First Star Ventures

ActiveVenture Capital

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Updated: Jan 22, 2026 ·

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Oct 1, 2025	CoMind	$60.0M Series A	—	Entrepreneur First, LocalGlobe, No Label Ventures, Singular, Roxanne Varza, Saturnin Pugnet
Oct 1, 2025	iOrganBio	$2.0M Seed	—	Draper Associates, Hustle Fund, Innospark Ventures, Locus Ventures
Sep 1, 2025	Serenis Health	$14.0M Series A	—	—
May 1, 2025	Nuevocor	$45.0M Series B	—	Seventure Partners
Apr 1, 2025	Sats Terminal	$2.0M Seed	—	Alchemy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Draper Associates, Goat Capital, Hustle Fund, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Innospark Ventures, Locus Ventures, NFX
Oct 1, 2024	Phaseshift Technologies	$3.0M Seed	—	Bascom Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Draper Associates, Endeavor8, Hustle Fund, Innospark Ventures, Locus Ventures, Wisdom LLP
Mar 1, 2024	Loop AI - Delivery Intelligence Platform	$6.0M Seed	—	Base10 (Base10 Partners), Blackhorn Ventures, BoxGroup, Green Bay Ventures, Mango Capital, Orca Climate Fund, Pace Capital, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Matthew Chagan, Niraj Mehta
Feb 1, 2024	Northwood Space	$6.0M Seed	—	AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Caffeinated Capital, Founders Fund, Hardware Club, Haystack, Hoxton Ventures, Humba Ventures, LAUNCHub Ventures
Feb 1, 2024	Fervo Energy	$240.0M Series D	—	Congruent Ventures, Endeavor8
Nov 1, 2023	Koyeb	$7.0M Seed	—	83North, Acequia Capital, Alven, Base10 (Base10 Partners), Blackhorn Ventures, BoxGroup, General Catalyst, Green Bay Ventures, Index Ventures, Kima Ventures, La Famiglia, Mango Capital, Motier Ventures, Orca Climate Fund, Pace Capital, Pentagram Ventures, Seedcamp, Serena Capital, Alexis Le-Quoc, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Bastian Nominacher, Didier Valet, Florian Douetteau, Justin Ziegler, Matthew Chagan, Niraj Mehta, Nkechi Iregbulem
Oct 1, 2023	Cedar	$3.0M Seed	—	Alumni Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Charge Ventures, Haystack, Humba Ventures, TitletownTech, Vishal Rao
Aug 1, 2023	ParadeDB	$2.0M Seed	—	Altair Capital Management, Balderton Capital, Benchmark, Cubit Capital, First Round Capital, GIT1K, Gradient Ventures, Magma Partners, Olima Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Tribe Capital, Uncork Capital, Y Combinator, Alexandre Prot, Bradley Horowitz, David J. Phillips, Dharmesh Shah, Didier Valet, Guillaume Princen, Immad Akhund, Jeff Seibert, Michael Stoppelman, Nate Matherson, Nitay Joffe, Paul Graham, Rich Miner, Tom Blomfield, Wayne Chang
Jul 1, 2023	Trebellar	$4.0M Seed	—	2xN, Awesome Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Cubit Capital, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Everywhere Ventures (The Fund), FirstHand Alliance, Geek Ventures, Haystack, Helium-3 Ventures, Humba Ventures, Immeasurable, Initialized Capital, Jetstream, LombardStreet Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Shield Capital, SNR, Charlie Songhurst, Daniel Kan, Immad Akhund, James Park, Julian Shapiro, Juney Ham, Keith Masback, Matt Bellamy, Nate Cavanaugh, Rayn Ong, Roger Dickey
Apr 1, 2023	Blumen Systems	$1.0M Seed	—	Bain Capital Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Cambrian Ventures, CRV, Fin Capital, First Round Capital, Flexcap, Haystack, Humba Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Nine Four Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, PruVen Capital, QED Investors, Transmedia Capital, Twenty Two Ventures
Mar 1, 2023	Piclo	$10.0M Series B	—	Base10 (Base10 Partners), Blackhorn Ventures, BoxGroup, EDP Ventures, Future Energy Ventures, Green Bay Ventures, Mango Capital, Orca Climate Fund, Pace Capital, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Matthew Chagan, Niraj Mehta, Nkechi Iregbulem
Mar 1, 2023	Genialis	$13.0M Series A	—	INBlockchain, SOSV, Uncorrelated Ventures
Feb 1, 2023	Robigo	$7.0M Seed	—	Awesome People Ventures, Banana Capital, Congruent Ventures, Ali Tamaseb, Electric Capital, FJ Labs, Gradient Ventures, Infinite Niches, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Paradigm, Precursor Ventures, Social Capital, Adam D'Angelo, Andy Coravos, Anthony Pompliano, Charlie Feng, Dylan Field, Jen Rubio Butterfield, Julia DeWahl, Scott Belsky, Tonio DeSorrento
Dec 1, 2022	CoMind	$27.0M Series A	—	LocalGlobe
May 1, 2022	OtterTune	$12.0M Series A	—	Accel, Four Rivers Group, Freestyle Capital, Dave Munichiello, Insight Partners, Intel Capital, Pillar VC, Race Capital
Mar 1, 2022	ZETA SURGICAL	$9.0M Seed	—	Innospark Ventures, LAUNCH, Sunset Ventures, TSVC Capital
Feb 1, 2022	Commsor	$50.0M Series B	—	1776, Active Capital, Advisors Fund LLC, AirAngels, Ambush Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Asylum Ventures, Atomico, Awesome People Ventures, Backstage Capital, Banana Capital, Bedrock Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Broadway Angels, Buckley Ventures, Bungalow Capital, CapitalX, City Light Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Collaborative Seed & Growth Partners, Color Capital, Cool Climate Collective, Coughdrop Capital, Craft Ventures, Cultivation Capital, Cyphr VC, Ali Tamaseb, Digital Currency Group, Electric Capital, Essence VC, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, Felicis Ventures, Fenway Summer, FJ Labs, Flex Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Gaingels, Ganas Ventures, General Catalyst, Goat Capital, Gradient Ventures, GreaterGoodSociety, Gutter Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Infinite Niches, Khosla Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Lampros Capital Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, LocalGlobe, Logos Labs, LOI Venture, Long Journey Ventures, Neu Venture Capital, North Island Ventures, Otherwise Fund, Paradigm, Paradox Capital, Pillar VC, Polymath Capital Partners, Precursor Ventures, Prototype Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Gil Penchina, Rising Tide Partners, SaaSholic Fund, Seed Club Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Shaan's All Access Fund, Social Capital, SRB Ventures, The Club, The Community Fund, The Hit Forge, Valar Ventures, Vibe Capital, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator, Adam D'Angelo, Alex Lieberman, Alex Pattis, Amit Mital, Andrew Gazdecki, Andy Coravos, Anthony Pompliano, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Lang, Ben Tossell, Casey Neistat, Cecilia Stallsmith, Charlie Feng, Chris Herd, David Peterson, Dharmesh Shah, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, Emily Kramer, Esther Dyson, Gaurav Munjal, Gina Bianchini, Greg Isenberg, Immad Akhund, Jaime Schmidt, Jen Rubio Butterfield, Julia DeWahl, Julian Shapiro, Justin Welsh, Kunal Shah, Kyle York, Loic Le Meur, Manik Gupta, Marc McCabe, Marco Palladino, Mathilde Collin, Mike Hudack, Moshe Lifschitz, Musaab Hakami, Nkechi Iregbulem, Paul Yacoubian, Peter Kazanjy, Pierre-Yves Ricau, Preetha Parthasarathy, Russell Smith, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Sam Corcos, Sam Palmisano, Sam Parr, Scott Belsky, Steve Schlafman, Surahbi Gupta, Tikhon Bernstam, Tonio DeSorrento, Tuomas Artman, Tyler Willis, Ty Smith, Zachary Sims, Zack Kanter
Feb 1, 2022	RADAR	$55.0M Series C	—	Accel, Decibel Partners, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pillar VC, Third Point Ventures
Dec 1, 2021	Rosebud AI	$7.0M Seed	—	Awesome People Ventures, Banana Capital, Ali Tamaseb, Electric Capital, FJ Labs, Gradient Ventures, Infinite Niches, Khosla Ventures, Paradigm, Precursor Ventures, Social Capital, Andy Coravos, Anthony Pompliano, Charlie Feng, Dylan Field, Jen Rubio Butterfield, Julia DeWahl, Scott Belsky, Tonio DeSorrento
Dec 1, 2021	FloatMe	$16.0M Series A	—	Courtside Ventures, Founder Collective, Foundry Group, Harlem Capital, NFX, Operator Partners, Sunset Ventures, TSVC Capital, Tusk Venture Partners, Vamos Ventures, Kevin Love, Mark Cuban, Sahin Boydas
Dec 1, 2021	Umamicart	$6.0M Seed	—	2045 ventures, 500 Global, Afore Capital, Alpaca VC, Alumni Ventures, Anthemis Group, Aux21 Capital, Awesome People Ventures, Banana Capital, Ali Tamaseb, Electric Capital, Scott Hartley, FJ Labs, Golden Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Infinite Niches, Innovation Endeavors, Iterative, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, M13, Makers Fund, Multicoin Capital, Nonlinear, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, Picus Capital, Precursor Ventures, Rumbo Ventures, Social Capital, Sterling Equity, Trucks Venture Capital, Adam D'Angelo, Andy Coravos, Anthony Pompliano, Charlie Feng, Dylan Field, Eric Wu, Guilherme Bonifacio, Jen Rubio Butterfield, Julia DeWahl, Kevin Lin, Nate Matherson, Scott Belsky, Tonio DeSorrento, Tushar Garg

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at First Star Ventures.

Leadership Team

Key people at First Star Ventures.

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

First Star Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on empowering visionary technical founders working on frontier computing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), decentralization, computational biotech, connected sensors, AR/VR, and blockchain. Their investment philosophy centers on backing entrepreneurs solving real-world problems with deep technology, providing strategic support and leveraging a strong network to accelerate startup growth and market navigation. The firm primarily invests in early-stage companies with transformative ideas that have the potential to disrupt industries and shape the future of technology[1][2][4].

Origin Story

Founded in 2014 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, First Star Ventures was established by Drew Volpe and Millie Liu, both of whom bring deep technical and entrepreneurial experience. Drew Volpe has a background in search, machine learning, sensors, mobile, computational bio, and blockchain technologies, while Millie Liu has a strong track record in data analytics startups and AI healthcare platforms, including co-founding an MIT startup and advising MIT CSAIL. Their combined expertise and vision have shaped the firm’s focus on frontier technologies and deep tech startups. Over time, First Star Ventures has evolved to emphasize early-stage investments in sectors like biotech, clean tech, and business services, maintaining a data-driven and operator-first approach to venture investing[1][4][6].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focus on frontier computing technologies with a conviction to back visionary technical founders at the earliest stages.
Network Strength: Access to strategic partners across industries and regions, enabling portfolio companies to scale rapidly.
Track Record: Participation in over 50 deals with notable exits, leveraging a data-driven and operator-first investment style.
Operating Support: Hands-on assistance in product development, market strategy, and fundraising, drawing on partners’ deep technical and entrepreneurial backgrounds[1][4][5].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

First Star Ventures rides the wave of accelerating innovation in frontier technologies such as AI, ML, decentralization, and computational biotech. The timing is critical as these sectors are experiencing rapid technological breakthroughs and growing market demand. By focusing on deep tech startups, the firm helps bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and commercial application, influencing the broader ecosystem by nurturing companies that could redefine industries like healthcare, data analytics, and decentralized systems. Their emphasis on early-stage investments in these emerging fields positions them as key enablers of the next generation of technological innovation[1][2][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, First Star Ventures is likely to deepen its focus on frontier computing and biotech, leveraging its strong technical expertise and network to identify and support breakthrough startups. Trends such as AI democratization, decentralized finance, and computational biology will shape their investment journey. As these technologies mature, First Star Ventures’ influence may grow, helping to define new market standards and fostering innovation ecosystems globally. Their commitment to visionary founders and deep technology positions them well to remain a pivotal player in the venture capital landscape focused on transformative tech[1][4][6].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focus on frontier computing technologies with a conviction to back visionary technical founders at the earliest stages.
Network Strength: Access to strategic partners across industries and regions, enabling portfolio companies to scale rapidly.
Track Record: Participation in over 50 deals with notable exits, leveraging a data-driven and operator-first investment style.
Operating Support: Hands-on assistance in product development, market strategy, and fundraising, drawing on partners’ deep technical and entrepreneurial backgrounds[1][4][5].