Commerce Ventures deliberately raised capital from nine of the largest US banks, two of the largest US retailers, three leading global insurers, and major payment platforms so LPs double as customers, partners, and domain experts for portfolio companies, creating a dense B2B network effect in fintech and retail tech. Instead of leading big initial rounds, they build deep, pre-planned themes then deliberately start with smaller, non-lead checks in multiple theme-aligned companies and later scale ownership only in those where their value-add and performance are proven—a differentiated, thesis-first way to "option" into category leaders.