Rhapsody Venture Partners

The investment team is led by Managing Partner Carsten Boers alongside General Partners Bernard Lupien and Jason Whaley. Partners Jessica Freyer and Mike Fuerstman and Principal Corrie Kavanaugh complete the senior investing group. The firm operates with a flat, specialist model — investment decisions are made by this core partnership group rather than a single CIO.

Rhapsody has built a sourcing infrastructure that screens roughly 2,000 startups per year across physics, chemistry, and applied sciences. The firm cultivates relationships with technology transfer offices at universities including Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Purdue, and Princeton, and runs an Innovation Ecosystem program that connects academic founders with industrial partners regardless of whether Rhapsody invests. This pipeline is codified, not opportunistic.

Rhapsody operates as a direct investor, typically leading or co-leading pre-seed and seed rounds in hard-science startups. The firm does not publicly describe itself as a fund-of-funds or LP in other venture firms. Its co-investors in disclosed rounds include corporate strategics like DSM and venture firms such as SOSV and AgFunder.

The firm targets early-stage hard-tech companies, specifically pre-seed and seed rounds. Rhapsody led Lasso's round in 2020 and co-led Chinova Bioworks' pre-seed in 2018. The firm's operating model is built around a stage where academic spinouts still require significant technical and commercial validation.

Rhapsody invests in applied hard sciences: advanced materials (HyperDamping, VioNano), semiconductors (ChEmpower, AmberSemi), agri-food tech (NuCicer, Lasso), energy transition (Adden Energy, Cnergreen), and industrial automation (Fluid Efficiency, Tendo Technologies). The firm's portfolio is deliberately cross-sector but unified by a requirement for deep scientific defensibility.

Industrial companies can engage with Rhapsody as Innovation Partners to access its screened pipeline of early-stage scientific startups. The firm positions this as a low-risk, high-reward tool for corporate growth through open innovation. For startups, a structured industrial engagement often serves as the critical path to meeting true market requirements and securing a first commercial contract.

Rhapsody has publicly led subsequent rounds in portfolio companies. The firm led Lasso's initial round in 2020 and has led all follow-on rounds since, according to the firm's website. This suggests a reserve strategy that supports portfolio companies through multiple funding cycles rather than a one-and-done seed model.