In 2016, Simeon Iheagwam left his job as an investment banker to fulfill a dream. Instead of using his talents to help the current generation of successful global companies, he wanted to help build the next generation.
Today, he’s doing just that. Iheagwam is the founder and managing partner of NOEMIS Ventures, a seed and pre-seed firm based in New York that works with 31 portfolio companies across fintech, AI, machine learning, and marketplaces. NOEMIS is currently investing from its first institutional fund, a $25.8 million vehicle that closed in 2022.
Next up? More growth. NOEMIS recently hired its first associate, and the firm is planning to hire additional team members. Iheagwam recently sat down with Carta to talk about his transition to VC, building a track record, why he loves investing in New York City, and more.

Highlights
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How he decided to become a VC
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Why he raised a "proof of concept" fund with his own money
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What it takes for founders to raise Series A rounds now
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Why he based his fund in New York City
CARTA: You made your first investment with NOEMIS in 2016, after previously working in investment banking and leveraged finance at Wells Fargo and JPMorgan. Why did you decide to make the transition and become a VC?
SIMEON IHEAGWAM: At Wells Fargo I was covering debt capital raising and underwriting for non-investment-grade companies in technology, media, telecom, and industrials. So my career revolved around tech. And as I was advising large corporations that had been around for 30 years before me and would be around for 30 years after me, there was a natural inflection point for me to want to help the next generation of founders. The early stage is where I feel they need the most help, and so that’s where I decided I wanted to break into venture.
When you chose to make that move, how did you decide what sort of a VC investor you wanted to be?
For me, investing in fintech was easy, because I had a decade of experience in financial services—I understand it. And then I picked two other areas, marketplaces and artificial intelligence/machine learning, because I felt that innovation was going to be around these three areas for the next 20 or 30 years. And so far, at least, I’ve been right. Before that Fund I, you invested out of a Fund Zero to create a proof of concept for potential LPs. How did you approach that process of building a track record?
We all know how hard it is to break into venture. So after having several conversations, I decided that I wanted to take matters into my own hands and take my own capital and just start investing, to create a better story to tell.
I went to Brooklyn College for undergrad, then I went to Cornell for my MBA, and I was living in Charlotte at the time. I eventually moved back to New York. So I was able to use all those different networks. My first investment actually came from Cornell Tech campus.
I started to build a network with other investors and accelerators, and then I started to build the deal pipeline. When I moved back to New York, I was going to meetup events, tech events, demo days, pitch competitions, mentorship weekends—and I started to build a track record over time.
After I got to the fourth investment, my founders started introducing me to other founders—that’s how I got from four investments to 10. Over the course of the first three years of the pilot fund, we had two companies get acquired, and we had three more companies that started to raise their Series As and Series Bs.
NOEMIS makes seed and pre-seed investments in fintech, AI/ML, and marketplaces. Beyond those parameters, what makes an attractive investment for you?
We have a framework that we created to evaluate early-stage companies. We keep it internal to our team, but it’s the center of our strategy. In order to get to that point where we’re using the framework to evaluate whether we’re going to invest, the product has to be in market with a little bit of traction. We don’t have specific revenue targets, but if they have some level of traction when it comes to revenue or partnerships, those are things we look at, as well.
It sounds like a lot of your portfolio companies have been trying to raise seed rounds or Series A rounds in the past several quarters. Our data shows that funding activity at those early stages has slowed down compared to where it was a few years ago. What’s your perspective on the state of things in the early-stage market?
It was tough. It was a land of seed extensions. A lot of our up rounds were going from seed to seed extension. And so that was perfect for us to have a follow-on strategy. For some of the companies that we felt had good traction, that allowed us to give them more runway and build to the milestones they need to raise Series A rounds in this market.
Back in 2019, you could raise a Series A with under a million in revenue, if you had the traction and a good story to tell. Now, in this environment, you need a million and a half to $2 million to raise the Series A.
NOEMIS is based in New York City. Why do you think that’s the right spot for you?
I believe in the New York City ecosystem. I believe there’s a strong difference in the type of founders and the scrappiness of the founders and so forth. Also, I was born in New York. So for me, investing in my hometown was very important.
The New York City ecosystem has grown since I started this in 2016. You’re finding more unicorns out of New York. You’re finding companies that are making strong innovations—companies that are changing the world.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
It’s the founders. That’s the best part. Helping them out, watching them grow, watching them achieve milestones, watching them hire their teams. The biggest thing is watching them trust their CEO gut. Because they’re new to this—building that CEO gut can take time. I do this because I wanted to make change. I wanted to make an impact. And when you get good news from your founders, it helps me wake up in the morning and want to continue doing what I get to do.