Christian Lawless

Christian Lawless is the Founder and General Partner of Conversion Capital LLC, a venture fund he launched in 2012 with a thesis that financial services infrastructure would be unbundled as companies moved critical operating systems to the cloud. He leads the firm's private investments in internet, software, and infrastructure companies. Under his leadership, Conversion Capital has grown from a small seed-stage fund to managing approximately $254 million in assets, including a $122 million Fund III raised in 2022 -- more than six times the size of its predecessor fund. The firm has backed over 60 startups and recorded 17 exits through M&A and IPOs.

Prior to founding Conversion Capital, Lawless spent over a decade in institutional finance. He was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers in both New York and London, where he led sales and trading teams across multiple asset classes. Following Lehman's collapse in 2008, he continued in capital markets leadership roles at Nomura (which acquired Lehman's operations) and Barclays before transitioning into venture investing. This deep Wall Street background gives him a distinctive lens on fintech infrastructure and enterprise software, and strong networks across institutional finance.

Lawless holds a B.A. in Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University. He was recognized by AlleyWatch as one of the "30 People in the New York FinTech Scene You Need to Know About" and has served as a judge for the Columbia Venture Competition. More recently, he made a high-conviction move to work closely with Cognition AI, the company behind the Devin AI coding agent, reflecting his growing focus on generative AI alongside fintech and national security.

Conversion Capital invests at the Seed and Series A stages in companies building foundational infrastructure for financial services, enterprise software, and emerging technology sectors. Lawless specializes in go-to-market strategy and driving revenue growth for early-stage companies. His current investment focus spans three primary verticals:

The firm targets 25-30 investments per fund, reserving at least 30% of capital for follow-on rounds in breakout portfolio companies.

• Fintech & Financial Infrastructure -- Core to the firm's thesis since inception; backing companies that unbundle and rebuild financial services infrastructure for the cloud era.
• Generative AI & Enterprise Software -- Investing in AI-native companies transforming how software is built, deployed, and used across industries.
• National Security & Defense Tech -- A newer focus area reflecting growing government demand for advanced technology solutions.

| Company | Sector | Status / Note | |---|---|---| | Ramp | Fintech / Expense Management | Unicorn; led investment | | Cognition (Devin) | AI Coding Agents | Unicorn ($10.2B valuation); led investment | | Blend | Fintech / Mortgage Tech | IPO (NYSE: BLND); led investment | | Temporal | Developer Infrastructure | Led investment | | Figure | Fintech / Blockchain | Led investment | | Improbable | Simulation / Metaverse | Led investment | | Wisetack | Fintech / BNPL | Led investment | | FiscalNote | GovTech / Data | Unicorn | | Dataminr | AI / Real-time Intelligence | Unicorn | | Booster Fuels | Fuel / Logistics | Board Director | | Vesta | Fintech / Payments | Board Director | | Haven | Fintech | Board Director | | Pylon | Fintech | Board Director; led $8.5M Seed | | Raylu | Fintech | Board Director | | LearnVest | Fintech / Personal Finance | Acquired by Northwestern Mutual | | Ticketfly | Events / Ticketing | Acquired by Pandora | | RedOwl Analytics | Cybersecurity | Acquired by Forcepoint | | Frame AI | AI / Enterprise | Exited Dec 2024 | | Cargado | Logistics / Cross-border | Series A (Apr 2025) |