NAV.VC

What NAV.VC does

NAV.VC (doing business as New Atlantic Ventures, and previously known as DFJ New England) is a privately held, seed and early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York, NY, with additional offices in Reston, VA and Cambridge, MA. The firm invests in technology businesses built around emerging and disruptive consumer trends, with a stated sector focus spanning Ad-Tech, Advanced Tech, Consumer, Cybersecurity, Digital Health, Digital Media, E-Commerce, Enterprise, Mobile, and Online Education. Its portfolio comprises approximately 30 companies across these verticals, and its most notable realized exits include Mobile365 (acquired by Sybase for $425 million in 2006), DivX (IPO on NASDAQ in 2006), Massive (acquired by Microsoft), GlobalLogic (acquired by Apax Partners in 2013), Invincea (acquired by Sophos for $120 million in 2017), and Lumidigm (acquired by HID Global for $64 million in 2014).

The firm is led by four co-founders and managing partners — John Backus, Todd Hixon (also CFO), Scott Johnson, and Thanasis Delistathis — who collectively bring operating experience from US Order (acquired by Visa), InterSense, Thermo Fisher Scientific, McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., Bain Capital, The Boston Consulting Group, Cambridge Technology Partners, and the DFJ New England Fund. This talent bench is the firm's primary differentiator; NAV does not maintain a proprietary technology platform, product, or AI capability, and the underlying 'product' is capital plus strategic and syndicate-network support for early-stage founders. Revenue mechanics are typical of a venture fund: recurring management fees on committed capital and lumpy carried interest tied to successful portfolio exits.

As of the most recent data, NAV.VC operates from a small team of 1–10 people and explicitly states on its website that it is 'not seeking new portfolio companies at this time,' indicating the fund has moved out of active deployment and into a harvest and realization phase. No new fund formation, partner additions, or strategic pivots are evidenced after 2017, and there is no disclosed information on AUM, fund vintage, LP composition, or current revenue.

Name

NAV.VC

Legal name

NAV.VC

Website

https://nav.vc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

NAV.VC (New Atlantic Ventures) is a private seed and early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2009, investing in technology companies across cybersecurity, digital health, ad-tech, e-commerce, and mobile. It serves early-stage technology entrepreneurs with capital and strategic support, and currently is not accepting new portfolio companies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital Services

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), Other Investment Pools and Funds (5259)

akta.pro primary industry

Sector-Focused Venture Capital (Vertical Specialists) (FSANAAAD)

Keywords

• Seed stage venture capital
• Early stage technology investing
• Startup equity financing
• Venture capital firm
• Growth capital investments

Headquarters

HQ city

Reston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Fund Management: Venture capital fund management fees and carried interest from successful portfolio company exits.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

NAV.VC (New Atlantic Ventures) is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests nationally in seed and early-stage technology companies built around emerging, disruptive consumer trends. The firm deploys equity capital across sectors including Ad-Tech, Advanced Tech, Consumer, Cybersecurity, Digital Health, Digital Media, E-Commerce, Enterprise, Mobile, and Online Education, and supports portfolio companies with strategic guidance, board service, and follow-on funding assistance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Venture Capital Investment Services Seed and early-stage venture capital investment in technology businesses aligned with emerging, disruptive consumer trends, across sectors including Ad-Tech, Advanced Tech, Consumer, Cybersecurity, Digital Health, Digital Media, E-Commerce, Enterprise, Mobile, and Online Education. The service provides founders with equity capital, strategic guidance, operational expertise, board member recruitment, follow-on funding assistance, and exit negotiation support.

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ): DFJ is the predecessor franchise from which NAV.VC's founders (notably Todd Hixon, formerly Managing Partner of DFJ New England) spun out. Operates as a multi-stage tech VC with similar seed and early-stage orientation, making it the closest comparable in heritage, stage, and approach.
• Atlas Venture: Atlas Venture is a seed and early-stage tech-focused firm with comparable check size and stage orientation to NAV.VC, particularly in enterprise and frontier tech. Both are partner-led, smaller franchise firms.
• Lux Capital: Lux Capital invests in seed and early-stage 'frontier tech' companies. Comparable to NAV.VC's advanced tech and deep-tech orientation (Nantero, Two Six Labs) and similar small, partner-led operating model.
• Lerer Hippeau: Lerer Hippeau is a seed-stage NYC-based venture firm with comparable focus on consumer, e-commerce, and digital media — overlapping with several NAV.VC portfolio sectors and similar fund size.
• SV Angel: SV Angel is a seed-stage venture firm led by Ron Conway, focused on early tech investments. Comparable in stage (seed/early), sector breadth (consumer, enterprise), and lean partnership-driven model.

Broad incumbents

• New Enterprise Associates (NEA): NEA is a large, established venture firm investing across stages and tech verticals — comparable to NAV.VC in sector breadth (consumer, enterprise, digital health, cybersecurity) but with materially larger AUM and broader stage coverage.
• Bessemer Venture Partners: Bessemer is a long-tenured tech VC investing across seed through growth stages. Comparable in its multi-decade horizon and broad tech sector coverage (ad-tech, enterprise, consumer), though with far greater scale.
• General Catalyst: General Catalyst is a multi-stage venture firm with comparable tech sector coverage (consumer, enterprise, cybersecurity, digital health) and seed-stage programs, though at substantially larger scale.
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): a16z is a leading tech VC covering consumer, enterprise, fintech, digital health, and bio — directly comparable sector coverage to NAV.VC but operating at multibillion-dollar AUM scale with a much larger team.
• Founders Fund: Founders Fund is a tech-focused VC with deep-tech and frontier-tech exposure (similar to NAV.VC's Nantero investment in carbon nanotube memory). Comparable thematic tilt toward transformative technology bets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/jcbackus
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/pub/john-backus/0/42/b85

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments13 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about NAV.VC