Charlie Songhurst
About Charlie Songhurst
Charlie Songhurst is a private technology investor based in Kirkland, Washington. He studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford. At Microsoft he was a general manager from 2005 and then led global corporate strategy from 2009 to 2013, working on partnering and M&A. Public profiles link him to the Skype acquisition and the Yahoo deal and commercial agreement.
He has been an independent investor since 2013. Some profiles list him as founder and partner of Katana Capital, a long-short equity hedge fund, and say he runs the Songhurst Group, which holds stakes in private companies. PitchBook lists him as a senior venture partner and advisor at Acequia Capital, a limited partner advisor at Nyca Partners, and an advisor at 8VC.
He is also a director of Meta Platforms. PitchBook lists him as chair of its Risk & Strategy Committee. His other board seats include CodeSignal, Invisible Technologies and Infinity Constellation. Crunchbase lists him as an advisor to Entrepreneurs First. He has not built or run a venture-backed startup of his own, and Crunchbase records no companies founded.
Songhurst is one of the most active individual investors in early-stage technology. In a 2020 episode of the Invest Like the Best podcast he discussed lessons from investing in 483 companies. Crunchbase now lists 275 investments across 261 portfolio companies. Dealroom counts more than 300 companies backed directly. Counts differ by database because each tracks rounds differently.
Crunchbase records no lead investments for him, so he generally joins rounds led by others. Earlier investments in the public record include ClassPass, EasyPost, Formlabs, Onfido and Tractable. Dealroom lists Stoke Space, Radiant Industries, Pave, Karat and Invisible Technologies among his larger current holdings. Several of these are now valued above $1 billion.
Crunchbase shows continued activity through 2026 in pre-seed, seed and some Series A rounds. Matt Clifford of Entrepreneurs First has publicly described taking money from him as an opportunity to seize.
Crunchbase counts 44 AI investments since 2023. Third-party databases date his ElevenLabs investment to a $2.0M pre-seed round in January 2023. He was named as an angel in Lovable's $15M pre-Series A in February 2025. That round was led by Creandum, and TechCrunch and Lovable's own announcement both listed him as a participating angel.
Crunchbase's AI portfolio includes AUDIOGEN, Interface, KAIKAKU, Lovable, Infinity Constellation, Valinor Discovery, roomix, Eigen, Structured AI, Mantic, Unify and DGG. Other AI-related rounds in third-party records include Granola, Causaly, Interhuman AI and Forgent. Recent entries on Crunchbase show him in 2026 rounds for Structured AI and Infinity Constellation, whose Series A in June 2026 is listed at $24M. NFX Signal tags his AI deals at seed and Series A.
Stage: Most of his recorded investments are pre-seed and seed, with some Series A. Shizune's analysis of 253 tracked deals shows seed as the largest group, followed by pre-seed.
Sectors: AI and software are the most common categories. Profiles also list deep tech, fintech, biotech, robotics, space and quantum computing. His past portfolio also includes crypto and blockchain companies.
Geography: Directories list the United States, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Shizune finds that most of his tracked deals are in the UK.
Check size: He has not published a check size. NFX Signal lists an investment range of $10K to $500K with a $100K sweet spot, and other directories also cite checks of around $100,000. Treat these as third-party estimates, not statements from him.
Process: He has no public application form. One directory says he prefers introductions through his network or portfolio founders, but that is secondary information.
- ElevenLabs: voice AI company; pre-seed investment recorded in January 2023.
- Lovable: Sweden-based AI app-building platform; angel in the $15M pre-Series A in February 2025.
- Granola: AI note-taking company; investment recorded in a 2025 round.
- Invisible Technologies: enterprise software and AI operations company; he holds a board seat.
- Infinity Constellation: AI company; he is a board member, and its Series A was recorded in June 2026.
- Stoke Space: reusable rocket developer; recorded in Dealroom's list of his largest holdings.
- Formlabs: 3D printer maker; one of his earlier investments.
- ClassPass: fitness booking platform; investment recorded in 2014.
- Causaly: AI drug discovery company; Series B recorded in July 2023.
- Structured AI: AI company; seed round recorded in June 2026.
- crunchbase.com/person/charlie-songhurst
- crunchbase.com/person/c8e0c690-e891-4115-bb57-5652199c8aeb
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/106513-12
- signal.nfx.com/investors/charles-songhurst
- dealroom.co/people/charlie-songhurst
- dealroom.co/investors/charlie-songhurst
- techcrunch.com/2025/02/25/swedens-lovable-an-app-building-ai-platform-
- lovable.dev/blog/fundraise-series-a-announcement
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Charlie Songhurst has made 75 investments according to Crunchbase. 44 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including AUDIOGEN, Interface, KAIKAKU, Lovable and Infinity Constellation.
Charlie Songhurst appears in 10 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $91M. The rounds are mostly Seed and Pre-seed, with a median round size of $7M and the largest at $40M. The most recent are Zeit AI (Seed, $5.8M (EUR 5.0M), Sep 2026), Attestable (Seed, $20M, Aug 2026) and Monogram (Seed, $40M, Jun 2026).
Charlie Songhurst most often invests alongside Sequoia Scout, Y Combinator, Othman Laraki and Gradient Ventures, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Charlie Songhurst
Does Charlie Songhurst invest in AI startups?
Yes. Crunchbase lists 44 AI investments since 2023, including Lovable, Eigen, Mantic, Unify and Structured AI. Third-party records also show ElevenLabs, from a January 2023 pre-seed round.
What check size does Charlie Songhurst write?
He has not published one. NFX Signal estimates $10K to $500K with a $100K sweet spot. Treat that as an estimate, not his own statement.
What stage does Charlie Songhurst invest at?
Mostly pre-seed and seed, with some Series A. Crunchbase records no lead investments, so he usually joins rounds that someone else leads.
Who is Charlie Songhurst?
He is a Kirkland-based angel investor who led global corporate strategy at Microsoft from 2009 to 2013. He is now a Meta board member and has invested in hundreds of startups.
How can founders reach Charlie Songhurst?
He has no public pitch form or personal site, and he does not appear to have a public X account. His LinkedIn is linked below. A warm introduction from a portfolio founder or co-investor is the usual route, according to secondary sources.
Does Charlie Songhurst lead rounds?
Crunchbase records 0 lead investments. He tends to take part alongside a lead investor, as in Lovable's pre-Series A led by Creandum.
Is Charlie Songhurst an angel investor?
Yes. Charlie Songhurst invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 75 investments.
What AI companies has Charlie Songhurst invested in?
Charlie Songhurst's AI investments include AUDIOGEN, Interface, KAIKAKU, Lovable, Infinity Constellation, Valinor Discovery, roomix and Eigen. The 10 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Charlie Songhurst based?
Charlie Songhurst is based in Kirkland, United States.
Who does Charlie Songhurst co-invest with?
Charlie Songhurst's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Sequoia Scout (3 deals), Y Combinator (3 deals), Othman Laraki (2 deals), Gradient Ventures (2 deals) and Cherry Ventures (2 deals).