# Firebrand Ventures

> Firebrand Ventures is a VC fund backing Software and Information Technology. See 48 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Kansas City, United States
- Total investments: 48
- Last investment: Jun 2025
- Lead investor: 10%
- Fund size: $40M
- Last fund: Aug 2021
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/firebrand-ventures/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/firebrandvc
- Website: http://www.firebrandvc.com/

Firebrand Ventures is a new kind of Midwest venture fund. We combine a strong brand, vast network, and deep experience with startup hustle to invest in the most innovative early stage software startups.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Firebrand Ventures. Shizune tracks 3 team members at Firebrand Ventures. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/firebrand-ventures?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 21 | 44% |
| Information Technology | 6 | 13% |
| SaaS | 5 | 10% |
| FinTech | 4 | 8% |
| Analytics | 4 | 8% |

90 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 28 | 58% |
| Series A | 7 | 15% |
| Funding Round | 3 | 6% |
| Series B | 2 | 4% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 2% |

8 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 37 | 77% |
| Canada | 1 | 2% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Chris Marks | Managing Partner | 17 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chris-marks |
| John Fein | Founder and Managing Partner | 20 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-fein |
| Maranda Manning | Associate | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/maranda-jones |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Qualytics | Qualytics replaces reactive data firefighting with proactive, automated quality at scale. Our platform automates and maintains 95% of rules, aligning business and technical users in a single workflow. With governance, auditability, and security built-in, Qualytics delivers reliable data that drives faster decisions and AI readiness across theenterprise. | $10M | Series A | Jun 23, 2025 |  |
| Mermaid Chart | Building the next generation of smart diagramming for enterprise teams. Easily create and collaborate on complex diagrams from text. | $7.6M | Seed | Mar 20, 2024 |  |
| Mermaid Char | Mermaid Chart, founded by Knut Sveidqvist and Open Core Ventures, emerged from the Mermaid open-source project. Lead developers from Mermaid have joined, strengthening the project's connection. Mermaid Chart bolsters open-source Mermaid development, enabling professional usage, while maintaining open-source functionality. It supports Mermaidsignificantly, but also offers commercial services to fund project growth and expand the developer team. | $7.6M | Seed | Mar 20, 2024 |  |
| HData | HData combines centralized data, powerful AI, and purpose-built features to enhance regulatory intelligence for energy professionals. As the system of action for utilities, regulators, advocates, and service providers across the energy sector, HData helps modernize regulatory information processes, reduce the time-intensive burdens of regulatoryworkflows, and accelerate action with comprehensive regulatory insights. Learn how to streamline regulatory research and analysis at hdata.com. | $10M | Series A | Mar 04, 2024 |  |
| Handraise | Handraise is a software development company that makes public relations professionals look like rock stars.Handraise allows brands and agencies, for the first time ever, to leverage the credibility of their earned media against the power of paid advertising - without needing an ad team. Easily deploy earned media ads on your own with no prioradvertising experience.Founded by Matt Allison in 2022 and is located in Austin, Texas. | $6.4M | Seed | Nov 12, 2023 |  |
| The Regis Company | The Regis Company is on a mission to grow great thinkers through the power of technology and the wisdom of neuroscience. Our global customers regard us as their go-to experiential design resource and the industry’s best builder of diverse and immersive learning simulations. | $3.5M | Seed | Sep 11, 2023 |  |
| Judy Security | Judy Security is a cyber security company servicing small and medium businesses. The company's technology Judy uses a secure and private vault to create, store and protect all their passwords, keeping unauthorized users out of their login data. | $5M | Series A | Apr 26, 2023 |  |
| Edlink | Edlink provides two-way connections for e-learning and companies and publishers to tackle challenges like single-sign-on (SSO), content integration, and grade pass-back. The company was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States. | $2M | Seed | May 13, 2022 |  |
| Realto | Realto is an online real estate investment marketplace that helps people invest in real estate properties. The company also offers a platform that facilitates secondary trading of traditionally illiquid real estate and alternative securities, helping investors to transform and democratize real estate assets through liquidity and transparency. | $4.5M | Series A | May 05, 2022 |  |
| Crafty | Crafty is a food and drink company that helps offices craft better workplaces with food, beverage, events, and alcohol management. It works with offices to elevate happiness by providing snacks, beverages, alcohol, and cool happy hour events. From hot coffee to cold brew coffee, from kegs of craft beer to bottles of Bud Light, from LaCroix to CokeZero, from coffee cups to plastic silverware, and from fully stocked office kitchens to poppin’ events and tastings, they offer a truly comprehensive product portfolio.Crafty was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, United States. | $10M | Series A | Apr 26, 2022 |  |

10 of 48 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Gaingels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gaing) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/techstars) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Flyover Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/flyovercapital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Mana Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mana-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Next Coast Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/next-coast-ventures-2) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## Similar investors

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

## FAQ

### What does Firebrand Ventures invest in?

Firebrand Ventures invests primarily in Software, Information Technology and SaaS startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 48 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 Firebrand Ventures?

Public channels for Firebrand Ventures 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 Firebrand Ventures?

The team at Firebrand Ventures includes Chris Marks (Managing Partner), John Fein (Founder and Managing Partner) and Maranda Manning (Associate). 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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