Pathlight Ventures

Pathlight Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City, established in 2021. The firm operates with a low-volume, high-conviction investment strategy, focusing on a select number of companies each year to provide deep, hands-on support. Their mission-driven capital is backed by major investors including nonprofit universities, science research foundations, and hospital systems, emphasizing a long-term building ethos for their portfolio companies.

The firm takes a thematic, market, and customer-driven approach to identify promising areas for investment. Their investment theses for 2026 include AI-Native Systems Integrators, Rebuilding the Modern Healthcare Stack, Capital Markets Infrastructure, Digitizing the Financial Plumbing of the Physical World, Vertical Hardware & Applied Robotics, Next-Generation Energy, Utilities, and the Built World, Security Across Physical, Cyber, and Critical Infrastructure, and Digitizing the Machinery of Government & Public Safety. They also run an NYC GTM Scale-Up Program for pre-seed and seed-stage founders.

Pathlight Ventures invests primarily from inception to Series A, supporting founders with early customers, first hires, investor introductions, and tactical advice. Notable companies in their portfolio include Apollo, Artie Labs, Chronosphere, and Obvio, among others. The firm team, composed of experienced operators, is dedicated to helping founders scale their companies from early stages to significant revenue milestones.

The leadership team includes Co-Founders and General Partners Mahdi Raza and Charley Ma, both of whom have extensive experience scaling companies like Robinhood, Plaid, Ramp, and Alloy. They are joined by Partners such as Kasra Khadem and Sean Fanning, and Associate Alexis Garneau, bringing collective expertise in growth, payments, fintech, and infrastructure to their portfolio companies.