# Defy.vc

> Defy.vc is a VC fund backing Software and Artificial Intelligence. See 132 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Mateo, United States
- Total investments: 132
- Last investment: Jul 2026
- Lead investor: 39%
- Fund size: $300M
- Last fund: Jan 2023
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18244294/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/@defyVc
- Website: http://defy.vc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/defyvc/

Defy.vc is a VC fund in San Mateo focused on Software and Artificial Intelligence. Defy is a seed-stage venture fund focused on emerging high-potential opportunities. It is driven by a passion for working closely with entrepreneurs, especially through the transformative time after seed funding. The firm invests in people and in their conviction and talent for creating real change.Defy was founded in 2016 by Neil Sequeira andTrae Vassallo and is based in San Mateo, California, United States.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Defy.vc. Shizune tracks 9 team members at Defy.vc. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/defy-partners?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $1.7M–$10M |
| Series A | $5.4M–$17M |
| Series B | $12M–$70M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 28 | 21% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 15 | 11% |
| SaaS | 11 | 8% |
| E-Commerce | 9 | 7% |
| Health Care | 8 | 6% |

124 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 51 | 39% |
| Series A | 34 | 26% |
| Series B | 13 | 10% |
| Pre-Seed | 7 | 5% |
| Funding Round | 6 | 5% |

8 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 69 | 52% |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | 1% |
| Pakistan | 1 | 1% |
| Australia | 1 | 1% |

6 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bob Rosin | Partner | 17 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bob-rosin |
| Brian Rothenberg | Partner | 8 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brian-rothenberg |
| Kamil Saeid | Partner | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kamil-saeid |
| Madison McIlwain | Partner, Seed | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/madison-mcilwain |
| Medha Agarwal | General Partner | 5 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/medha-agarwal |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Hakimo | Hakimo provides a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system for physical security. The company uses computer vision to analyze camera footage corresponding to every badge event and correlates that with badging data to raise alerts in real-time. | $12M | Venture - Series Unknown | Jul 08, 2026 |  |
| ChampAI | Champ is your AI operations teammate that automates SOP-driven work across browsers, documents, and internal systems. | $8.5M | Seed | May 13, 2026 |  |
| Synthpop | Synthpop is a healthcare SaaS development company. | $15M | Series A | Feb 03, 2026 |  |
| JOLISS | JOLISS autonomously discovers, maps, and risk scores undocumented APIs across your enterprise, delivering a unified risk portrait so you can act before vulnerabilities materialize. | $700K | Series A | Jan 01, 2026 |  |
| Interface | Interface provides an AI-powered industrial safety platform for the energy and chemicals industries. Its AI-powered platform plugs into existing systems, cross-checks standards, and gives operators a safety copilot that cuts document review time, unplanned downtime, and regulatory exposure. | $3.5M | Seed | Nov 25, 2025 |  |
| Ava Financial | Ava Financial is a fintech company that offers a mobile app-based credit-building platform aimed at individuals looking to establish or improve their credit history. Its main products include the Ava Credit Builder Card, which features a credit line usable at select streaming and online merchant platforms, and the Save & Build Credit Account, asmall secured loan program where users make monthly payments for 12 months and receive a cash refund at the end of the term. The company reports on-time payment history to all three major U.S. credit bureaus—and claims to help users begin seeing credit score improvements quickly, often within days after enrollment. Users link a checking account, pay a monthly subscription fee, and are encouraged to keep credit utilization low. | $15.5M | Seed | Oct 24, 2025 |  |
| JOLISS | JOLISS autonomously discovers, maps, and risk scores undocumented APIs across your enterprise, delivering a unified risk portrait so you can act before vulnerabilities materialize. | $200K | Seed | Oct 01, 2025 |  |
| Birches Health | Birches Health provides therapy and support for those struggling with behavioral and process addictions. | $10M | Series A | Sep 16, 2025 |  |
| Reveal Technology | Reveal Technology is a visual analytics and edge artificial intelligence company that offers a defense tech platform and AI products that generate critical intelligence for military and public safety users. The company provides offline intelligence platforms designed to function without network connectivity, supporting real-time decision-making incontested or remote environments. Its main products include Farsight, which generates 3D maps from drone video, and Identifi, a mobile biometric identification tool. These technologies are deployed by the U.S. Army, Special Operations Command, Marine Corps, and various international military forces. | $30M | Series B | Jul 29, 2025 |  |
| Rocksalt | Rocksalt operates an AI marketing coach platform that provides machine learning solutions for businesses. The company focuses on developing innovative technologies that enhance data analysis and decision-making capabilities. Rocksalt offers a range of services, including predictive analytics, natural language processing, and custom AI modeldevelopment, tailored to meet the specific needs of various industries. The firm emphasizes collaboration with clients to create effective strategies that leverage AI for improved operational efficiency.It identifies high-value conversations, surfaces relevant discussions, and delivers personalized email digests and daily action suggestions to drive visibility and thought leadership. Plans range from a free tier that supports limited influencers and Slack channels to paid tiers with expanded engagement, analytics, team access, and CRM integration. | $3.5M | Seed | Jul 24, 2025 |  |

10 of 132 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [Greylock](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/greylock) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Lightspeed Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lightspeed-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [BAM Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bam-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Fika Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fika-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Khosla Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/khosla-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Defy.vc invest in?

Defy.vc invests primarily in Software, Artificial Intelligence and SaaS startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 132 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 Defy.vc's check size?

Defy.vc typically joins rounds of $1.7M–$10M at Seed, $5.4M–$17M at Series A and $12M–$70M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Defy.vc participates in.

### How do I contact Defy.vc?

Public channels for Defy.vc 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 Defy.vc?

The team at Defy.vc includes Bob Rosin (Partner), Brian Rothenberg (Partner) and Kamil Saeid (Partner), among 9 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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