1517 Fund

1517 supports teams with pre-seed and seed funding for technology startups.

ActiveVenture Capital

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Updated: Feb 17, 2026 ·

About

1517 supports teams with pre-seed and seed funding for technology startups.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Feb 4, 2026	Positron	$230.0M Series B	ARENA Private Wealth, Jump Trading, Unless	Arm Holdings, Atreides Management, Caucasus Ventures, DFJ Growth, Flume Ventures, Helena, Qatar Investment Authority, Resilience Reserve, Valor Equity Partners
Jul 1, 2025	Miter	$50.0M Series B	—	Alumni Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Cedar Capital Group, Derive Ventures, Feenix Ventures, FJ Labs, MaC Venture Capital, Pear VC, Reach Capital, Sapir Venture Partners, The Finger Group, Oded Hermoni, Salil Pitroda, Will Gaybrick
Apr 1, 2025	DIAMO	$4.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Cedar Capital Group, Derive Ventures, FJ Labs, The Finger Group, Oded Hermoni, Salil Pitroda, Will Gaybrick
Feb 1, 2025	PIESHIP	$2.0M Seed	—	Impact VC, Nama Ventures, Okapio Ltd
Aug 1, 2024	Cents	$40.0M Series B	—	2048 Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Cedar Capital Group, Compound, Derive Ventures, FJ Labs, Imaginary Ventures, iNovia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Sound Ventures, The Finger Group, Trinity Ventures, Aman Narang, Oded Hermoni, Salil Pitroda, Steve Hafner, Tobias Lutke, Will Gaybrick
Jul 1, 2024	unspun	$32.0M Series B	—	BDC Venture Capital, Buckley Ventures, LGF, Lowercarbon Capital, SOSV, Uncork Capital
Jul 1, 2024	Marathon Fusion	$6.0M Seed	—	Caffeinated Capital, Chaac Ventures, Gaingels, LAUNCH, LOI Venture
Mar 1, 2024	JobPixel	$5.0M Seed	—	Impact VC, Nama Ventures, Okapio Ltd, SOSV, Uncork Capital
Sep 1, 2023	Favs	$1.0M Seed	—	Caffeinated Capital, Chaac Ventures, Collab+Currency, Aniq Kassam, Gaingels, LAUNCH, LOI Venture, Ben Huh, Orion Willow Parrott, Sunset Ventures, Techstars, Volt Capital, Brittany Yoon, Imran Khan, Joi Ito
Sep 1, 2023	Frenter	$900K Seed	—	Hustle Fund, Ethan Austin
Aug 1, 2023	Mentibus.xyz	$400K Seed	—	Caffeinated Capital, Chaac Ventures, Gaingels, LAUNCH, LOI Venture
May 1, 2023	Frenter	$1.0M Seed	—	Caffeinated Capital, Chaac Ventures, Gaingels, Hustle Fund, LAUNCH, LOI Venture, Shine Capital, Ethan Austin
May 1, 2023	Leadoptik	$5.0M Seed	—	BigSpring, Innovation Works, Pareto Holdings, Quiet Capital, Shangbay Capital, Sony Innovation Fund, SOSV, TSVC Capital, Uncork Capital, Casey Tansey, Arash Ferdowsi, Brendan O'Driscoll, Gabriel Jarrosson, Kunal Shah, Mike Krieger, Nate Matherson, Samvit Ramadurgam
Jan 1, 2023	Inscribe	$25.0M Series B	—	8-Bit Capital, ACME Capital, Angular Ventures, Battery Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Bond, Caffeinated Capital, Catapult Capital, Crosslink Capital, Golden Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Offline Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, SOSV, Threshold Ventures, Tribe Capital, Uncork Capital, Y Combinator, Aaron Harris, Alex Kayyal, Eoghan McCabe, Frederic Kerrest, Hiten Shah, Marc McCabe, Pierre Valade, Sam Hickmann, Stewart Butterfield, Thibaud Elziere
Jan 1, 2023	Presso	$8.0M Seed	—	Anorak Ventures, CoinFund, Eclipse Ventures, Future Shape, Merus Capital, Pathbreaker Ventures, Pillar VC, SOSV, Team Builder Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Uncork Capital, Colin Carrier, Kevin Colas
May 1, 2022	Beem	$7.0M Seed	—	Hustle Fund
Jan 1, 2022	Scaler Academy	$55.0M Series B	—	Alumni Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Cedar Capital Group, Derive Ventures, FJ Labs, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), The Finger Group, Tiger Global Management, Oded Hermoni, Salil Pitroda, Will Gaybrick
Oct 1, 2021	ScienceIO	$8.0M Seed	—	75 & Sunny, 7percent Ventures, Abstract Ventures, AirAngels, Alchemy Ventures, Alt Capital, Ambush Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Angel investor, Jana Messerschmidt, Archetype, Array Ventures, Audacity, Awesome People Ventures, Banana Capital, Batalion Capital, Battery Ventures, BoxGroup, Broadstone, Browder Capital, Buckley Ventures, Canaan Partners, Capital Factory, Chapter One Ventures, CoinFund, Craft Ventures, Divergence Ventures, Earl Grey Capital, Electric Ant, Electric Capital, Ethereal Ventures, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Fifth Wall, First Round Capital, FJ Labs, Flex Capital, Floodgate, Form Capital, Founder Collective, Future Perfect Ventures, General Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Hack VC, Hardware Club, Hashed, Haun Ventures, HawksHead Capital, IDEO CoLab Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Inspired Capital, Jude Gomila Rolling Fund, Kearny Jackson, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, LGF, Lightspeed Venture Partners, M34 Capital, Makers Fund, Moving Capital, Nascent, Next Level Ventures, NFX, Nonlinear, Not Boring Capital, Operator Ventures, Ben Huh, Pantera Capital, Pareto Holdings, Pharos Capital Group, Phenomen Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Polychain Capital, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Republic Records, Robot Ventures, Saga, Scalar Capital, Section 32, Seed Club Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Sherpalo Ventures, SID Venture Partners, SNR, Solana Ventures, Soma Capital, Sound Ventures, Symbol VC, The Hit Forge, Timespan Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Tucker Seed Fund LLC, Union Square Ventures, Version One Ventures, Vibe Capital, Weekend Fund, WPP Ventures, Y Combinator, YLEM, Aaron Harris, Adam Jackson, Alex Pack, Aliaksandr Hudzilin, Alice Lloyd George, Amjad Masad, Anastasia Andrianova, Andrew Steinwold, Anthony Pompliano, Aston Motes, Balaji Srinivasan, Biz Stone, Bobby Goodlatte, Bo Shao, Brad Holden, Bradley Horowitz, Chris Kurdziel, Claire Hughes Johnson, Cory Levy, Courtney Guertin, David Nage, Demetrios Christofidis Jr, Dennis Crowley, DJ Patil, Do Kwon, Elad Gil, Eric Wu, Ethan Beard, Fernando Martinelli, Greg Brockman, Harry Hurst, Immad Akhund, Imran Khan, Itamar Lesuisse, Jeff Morris, Jess Sloss, Joe Stump, Josh Mohrer, Joshua Reeves, Kristian Segerstrale, Leore Avidar, Louis Beryl, Luis Cuende, Marc Benioff, Mark Cuban, Michael Dunworth, Michael Ma, Moshe Lifschitz, Narendra Rocherolle, Nathaniel Whittemore, Nick Jonas, Paul Stamatiou, Rashaun Williams, Regan Bozman, Reggie James, Rene Reinsberg, Ricky Engelberg, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Shishir Mehrotra, Sina Habibi, Stani Kulechov, Steve Aoki, Steve Chen, Steve Weinstein, Tegan Kline, Thomas Plantenga, Trevor McFedries, Tyler Scott Ward, William Boebel, Zack Kanter
Sep 1, 2021	unspun	$8.0M Seed	—	Accelerator Ventures, BDC Venture Capital, Buckley Ventures, F-Prime Capital Partners, Freestyle Capital, Haun Ventures, LGF, Paradigm, SOSV, Uncork Capital, Y Combinator, David Hoffman
Apr 1, 2021	Inscribe	$11.0M Series A	—	SOSV, Uncork Capital
Mar 1, 2021	Thrasio	$100.0M Series C	—	Alumni Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Cedar Capital Group, Derive Ventures, FJ Labs, The Finger Group, Oded Hermoni, Salil Pitroda, Will Gaybrick
Mar 1, 2021	Chord	$18.0M Series A	—	Alumni Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Camber Creek, Cedar Capital Group, Derive Ventures, FJ Labs, Liquid 2 Ventures, The Finger Group, Oded Hermoni, Salil Pitroda
Dec 1, 2020	Presso	$2.0M Seed	—	Anorak Ventures, CoinFund, Eclipse Ventures, Future Shape, Pathbreaker Ventures, Pillar VC, SOSV, Colin Carrier, Kevin Colas
Nov 1, 2020	Invidica	$1.0M Seed	—	—
Nov 1, 2020	Challenger Finance	$1.0M Seed	—	Active Capital, Chapter One Ventures, Cortical Ventures, Hustle Fund, Incisive Ventures, Interlock Partners, Madrona Ventures, Revolution, Furqan Rydhan, Jeff Morris, Matt Gibstein, Siqi Chen

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at 1517 Fund.

Leadership Team

Key people at 1517 Fund.

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

1517 Fund is a venture capital firm that provides pre-seed and seed funding to technology startups, focusing on early-stage investments ranging from $50,000 at the idea or R&D phase up to $1,000,000 for deep tech or sci-fi seed-stage companies. Their mission centers on supporting young entrepreneurs, college dropouts, renegade scientists, and founders pushing the boundaries of knowledge and science, particularly those without undergraduate degrees. The fund primarily invests in sectors such as software, hardware with data components, deep tech, sci-fi tech, and biotech. By backing unconventional founders and bold, frontier technologies, 1517 Fund plays a significant role in nurturing innovation outside traditional academic and institutional pathways, thereby enriching the startup ecosystem with diverse, high-potential ventures[1][2][4].

Origin Story

Founded in 2015 by Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson—who previously co-founded the Thiel Fellowship in 2010—1517 Fund evolved from the Fellowship’s philosophy that great founders do not necessarily need university degrees. The Thiel Fellowship was a $100,000 grant program that supported young entrepreneurs like those behind Ethereum, Figma, and Luminar. Building on this foundation, 1517 Fund was created to scale this vision, offering both capital and community support to founders at the earliest stages of their companies, especially those working on "sci-fi-level" projects and deep tech innovations. This origin highlights the fund’s commitment to challenging traditional education models and fostering breakthrough technologies[1][2].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focuses on founders without undergraduate degrees, including dropouts, renegades, and deep tech scientists, emphasizing the "who" over the "what."
Network Strength: Built on the legacy of the Thiel Fellowship, offering a strong community and mentorship network for early-stage founders.
Track Record: Over 60 investments including notable companies like Luminar, Loom, nTop, and Cents.
Operating Support: Provides not only funding but also community and non-dilutive microgrants (e.g., the Medici Grant program) to catalyze early-stage innovation.
Sector Focus: Deep tech, software, hardware with data, biotech, and sci-fi tech, supporting projects that push scientific and technological frontiers[1][2][3][4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

1517 Fund rides the trend of disrupting traditional educational and entrepreneurial pathways by backing founders who bypass conventional university routes. This timing is crucial as the rising costs and perceived limitations of formal education drive more innovators to seek alternative paths. The fund leverages market forces favoring deep tech, AI, biotech, and frontier science, sectors poised for transformative breakthroughs. By supporting early-stage, high-risk ventures, 1517 Fund influences the broader ecosystem by validating and accelerating unconventional founders and technologies, thereby expanding the diversity and scope of innovation globally[1][2][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, 1517 Fund is likely to continue scaling its support for deep tech and sci-fi-level projects, potentially increasing its fund size and expanding its global reach. Trends such as AI advancements, biotech innovation, and the democratization of technology development will shape its investment journey. The fund’s influence may grow as it further legitimizes non-traditional founders and catalyzes breakthroughs that challenge existing scientific and technological paradigms. This aligns with its founding ethos of empowering "dropouts, renegades, and mad scientists" to build the future[1][2][3].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focuses on founders without undergraduate degrees, including dropouts, renegades, and deep tech scientists, emphasizing the "who" over the "what."
Network Strength: Built on the legacy of the Thiel Fellowship, offering a strong community and mentorship network for early-stage founders.
Track Record: Over 60 investments including notable companies like Luminar, Loom, nTop, and Cents.
Operating Support: Provides not only funding but also community and non-dilutive microgrants (e.g., the Medici Grant program) to catalyze early-stage innovation.
Sector Focus: Deep tech, software, hardware with data, biotech, and sci-fi tech, supporting projects that push scientific and technological frontiers[1][2][3][4].