Nava Ventures

Co-Founders Freddie Martignetti and Cory Rellas lead the firm alongside General Partner Kevin Chenault. Martignetti built his early-stage approach at Highland Capital Partners and his own Suffolk Equity Partners. Rellas brings operator leverage as the former co-founder and CEO of Drizly, which he sold to Uber for $1.1 billion in 2021. Chenault, a Harvard Business School graduate, contributes experience from DraftKings and Nickelodeon's digital strategy teams.

Nava relies heavily on the networks of its operating partners rather than a formal outbound engine. Rellas's network from Drizly and Uber connects the firm to e-commerce and marketplace founders. Martignetti brings access through his Harvard and Highland Capital relationships, while Principals Rollins Stallworth III and Tiantian Fang deepen ties into Stanford's engineering and athletic communities.

Nava's stated model is direct early-stage investing, typically at pre-seed, seed, and Series A. The firm does not publicly market a fund-of-funds program or LP commitments to other venture managers. Its website frames the vehicle as a hands-on partner for founders rather than a capital aggregator, suggesting the firm focuses its balance sheet on primary equity positions.

The firm positions itself for pre-seed through Series A, consistent with the vintage and public disclosures of its portfolio companies. Its portfolio list includes companies with seed-level characteristics — such as open-source platform GrowthBook and AI security startup Legion — and later-stage rounds resembling A-round maturity, like observability platform Hydrolix and healthcare infrastructure company Open Loop.

Nava does not publish a formal exclusion list. However, its portfolio and team biographies show no current exposure to hardware-intensive deep tech, pure biotech, space, or defense. The concentration sits in enterprise software, AI applications, digital health, fintech, and commerce — sectors where the partners' prior operating and investing experience is deepest.

There is no corporate affiliation. The link is through Co-Founder Cory Rellas, who founded Drizly and led it until Uber's 2021 acquisition. After the sale, Rellas spent 16 months on Uber's senior leadership team advising on product and strategy before leaving to co-found Nava full-time. The firm invests independently and does not function as a corporate venture arm for Uber.

Nava's marketing does not emphasize a formal co-investment program, but the background of its partners — particularly Martignetti's time at Highland Capital — suggests comfort with syndicated early-stage rounds. The firm's small team and single-office structure make it a likely co-investor in multi-party seed and Series A rounds rather than a solo lead across the entire book.