Chad Bailey
Vice President
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- Full Name
- Chad Bailey
- Title
- Partner & Co-Founder (formerly Vice President, NGP Capital)
- Firm
- NewBuild Venture Capital (formerly NGP Capital)
- Firm Type
- Early-stage venture capital firm
- Investment Stage
- Seed and Series A
- Check Size
- Not publicly disclosed
- Target Company Profile
- Early-stage enterprise and supply chain software startups going to market in the US/Canada
- Sector Focus
- Supply chain infrastructure and application software; enterprise SaaS; logistics/freight tech; AI/ML and data; procurement; vertical software
- Geographic Focus
- North America (US/Canada)
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area / Silicon Valley, California
Background
Chad Bailey is a co-founder and Partner at NewBuild Venture Capital, an early-stage, enterprise- and supply-chain-focused venture firm founded in 2022 by Bailey and Managing Partner Rohini Chakravarthy, with whom he had worked since 2018. At NewBuild he leads investments in supply chain application software companies, backing founders building at the intersection of emerging technologies (AI/ML, edge cloud, data, mobile) and enterprise supply chains reshaped by pressures for resilience and sustainability.
Before founding NewBuild, Bailey spent roughly 5.5 years (approximately January 2019 to 2022–2024) at NGP Capital (formerly Nokia Growth Partners), a global venture firm, where he served as a Vice President on the US investment team in Silicon Valley. He focused on the "Connected Car" and consumer solutions space and made more than a dozen investments across transportation, logistics, supply chain and other vertical industries. He was also editor of NGP Capital's "Road Ahead" newsletter, a monthly publication delivering thematic insights on the mobility sector.
Prior to venture capital, Bailey worked at investment bank Houlihan Lokey as a member of its Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) group in San Francisco, where he advised software and other growth-stage technology companies on M&A, capital raising, and restructuring, supporting dozens of transactions.
Bailey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University, where he was a member of the lightweight (rowing) crew team.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests at Seed and Series A in early-stage enterprise and supply chain software companies going to market in the US and Canada.
- Thematic focus on supply chain infrastructure and application software — NewBuild describes itself as investing at the intersection of emerging technologies (edge cloud, generative AI, ML, data, mobile) reshaping enterprise supply chains amid geopolitical pressure for resilience and sustainability.
- Sub-sectors include logistics/freight tech, procurement, inventory and planning software, IoT, and vertical AI applications.
- Brings an operator-adjacent, domain-deep approach: the firm pairs Bailey's supply-chain investing track record with venture partner Madhav Durbha's 25+ years of supply-chain industry experience (former VP of Supply Chain Strategy at Coupa) for diligence and post-investment value.
Notable Investments
- Freehand.ai — agentic decision layer for supply chain spend, connecting commercial agreements to real-world outcomes.
- Lyric — AI-driven supply chain decision-intelligence platform.
- Drumkit — logistics "co-pilot" automating back-office ops (scheduling, tracking, quoting, load building).
- Pull Logic — AI inventory management integrating demand forecasts into planning decisions.
- Cacheflow — modern procurement/quote-to-cash platform (with e-signing and payment).
- OnRamp — freight ecosystem fintech automating carrier payments and pricing.
- Manifold Freight — platform helping dispatchers find and bid on spot freight.
- Pillar — AI hedging platform for manufacturers managing currency/commodity exposure.
- CanyonCode — enterprise AI workflow intelligence platform for multi-agentic applications.
- Cognichip — physics-informed "artificial chip intelligence" for semiconductor design.
- weav.ai, MachineFi, Rockfish Data — additional AI/data/IoT portfolio companies.
- Prior/associated relationships: Zum (school transportation unicorn), Shadowfax, SVT Robotics, Platform9, Goldcast, Coda — reflecting earlier venture relationships, several tied to the NGP era.
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