Meet the Team

Dan has been investing in tech startups for 20 years. He founded Commerce Ventures with the vision of creating a sector-focused firm that demonstrably helps its portfolio companies.

At Commerce, Dan focuses on technology innovations in the payments, financial services and insurance fields. He serves on the boards of several portfolio companies, including BillGO, Kin, and Socure. Prior to starting Commerce Ventures, Dan was a Principal at Highland Capital Partners, where he focused on mobile and payments-related startups. He has also worked as an Associate at HarbourVest Partners, in Corporate Development at RSA Security, and as a financial services software consultant for American Management Systems (now CGI Group).

Dan studied Finance and Information Systems at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA with Distinction from Harvard.

Fun Fact: Dan funded his adolescent baseball card and comic book collecting habits by delivering the Boston Globe newspaper early each morning (rain or shine).

Matt has been an investor in and operator of early stage technology companies for 20 years. He has a specific focus on commerce and retail technology.

Prior to Commerce Ventures, Matt was the CEO of Gemvara, a disruptive jewelry eCommerce business that was sold to Berkshire Hathaway. Matt also worked as a venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners where his investments included Bullhorn (Acq’d by Vista Equity Partners), Pixable (Acq’d by SingTel), Avamar (Acq’d by EMC), Tarari (Acq’d by LSI), and Perceptive Software (Acq’d by Lexmark). Matt was a member of Morgan Stanley‘s Technology Corporate Finance team where he was part of the Google IPO team and also spent time in Google’s corporate development group.

Matt studied Economics at Pomona College and earned an MBA with high distinction from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Fun Fact: Matt was once a nationally ranked badminton player.

Ysbrant has been an operating executive in the financial services and commerce industries for the past 15 years. His experience includes leading strategy and business development across four continents for Fortune 500 companies as well as start-ups.

Prior to joining Commerce Ventures, Ysbrant led enterprise strategy and business development at Vantiv (now Worldpay). Prior to that, he served as SVP & Director of Global Digital Strategy at Citigroup, where he led initiatives focused on mobile strategy, global payments infrastructure, consumer digital, and cross-Citi digital governance. Ysbrant started his career with Booz & Company, where he advised financial services, telecom and media clients in the U.S., Europe and Middle East. Ysbrant was also a Co-Founder of OpenRevolution, which was created to leverage mobile to expand access to financial services across 25 countries and 5 continents.

Fun Fact: Originally from Amsterdam, Ys has lived in 4 countries and traveled to over 35.

Rima earned her MBA from The Wharton School where she was a Dorm Room Fund Partner and CEO of StartU. Prior to Wharton, Rima was a Principal at XRC Labs, an NYC-based pre-seed accelerator focused on investing in retail technology and consumer brands. Before XRC, Rima worked at Ralph Lauren in Digital Strategy and Business Development. Rima began her career in Equity Research at Goldman Sachs, where she covered the consumer staples sector.

Rima graduated from Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University where she studied Finance and Economics. She holds a degree in Fashion Marketing from Parsons School of Design and earned her MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Fun Fact: Rima is an endurance athlete and has completed an Ironman 70.3, 3 marathons, a century bike ride, and an 8 day hiking trek in Antarctica.

Vivek joined Commerce Ventures in 2017 and was promoted to Senior Associate in 2018.

Previously, Vivek was an investment banking analyst at Financial Technology Partners where he was involved with numerous M&A and Private Placement transactions for growth and late stage FinTech & InsurTech companies

Vivek is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

Fun Fact: Vivek is a documentary nut and has watched 200 (and counting!) films.

Prior to joining Commerce Ventures, Neelesh was an investment banker at Financial Technology Partners for three years. He worked on many M&A and capital raise transactions across various sub-verticals within FinTech, such as Fraud & Security, InsurTech, and Payments.

Neelesh attended Case Western Reserve University where he earned his Bachelors and Masters in Finance.

Fun Fact: Neelesh enjoys drone videography in scenic locations and baking creative desserts in his spare time.

Before joining Commerce Ventures, Erika began her career in corporate innovation consulting at Runway, where she helped build innovation programs and assess unserved market opportunities for Fortune Global 500 corporates, CVCs, and CPG companies. Prior to Runway, Erika held roles on the Venture Capital Relationship Management Division at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the Investor Relations Team at 8VC.

Erika received a B.S. in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

Fun fact: A California native, Erika loves the outdoors and can be found spending her free time surfing, longboarding, or snowboarding!

Liz joined Commerce Ventures in 2020. She previously served as Controller at ASICS Digital, Inc. (formerly Runkeeper), a global division of ASICS Corporation focused on building digital technologies, and Gemvara, an e-commerce jewelry company. Liz began her career with DiCicco, Gulman & Company with a focus in assurance and taxation. She is a certified public accountant.

Liz is a graduate of Northeastern University with a B.S. in Accounting and an M.S. in Taxation.

Fun Fact: Liz enjoys creative activities such as hand lettering and flower arranging.

Brenda joined Commerce Ventures in July 2021 as Chief of Staff – Retail. Previously she was at Cambridge Associates, providing administrative and operational support as well as managing a variety of projects. She started her career in retail as a baby gear buyer.

Laura joined the team in Spring 2022. Prior to Commerce Ventures, she held executive assistant roles at Bain & Company and the Boston Athletic Association (Boston Marathon).

Laura graduated from Colgate University with a double major in History and French Literature. She lives in Colorado with her partner and their golden retriever, Chuck.

Fun fact: Laura was a Division 1 athlete in college.

Michele joined Commerce Ventures in the Summer of 2022. She brings a wealth of administrative experience to the team. Before devoting her full-time work to Commerce Ventures, Michele spent several years at Quiet Capital as a Senior Executive Assistant. Prior to Quiet Capital, she practiced as a Paralegal & Administrator at local Chicago law firms, and most recently at Ropes & Gray. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from the University of Mississippi, as well as a Certificate in Paralegal Studies from Roosevelt University.

Andrea has been a member of the Commerce Ventures team since 2014. Since joining she has helped with a variety of administrative efforts including executive support and event planning. Previously, she has held Executive and Marketing Assistant roles at Highland Capital Partners and Pyramid Management Group.

Andrea graduated from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts with a major in Business Administration with a marketing concentration and a minor in English Communications.

Fun Fact – Andrea is mom to 1 son, 2 daughters, an Italian Greyhound and a long-haired miniature Dachshund.

Claire joined the Commerce Ventures team as a fellow in January 2021. After spending time on the investment team, she now leads marketing and community efforts for the Commerce Venture brand and portfolio.

Before Commerce, Claire worked closely with a number of early-stage startups in product marketing, partnerships, and market research.

Claire graduated from the University of San Francisco with a bachelors in entrepreneurship and innovation as valedictorian and commencement speaker.

Fun fact: Claire is passionate about involvement in the San Francisco community and spends most Sunday afternoons volunteering at her local farmer’s market.

Theo is a current sophomore at the University of Texas in Austin studying Economics and Computer Science. Prior to joining Commerce Ventures, Theo interned with Pennybacker Capital and is interested in everything technology, from deep tech to digitized retail.

Fun fact: When Theo was in 7th grade, he assembled PC parts and built a gaming computer.

Before joining as a senior advisor to Commerce Ventures, Daniel spent the last decade in progressive levels of responsibility as a senior executive at Walmart Inc., where he served as a key member of the U.S. leadership team responsible for Walmart’s retail- and omni-channel business transformation. Daniel’s responsibilities spanned Walmart’s financial, retail, automated, and in-store pickup service lines as well as leadership over its Omnichannel shopping tools and Omni product catalog services, spanning 4,700 stores, 64,000 automated kiosks, and all of Walmart’s digital platforms.

While at Walmart, Daniel was responsible for the conceptualization, implementation, and growth of such market-disruptive fintech innovations as: Walmart’s financial services point-of-sale platform; Walmart2Walmart Money Transfer services; Bluebird by American Express; Prize Savings with Green Dot; Mobile Express Money Services; and, Earned Wage Access with Even & PayActiv.

Daniel also conceived, developed and implemented Walmart’s highly successful mobile wallet innovation, Walmart Pay, as well as built more than a dozen other pioneering Omnichannel shopping tools that moved the Walmart App from 685th to 2nd in popularity in iOS the App Store.

Most recently, Daniel served as the Chief Product, Strategy and Development Officer at Green Dot Corporation, and has held other positions at HSBC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Accenture Ltd.  Earlier in his career he was a founder and president of an early-stage investment banking company.

Daniel studied diplomatic history at the University of Michigan and earned an MBA with High Honors from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  He also served as an Officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Fun Fact:  Daniel became obsessed with craft beer before craft beer was a “thing.” It led him to the hobby of homebrewing, which he’s been doing now for nearly 30 years.

Pete is a senior advisor to Commerce Ventures and an active independent angel investor. He has been involved since the inception of our firm and works closely with Commerce Ventures on investments and thematic work in the payments and banking fields. Pete was the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of CheckFree Corporation, which he led from start-up in 1981 until December 2007 when it was sold to Fiserv (FISV) for $4.4 billion. At the time of sale, CheckFree was a primary global supplier of electronic banking technology and services, the largest provider of electronic billing and payments services, with revenues of $1.1 billion. Pete has served on several public and private company boards, including Akamai (AKAM), Blackbaud (BLKB), Cartera Commerce, CynergyData (Chairman), Fiserv (where he also served as Vice Chairman), Huntington Bancshares (HBAN), Kabbage and Manhattan Associates (MANH).