Meridian Ventures Launched $35M Fund To Back MBA-Deferred Founders

Meridian Ventures Launched $35M Fund To Back MBA-Deferred Founders

Meridian Ventures Raises $35M to Challenge Silicon Valley Bias Silicon Valley has long questioned whether MBA graduates make great startup founders. Now, Meridian Ventures is trying to prove the opposite. The venture capital firm, launched by Harvard MBA classmates Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney, has closed a $35 million fund focused on backing pre-seed and seed-stage startups founded by MBA talent, including deferred MBA entrepreneurs. The new fund arrives as enterprise AI, fintech, logistics, and healthcare startups continue attracting investor attention in 2026. A New Venture Fund Built Around MBA Founders Meridian Ventures was founded from a personal connection between two entrepreneurs who met through Harvard’s deferred MBA admission program in 2020. Instead of following traditional venture capital paths, the pair built a firm around a thesis many investors overlooked: MBA-trained founders can build category-defining startups. Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney came from very different…