# Lauren DeLuca

> Lauren DeLuca is a seed investor at Motivate Venture Capital backing Software and FinTech. See 49 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Motivate Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/motivate-venture-capital)
- Location: Chicago, United States
- Total investments: 49
- Last investment: Oct 2025
- Lead investor: 14%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delucalauren/
- Website: https://motivate.vc/

Lauren DeLuca is a Founder and Managing Partner of Motivate Venture Capital, a Chicago-based Pre-Seed and Seed investor.He co-founded a family of niche FinTech firms and was an active Angel investor. In 2012, he co-founded Sailfish Systems, a managed services and market data provider for trading firms, banks, and hedge funds. Sailfish merged withVictory Networks in 2013 to serve clients across the US and Europe. The combined business was ultimately sold to QuantHouse, a Paris-based trading technology provider, in 2017.He co-founded Oxford Intelligence Partners at the beginning of 2015, a boutique stock market-analytics firm. Clients included many Fortune 500 companies before a successful exit to Q4 Inc., a Toronto-based strategic acquirer serving 1000+ clients. His personal Angel portfolio spans a multitude of B2B/B2C verticals and contains over thirty early- and growth-stage businesses, including Chime, HomeChef, TradingView, Appcast, Popular Pays, DeskPass and PostProcess Technologies. He received my MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame where he graduated Cum Laude in 2001.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $713k–$3.8M |
| Pre-Seed | $675k–$1.4M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 12 | 24% |
| FinTech | 6 | 12% |
| Financial Services | 6 | 12% |
| Internet | 4 | 8% |
| Education | 4 | 8% |

93 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 27 | 55% |
| Series A | 10 | 20% |
| Pre-Seed | 4 | 8% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 4% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 34 | 69% |
| Canada | 2 | 4% |
| India | 1 | 2% |
| Brazil | 1 | 2% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 2% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| VeroSkills | VeroSkills retrains refugees into AI/Automation/Software Engineering careers through a self-paced program combined with human and AI tutoring. | $5.3M |  | Oct 29, 2025 |  |
| HELIXintel | HELIXintel tracks the condition of all equipment in one place, from anywhere, on any device. It is a B2B marketplace for equipment operators to purchase aftercare services from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their authorized network. The company simplifies maintenance management to save business cash, time, and energy. |  | Series A | Jun 12, 2023 |  |
| Eko | At Eko we are making it possible for every FI to offer a digital investment solution. We are calling our white-label product 'Investments as a Service'.We built it around the fact that more than 50% of Americans want to invest their money at their trusted financial institution. However, when a FI does not offer a digital investmentproduct, this is only 1%. | $958K | Pre-Seed | Jun 11, 2023 |  |
| Eko | At Eko we are making it possible for every FI to offer a digital investment solution. We are calling our white-label product 'Investments as a Service'.We built it around the fact that more than 50% of Americans want to invest their money at their trusted financial institution. However, when a FI does not offer a digital investmentproduct, this is only 1%. | $700K | Pre-Seed | Nov 09, 2022 |  |
| Quiltt | Quiltt enables financial innovators to access the best account aggregation and transaction enrichment providers through one lightweight integration and one simple contract. Our mission is to unlock the next wave of fintech innovation by removing technical and commercial barriers to build with financial data. | $3M | Seed | Jul 11, 2022 |  |
| Paperchain | Paperchain is an instant payments card for online creators. Paperchain makes it possible to be paid as fast as your content is streamed by simply connecting your streaming channels to your personal Paperchain card. When you stream, you get paid. Spend it, withdraw it, or earn interest on it. No more loans, no more advances or credit cards. Yourdigital content revenue, paid every day. Paperchain powers the creator economy with a web3 layer that makes content interoperable with digital assets and community monetization models.The internet of goods meets the internet of money.Go to www.paperchain.io | $1.4M | Pre-Seed | Jul 01, 2021 |  |
| HELIXintel | HELIXintel tracks the condition of all equipment in one place, from anywhere, on any device. It is a B2B marketplace for equipment operators to purchase aftercare services from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their authorized network. The company simplifies maintenance management to save business cash, time, and energy. | $1.6M |  | Jun 01, 2021 |  |
| HELIXintel | HELIXintel tracks the condition of all equipment in one place, from anywhere, on any device. It is a B2B marketplace for equipment operators to purchase aftercare services from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their authorized network. The company simplifies maintenance management to save business cash, time, and energy. | $1.6M | Seed | Jun 01, 2021 |  |
| Sarna | Sarna means Sarna Holdings, Inc. and its next generation trading technologies and digital trading experiences through its wholly-owned subsidiaries. Brokerage services are offered through Sarna Finance LLC, a FINRA licensed broker dealer. Software and technology services are offered through Sarna Technologies LLC. | $950K | Pre-Seed | Mar 10, 2021 |  |
| Quiltt | Quiltt enables financial innovators to access the best account aggregation and transaction enrichment providers through one lightweight integration and one simple contract. Our mission is to unlock the next wave of fintech innovation by removing technical and commercial barriers to build with financial data. | $675K | Pre-Seed | Nov 27, 2020 |  |

10 of 49 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [IrishAngels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/irishangels) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Green Egg Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/greeneggventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Launch NY](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/launch-ny) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Simplex Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/simplex-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Social Starts](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/social-starts) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/techstars) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Motivate Venture Capital

VC Fund · Chicago, United States

Motivate Venture Capital is a venture capital firm based in Chicago, IL. MVC invests in incredible founders with strong domain knowledge building new companies with very high growth potential in large and growing markets. Primary verticals of focus include Fintech, Insurtech, Payments, B2B software, B2B marketplaces, Crypto, DeFi, Blockchain, andweb3.

4 contacts available at Motivate Venture Capital.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Courtney Trunk | Associate | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/courtney-trunk |
| David Wieland | Co-Founder and Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/david-wieland |
| Jackson Bubala | Senior Associate | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jackson-bubala |
| Lauren DeLuca | Co-Founder and Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lauren-deluca-3ac9 |

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## FAQ

### What does Lauren DeLuca invest in?

Lauren DeLuca invests primarily in Software, FinTech and Financial Services startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 49 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 Lauren DeLuca's check size?

Lauren DeLuca typically joins rounds of $713k–$3.8M at Seed and $675k–$1.4M at Pre-Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Lauren DeLuca participates in.

### When did Lauren DeLuca last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Lauren DeLuca closed in Oct 2025. Shizune tracks 49 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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