Chris Wolfel, who has held multiple entrepreneurship leadership roles at Northeastern University, has launched a venture capital firm, Corsair Venture Partners, to back spinouts and startups in the US’s northeast.
Corsair will focus on early-stage deals, backing companies even before they look like traditional venture investment opportunities.
The firm is taking a generalist approach, albeit with a focus on the modernisation of legacy industries and enabling the everyday economy.
“Over the course of my career as a founder, running accelerators, and as an ecosystem builder, I kept encountering a similar profile: exceptional founders building meaningful companies in places venture capital rarely looked. From a university ignored because it didn’t have 10 unicorns yet, in a sector that wasn’t cool at a cocktail party, or simply from an hour outside of the usual ecosystem.
“Through all of this work and collaboration with hundreds, if not thousands, of companies, I developed a conviction that incredible founders are not confined to San Francisco, Boston, or New York but that access to opportunities are. I am launching Corsair Venture Partners to back the founders proving great companies can be built wherever ambition lives, and shift this narrative.”
Chris Wolfel
Wolfel has twice worked for Northeastern University. From 2009 to 2013, he worked for the institution’s venture accelerator IDEA, including as CEO from 2011 to 2013.
He returned to Northeastern University in May 2020, initially as a consultant, before becoming the director of entrepreneurship at the Roux Institute four months later.
From January 2022 to February 2025, he was the AVP, head of entrepreneurship and venture creation at the Roux Institute, and concurrently served as the managing director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Education from April 2022 to August 2023.
Since May 2025, he has been a mentor in residence at the Roux Institute.
