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Acadian Ventures
Acadian Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in the Future of Work. They partner with founders shaping the infrastructure of work and...
Acadian Ventures
Acadian Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in the Future of Work. They partner with founders shaping the infrastructure of work and invest where technology reshapes how work is built, run, and scaled. Their investment categories include Infrastructure, Intelligence, Automation, Experience, and Compliance.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
1986
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Madison
Corporate office
Madison, United States
Principals
Jason Corsello
Founder & General Partner
Thomas Otter
General Partner
Audrey Handem
Investor
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Acadian Ventures?
Founder Jason Corsello and General Partner Thomas Otter lead investment decisions. Corsello was formerly SVP of Strategy at Cornerstone OnDemand; Otter led product at SAP SuccessFactors and advised GPs on HR tech M&A before joining Acadian in March 2022.
Does Acadian Ventures participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Acadian primarily makes direct early-stage investments. The publicly available information describes the firm backing companies from inception to scale within the work-tech category, with no indication of fund-of-funds allocations.
What investment stages does Acadian Ventures typically target?
The firm targets early-stage opportunities including seed and startup phases, with recent activity showing follow-on participation through Series A and B rounds — Kombo's $25M Series A and Compa's $35M Series B are recent examples (per the firm, 2026).
Which sectors does Acadian Ventures explicitly avoid?
The firm does not publish a negative sector list, but its investment categories — infrastructure, intelligence, automation, experience, and compliance — signal a concentrated future-of-work mandate. Consumer social, hard tech, and therapeutics are absent from all portfolio disclosures.
What is Acadian Ventures' known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
The firm has invested alongside other venture capital managers in syndicated rounds — its portfolio companies are backed by multiple investors typical of early-stage venture. However, Acadian does not publicly promote a formal co-investment program for external allocators.
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