Universities and the surrounding ecosystems are full of brilliant, inspired scientists who are inventing our future. They are graduate students, post-docs, undergrads and professors. And they are grinding. Material science innovations don’t arise from weekend hackathons. Novel biochemical pathways aren’t discovered by instinct. In our space, inventions arise from countless failures and require unrelenting tenacity, deep expertise and fortitude.
When luck, timing and entrepreneurial courage come together, scientific breakthroughs are startup opportunities. Inventions are often born out of years of research (funded by government and industry grants), yet as startups they must start new journeys.
The importance of innovation in applied science and engineering cannot be overstated. We believe the next decades will be shaped by critical progress in hard tech. Growing populations and natural resource constraints demand it. We are optimistic that our scientists and a culture of entrepreneurship, combined with smart policy, can deliver a prosperous future.
VC funds are structurally a mismatch for early-stage hard tech startups, and so are angel networks. Understanding and investing in scientific innovations is specialized, time-consuming, expensive, and often requires access to insights in opaque industries. Our aspiration and structure are different from those of other VCs. We are the scientific founder’s partner.
Our vision is that hard tech innovation can create a sustainable and prosperous world.
Our mission is to help bring about this future by supporting the best scientific founders with capital and co-creation.