Ben Narasin Joins Canvas As General Partner

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Canvas Venture Fund today announced Ben Narasin joined the firm as a general partner. Narasin personally backed Lending Club, Zenefits, Dropcam, Check, Branch Metrics, Kabbage, Realty Mogul, Enigma, and more. He personally made seed investments in 75 companies, which have a combined market value of more than $10 billion.

Narasin most recently ran TriplePoint's seed-stage practice. Previously, he was an entrepreneur for 25 years. As a 12 year-old entrepreneur in Atlanta, he turned a $50 investment in a comic-books resale company into more than $1500 at a single trade show. He founded FashionMall.com, a NYC-based ecommerce startup, in 1993 and took it public on the NASDAQ in 1999.

"Ben stands out as a top-5 seed investor in the country," said Gary Little, a general partner at Canvas. "He shares Canvas' philosophy of 'conviction investing,' which means putting a lot of care and capital into select investments, and giving everything we've got into helping founders be successful. As a result, Ben's loss ratio for his personal seed investment portfolio is less than 10 percent. To anyone who understands seed, or even early-stage venture investing, that is exceptional."

Paul Hsiao, a general partner at Canvas, said: "The battlefield has shifted in early-stage venture: Seed is now the new Series A. The first check is incredibly important. I have known Ben for eight years, and have seen him put the first check into some of today's most notable startups. He brings that remarkable judgement and network to Canvas. And by the way, the founders he works with love him."

Asked why he joined a VC firm, Narasin said, "After working alongside my founders, helping them raise financing, and seeing them 'graduate', I wanted to graduate along with them; to continue the journey, serve on their boards, and be there for the long haul. I love what I do, and I want to keep doing it with more rigor and scale.

Narasin added, "I've worked with and admired the Canvas partners for years. In addition to Paul Hsiao, I've worked with Rebecca Lynn for 6 years, and seeded three of Rebecca's portfolio companies: Lending Club, Check, and Eden. I've also known Gary Little for eight years. I can't think of a more collegial, hard-working team of partners to collaborate with to build a next-gen venture firm of the highest tier."

Shared Successes – Lending Club and Check

Said Renaud Laplanche, CEO and founder of Lending Club: "I had the pleasure of working with Ben when Lending Club had little more than a dozen people and a bold idea. As a seed investor in Lending Club, Ben provided insights informed by having been an entrepreneur for decades and helped us set our course."

Laplanche added, "I was then fortunate to work with Canvas General Partner Rebecca Lynn, who led our Series B in 2009 and served on our board for six years. Rebecca, among other things, helped us recruit more than 15 very talented people into Lending Club from her own network. In my opinion, the Canvas Team is one of the most high-impact VC firms around." Lending Club is a consumer-credit marketplace and the largest US tech IPO of 2014.

"What a great fit, both in terms of culture and expertise," said Guy Goldstein, CEO and founder of Check. "Having worked with Ben as our seed investor, and Rebecca Lynn as our venture investor, I can say this is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The strong team at Canvas just got stronger. Adding Ben reinforces their brand as value-add venture partners." Check is a personal bill-pay and financial management service, and was acquired by Intuit in May 2014 for $360 million.

As a Canvas general partner, Narasin will focus on investing in Series-A and -B companies in the US.  Canvas is known for the firm's "thesis-investing" approach. Narasin will primarily focus on the thesis areas of "native mobile", fintech, and ecommerce/marketplaces while being open to opportunities in entirely new categories.

Narasin becomes the fifth general partner at the new firm, joining existing partners (in alphabetical order) Paul Hsiao, Gary Little, Rebecca Lynn, and Gary Morgenthaler

About Canvas

Named a "Top VC Firm to Watch" by the 2015 Forbes Midas List, Canvas is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Portola Valley, CA. Prior to Canvas, the partners were known for their investments in Lending Club, MuleSoft, Houzz, Evernote, Check, Doximity, Elance-oDesk, Dropcam, Zenefits, Branch, and more.

The Canvas partnership was formed in August 2013 and is focused on early-stage technology companies in software and services. It has invested and joined the boards of: FutureAdvisor (Blackrock announced its plans to acquire FutureAdvisor in August 2015), HealthLoop, Viewics, CrowdFlower, Totango, Eden, and an unannounced investment. Learn more at www.canvas.vc.

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SOURCE Canvas Venture Fund