NewsNov 10, 2026, 13:25 UTC

Stage 2 Capital closes $100M for B2B AI startups, adds an AI agent to its network

What's the deal? Stage 2 Capital has closed $100 million across two vehicles, Venture Fund IV and Catalyst IV, to back early-stage B2B AI companies. Venture Fund IV writes $2 million to $5 million checks from seed through Series A, while Catalyst IV makes $200,000 pre-seed investments, often as part of the first institutional round.

Why now? The close follows three recent portfolio exits: Momentum to Salesforce, Steelhead to Mainsail, and Versori to Avalara.

What's the endgame? The Boston firm pairs capital with go-to-market support, drawing on a network of more than 1,000 operators at companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, and ElevenLabs. It is now adding an AI agent built to match a founder's specific need with the right operator in real time.

The model: Co-founded in 2018 by Jay Po and Mark Roberge, Stage 2 invests through a pod model that pairs a venture partner with a go-to-market partner. Its approach rests on the Science of Scaling, Roberge's framework for deciding when and how fast a company should grow.

"We started Stage 2 Capital because early-stage founders need more than capital," Po said. "No firm solved this well for go-to-market."

"We see founders make the same two mistakes over and over," Roberge said. "Some scale too slowly and miss their window. Others scale before they're ready and put the entire business at risk."

The signal: At $100 million, the new total is smaller than the firm's previously announced $150 million Fund III and modest against a rebounding venture market.