# Darcy Frisch

> Darcy Frisch is a Series C investor at Hearst Ventures (New York) backing Mobile and Software. See 11 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Hearst Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hearst-interactive-media)
- Location: New York, United States
- Total investments: 11
- Last investment: Jan 2025
- Lead investor: 18%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/darcy-bentley-frisch/0/988/881
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/DFrisch

Darcy Frisch is a Series C investor at Hearst Ventures in New York focused on Mobile and Software. Darcy Frisch is vice president at Hearst Ventures, where she identifies, executes and oversees Hearst’s investments in early stage digital media and information businesses. Since joining Hearst Ventures in 2000, Ms. Frisch has been involved with many investments including drugstore.com, XM Satellite Radio, Circles and MobiTV. Shecurrently is a board director at Nexage and board observer at RAMP. She previously served on the boards of Sphere (sold to AOL in 2008) and Voxpop.tv (sold to IAC in 2011).Prior to Hearst, Darcy was with the investment group E2Enet. She also held positions as a tax analyst at KPMG and as the legislative assistant for tax for U.S. Senator David Boren of Oklahoma. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University and earned her MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mobile | 2 | 18% |
| Software | 2 | 18% |
| Advertising Platforms | 2 | 18% |
| TV | 1 | 9% |
| CRM | 1 | 9% |

30 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series C | 4 | 36% |
| Series A | 2 | 18% |
| Series B | 2 | 18% |
| Series E | 1 | 9% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 6 | 55% |
| Canada | 1 | 9% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Optable | Optable is a data collaboration and clean room solution designed for the advertising ecosystem in the age of privacy. The product was inspired by the radical transformation in how audience data is governed, connected, and activated. Optable takes an end-to-end approach to data collaboration and is integrated with ad delivery platforms for secureactivation, making it possible to deploy campaigns directly from a clean room. It is the only clean room solution that offers frictionless collaboration and interoperability enabling customers to safely and securely match audience data with any partner. | $20M | Series A | Jan 24, 2025 |  |
| Optable | Optable is a data collaboration and clean room solution designed for the advertising ecosystem in the age of privacy. The product was inspired by the radical transformation in how audience data is governed, connected, and activated. Optable takes an end-to-end approach to data collaboration and is integrated with ad delivery platforms for secureactivation, making it possible to deploy campaigns directly from a clean room. It is the only clean room solution that offers frictionless collaboration and interoperability enabling customers to safely and securely match audience data with any partner. | $19.4M | Series A | Apr 18, 2023 |  |
| Via | Via is a re-engineering public transit company that develops and provides on-demand public mobility solutions for commuters. The company transforms public transit from a regulated system of rigid routes and schedules to a fully dynamic, on-demand network. Via's mobile app connects passengers who are headed the same way, allowing riders toseamlessly share a premium vehicle. The platform operates in the United States and in Europe through its joint venture with Mercedes-Benz Vans, ViaVan. Via's technology is deployed worldwide through partner projects with public transportation agencies, private transit operators, taxi fleets, private companies, and universities, integrating with public transit infrastructure to power cutting-edge on-demand mobility.Via's software offers an end-to-end solution for planning, optimizing, and operating efficient and equitable transit systems, thereby unlocking opportunity for all and constructing resilient cities for the future. | $200M | Series E | Mar 30, 2020 |  |
| Cogito | Cogito is a computer service company that enhances the emotional intelligence of phone professionals by applying behavioral science through artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its software evaluates hundreds of behavioral signals through voice to provide live conversation coaching for agents and a real-time measure of customer experiencefor every call. | $20M | Series C | Sep 05, 2019 |  |
| Cogito | Cogito is a computer service company that enhances the emotional intelligence of phone professionals by applying behavioral science through artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its software evaluates hundreds of behavioral signals through voice to provide live conversation coaching for agents and a real-time measure of customer experiencefor every call. | $8M | Series C | Dec 05, 2018 |  |
| Via | Via is a re-engineering public transit company that develops and provides on-demand public mobility solutions for commuters. The company transforms public transit from a regulated system of rigid routes and schedules to a fully dynamic, on-demand network. Via's mobile app connects passengers who are headed the same way, allowing riders toseamlessly share a premium vehicle. The platform operates in the United States and in Europe through its joint venture with Mercedes-Benz Vans, ViaVan. Via's technology is deployed worldwide through partner projects with public transportation agencies, private transit operators, taxi fleets, private companies, and universities, integrating with public transit infrastructure to power cutting-edge on-demand mobility.Via's software offers an end-to-end solution for planning, optimizing, and operating efficient and equitable transit systems, thereby unlocking opportunity for all and constructing resilient cities for the future. | $100M | Series C | May 05, 2016 |  |
| PowerToFly | PowerToFly is a global platform dedicated to more diversity, inclusion, and transparency at work via virtual events and remote jobs. It propels companies to meet mandated diversity hiring goals and connect diverse candidates to companies that care. The platform is connecting women with companies that value work-life integration, female-friendlybenefits, equal pay for equal work and environments where they thrive.PowerToFly optimized search and sourcing tools, targeted job promotions, and high visibility employer branding services reduce the time to hire hard to reach talent tools of underrepresented female engineers at a centralized and lower cost. It was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in New York, NY, USA. | $6.5M | Series A | Jun 30, 2015 |  |
| Via | Via is a re-engineering public transit company that develops and provides on-demand public mobility solutions for commuters. The company transforms public transit from a regulated system of rigid routes and schedules to a fully dynamic, on-demand network. Via's mobile app connects passengers who are headed the same way, allowing riders toseamlessly share a premium vehicle. The platform operates in the United States and in Europe through its joint venture with Mercedes-Benz Vans, ViaVan. Via's technology is deployed worldwide through partner projects with public transportation agencies, private transit operators, taxi fleets, private companies, and universities, integrating with public transit infrastructure to power cutting-edge on-demand mobility.Via's software offers an end-to-end solution for planning, optimizing, and operating efficient and equitable transit systems, thereby unlocking opportunity for all and constructing resilient cities for the future. | $27M | Series B | Apr 02, 2015 |  |
| RAMP Holdings | RAMP (formerly EveryZing) has developed the next generation of search & video experiences to unlock the unrealized value in video content. Using RAMP, companies are able to drive increased discovery across search and social sites, enhance user engagement through dynamic search and publishing solutions, securely deliver video to intendedaudiences, and maximize revenue through sophisticated advertising capabilities.Originally spun out from government sub-contractor BBN in 2006, RAMP has an extensive patent portfolio covering its speech-to-text, natural language processing (NLP) and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. These technologies allow for the automatic creation of metadata for audio and video content so that these assets may be treated like “native citizens” in popular content management systems, in search, and other applications that are dependent on rich metadata. RAMP’s solutions are used by leading media and publishing companies, such as NBCUniversal, FOXSports, Meredith Publishing, as well as across a broad range of enterprises – from financial services, to pharmaceuticals/healthcare, to energy, to high tech and more. | $15M | Series C | Sep 27, 2012 |  |
| NEXAGE | Digital advertising is driven by two overwhelming trends: the strategic role of mobile and the critical role of programmatic technologies to drive efficiency and liquidity. Nexage is at the forefront of both of these macro trends, leading and shaping the premium mobile advertising market through a set of firsts. Nexage was the first-to-market withmobile RTB; mobile private exchange; an exchange-based data solution, Nexage Connect; and the most robust brand safety solution in the market, Nexage Protect. Nexage has translated first-to-market advantage, creating a range of programmatic markets that allow premium publishers and buyers to design and operate markets that best enable them to accelerate their business, whether that is through an open exchange, private exchanges, or programmatic guaranteed markets. Nexage’s data solution, Nexage Connect, creates a powerful and efficient data model to deliver behavioral, contextual, location, identifier, and privacy data to buyers and their agency clients to improve targeting and retargeting, while enhancing the value of publishers’ audience. Nexage serves customers on a worldwide basis with offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco and London. Come visit us at www.nexage.com or follow us on Twitter @Nexage. | $15M | Series B | Jun 06, 2012 |  |

10 of 11 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [83North](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/greylock-partners-israel) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Pitango VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pitango-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [asterX](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/asterx) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Brightspark Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brightspark-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Deloitte](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/deloitte) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Desjardins Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/desjardins-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Hearst Ventures

VC Fund · New York, United States

Hearst Ventures makes strategic investments in companies operating at the intersection of media, information, and technology.

5 contacts available at Hearst Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Darcy Frisch | Managing Director & Vice President | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/darcy-frisch |
| David Famolari | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/david-famolari |
| Edward P. Zebrowski | Finance Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/edward-p-zebrowski |
| Gabby Munoz | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gabby-munoz-f307 |
| Gil Canaani | Managing Director & General Manager | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gil-canaani |

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## FAQ

### What does Darcy Frisch invest in?

Darcy Frisch invests primarily in Mobile, Software and Advertising Platforms startups, most often at Series C and Series A stage. Most of the 11 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 Darcy Frisch last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Darcy Frisch closed in Jan 2025. Shizune tracks 11 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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