management and a feedback loop for the continual improvement of Guided Paths. | Series A / Sep 01, 1997 |
Co-Investors
About Flatiron Partners
In 1996, Fred Wilson co-founded Flatiron Partners with his partner Jerry Colonna. Flatiron, named after the Flatiron District, became a successful, primarily follow-on investment fund in the New York City area, with investments in notable Dot-com bubble successes and failures including Alacra, comScore Networks, Yoyodyne, Geocities, Kozmo.com, NewYork Times Digital, PlanetOut, Return Path, Scout electromedia, Standard Media International, Starmedia, and VitaminShoppe.com. The firm's 1996 fund capitalized at $150 million with two investors: SOFTBANK Technology Ventures and Chase Capital Partners, the private-equity arm of Chase Manhattan Corp. The firm later raised another fund capitalized at $500 million with Chase Capital Partners as the sole active LP. In 2001, Wilson and Colonna essentially shut down Flatiron (although they still manage what remains of its portfolio). Wilson offered a blunt assessment in July 2005 in Business 2.0, "Yeah, boy, we really screwed up a bunch of things."
Flatiron Partners Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Peter Himler
Founding Principal
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Charles Lax
Founder
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3 more contacts available
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FAQ
What does Charles Lax invest in?
Charles Lax invests primarily in Software, ISP and SaaS startups, most often at Series A and Series B stage. Most of the 9 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
When did Charles Lax last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Charles Lax closed in Jan 2015. Shizune tracks 9 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
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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