Christy Cardenas

Founder

2025 - Current

Managing Partner

2021 - 2024

Grit Ventures is an early stage, deep technology venture capital fund investing in pre-seed, seed and Series A companies, operating in partnership with university and industry partners. Grit Ventures's strategy is supported by Grit Labs, a deep tech community organized around the university and government lab system, including industry, investors, capital and founders, focused on technology commercialization from the earliest stages. At Grit, Christy’s role as Managing Partner included responsibility for research, investment, portfolio management and fundraising, alongside her fiduciary as a GP. She focused her investment attention on cutting edge technologies in AI, robotics, energy and space. Christy’s other accomplishments at the firm include investment, structuring and fundraising for Grit Ventures’ first institutionally backed fund, anchored by Bank of America, as well as structural innovation at the earliest investment stages via Grit Labs. Grit Ventures: https://www.gritventures.com

Co Founder, Grit Labs

2021 - 2024

Grit Labs is a strategically focused deep tech platform that brings together a strategic network of innovators spread across America’s marquee university and government labs. We partner with big industry to bring startups to market. We focus on the intersection of ready technology and deep market opportunity, with an eye toward impact. Christy is a co-founder of Grit Labs, an early stage deep technology community of founders, experts, and investors, supported by university and industry partnerships. The organization was founded to bridge the unique go-to-market challenges associated with the commercialization of deep technologies, in light of deep macroeconomic pull across sectors. Grit Labs enjoyed collaborations with a variety of marquee university partners, including Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, UT Austin, University of Michigan and others, in addition to a variety of Fortune 500 sponsors. Grit Labs: https://www.gritventures.com/grit-labs

Venture Advisor

2021 - 2023

Chief Strategy Officer, Mercury Ecommerce Acquisition Corp

2021 - 2023

Head of Research + Data

2021 - 2021

Mercury Fund is an early stage venture capital platform seeking out transformative software startups, led by exceptional founders, in communities across America. Christy’s brief tenure at Mercury Fund was applied in support of investment thesis, fund strategy and marketing, from her platform leadership role in Research. Mercury Fund: https://mercuryfund.com

Managing Partner

2019 - 2020

Ecliptic Capital is a venture capital investor in innovative technology businesses in opportunity rich, undercapitalized geographies and markets. We are serial entrepreneurs, technologists, operators and investors with decades of experience in startup leadership, C-suite Fortune 100 roles, Wall Street and principal investing. We invest in Seed to Series-A technology companies, serving to bridge early-stage innovation with later stage economic appetite. We are dedicated to strategic innovation in venture capital. Christy began her career in venture capital as Managing Partner at Ecliptic Capital, a first-time deep tech fund and next generation venture capital platform, leading investment and research efforts. At Ecliptic, Christy invented a unique deal by deal evergreen structure that enabled RIA partnership and systematized co-investment, leading to the first time fund’s $75M in assets under management, alongside her Investment and Research leadership roles. Ecliptic Capital: https://ecliptic.capital

Investor, Private Equity

2017 - 2018

Arroyo is an independent investment manager focused on power and energy infrastructure assets around the globe. From 2003 through 2014, the Arroyo team deployed and realized investments in more than 20 energy infrastructure related transactions on behalf of its investing partners — Bear Stearns and J.P. Morgan. After launching in 2015, Arroyo is now one of the top 100 institutional infrastructure investors in the world. Ms. Cardenas’s tenure at Arroyo was spent in support of the newly independent platform, after the recent spin out from JP Morgan. Christy’s investment attention was spent underwriting and monitoring a portfolio of large scale infrastructure assets including both domestic and international gas-fired and renewable power generation. Arroyo Energy Investors: https://arroyoinvestors.com

Investor, First Reserve Energy Infrastructure Fund (now BlackRock)

2011 - 2015

First Reserve's Energy Infrastructure Fund ($3.75B+ of $30B AUM) is a large-scale energy infrastructure private equity fund with a value added strategy focused on proprietary deal flow, financial structuring and lopsided risk-return opportunity. Though originally a product of First Reserve, at the time one of the largest energy private equity managers in the world, the Fund was eventually acquired by BlackRock. At First Reserve, Ms. Cardenas structured, diligenced, and executed an array of transactions including structured equity, securitizations, international public private partnerships, development projects, project financings, tax equity, and more. Focus sectors include renewable power, gas-fired generation, biomass, midstream, energy storage, hydrogen fuel cells, and a variety of other emerging energy infrastructure arenas. Ms. Cardenas also spearheaded portfolio management for the funds, including portfolio modeling, risk management, and valuation functions. Her involvement in fundraising of nearly $3 billion in institutional capital was a major success, with structural responsibilities in marketing alongside her investing and portfolio management roles. https://www.blackrock.com/institutions/en-us/strategies/alternatives/infrastructure

Analyst, Investment Banking, Energy

2009 - 2011

Citi is a bulge-bracket investment bank with a leading energy franchise. Christy began her career at the bank in New York City amidst the 2008 credit crisis, and the accelerating unconventional share revolution. At Citi, Christy was a top bucket (10%) analyst in the energy group. She served on the bank’s Executive Council, serving Citi top management. Ms. Cardenas’s experience at Citi includes IPO debt and equity offerings, M&A, acquisitions, and divestitures. Ms. Cardenas worked on noteworthy transactions including a strategic retainer for Williams Companies, the $621 million Kosmos Energy IPO, the $450 million Chesapeake Energy IPO, and Apache Corporation’s $7 billion “Deepwater Horizon” acquisition of BP’s Canada, Texas, and Egypt assets, among a variety of other upstream, midstream and services transactions.