Schematic Ventures

General Partners Julian Counihan and Alex Freed jointly run investment decisions. Counihan’s background includes warehouse-automation software at Fortna and industrial-hardware venture investing; Freed’s experience spans ecommerce product launches and international media-product growth at Google. Schematic’s website lists no other investment-decision makers.

Schematic sources through its San Francisco industrial-technology network, including the reSupply and reForge event series it hosts. The firm also draws on market references with industry experts in its networks and inbound referrals from the supply-chain and manufacturing-software communities in the US and Canada. Schematic does not disclose a proprietary data-driven sourcing system or formal advisor network.

Schematic targets pre-seed and seed-stage companies, ranging from pre-revenue teams with an idea to companies generating millions in revenue. It leads or co-invests in rounds with an average check size of $1M to $2M. The firm does not disclose participation in later-stage follow-on investments.

Schematic is not a single-family office; it operates as a private equity manager structured as a traditional venture fund. The firm raises external capital and deploys it into early-stage supply-chain and manufacturing-software companies, distinguishing it from a proprietary-capital vehicle.

Schematic explicitly confines its mandate to supply-chain and manufacturing technology and software infrastructure. The firm does not tag exclusionary sectors on its website, but the stated focus implies it avoids healthcare, consumer internet, fintech, and other areas outside industrial technology.

Schematic both leads pre-seed and seed rounds and participates as a co-investor in rounds where it is not the lead, per the firm’s FAQs. It works alongside other seed managers without specifying co-investment rights or reserved allocation structures.

The firm tailors engagement to each founding team, often assisting with hiring and talent evaluation, sales and customer introductions, service-provider recommendations with partnership discounts, and fundraising and investor introductions. These support activities are provided directly by the General Partners rather than through a separate platform team.