Private Equity

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Stepchange

Stepchange invests in ambitious companies building software to accelerate energy abundance and upgrade critical infrastructure. The team are operators turned...

Stepchange logo

Stepchange

Stepchange invests in ambitious companies building software to accelerate energy abundance and upgrade critical infrastructure. The team are operators turned investors with experience starting, scaling, and exiting software companies. They combine product, go-to-market, and company building expertise with deep founder empathy to help companies from the beginning.

General information

Firm type

Private Equity

Year founded

2023

Location

Region

North America

Country

United States

City

Seattle

Corporate office

Seattle, WA, United States

Principals

Stephanie Hannon

Strategic Advisor

Ari Steinberg

Strategic Advisor

Ian Wong

Strategic Advisor

Bradley Horowitz

Strategic Advisor

Jessyn Farrell

Strategic Advisor

Sector focus

Energy Transition & RenewablesInfrastructureAI/MLClimateTechPropTechMobility & Transportation

Frequently asked questions

Who runs investment decisions at Stepchange?

Stepchange has not publicly disclosed its general partners or investment committee. The firm's website emphasizes its strategic advisors — including Ari Steinberg, former Director of Engineering at Airbnb and Facebook, and Ian Wong, co-founder and CTO of Opendoor — as the operational core that supports portfolio companies, but final decision-making authority resides with unnamed principals.

What investment stages does Stepchange typically target?

Stepchange focuses on early-stage, seed, and start-up venture rounds, per its Altss research profile. Its portfolio companies are predominantly pre-revenue or early-revenue technology firms building software for heavily regulated physical-world problems — grid interconnection, EV charging infrastructure, and building electrification.

Which sectors does Stepchange explicitly avoid?

Stepchange's thesis positively selects for infrastructure-adjacent software. By negative implication, it avoids sectors disconnected from physical critical infrastructure — consumer social platforms, pure enterprise SaaS with no industrial interface, and biotech are absent from its public portfolio of 22 companies, all of which touch transportation, the built environment, energy transition, AI infrastructure, earth intelligence, or resilience.

Profile maintained by using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.

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