Forum Ventures (formerly Acceleprise)[1] is a North American early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in New York, with additional offices in San Francisco and Toronto.[2] The firm operates a 4-month accelerator program, a Pre-Seed Fund, and an AI-focused Venture Studio.[3]

History

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Forum Ventures was founded in 2014 as Acceleprise[1] by Michael Cardamone who previously worked at Box and AcademixDirect.[4] The new firm licensed the Acceleprise brand, previously owned by a separate company incorporated in 2012 that had raised and deployed one fund in Washington DC.[4] After receiving early buy ins from Nick Mehta, Karen Page, and Rowan Trollope, Cardamone left his job to run the accelerator full-time.[4]

Cardamone successfully raised $1M after 9 months, with an initial batch of 8 companies entering the Acceleprise San Francisco Accelerator.[5] By the second quarter of 2015, the new Acceleprise started by Cardamone closed their first fund with a total of $3.5M.[2]

In 2017, Acceleprise raised a $7M fund.[6] Cardamone later moved to New York City where he expanded the accelerator.[7]

Between August 2018 and March 2019, Cardamone brought on James Murphy, co-founder of Robly, and Jonah Midanik, an Acceleprise portfolio alumni and former CEO of Limelight Platform, as Managing Directors for the Acceleprise accelerator program.[4] Cardamone expanded Acceleprise to Toronto in 2019.[3]

In 2021, the firm was rebranded from Acceleprise to Forum Ventures, raising $30M consisting of a $17M pre-seed accelerator fund and a $13.2M seed fund.[8]

In 2025, Forum Ventures' assets under management totalled approximately $100M, focusing on B2B SaaS investments in health tech, applied AI, fintech, marketplaces, supply chain, and future of work.[6]

Research

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In 2023, Forum Ventures discovered that 75% of funds noted a decrease in valuations since 2022, a 10% decrease from the previous year.[9][10]

In 2024, Forum Ventures released their research in 2024: The Rise in Agentic AI in the Enterprise, covering "the nuanced landscape of AI agents and the enterprise."[11] They found that 48% of information technology executives are beginning to adopt AI Agents, and 33% are actively exploring them.[12]

References

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  1. 1 2 "Forum Ventures Releases 'State of the VC Market 2024' Report". markets.businessinsider.com. Archived from the original on 2025-07-21. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  2. 1 2 Chowdhry, Amit (2024-09-09). "Forum Ventures: How This VC Firm Makes The B2B SaaS Journey Easier For Companies". Pulse 2.0. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  3. 1 2 Kirkwood, Isabelle (2019-10-02). "Acceleprise officially announces plans to launch Toronto accelerator | BetaKit". Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Forum Ventures turns 10". www.forumvc.com. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  5. Novet, Jordan (2014-09-01). "Acceleprise, the enterprise accelerator, comes to San Francisco (exclusive)". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 2025-07-15. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  6. 1 2 "B2B accelerator Acceleprise raises $7m fund, to expand to Melbourne". DealStreetAsia. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  7. Kolodny, Lora (2017-12-06). "Start-up bootcamp Acceleprise raised $7 million to find the next Salesforce, Cisco or Box". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  8. Wilhelm, Alex (2021-06-29). "SaaS-focused Acceleprise rebrands, raises $30M in new capital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  9. Cardamone, Mike (2023-12-21). "Seed to Series A: Strategic insights for tech founders in the 2024 venture landscape". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-07-06.
  10. "The State of the Pre-seed and Seed VC Market - 2024". www.forumvc.com. Retrieved 2026-07-06.
  11. Swartz, Jon (2024-10-09). "Enterprises Are Adopting Agentic AI, But at a Cautious Pace". Techstrong.ai. Retrieved 2026-07-06.
  12. "Safety and reliability concerns temper agentic AI mania". SiliconANGLE. 2024-11-29. Retrieved 2026-07-06.