
Swell Partners is a mission-oriented, growth-minded venture capital firm based in New York City that is obsessed with helping portfolio companies build world-class teams in order to give them the competitive edge.
Swell backs extraordinary founders building category-creating companies and gives them an unfair recruiting advantage. You can think of Swell as a next-gen venture firm with the DNA of a world-class talent agency. Early stage and category agnostic, Swell VC typically invests in seed and series A stage companies across multiple sectors.
For the last decade, Swell VC founders Rusty Ralston and Jay Patil have played a key role in the expansion of the New York City tech ecosystem through their investments and startup sales recruiting practice. Previously, as early employees of a venture-backed talent assessment machine learning startup, they learned the importance of recruiting and how a winning culture can determine the outcome of a company. With this serving as the foundation, Swell has solidified a track record of investing in and building some of New York City’s most recent success stories, including Tapad’s $360MM exit.
“You win with people” is not a cliche — it is the definition of Swell’s approach with founders and the core philosophy on shaping industry winners. Swell has established an elite talent network comprised of sales, business development, product, and marketing executives who have scaled startups from inception to acquisition and/or IPO. As the best candidates are never looking, Swell helps portfolio companies access top-performing talent that appears hidden or unavailable. Swell VC is a true partner and extension of the team that adds material value where founders need it most: people.
Swell backs extraordinary founders building category-creating companies and gives them an unfair recruiting advantage. You can think of Swell as a next-gen venture firm with the DNA of a world-class talent agency. Early stage and category agnostic, Swell VC typically invests in seed and series A stage companies across multiple sectors.
For the last decade, Swell VC founders Rusty Ralston and Jay Patil have played a key role in the expansion of the New York City tech ecosystem through their investments and startup sales recruiting practice. Previously, as early employees of a venture-backed talent assessment machine learning startup, they learned the importance of recruiting and how a winning culture can determine the outcome of a company. With this serving as the foundation, Swell has solidified a track record of investing in and building some of New York City’s most recent success stories, including Tapad’s $360MM exit.
“You win with people” is not a cliche — it is the definition of Swell’s approach with founders and the core philosophy on shaping industry winners. Swell has established an elite talent network comprised of sales, business development, product, and marketing executives who have scaled startups from inception to acquisition and/or IPO. As the best candidates are never looking, Swell helps portfolio companies access top-performing talent that appears hidden or unavailable. Swell VC is a true partner and extension of the team that adds material value where founders need it most: people.
Location: United States, New York
Employees: 1-10
Founded date: 2014
Investment Type: Venture Capital
Investment Stage: Pre-Seed; Seed; Series A
Mentions in press and media 5
Date | Title | Description |
15.10.2024 | Swell VC Closes Fund II with $11.5m in Commitments | Swell VC, a NYC-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in market-defining opportunities, closed Fund II with $11.5m in commitments. Backers included a diverse mix of successful founders, family offices across tech, finance, and... |
10.07.2024 | Swell VC: An Interview With Co-Founder Rusty Ralston About Finding Market-Defining Opportunities In Venture Capital | Swell VC, built around a core thesis that you win with people, is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in market-defining opportunities. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Swell VC’s co-founder and general partner, Rusty Ralston, to learn mo... |
27.06.2024 | Meet Rusty Ralston, co-founder and General Partner at Swell VC | The firm invests in sectors like artificial intelligence, space, defense, and healthcare Venture capital used to be a cottage industry, with very few investing in tomorrow's products and services. Oh, how times have changed! While there are... |
16.08.2019 | Swell Partners Launches $3.3M Micro Fund | NYC-based early stage venture capital Swell Partners has launched a new $3.3m sector-agnostic, human-centric fund. Founded by Jay Patil and Rusty Ralston, who have also guided the formation of teams for more than 50 startups over the past d... |
15.04.2018 | Swell Capital Raises $10M for Venture Fund | New York-based Swell Capital is raising a venture fund targeted at $10 million, according to a regulatory filing. The firm is led by Rusty Ralston and Jay Patil, according to its website. The filing lists no investors. |