Kellan Carter

Kellan Carter is a founding General Partner of FUSE, a Seattle-area early-stage venture firm he co-founded in 2020 after spinning out of Ignition Partners alongside Cameron Borumand and Brendan Wales (with backing tied to LPs including former Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner). A Montana native and University of Montana graduate, Carter was reported to be 35 years old in 2022, making him one of three founding GPs at FUSE who were all 35 or younger at launch.

Before FUSE, Carter spent seven years at Ignition Partners, which he joined in 2013 and where he was promoted to partner in 2018. At Ignition he led investments in enterprise/SaaS companies including Icertis, Symend, Botkeeper, KenSci, and Azuqua, and served on the boards of Botkeeper and Symend. Earlier in his career he spent roughly two years in technology investment banking at Mooreland Partners in San Francisco, executing M&A transactions focused on cloud and enterprise software, and before that worked in KPMG's advisory practice in Orange County, California, structuring asset-backed securities.

At FUSE, Carter focuses on early-stage investments in "intelligent software" across both horizontal and vertical categories. The firm raised a $170M debut fund (2020) and an oversubscribed $250M Fund II (announced September 2023), bringing committed capital to over $420M. He currently sits on the boards of portfolio companies including Avante, Owl, Zuper, Pictory, and Freightmate, and serves the Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue.

• Invests at Seed and Series A, writing checks in roughly the $1M–$10M range.
• Backs Pacific Northwest–based founders who "leverage software and AI to improve business processes" — FUSE positions itself as the local firm with deep PNW operator relationships (an LP base of 100+ tech operators, most within 20 minutes of the office).
• Looks for B2B / enterprise and vertical software companies and machine-learning applications aiming to be "category-defining businesses of lasting value."
• Says yes to "passionate founders who are committed to their vision and possess a clear understanding of their market." On the Avante deal, Carter cited three decision criteria: the team's assessment of the problem, its technical approach, and the strength and experience of the founding team — and was willing to fund pre-revenue.
• Emphasizes distribution over product for current founders; in 2025 he publicly argued that in an AI era, "Product won't win. Distribution will."