# Rhapsody Venture Partners

Rhapsody Venture Partners is a Venture Capital based in Cambridge, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Venture Capital
- **Headquarters:** Cambridge, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Cambridge, MA, United States
- **Founded:** 2016
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** rhapsodyvp.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/rhapsody-venture-partners

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Rhapsody Venture Partners are specialist investors and co-creators of startups in the hard sciences. They invest exclusively in hard science startups addressing industrial problems. They are lead investors for seed rounds, with a first check typically $500K to $2MM, and frequently lead large syndicates in follow-on rounds. They have developed a model and infrastructure to bring emerging technologies from lab to market.

## Sectors

- AgriTech & FoodTech
- Energy Transition & Renewables
- Advanced Materials
- Semiconductors & Electronics
- Mobility & Transportation
- Industrial Tech
- AI/ML

## People

- Carsten Boers — Managing Partner
- Bernard Lupien — General Partner
- Jason Whaley — General Partner
- Jessica Freyer — Partner
- Mike Fuerstman — Partner
- Corrie Kavanaugh — Principal

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at 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.

### How does Rhapsody source proprietary deal flow?

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.

### What investment stages does Rhapsody Venture Partners target?

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.

### Which sectors does Rhapsody explicitly invest in?

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.

### How does Rhapsody's Innovation Partner program work with industrial companies?

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.

## Related profiles

- [RGREEN INVEST](https://altss.com/profile/rgreen-invest)
- [RHA Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/rha-ventures)

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T15:07:57.118Z

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