Also Capital

Company building partner to founders who choose hard problems || @vardaspace @radiantnuclear @k2spaceco @northwoodspace @meshoptical (acq.) @fluidstack

[Shubh Sinha @SHUBH17_]

🎉I’m excited to announce our $18M Series A, with participation from @VenrexVC, @thegp , @VirtueVC , @caffeinatedcap , @arrayvc, @GreatPointVC , @LiveRamp, @haystackvc, @CapitalAlso, @LifeXvc , Circle & Co, and WS Investments.

The first generation of AI was built on public, human-curated data. The next will be built on real-world data. The datasets carrying real human behavior are what now separate one AI system from another. AI companies want them. The companies that hold them want to put them to work. The barrier has always been risk.

We solved that risk in healthcare, one of the most regulated data environments there is. Today we bring it to the rest of the economy.

[Filip Kocian @fikocian]

@endowment_eddie All-in on @CapitalAlso

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

Today we’re excited to share our investment in @meshoptical.

Mesh is developing new optical manufacturing techniques that make the next generation of optical systems possible.  We’ve been supporters of Mesh’s vision since day one, and earlier this morning they announced $50M in funding, led by @ThriveCapital, with participation from Banner VC.

Mesh’s initial product, the Alpha C1, is an optical transceiver that linearly translates electrical signals to light at 1.6 Terabits per second and delivers better power efficiency, lower latency, and higher reliability for AI workloads and power-constrained data centers and, critically, is designed and manufactured in Los Angeles, CA.

Across our portfolio we’re heavily invested in the idea that the biggest winners in Hard Tech will be those that tighten the loop between design and manufacturing of complex systems. Doing so accelerates development and improves product design, and is the best way to rapidly meet the urgent demand for the building blocks of compute, communication, and autonomy that are the foundations of our economic future.

Above all, we invest in people, and @trbrashears, @cameron_ramos, and @serena_c_gh are incredibly special humans. Prior to co-founding Mesh, the team spent years at SpaceX building critical hardware and software control systems for inter-satellite links (ISLs), a key enabler of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and their future ambitions for data centers in space. This work positioned them extremely well to start Mesh as it is one of the few domains demanding optical alignment and thermal stability comparable to optical interconnects like their Alpha C1.

They're actively hiring at their first production facility in LA.

Check out their open roles here: https://t.co/boKKYlyczj

[The Rise @TheRisePod]

"we're backing proven talent but maybe unproven founders"

@CapitalAlso founder and solo gp @nunzi46 doesn't care if you've founded before - only if you have extreme talent.

check out our episode, link in comments!

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

A few days late on this, but congrats to the 5 @CapitalAlso companies on @SVDG_official ’s NatSec100!

I’m not a designer, but we made the fun graphic below to celebrate.

Congrats @anysignalinc @K2SpaceCo @NorthwoodSpace @RadiantNuclear and @VardaSpace!

No pressure, but I expect all of you to have better rankings next year 👀

Keep going!

[Grant Gregory @grant__gregory]

Water is Life

Partnering with Vital Lyfe

Water is life  —  and even with today’s technological marvels, we haven’t made enough progress delivering water to the entire world.

2.2 billion people lack safe drinking water, 3.5 billion lack proper sanitation, and 2.3 billion can’t even wash their hands at home.

Despite our oceans’ abundance, we don't have enough fresh water — over 90% of it is either trapped in glaciers or stuck underground. Desalination offers the promise of a solution, but progress has been painfully slow. So we set out looking for a team to solve this.

Today @Cantos is excited to share that we've partnered with a team who's on a mission to create a decentralized, mobile, and affordable RO solution to solve our water crisis.

By designing modular, high-performing RO systems, Vital Lyfe is delivering an immediate, practical solution for regions where building or upgrading traditional infrastructure is prohibitively slow or expensive. This approach bypasses many of the costly, time-consuming steps required to stand up large treatment facilities, enabling faster impact at lower cost.

We view this as a definitive Cantos preseed opportunity — two exceptionally well referenced engineers that are tackling a big market with a foundational key insight, and the same rapid hardware playbook we’ve seen many of our other portfolio companies successfully employ.

This is a group with massive aspirations, and we believe in what they can accomplish. We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Jon Criss, Andrew Harner, and the rest of the Vital Lyfe team. We’re also excited to be working with our friends at @TheSpaceVC @gen_partners, and @CapitalAlso.

Earth has no shortage of water, just a lack of accessible solutions. Vital Lyfe is building the tech to finally change that.

[Also Capital @CapitalAlso]

Sept ‘23: Cold email received

July ‘24: Attend demo on an experimental Navy boat in Maryland

June ‘25: A massively oversubscribed seed raised in under 36 hours…

The best teams take shots and move FAST!

Congrats @mateocernosek @alex__chu__ and team @_Andrenam_!

[Matej Cernosek @mateocernosek]

I'm excited to announce our $10M fundraise!

Currently in D.C. meeting with some awesome folks on the Hill and reflecting on how far we've come.

Just a year ago, @alex__chu__ and I were bootstrapping our first prototype in a garage.

Now, we're announcing our $10M fundraise led by @firstround.

@CapitalAlso, @LongJourneyVC, @201vc_, @bantervc, @homebrew, Wave Function™, and the @coschoolofmines Venture Fund also participated! (See the @BusinessInsider article below for more)

I also want to give a huge shoutout to our amazing team. We've hired some of the top engineers and scientists to support our mission:

@AndrenaM is building an AI-powered, distributed maritime sensing network for persistent autonomous awareness from surface to seabed

Time to turn the ocean into the world's largest sensor network.

Join us and let's build.

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

AGM v1 ✅

Thanks for the tour @KaranKunjur @K2SpaceCo!

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

To the DOME!

From day 1 through Series C, just an incredible journey. Playing the long game with amazing people is what it’s about 🫡🙌

Excited to double down on @DougBernauer @burberger and Tori!

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

Talent is the greatest leading indicator of a company’s eventual success.

This is always focus #1 of our pre-investment diligence, and the thing we lean in on most post-investment.

In just the last six months, we’ve leveraged our network to help source and close 3 key senior roles at our portfolio companies, and we’re working on two more right now.

Today, we’re building on that success…

Introducing *Also Talent*

Also Talent is our proactive effort to meet great, ambitious people before they’re looking for their next role.

We have two simple goals:

1) Deliver high signal talent to our portfolio companies, and

2) Save potential applicants time by only highlighting opportunities where they are likely to thrive.

The first iteration of this is a simple submission anyone can complete.

We will regularly review and curate the best candidates for open roles at our portfolio companies and share our recommendations with them directly. This saves them time, something the best founders have in short supply.

We’re uniquely situated to do this for two reasons:

1) We only work with a small handful of companies each year, so know their needs / styles / preferences intimately well at any given point in their life cycle, and

2) I’ve personally hired technical and non-technical talent, so have a good sense of how to bridge the needs of companies with the skills of a given individual

We’ll iterate on this in the coming months, but I’m excited to launch this as a first step to bring more talent into hard tech.

Feedback welcome!

Link to submit 👇

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

Cool new @CapitalAlso initiative launching tomorrow…

[Will Bruey @WillBruey]

Excited to see @nunzi46 growing the team this summer. And @CapitalAlso !

[Michael Morgenstern @M___Morgenstern]

-Startup of the Week: @TVLABS 🤩
-VC Spotlight: @CapitalAlso (@nunzi46) 🤩
-#NYTechWeek '24 🗽 events ! https://t.co/69JCkrmEn5

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

Venture is an apprenticeship business.

I’ve been fortunate to learn from so many top investors, from @firstround to @DormRoomFund to @caffeinatedcap and more.

This summer, I’m hoping to start paying that forward.

We’re giving a group of incredible individuals the unique opportunity to invest a scout fund on behalf of @CapitalAlso.

They’ll manage everything about the fund, from sourcing to diligence to founder support.

We’ve carefully curated this team from our pool of over 700 intern applications, with a <1% selection rate.

I���m excited to introduce the FOUR individuals I’ll be working closely with this summer, who have already achieved great things like:

- Becoming the youngest to row an ocean
- Starting an edtech company in China
- Leading operations at multiple startups from seed through Series C
- Founding a brain monitoring startup while in high school and raising over $1M to pursue it full-time

I can’t wait to see what they do this summer.

Read more here 👇

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

Are you building at the CUTTING edge or the BLEEDING edge?

🔪 "CUTTING Edge" technology includes things like:

- AI
- 5G Networking
- LLM applications in robotics
- Space manufacturing

🩸 "BLEEDING Edge" technology includes things like:

- Quantum computing
- Fusion energy
- Nanotechnology
- Brain-machine interfaces

The risk and uncertainty of bleeding edge technologies is often far in excess of what most small seed funds are set up to bear.

At @CapitalAlso, we focus on investing first checks in founders building at the CUTTING EDGE of technology, where the primary risks are:

- High development and adoption costs, and
- Technology obsolescence from competition

There’s no “right” strategy, but know which category you’re investing or building in, and manage the risk appropriately.

[Mike Annunziata @nunzi46]

We need to reverse the Top School ➡ BigCo brain drain.

A few weeks ago we sponsored a dinner of ~10 STEM undergrads at a top school. Mostly sophomores and juniors.

I followed up 1:1 with a number of them afterwards to get a sense of their post-grad interests.

An absurdly high number said they likely wanted to go into:

- Quant finance
- Software engineering in Big Tech
- Banking

If we have any chance of reindustrializing America, catalyzing a hard tech renaissance, or the other big ideas we advocate for in venture, it starts with driving awareness within the next generation of talent.

We need to show them there's ample opportunity available where they can get mentorship, training, and long-term career opportunities.

This is something our best companies have done extremely well on their own, and something I'm certainly thinking about how we can institutionalize at @CapitalAlso in the years to come...

[Pascal Unger @PascalUnger]

Can’t believe we’re already well into May!

Looking back at April, we had the pleasure of putting a spotlight on 5 fantastic early stage investors you should know if you’re building a startup / are in venture👇

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@Amanda_Herson from @fcollective who leads pre-seeds and seeds in incredible founders with big ideas who have a unique view of their industry with a bias towards the weird and wonderful (though she also insists that the biggest missed opportunity in venture is only doing deals you can lead). Having backed companies such as @WHOOP, @Venmo, @Uber, @SeatGeek, and many others, @Amanda_Herson and her team at @fcollective, including @dafrankel, @epaley, @micahjay1, and @bcwilless are known to not be afraid of giving tough love as it helps to focus on the big picture strategic levers.

💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $500𝘒 - $2M
✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 [email protected]

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@nunzi46 from @CapitalAlso who leads pre-seeds in founders solving hard engineering problems. Amongst founders, @nunzi46 and the team at @CapitalAlso including Venture Partners such as @WillBruey (@VardaSpace), Colin Smith (@vast), @heyjudka, and Jamie Cox (founder of @TreecardApp) are known for having one of the best early-stage hard-tech portfolios in the industry paired with a high conviction, authentic investment approach at the early stage!

💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $100K - $500K
✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 [email protected]

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@kiranoodleman from @BeePartners who leads pre-seeds in Deep Tech founders (synbio, robotics, industrial automation, AI) at inception stage. Amongst founders, @kiranoodleman and her team at @BeePartners, including @berolz, Tim Smith, and @alejandravl13a are known for diving into the deep end to collaborate, and hold the mission of the company as the north star.

💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $250K - $1.5M
✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 [email protected]

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@neildevani from @NecessaryVC who invests in technology companies that are increasing access to healthcare, the fight against climate change, and improving the quality of education and financial services. Amongst founders, @neildevani is known for always being available to talk things through and be the most helpful person to assist them with difficult strategic decisions. He and the @NecessaryVC team also specialize in helping founders attract talent, capital, and earned/owned media.

💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $250K - $1M
✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 [email protected]

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@brettcalhounn from @redbudvc who invests in pre-seeds backing founders building at the earliest stages who are strengthened by struggle. Amongst founders, @brettcalhounn is known for being rapid in his response time, effective and efficient with his network sharing and outreach, and a friend who's not shy to give critical feedback.

💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $50K - $150K
✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 [email protected]

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For more investor profiles, check out our early stage VC database https://t.co/cBYGkR0OMA where founders find the right investors.

[Pascal Unger @PascalUnger]

If you're a founder and engineer at heart building a hard tech startup, here's an investor you have to know from day one!

This week's https://t.co/cBYGkR0OMA spotlight is on @nunzi46 from @CapitalAlso. He:

🗽 Is based in New York
🎉 Has a core tenant that he looks for in a founder - someone who is "fun to be around"!!
🚜 Previously spent 7 years as the co-founder & CEO of hard tech startup, Farther Farms
🥔 Can name 5 different varieties of potato

Amongst founders, @nunzi46 and the team at @CapitalAlso including Venture Partners such as @WillBruey (@VardaSpace), Colin Smith (@vast), @heyjudka, and Jamie Cox (founder of @TreecardApp) are known for having one of the best early-stage hard-tech portfolios in the industry paired with a high conviction, authentic investment approach at the early stage!

Make sure to:
✉️ Pitch him at [email protected]
🐦 Follow him @nunzi46 (he's a great follow)
⚙️ If you're an engineer looking to join a top venture-backed hard tech company (or start one), reach out to Mike!

For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Also Capital's profile on https://t.co/cBYGkR0OMA

[Also Capital @CapitalAlso]

RT @nunzi46: The last two weeks have been bananas for me and @CapitalAlso.

🛰️ @K2SpaceCo announced their $50M Series A
☄️🧪 @VardaSpace…

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Expect the unexpected!

So excited to announce our $6.3M seed led by @foundersfund and @a16z with participation from @CapitalAlso, @LongJourneyVC , @BoxGroup, @humbavc

At @NorthwoodSpace we have our sights on building a data highway between earth and space. We are designing shared ground infrastructure from first principles to expand access to space.

We have a lot of work ahead of us but that’s the fun part. If you like building quickly and seeing your work deployed in locations around the globe with real impact, we want you at Northwood. https://t.co/WWFfcygUF5