# Chris Zarou

> Chris Zarou is a seed investor at Backwards Capital backing Internet. See 7 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Oct 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Backwards Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/backwards-capital)
- Location: New York, United States
- Total investments: 7
- Last investment: Oct 2025
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Oct 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-zarou-1a0910232/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/chriszarou

Chris Zarou is a seed investor at Backwards Capital in New York focused on Internet and Artificial Intelligence. Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, Fund Manager

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Chris Zarou: work email, personal email, work phone, personal phone and socials. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-email/chris-zarou?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Internet | 2 | 29% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 2 | 29% |
| Hardware | 1 | 14% |
| Software | 1 | 14% |
| Textiles | 1 | 14% |

16 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 3 | 43% |
| Pre-Seed | 2 | 29% |
| Series A | 1 | 14% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Omen AI | Omen AI develops an AI-powered asset intelligence platform that monitors equipment health through real-time fluid analysis and predictive diagnostics. The company provides sensor technology and portable testing systems that analyze fluids in machinery to identify wear, contamination, and potential equipment issues before failures occur. Omen AIcombines hardware sensors with AI-driven data analysis to help organizations monitor industrial machines and infrastructure systems. The platform supports applications such as industrial equipment maintenance and data center fluid monitoring by providing continuous insights into machine conditions. | $10.5M | Seed | Oct 01, 2025 | https://omen.ai |
| Nema Systems | Nema is an AI company in San Francisco building the mission-critical infrastructure that will secure American technological leadership. |  | Pre-Seed | Sep 16, 2024 | https://nemasystems.io/ |
| Omen AI | Omen AI develops an AI-powered asset intelligence platform that monitors equipment health through real-time fluid analysis and predictive diagnostics. The company provides sensor technology and portable testing systems that analyze fluids in machinery to identify wear, contamination, and potential equipment issues before failures occur. Omen AIcombines hardware sensors with AI-driven data analysis to help organizations monitor industrial machines and infrastructure systems. The platform supports applications such as industrial equipment maintenance and data center fluid monitoring by providing continuous insights into machine conditions. |  | Pre-Seed | Sep 01, 2024 | https://omen.ai |
| Bucha Bio | Bucha Bio creates a novel biomaterial grown from infinitely renewable bacterial-nanocellulose. Strands of natural fibers interlock to form a high-performance textile with a luxuriously soft handfeel. Produced in weeks rather than months or years, use it in premium applications instead of animal leather, polyurethane, latex, vinyl, and so much more.Creating a reliable material is our goal, adding plastics and petrochemicals like PU polyurethane would make it easy, but we’ve never taken the easy way out. Committed to sustainability, Bucha Bio’s team is dedicated to creating a completely biodegradable textile that enables the next generation of designers to create products for a more sustainable future. Our biomaterial is water-resistant, scratch-resistant, sunlight-resistant, flame-resistant, and so many more reasons to test it out in your next product. | $1.1M | Seed | Sep 27, 2022 | https://www.bucha.bio |
| koodos | a creative layer on internet content |  | Seed | Mar 31, 2022 | http://www.koodos.com |
| Whatnot | Whatnot is a Los Angeles-based startup that creates a place where avid collectors could come together over shared interests. Whatnot is a marketplace to buy and sell authentic collectible items. Whatnot was founded in 2019, in California. | $20M | Series A | Mar 04, 2021 | https://www.whatnot.com |

6 of 7 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Genius Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/genius-ventures-8ec8) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [LMNT Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lmnt-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Banter Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/banter-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Caffeinated Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/caffeinated-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Karman Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/karman-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Pareto Holdings](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pareto-holdings) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## About Backwards Capital

VC Fund · New York, United States

Backwards Capital presents early‑stage venture capital investments and strategic support services. It identifies entrepreneurs with non‑traditional backgrounds and partners with them prior to mainstream recognition. The firm provides founders with access to networks, market feedback, and capital, and collaborates on building scalable businessmodels. The team evaluates opportunities across sectors, including technology, media, and consumer brands, supporting growth through introductions and advisory input. It emphasizes partnership with outlier founders and seeks startups that align with founder‑driven visions.

2 contacts available at Backwards Capital.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Chris Zarou | Founder & Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chris-zarou |
| Elizabeth Pullman | Chief of Staff | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/elizabeth-pullman-b007 |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Chris Zarou invest in?

Chris Zarou invests primarily in Internet, Artificial Intelligence and Hardware startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 7 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Chris Zarou?

Public channels for Chris Zarou include LinkedIn and X (Twitter). 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.

### When did Chris Zarou last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Chris Zarou closed in Oct 2025. Shizune tracks 7 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 Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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