Firms

Essence VC

Seattle, Washington, US

essencevc.fundsignal.nfx.comgoldi.ai

Essence VC is an engineer-first, early-stage venture capital firm based in Seattle, founded by Timothy Chen in 2019. The firm invests in deeply technical founders building developer tools, data infrastructure, and AI at the pre-seed and seed stages.

Founded

2019

Type

Venture capital

Team

Co-investing

Y Combinator

• Infracost$15M · 2025-11-19
• Cline$27M · 2025-07-31
• Eventual$— · Unknown date
• Magic Patterns$6M · Unknown date
• Eventual$— · Unknown date

General Catalyst

• Standard Kernel$20M · 2026
• ZettaBlock$18M · 2025-09-02
• Good Start Labs$3M · 2025

Alumni Ventures

• Infracost$15M · 2025-11-19
• ZettaBlock$18M · 2025-09-02

Felicis

• Standard Kernel$20M · 2026
• Letta$10M · 2024-09-24

Sequoia

• Infracost$15M · 2025-11-19
• COANA APS$1M · 2024-01-23

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Investments

$5M2026-06-10	Fearn	Essence VC, Kindred Ventures
$20M2026	Standard Kernel	General Catalyst, Link Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Jump Capital, CoreWeave, Ericsson Ventures, Essence VC, Felicis
$15M2025-11-19	Infracost	Sequoia, Alumni Ventures, Y Combinator, TIRTA Ventures, Mango Capital, Provenio Capital, Essence VC
$18M2025-09-02	ZettaBlock	General Catalyst, 8VC, Alumni Ventures, Samsung Next, LayerZero, Animoca Brands, Essence VC
$27M2025-07-31	Cline	Y Combinator, Emergence Capital, 1984 Ventures, ACME Capital, Essence VC, Cox Exponential
$8M2025-02-20	OpenInfer	Essence VC
$3M2025	Good Start Labs	General Catalyst, Inovia Capital, TIRTA Ventures, Essence VC
$16M2024-12-17	Nuon	Uncork Capital, Essence VC
$5M2024-11-19	Workbrew	Essence VC
$10M2024-09-24	Letta	Felicis, Essence VC

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