After multiple exits, the former Sequoia scout investor will spearhead Fuel’s efforts in deploying $100 million in investments targeting Artificial Intelligence companies.
Fuel Venture Capital (“Fuel”), a leading venture firm dedicated to expanding access to innovative companies, today announced the appointment of Selene Casabal as General Partner and Chief Venture Officer. Casabal becomes the firm’s first Silicon Valley director and will spearhead Fuel’s efforts to deploy more than $100 million in investments targeting artificial intelligence companies.
Casabal brings over ten years of experience in the venture ecosystem, including two industry-recognized startup exits. She has founded and served as an executive operator at companies such as Re:store, b8ta, and Popshop Live, ventures known for their innovative market strategies, strong user growth, and partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. Collectively, these companies have raised hundreds of millions in capital from leading marquee institutional investors, including Sequoia, Benchmark, and Khosla Ventures.
After her last exit, Casabal was handpicked by Chanel, the French luxury brand, to serve as an Innovation Advisor to their C-suite, and by Intel to work with deep-tech founders in their Ignite accelerator. She later partnered again with Sequoia Capital by joining the renowned Scout Fund as a Scout Partner. The fund is known for its early investments in companies such as Uber, Stripe, and Canva, and counts notable scout investors, such as Sam Altman, among its alumni. Casabal’s portfolio, including angel investments, spans 30 frontier technology companies such as Perplexity, Impulse Space, Replit, and Serve Robotics.
“Selene is known and trusted as a successful founder and also an investor, which is her superpower. Her addition to the Fuel family is a defining moment, establishing Fuel as a bicoastal powerhouse, blending founder-driven insights with AI expertise allowing us to continue providing our investors access to investment opportunities in the innovative economy, which are very difficult to gain access to while continuing to support and bring value to world-class founders,” said Jeff Ransdell, founder and managing partner at Fuel.
As Chief Venture Officer at Fuel, Casabal’s investment focus is driven by a strong thesis on AI disruption, shaped in part by her early involvement in the ecosystem over a decade ago. Casabal was a fellow founder at South Park Commons, a San Francisco-based community of technologists known for pioneering early AI projects, including those founded by the teams behind Anthropic and Cognition AI. She has been a trusted angel investor and collaborator to many founders she met during this time, many of whom are now leading the development of cutting-edge AI technologies.
“I was inspired by Fuel’s vision to bring responsible access to private investors seeking a stake in innovation before a company trades publicly. It struck me that AI was going to change the world, yet only a small handful of people would have early access to capitalize on this moment. Just as founders and startups are disrupting how we live and do business, I believe Fuel is transforming venture capital to meet the call for both institutional quality and accessibility. No different than the capital markets we recognize today. My goal at Fuel is to align the best companies with ready capital at every step of growth, beyond Silicon Valley’s traditional moment of favorites. I know these founders are looking for investors who are ambitious thinkers, ready to change the world themselves. That’s precisely the type of partner we plan to be at Fuel,” Casabal said.
Her appointment further solidifies Fuel’s commitment to connecting entrepreneurs with aligned capital and underscores AI as a key investment focus.
