Kellan Carter, Fuse Venture
General Partner(July 2020 - Till Now)
Kellan Carter is a founding partner of Fuse where he focuses on early-stage investments in intelligent software in both horizontal and vertical categories. At Fuse, Kellan has led investments in Owl and Pave. Previously, Kellan spent seven years at Ignition Partners, a leading early-stage venture capital firm. He joined Ignition in 2013 and was made partner by 2018. At Ignition, Kellan led investments in Botkeeper, Symend, Icertis, KenSci, and Azuqua, and served on the boards of both Botkeeper and Symend.
Prior to Ignition, Kellan spent two years in investment banking at Mooreland Partners in San Francisco. There, he helped execute M&A transactions for technology companies in a variety of sectors, including mobile, enterprise software, systems, and infrastructure. Prior to Mooreland Partners, Kellan was an associate in KPMG’s advisory practice in Orange County, CA, where he helped structure asset-backed securities collateralized by student loans, auto loans, and residential and commercial mortgages.
Kellan holds a BS degree in business administration from the University of Montana in Missoula, where he graduated summa cum laude. After college, Kellan founded an online, business-networking platform to connect current students and faculty to UM alumni.
Ben is the co-founder of Pioneer Square Labs, a startup studio and early-stage venture capital firm in Seattle. He is a technology investor and entrepreneur. He has a background in product management from Microsoft where he shipped the first version of Office for iPad and ran The Garage, the company’s grassroots innovation program. Ben also co-founded Madrona Venture Labs.
Nitin Rai
Founder and Managing Partner, Elevate Capital(Jan 2016 - Till Now)
Nitin is the Founder and Managing Partner of Elevate Capital, a venture Capital Fund that includes the Elevate Inclusive Fund, a seed-stage fund that invests in diverse and underserved entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest. Nearly 60% of Elevate investments are in women-led companies and 40% in African American and LatinX founder/CEO-led startups.
Since 2016, Elevate Capital has invested more than $8.4 million in 38 startups. These companies have raised follow-on funding of more than $80 million, with a market cap of $213.3 million and created 363 plus jobs. These companies also report 50% of their employees as diverse. Elevate Capital has already had two strong exits, with two of its portfolio companies: Portland-based RFPIO and Garden Bar by Evergreens.
Nitin also serves as the Chairman of the TiE Global of Board Trustees. In this role, Nitin leads the Board of Trustees’ mission to help its 60 plus global chapters ensure entrepreneurs become successful through global programs and initiatives. Nitin also serves as Chair of TiE Global Angels to help entrepreneurs across the globe get funding from TiE Charter Members.
Since 2007, Nitin has been an active angel investor, mentor and is a founding charter member and President of the Board of TiE Oregon. In this role, TiE Oregon has grown to a full-fledged angel investment group with a successful mentoring program. It has launched several education and accelerator programs including TYE and TIE XL. TiE Oregon Angels has invested more than $12 million in 52 startups with six exits that returned over 3X in cash to the angels. TiE Oregon ranks in the top five chapters globally and routinely receives recognition for its angel investment, women, and youth programs. Nitin has invested in more than 50 startups, both personally and through his fund, since 2011.
Nitin is also a successful entrepreneur. He started his career in Silicon Valley as an engineer at two startups. In 1994, he founded First Insight Corporation, a highly successful optometry and ophthalmology electronic health records and practice management software, and revenue cycle management company based in Hillsboro, Oregon, and Pune, India. First Insight is a leader in the eye care industry with its flagship product MaximEyes.