Maren Bannon
VCCo-Founder & Managing Partner, January Ventures
Pre-seed B2B founder replacing friends-and-family rounds
Background
Maren Bannon is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of January Ventures, a pre-seed firm she co-founded to replace the friends-and-family round for founders who lack access to capital-rich networks. The firm uses a fully open, cold-access funnel requiring no deck, revenue, or warm introduction. Maren is an engineer-turned-operator: she previously co-founded LittleLane, a mobile marketplace, and held roles at Genentech and Applied Materials. She holds an engineering degree from Dartmouth and an MBA from Stanford. Based in London, she invests across the US and Europe. She writes regularly for Forbes on venture capital and mentors through Techstars and StartX.
Investment Thesis
Backs pre-seed B2B startups digitally transforming traditional industries, with a thesis that the market systematically underprices women and founders of color relative to performance — positioning this as a returns-first arbitrage on bias.
Investment Focus
Stages
Typical check: $250K–$750K
Sectors
Based in: London, UK (invests US and Europe) (Europe)
Notable Investments
Oula Health
Raised $28M Series B
Pano AI
Wildfire detection; raised $28M Series B
Treefera
Nature-based asset AI platform; raised $12M Series A
Guidewheel
Manufacturing optimization; raised $31M Series B
Ethena
Compliance training platform; January Ventures portfolio
M7 Health
Nursing workforce management; raised $10M Series A
Clarity Pediatrics
Pediatric ADHD/anxiety care; raised $14.5M Series A
Metronome
Usage-based billing infrastructure; January Ventures 2023 portfolio