Tuff Yen
Founder and CEO of Seraph Group and Direct™. Inventor of the Structured Angel Fund™.
About. Principal, inventor, investor.
Tuff Yen founded Seraph Group in 2002 to bring together successful people to create wealth through ownership of private enterprises. With deep venture capital experience spanning both U.S. coasts, as an institutional VC, entrepreneur, and professional angel investor, he identified a gap for accredited investors underserved by traditional wealth managers.
He invented the Structured Angel Fund™, designed for angel investors and family offices to access a diversified, pre-screened seed-stage portfolio with co-investment rights. It attracted 400+ investors from 135+ cities.
A frequent lecturer on entrepreneurship and angel investing, Tuff shares his insights at universities and has appeared on national radio and TV, including Bloomberg TV.
Career. From the lab to the deal.
Genentech & Amgen
Bioengineer at Genentech, the first recombinant-DNA biotech to go public, working on the development and manufacture of biologics; intern in Amgen’s corporate development group.
Chemical Venture Partners
Worked on investments across Internet, deep tech, biotech, manufacturing, and IT, from venture capital to LBO. The firm evolved into Chase Capital Partners and ultimately J.P. Morgan Partners.
Hambrecht & Quist
Venture group in San Francisco with a Silicon Valley early-stage focus.
Seraph Group
Founded in 2002. Created the Structured Angel Fund™ platform for accredited investors.
MIT Play Lab
Co-founded the Play Lab accelerator on the MIT campus, focused on playful technology startups.
Yale School of Management, MBA, 1994. UC Berkeley, B.S. Microbiology & Immunology.
Advisor to and investor in the House Fund, a UC Berkeley venture fund; backer of numerous Stanford StartX graduates.
Founder of Seraph Research Foundation, a 501(c)(3) working on education and training in venture capital investing.
English and Mandarin, fluent.
Talk to us.
Invest alongside the principal.