TQ Ventures

Firm Profile

What they are. “An early-stage venture firm made up of independent thinkers who invest from first principles and commit deeply to founders.” (firm site). Based in New York City and San Francisco, led by longtime friends Schuster Tanger and Andrew Marks. The firm’s own LinkedIn states: “We manage $2 billion in assets and are currently investing out of our fourth fund.”

Fund size / AUM. **~$2BAUM\ast \ast ,currentlydeployingits\ast \ast fourthfund\ast \ast .⚠\stackrel{◯}{R}NotetheAUMfigurehasgrownovertime—olderthird-fund-erasourcescite">$1 billion” / “third fund.” The current ($2B,fourthfund)figurecomesfromT{Q}^{\prime }sownLinkedIn/siteandistheonetouse{.}^{[}the$2B figure is firm-stated; treat exact dollar AUM as approximate]

Stage focus. Early-stage — seed and Series A primarily, and explicitly earlier than most institutional investors (some sources note a focus on companies that have raised <$1.5M).Theyalsodoselectgrowth-stagefollow-on.Medianroundsizestheyparticipateinskewlargerthanclassicseed(theirseeds/Series-Ascluster$7M / ~$21M per aggregator data ^[single-source aggregator]), consistent with leading mid-sized early rounds.

Check size. Not publicly disclosed. Observed led seed checks ~$4M–$10M total round size, leading rounds outright. ^[inferred from announced deals — exact TQ check within each round not disclosed]

Thesis / how they pick. First-principles, no thematic mandate — they explicitly avoid sector/theme filters and evaluate each opportunity on team quality + market vision. Sector-agnostic in practice: portfolio spans vertical AI, AI dev/infra, fintech, consumer tech, healthcare, gaming. Geography: US-centric with selective Europe + Asia exposure (e.g. Lawhive UK, nsave UK/EU, Pathway Polish-founded, Distribusion DE).

Structure / culture. Multi-person investment team (~15–17 staff) but decision gravity sits with the two co-managing partners (Marks + Tanger). ^[inferred] Both co-founders come from prominent family-backed wealth (Marks → Oaktree/Howard Marks lineage; Tanger → namesake of the firm, family homage), which plausibly underwrites a patient-capital, conviction-over-thesis-chasing posture. ^[inferred] Notable historical wins: Liquid I.V., Clubhouse, Noom, Kindbody, Modern Treasury, Ro.

Partners

• Andrew Marks — Co-Founder & Managing Partner. Ex-Blackstone, Blue Ridge Capital, Freemark Partners. Son of Howard Marks (Oaktree). Our primary contact — Follow-Up Phase.
• Schuster Tanger — Co-Founder & Managing Partner; co-leads the firm with Marks. Limited public bio. The firm name honors the Tanger and Schuster families. Possible connection to the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers family (Stanley/Steven Tanger) — name homage + plausible lineage but NOT confirmed. ⚠️ ^[ambiguous] (^[needs-research] — separate person page not in this pass’s scope).
• Scooter Braun — Co-Founder (2018), advisor. Talent manager (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande), longtime friend of Tanger; retired from artist management in 2024 but remains co-founder/advisor. Current operating framing (“led by Marks & Tanger”) generally omits him, but he is a third co-founder of record — relevant if init’s pitch ever has a consumer/celebrity/distribution angle. ^[single-source for “remains advisor” status]
• Anna Gomez — Chief Financial Officer.
• Investment team also includes Jana Iris, Elisabeth Rülke, Sal Spina, Harshil Vejendla, Sandy Yao, Robbie Khazan; Venture Partners Sara Du, Ethan Lin; Operating Executives Finbarr Timbers, Elliot Graebert (per tq.vc/team, 2026-05).

Recent pre-seed/seed activity (Pass-1 sketch — ≤5 deals; exhaustive pull is Pass 2)

TQ-led seed rounds (cleanest signal of where they’re writing first checks):

• Adam — $4.1M seed, Oct 2025, TQ led (AI-powered text-to-3D / CAD copilot; YC W25). Co: 468 Capital, Pioneer, Script Capital, Transpose. ✅
• Pathway — $10M seed, Dec 2024, TQ led (live/real-time AI systems; Polish-founded, CA-based). Co: Kadmos, Inovo, Market One, Id4. ✅

TQ-led / participated later early rounds (stage ≠ seed — for context, not seed-market signal):

• Augmodo — $37.5M\ast \ast SeriesA\ast \ast ,Jul2025,\ast \ast TQled\ast \ast (spatialAIforretail).AndrewMarksquotedas"Co-ManagingPartner."Prior$5.3M seed fall 2024 (TQ relationship predates the A). ✅
• Lawhive (UK) — $40MSeriesA(Dec2024)+$60M Series B (Feb 2026), TQ in cap table (AI for small law firms). ✅
• nsave (UK/EU) — $18M Series A, Jan 2025, TQ in cap table (cross-border banking). ✅
• Plenful — $50MSeriesB,Apr2025(healthcareopsAI).\ast \ast Railway\ast \ast —$100M Series B, Jan 2026 (dev infra). TQ in cap table. ✅

Full source-tagged data → seed-market-scan/firms/tq-ventures.csv.

Best data channels for this firm

• Business Wire / TechCrunch / traded.co = best for TQ-led announcements (Augmodo, Adam). TQ is regularly named as lead in the body + a Marks quote.
• TQ’s own tq.vc/companies page = best independent completeness check; tags each company by year + sector (vertical AI / AI dev-infra / consumer / healthcare / enterprise).
• Europe: Vestbee, Sifted, EU-Startups for the UK/EU/Polish deals (Pathway, Lawhive, nsave).
• Weak channels: The Venture Codex spine under-covers TQ (mixed geographies, mid-sized rounds); aggregator “averages” (NFX Signal, Tracxn) are directional only. Don’t trust a single aggregator’s stage/role label — verify against the press release.

Fundraise Relationship (init.inc)

• Firm facts: TQ is a first-principles, founder-quality shop with no thematic mandate (evaluates on team + market vision). They write/lead mid-sized early rounds ($4M–$10M+ seeds) and can follow on from a $2B base. Andrew Marks is the live contact (warm, repeat engagement).
• Conversation log (newest first):
  • 2026-05-26 — Sazzad met Andrew Marks today (in SF this week); 3rd in-person locked. Strong repeat-engagement signal.
  • Week of 5/26 (SF): 3rd in-person meeting locked, time TBD — Andrew will be in SF.
  • 5/18 (AM): Met again — went well.
  • 5/13: Met Andrew — very excited. Strong repeat engagement.
  • Intro via TJ.
• Mutual connections / warm path: TJ (introducer). → see Andrew Marks for personal warm-path detail.
• Personal & rapport notes (firm-level): Culture is patient/conviction-driven, not thesis-tourist. Both GPs from prominent family-finance backgrounds. Low public-voice firm (little blogging/podcasting) → the relationship is built in-person, not via public touchpoints.
• Live stage: tracked in the CRM (Google Sheet) — not duplicated here.

Cross-check vs existing wiki

No prior mention of TQ Ventures, Andrew Marks, Schuster Tanger, or Howard Marks anywhere in entities/ or synthesis/ (grep 2026-05-25). No cap-table conflicts or contradictions with existing competitor pages. Clean new entity.

Related

Andrew Marks · (Schuster Tanger — stub pending) · (Scooter Braun — stub pending)

Pass 2 deal pattern (2026-05-25)

Exhaustive ~18–24-month pull (≈Nov 2024 → May 2026), triangulated across press + TQ’s LinkedIn + PitchBook/Tracxn + portfolio page. Full source-tagged table: /Users/sazzad14/seed-market-scan/firms/tq-ventures.csv (28 rows). Seeds/pre-seeds in window are the deliverable; Series A/B/C rows are follow-on context.

Seeds & pre-seeds in window (the actual deliverable)

TQ-led / co-led seeds (cleanest first-check signal):

• NomadicML — $8.4Mseed,Mar2026,\ast \ast TQled\ast \ast (SchusterTanger),$50M post. Physical-AI/AV data. ✅
• Mindra — $1.2M pre-seed, Nov 2025, TQ led (sole-named). Turkish multi-agent AI; Koç University founders. ✅
• Mercura — ~$2.1M(€1.8M)seed,Dec2025,\ast \ast TQco-led\ast \ast (w/SignalFire+YC;AndrewMarks).Munichindustrial-salesAI.✅⚠\stackrel{◯}{R}Nordic9callsita"$2.5M pre-seed.”
• Luron AI — $1M seed, Feb 2026, TQ co-led (w/ e2vc). Azerbaijani call-center AI. ✅
• Verax AI — $7.6M seed, Oct 2024, TQ led (Schuster Tanger). Dallas/Tel Aviv enterprise AI-control. ✅ (boundary-edge: Oct 30 2024)
• RL Core Technologies — $5M seed, Dec 2024, TQ led (Schuster Tanger). Edmonton industrial-control RL. ✅
• Pathway — $10M seed, Dec 2024, TQ led (Schuster Tanger). Polish-founded live AI. ✅

TQ participated (not lead) at seed:

• Zingage — $12.5M seed, Oct 2025, Bessemer led, TQ participated. NYC home-care AI. ✅
• Lumera Energy — undisclosed early-stage, ~Jan 2025, TQ participated (w/ Neo). ⚠️ amount unconfirmed (PitchBook only).

Out-of-window but documents TQ’s seed entry: nsave $4M seed Mar 2024 (TQ co-led w/ Sequoia).

Follow-on / later rounds in window (context, NOT seed signal)

Augmodo $37.5MA(Jul2025,\ast \ast TQled\ast \ast )\cdot Linq$20M A (Feb 2026, TQ led, Andrew Marks) · Railway $100MB(Jan2026,\ast \ast TQled\ast \ast ,SchusterTanger)\cdot Plenful$50M B (Apr 2025, participated; TQ had led the earlier $17MA)\cdot Pomelo$55M C (Jan 2026, participated, pro-rata) · Lawhive $40MA(Dec2024,cap-table)\cdot nsave$18M A (Jan 2025). Out-of-window late lead: Distribusion $80M C (Sep 2024, TQ led).

Findings

1. Lead rate is much higher than aggregators claim — for seeds. F4/Tracxn tag TQ “primarily participates / not a lead investor,” but the verified record shows TQ led or co-led 7 of 9 in-window seeds (and led 3 of the larger follow-ons: Augmodo A, Linq A, Railway B). The “doesn’t lead” label reflects their follow-on/growth participation (Pomelo, Plenful B, Zingage), not their seed behaviour. At seed, TQ leads. This is the single most important correction to the public profile.

2. Partner attribution splits cleanly by sector/stage. Schuster Tanger fronts the technical / AI-infra / deep-tech deals (NomadicML, Verax, RL Core, Pathway, Railway B, Distribusion C). Andrew Marks fronts fintech / healthcare / GTM-heavy deals (Mercura, Linq A, Plenful A, Pomelo C). Both carry “Co-Managing Partner / Co-founding Partner” titles; either can lead. ^[inferred from quote attribution across releases]

3. Check/stage: in-window seeds cluster $1M–$12.5M (median ~$5M;TQ-ledsubset$1.2–$10M).Pre-seedchecksassmallas$1–1.2M (Luron, Mindra); “real” seeds $4–10M.T{Q}^{\prime }sstatedfilter(backcompaniesthathaveraised\ast \ast <$1.5M**) holds — they aim to be first institutional check. Tracxn’s stage averages ($7.35Mseed/$21.1M A / $34.1M B) are directional only.

4. Cadence is selective but accelerating into 2026. ≈7 in-window seeds + ≈7 follow-on/later rounds. Tracxn says “4 new investments in 2025”; F4 lists ~13 for 2025 — ⚠️ source conflict: Tracxn appears to count new-portfolio-companies only; F4 mixes new + follow-on + (some unverifiable) names. The verified new-seed count for 2025 is ~5–6.

5. Sector mix is genuinely agnostic, geography is global. AI-infra/dev (NomadicML, Pathway, Railway, Linq), vertical AI (Augmodo, Plenful, Zingage, Lawhive), fintech (nsave, Pomelo, Mercura, Luron), industrial/RL (RL Core), agent infra (Mindra). HQs span US, Germany, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Poland, UK, Canada, LatAm — strongly non-US-heavy for a NYC/SF firm, which means much of the deal trail lives in regional press (egirisim TR, tech.az AZ, munich-startup/Startbase DE), not US trackers.

6. ⚠️ Pass-1 correction (methodology note). The Pass-1 “Augmodo $5.3Mseed—TQ❓participated"rowwas\ast \ast wrong\ast \ast :theseed(Oct2024)was\ast \ast ledbyLererHippeauwithnoTQinit\ast \ast —TQfirstappearsattheJul-2025SeriesA.TheerrorcamefrominferringT{Q}^{\prime }sseedroleoffthe\ast SeriesA\ast pressrelease("justlastfalltheyraiseda$5.3M seed”) — the exact spine-error the playbook warns about. Corrected to ❌ in the CSV. Also corrected: the Pass-1 lone “nsave $18MSeriesA"isactuallyprecededbya$4M seed TQ co-led with Sequoia (Mar 2024).

COULDN’T-GET (single-source F4 names, no TQ-confirming source)

Reactor, Turf, Ahoy, Operating Intelligence, AIVideo, Architect, Lumina appear only on F4’s LLM-generated deal list; every same-name company surfaced in press has no TQ link (collisions: Reactor=NZ crypto/Delphi; Turf.gg=gaming/Avalanche; Architect AI=Project A-led; Operative Intelligence=Bonfire-led; AIVideo.com=YC S23). Either F4 misattributions or quiet/unannounced rounds. Marked ❓ in CSV, not dropped. Also Handshake (F4 2026, AI data-labeling) — TQ in cap table per F4 but no round/amount/date confirmable → ❓. Lumera Energy amount/exact date unconfirmed beyond PitchBook.

Refined best-data-channels note

• #1 channel: TQ’s own LinkedIn posts when they LEAD (linkedin.com/company/tq-ventures) — richest, partner-attributed, sometimes valuation-disclosed (NomadicML, Railway, Pomelo posts all gave lead + partner + co-investors). This is the single most reliable channel for TQ.
• #2: Business Wire / PR Newswire / TheSaaSNews / traded.co for the announcement (Verax, RL Core, Adam, Linq, Railway).
• #3 (essential for TQ’s non-US half): regional press — egirisim.com (TR), tech.az (AZ), munich-startup.de / startbase.com (DE), Vestbee (PL/CEE), tech.eu (EU).
• Avoid as primary: F4’s deal-list (good candidate spine, but single-sourced + partly stale/hallucinated) and PitchBook’s “Generating Revenue” status column (not a stage label; its deal-type column is fine). Tracxn understates lead-rate and miscounts cadence.