Meet the Team

Dan has been investing in tech and infrastructure startups for over 20 years. He is passionate about helping founders navigate the startup journey and the pursuit of product-market fit. Today, Dan leads the firm’s FinTech investment team and is a member of the management committee. 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 invested in mobile and payments-related startups, including Quattro (Acq’d by Apple), Triad (Licenses acq’d by AT&T and T-Mobile), TriStar (Acq’d by Crown Castle), and WePay (Acq’d by JPMorgan Chase). 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), before the term FinTech existed.

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 more than 20 years. He leads the firm’s commerce infrastructure/retail technology investment team and is a member of the management committee. He serves on the boards of several portfolio companies, including Pensa and Instock.

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 more than 15 years. His experience includes leading strategy and business development across four continents for Fortune 500 companies as well as venture-backed companies. He leads the corporate development team, oversees the firm’s thematic analysis process, and is a member of the management committee.

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.

At Commerce Ventures, Vivek focuses on tech-first opportunities in FinTech & InsurTech – as well as where these two categories intersect with other verticals. He works closely with a number of CV companies, including Bureau, Canary Technologies, Flueid, Mudflap, Zeal and Zentist. 

Vivek was previously a member of the investment banking team at Financial Technology Partners where he worked on ~$1B of private capital raises, M&A, and IPOs for FinTech & InsurTech companies like GreenSky (Acq’d by Goldman Sachs), Marqeta (MQ), Yapstone, Enservio (Acq’d by Solera) and others. Along the way, he’s also spent stints working on credit portfolio management at GE Capital and airplane economics at Boeing. 

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

Chris is an experienced strategy and corporate development professional, with prior roles in the strategy consulting and financial services industries. He joined Commerce Ventures in 2024 and supports the firm’s corporate engagement and thematic research efforts.

Prior to joining Commerce Ventures, Chris was a Director at EY-Parthenon, where he advised Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms, and portfolio companies on growth strategy, organizational design, and investment diligence. Chris began his career at Citi, where he supported the firm’s growth and restructuring initiatives as a member of the corporate development and investor relations teams.

Chris studied Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, earned an MBA from the Wharton School, and is a CFA charterholder.

Fun fact: Chris is a craft beer enthusiast and has tried over 1,500 unique beers.

Jeremy has spent time interning in product and engineering at companies including Paramount Global’s CBS Sports, Kaiser Permanente, and Salesforce. As an alumnus of the Hidden Genius Project, Jeremy continues to give back to his community by educating youth in technology.

Fun fact: Jeremy is the Co-Captain of Morehouse’s NCAA Division II Tennis team

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 – RetailTech. Previously, Brenda was at Cambridge Associates, where her last role was managing a team of administrative assistants and overseeing a variety of projects. She started her career in retail as a baby gear buyer.

Brenda graduated from Brandeis University with a major in Sociology and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies.

Fun fact: Brenda loves amusement parks, both for the rollercoasters and the junk food.

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 and her family enjoy fostering puppies and adult dogs from Aruba (cunucus) and have helped over 25 find loving forever homes in New England.

Before joining as Venture Partner for 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).