Clique Capital Partners

Evan Burfield, as co-founder and Chairman, led investment decisions. Burfield had previously co-founded and exited network security firm Synteractive before launching 1776 and its affiliated fund. Amanda Lannert, the other co-founder, also held investment committee influence, though the firm's lean structure meant deal execution was centralized with the founding team.

Clique sourced deals through the 1776 incubator ecosystem. Startups accepted into 1776's programs were automatically on Clique's radar. The incubator also ran the Challenge Cup, a global competition for startups in regulated industries, operating in over a dozen cities internationally and providing a top-of-funnel screening mechanism that few venture firms of its size could replicate.

Clique focused on seed and Series A rounds, aligning with the maturity of companies graduating from or participating in 1776's incubation programs. The firm occasionally followed on in later rounds but did not operate dedicated growth-stage vehicles.

No. Following 1776's merger with Benjamin's Desk in 2017 and subsequent restructuring, Clique Capital Partners ceased making new investments. The 1776 brand and platform were absorbed into a regional coworking network that later became part of Cambridge Innovation Center's operations.

Clique invested exclusively in enterprise software companies operating in regulated industries: government technology, healthcare, education, energy, and financial services. The firm avoided consumer internet and hardware, concentrating entirely on B2B software that required regulatory domain expertise to scale.