Richard Aberman
About Richard Aberman
Richard (Rich) Aberman co-founded the payments company WePay in 2008 with Bill Clerico. WePay went through Y Combinator in the S09 batch. It provided integrated payments for software platforms and marketplaces. JPMorgan Chase acquired it in December 2017. Aberman held the titles Chief Strategy Officer and, in Crunchbase, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder. He has a B.A. in Political Science, Economics and Philosophy from Boston College.
After the acquisition he worked at JPMorgan Chase, where one profile lists him as Managing Director of Chase Payment Solutions. He later served as a Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator, from the Winter 2022 batch through 2023. His X profile describes him as an angel investor and partner at Open Core Ventures, formerly the founder of WePay and a YC visiting partner.
Crunchbase lists him as General Partner at Open Core Ventures, based in Santa Cruz, California. A third-party profile dates his angel investing and his Open Core Ventures role to 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Per Crunchbase, Aberman has made 28 investments, with no recorded lead investments, no companies founded and no exits. Crunchbase's own profile page shows a slightly different count that appears to lag behind, so treat the exact total as approximate.
Public records show him mostly joining seed rounds alongside institutional investors. Tracxn lists these seed rounds: Greptile (June 2024, $4.1M), Fazeshift (January 2025, $4M), &AI (February 2025, $6.5M) and Blacksmith (May 2025, $3.5M). Vybe's $10M seed round, led by First Round Capital, names him as an angel investor and former YC Visiting Partner. Crunchbase also lists his seed investment in Metriport alongside Y Combinator.
Third-party notes on Happenstance describe him as helpful to YC founders after he invests at seed. Those notes come from other people's comments, not from Aberman himself.
Crunchbase shows 22 AI investments since 2023. His AI portfolio includes Monumint, Mastra, Fazeshift, Hamming AI, Gumloop, Reducto, Outset, Trieve, &AI, Cekura AI, Pythagora and ZeroEntropy.
Several of these are developer-facing or infrastructure products. Examples are Trieve (search, recommendations and RAG APIs), Reducto (document parsing) and Mastra and Gumloop (tools for building AI agents and workflows). Reducto's public funding history shows a $500K pre-seed round in April 2024, and Aberman is listed among its investors. The year of his own check is not confirmed.
Public data points to pre-seed and seed investing. Third-party aggregators list his interests as fintech, enterprise applications and AI. Tracxn shows his tracked investments in enterprise applications and enterprise infrastructure, all in the United States. His Open Core Ventures role suggests an interest in open-source and open-core startups. That is an inference from the firm's name and a third-party summary, not a statement from him.
His check size, ownership targets and fund size are not public, so none are given here. Aberman has not published a detailed statement of his investment criteria that we could find. Founders who want to pitch him can use his LinkedIn or X profile, and a warm introduction from a YC or portfolio founder may help given his background.
- Reducto: document parsing for AI applications. Founded in 2023, with a $500K pre-seed in April 2024 and a $75M Series B in October 2025.
- Fazeshift: AI company in his AI portfolio. Seed round of $4M in January 2025 alongside Gradient Ventures and Y Combinator.
- &AI: AI company that raised a $6.5M seed round in February 2025 with First Round Capital and Y Combinator.
- Greptile: raised a $4.1M seed round in June 2024 with Y Combinator and Initialized Capital.
- Blacksmith: raised a $3.5M seed round in May 2025 with Google Ventures and Y Combinator.
- Trieve: API for search, recommendations and RAG at scale. Part of his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Mastra: in his Crunchbase AI portfolio. Investment year not confirmed.
- Gumloop: in his Crunchbase AI portfolio. Investment year not confirmed.
- Hamming AI: in his Crunchbase AI portfolio. Investment year not confirmed.
- Vybe: raised a $10M seed round led by First Round Capital. Aberman is named as an angel investor.
- crunchbase.com/person/richard-aberman
- crunchbase.com/person/b78b6148-398a-a7c9-7bd6-3fe1c155e86c
- linkedin.com/in/richaberman
- x.com/RichAberman
- happenstance.ai/u/rich
- tracxn.com/d/people/rich-aberman/__kAu2shD63K4BqG4qmWjBoFLrO8shPum6yME
- multiples.vc/private-comps/reducto
- vybe.build/blog/vybe-raises-10m-seed-funding
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Richard Aberman has made 28 investments according to Crunchbase. 22 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Monumint, Mastra, Fazeshift, Hamming AI and Gumloop.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Richard Aberman
Who is Richard Aberman?
Richard (Rich) Aberman is an angel investor based in Santa Cruz, California. He co-founded the payments company WePay, which JPMorgan Chase acquired in 2017. He is now a General Partner at Open Core Ventures.
What stage does Richard Aberman invest in?
Public records show mostly pre-seed and seed rounds, where he co-invests with firms such as Y Combinator, First Round Capital and Gradient Ventures.
How many AI startups has Richard Aberman invested in?
Crunchbase shows 22 AI investments since 2023, out of 28 investments in total. They include Mastra, Gumloop, Reducto, Hamming AI and Trieve.
What is Richard Aberman's check size?
His check size is not public. We found no verified statement of typical amounts, so founders should ask him directly.
Did Richard Aberman work at Y Combinator?
Yes. He was a Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator from the Winter 2022 batch through 2023. WePay was also a YC company, in the S09 batch.
How can founders contact Richard Aberman?
He is on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/richaberman and on X as @RichAberman. He has no personal website that we could find.
Is Richard Aberman an angel investor?
Yes. Richard Aberman invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 28 investments.
What AI companies has Richard Aberman invested in?
Richard Aberman's AI investments include Monumint, Mastra, Fazeshift, Hamming AI, Gumloop, Reducto, Outset and Trieve.
Where is Richard Aberman based?
Richard Aberman is based in Santa Cruz, United States.
How can founders reach Richard Aberman?
Founders on Lounge can see Richard Aberman's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Richard Aberman to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.