Cade Ventures

What Cade Ventures does

Cade Ventures is an operator-led early-stage venture capital fund founded in 2022 by Ryan Engel, the former 5th employee at Peloton who scaled the company's retail business to 100+ global stores and generated over $1B in GMV before departing in 2022. Headquartered in New York, the firm invests at the earliest stages in category-defining companies across three verticals: health tech, consumer tech, and connected hardware & robotics. The portfolio includes approximately 14 companies as of 2025-2026, spanning preventive health (Function Health, which reached a $2.5B valuation at Series B), semiconductor cooling (Akash Systems), human-centric computing (Daylight Computer), AI infrastructure (Mecka AI, Blue AI), aerospace (Poseidon Aerospace), and digital health (Climatic Health, Alnu Health).

The fund's core offering is the pairing of seed-stage capital with a structured one-year program of hands-on operational support delivered by a curated network of 50+ operators with experience at world-class brands. Functional coverage spans marketing, operations, growth/revenue/BD, talent/people, product/engineering/design, and strategy/insights/data science. The firm is built around a small core team of fewer than 10 people — Founder & Managing Partner Ryan Engel, Chief of Staff & Investor Isabel Glass, named Venture Partners including former Peloton COO Tom Cortese and OpenAI product leader Adam Cue, and a bench of advisors and a venture fellow — augmented by the broader operator network. The 50+ operator bench and Peloton alumni network are the firm's primary differentiation versus capital-only VCs.

Cade Ventures generates revenue through the standard VC economics of management fees (typically ~2% on Fund I's $25M committed capital target) and carried interest on successful portfolio exits. Deal flow is sourced through founder networks, operator relationships, LP referrals, and direct outreach, with deployment concentrated at the seed and pre-seed stages. The firm has built institutional co-investor relationships with Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, SV Angel, Neo, A*, and Lerer Hippeau, and has attracted an LP base that includes Michael Carmen of Wellington Management. Engagement is reinforced through a digital community on Networked.co and an Annual General Meeting that convenes LPs, founders, operators, and co-investors.

Name

Cade Ventures

Legal name

Cade Ventures

Website

https://www.cadeventure.com/

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cade Ventures is an operator-led early-stage venture capital fund founded in 2022 by former Peloton executive Ryan Engel, investing across consumer tech, health tech, and connected hardware & robotics. It pairs seed capital with one year of hands-on support from a 50+ operator network for early-stage startup founders.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Early-Stage Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), All Other Financial Investment Activities (52399)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industry

Joint Venture CVC / Consortium Funds (Multi-corporate) (FSANAHAE)

Keywords

• Venture capital fund
• Early-stage investing
• Operator-led fund
• Startup seed funding
• Portfolio support services

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Management Fees: Standard VC fund management fees charged on committed capital to cover fund operations, team, and operations.
2. Carry (Carried Interest): Performance-based carried interest from successful portfolio exits, which is the primary economic incentive for VC funds.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Cade Ventures is an operator-led early-stage venture capital fund that invests in category-defining companies across consumer tech, health tech, and connected hardware & robotics. The firm pairs equity capital with one year of hands-on operational support from a network of 50+ operators with expertise spanning marketing, operations, growth, talent, product/engineering/design, and strategy. Fund I has a $25 million target and has backed approximately 14 portfolio companies since launch.

Product overview

Cade Ventures is an operator-led venture fund that provides capital and hands-on operational support to early-stage startups. Rather than a traditional product company with software offerings, Cade operates as an investment vehicle offering its portfolio companies access to a network of 50+ operators with expertise spanning marketing, operations, growth/revenue/business development, talent/people, product/engineering/design, and strategy/insights/data science. The firm invests in category-defining companies across three verticals: health tech, consumer tech, and connected hardware & robotics. The fund's core offering is the pairing of capital with one year of structured operational support to help founders accelerate growth.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cade Ventures Fund I

Quantifiable outcome

• Securing allocations in highly competitive deals speaks to deal flow, network, and ability to identify promising startups
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Lerer Hippeau: NYC-based early-stage venture capital firm investing across consumer, media, and enterprise software. Directly comparable as a New York early-stage fund frequently co-investing with Cade (e.g., led Climatic Health's $10M seed with Cade participating) and operating in overlapping verticals.
• SV Angel: Prominent seed-stage venture firm making early bets alongside founders. Comparable as a co-investor in Mecka AI and as a high-reputation seed-stage fund operating in similar verticals.
• Corigin Ventures: Early-stage venture firm focused on consumer technology and commerce businesses. Comparable to Cade's consumer-tech vertical focus and early-stage orientation.
• Primary Venture Partners: New York-based early-stage venture firm backing seed and Series A consumer, enterprise, and health startups. Comparable as a NYC-led generalist early-stage fund with overlapping vertical coverage.
• Offline Ventures: Operator-led venture community and fund investing in early-stage consumer and technology companies. Directly comparable as an operator-led fund and co-investor with Cade in Mecka AI.
• Forerunner Ventures: Early-stage VC focused on consumer technology and commerce. Comparable as a sector-specialist consumer investor with similar check sizes and stage focus to Cade, operating in one of Cade's three core verticals.
• BBGV (Brooklyn Bridge Ventures): NYC seed-stage venture fund with broad consumer and tech focus. Comparable as a New York-based seed investor and co-investor with Cade in Climatic Health's seed round.
• Neo: Early-stage investment firm backing ambitious founders across AI, robotics, and frontier tech. Comparable as a co-lead in Mecka AI and as a seed/Series A investor in adjacent deep-tech and AI infrastructure.
• Eniac Ventures: New York-based seed-stage fund investing in mobile, software, and consumer/enterprise tech. Comparable as an early-stage NYC fund operating in adjacent verticals with similar check sizes.

Broad incumbents

• Founders Fund: Established multi-stage venture capital firm with deep tech and frontier investment focus. Comparable as a broader incumbent investor in overlapping verticals (consumer, health, frontier tech) where Cade participates as a smaller specialist.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments4 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Cade Ventures