Lux Capital

This venture capital firm invests in physical, material, and life sciences startups, focusing on helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses in high-gr...

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Updated: Jan 22, 2026 ·

About

Lux Capital Management manages of $4 billion in assets focused on founding, seed, earlystage, and growth investments in the physical, material and life sciences. Lux takes an active role in helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses in high growth sectors. Its investment team has built over 20 companies from scratch. Lux's investmentstrategy ensures our portfolio companies are better connected, have a deeper insight, and command industry leadership faster than their competitors.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Nov 1, 2025	Tsuga	$10.0M Seed	—	Alven, Venture Highway, Amjad Masad, Charles Gorintin
Oct 1, 2025	EnduroSat	$100.0M Venture Round	—	Founders Fund, Roni Hiranand, GV
Oct 1, 2025	Valthos	$30.0M Seed	—	—
Oct 1, 2025	Base Power	$1.0B Series C	—	8090 Industries, 8VC, Addition, Afore Capital, Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Contrary Capital, CRV, Dragonfly Capital Partners, DST Global, Felicis Ventures, Founders Fund, J2 Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Kohala Ventures, M12, Marlinspike, NFX, Open AI Startup Fund, Ravelin Capital, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Trust Ventures, Verified Capital, Village Global, XYZ Venture Capital, Elad Gil, Eric Futoran, Larry Braitman, Lawrence Braitman, Ron Pragides
Oct 1, 2025	1001 AI	$9.0M Seed	—	Axiom Partners, C2 Investment, Contrary Capital, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Goodwater Capital, LGF, Target Global, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, Akshay Kothari, Amjad Masad, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, David Petersen, Eoghan McCabe, Gerald Parloiu, Gokul Rajaram, Manik Gupta, Oliver Jung
Oct 1, 2025	Tr1x	$50.0M Venture Round	—	Dimension Capital, Innovation Endeavors, The Column Group
Oct 1, 2025	NILO Therapeutics	$100.0M Series A	—	Nextech Invest, The Column Group
Sep 1, 2025	Modal Labs	$87.0M Series B	—	8VC, Amplify Partners, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, Essence VC, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Khosla Ventures, M12, Menlo Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Redpoint Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna Capital, Thrive Capital, Uncork Capital, Allison Pickens (Allison Pickens Ventures), Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Nkechi Iregbulem, Quinn Slack, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin
Sep 1, 2025	Databricks	$1.0B Series K	—	8VC, Andreessen Horowitz, Ballistic Ventures, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Sequoia Capital, Susquehanna Capital, Thrive Capital, Andy Bechtolsheim, Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Rob Theis, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin
Sep 1, 2025	The Interaction Company of California	$15.0M Seed	—	10100, 8VC, Adverb Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, Anti fund, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, Foundation Capital, Founders Fund, Fuel Capital, General Atlantic, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Green Bay Ventures, Greylock, Khosla Ventures, LGF, Menlo Ventures, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, Pioneer Fund, Predictive VC, Sequoia Capital, SignalFire, Signia Venture Partners, Soma Capital, Stellar Capital, Susquehanna Capital, SV Angel, The House Fund, Thrive Capital, Venture Highway, WndrCo LLC, Y Combinator, Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Cory Levy, Drew Houston, Dylan Field, Guillermo Rauch, John Collison, Ken Howery, Kulveer Taggar, Lisa Dolan, Mark Pincus, Patrick Collison, Saki Georgiadis, Scott Belsky, Shishir Mehrotra, Teddy Citrin
Sep 1, 2025	Upscale AI	$100.0M Seed	—	FPV Fund, Mayfield
Sep 1, 2025	CuspAI	$100.0M Series A	—	ARCH Venture Partners, Basis Set Ventures, F-Prime Capital Partners, FTX Ventures, General Catalyst, Hoxton Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mubadala, Brooke Seawell, New Enterprise Associates, Northzone, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Eoghan McCabe, Karim Atiyeh, Mandeep Singh, Scott Belsky
Aug 1, 2025	Profound	$35.0M Series B	—	8VC, BoxGroup, Contrary Capital, DCM, Founders Fund, G2VP, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Insight Partners, IVP, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Next47, Outlander Labs, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Quiet Capital, Renegade Partners, Saga, Scale Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, SNR, Susquehanna Capital, Thrive Capital, TPG, Abe Burns, Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, Chafic Kazoun, Karim Atiyeh, Sam Altman, Sam Nazarian, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin, Tom Steyer, Vivek Patel
Aug 1, 2025	Basic Capital	$25.0M Series A	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Koch Fund, NEO, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, Henry Kravis, Justin Mateen
Aug 1, 2025	Jump	$23.0M Series A	—	Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, BoxGroup, Browder Capital, Aniq Kassam, Founders Fund, Not Boring Capital, Pareto Holdings, Seven Seven Six, Trajectory Ventures, Vibe Capital, XFactor Ventures, Adam Guild, Adrian Aoun, Anthony Pompliano, Balaji Srinivasan, Cory Levy, Kirill Silkin, Matteo Franceschetti, Shane Curran
Aug 1, 2025	Eight Sleep	$100.0M Series D	—	8090 Industries, Afore Capital, Array Ventures, AV8 Ventures, C2 Investment, Felicis Ventures, FirstHand Alliance, Founders Fund, Greycroft, Harrison Metal, Investo, M12, Marlinspike, NFX, Plug & Play Ventures, RX3 Growth Partners, True Ventures, UpHonest Capital, VZVC, Xfund, Y Combinator, Eric Futoran, Patrick S. Chung, Ron Pragides, Steve Norall
Aug 1, 2025	Pylon	$31.0M Series B	—	Andreessen Horowitz, ARCH Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blackbird Ventures Australia, Conversion Capital, Conviction Partners, Daffy, Endure Capital, Fifth Wall, FINTOP Capital, Fort Ross Ventures, Founders Fund, F-Prime Capital Partners, FTAC Ventures, FTX Ventures, General Catalyst, Mubadala, QED Investors, Ravelin Capital, The Hit Forge, Village Global, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Eoghan McCabe, Karim Atiyeh, Scott Belsky, Zak Kukoff
Aug 1, 2025	Decart	$100.0M Series B	—	Aleph VC, Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Bedrock Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Daft Capital, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, MizMaa Ventures, Paradox Capital, Saga, Sequoia Capital, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Virginia Venture Partners, Zeev Capital, Adam Guild, Austin Ogilvie, Baylor Adams, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Justin Mateen, Mattia Astori, Sahin Boydas, Sohila Zadran, Vineet Jain, William Miller
Aug 1, 2025	XOPS	$40.0M Seed	—	FPV Fund, Mayfield
Jul 1, 2025	Varda	$190.0M Series C	—	01 Advisors, 11k Ventures, 8VC, Abstract Ventures, Afore Capital, Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Anorak Ventures, Ballistic Ventures, Bedrock Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Champion Hill Labs, Cubit Capital, Daft Capital, DCM, Drive Capital, E1 Ventures, Floodgate, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Goat Capital, Khosla Ventures, LGF, Marlinspike, Next47, Outliers Fund, Paradox Capital, Prime Movers Lab, Rabben Hood Ventures, Saga, Sequoia Capital, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Virginia Venture Partners, XYZ Venture Capital, Y Combinator, Austin Ogilvie, Emil Lee, Fanny Surjana, Gokul Rajaram, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Joshua Reeves, Justin Mateen, Louis Beryl, Mark Cuban, Mattia Astori, Mircea Pasoi, Natasha Ahmed, Richard Cooperstein, Sahin Boydas, Sohila Zadran, Sri Batchu, Stephen Romanoff, Thomas Tull, Vineet Jain, Vivek Patel, William Miller, Zachary Hargreaves
Jul 1, 2025	Ramp	$500.0M Series E	—	8VC, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Caffeinated Capital, Canvas Ventures, Chemistry VC, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Contrary Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Diaspora Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Floodgate, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Giant Ventures, Industry Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Launch House Ventures, LGF, Pareto Holdings, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Stash Ventures, Susquehanna Capital, The House Fund, Thrive Capital, Bradley Horowitz, Catherine Wood, Chafic Kazoun, Eduardo Alcalay, Harry Hurst, Javaughn Lawrence, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Lucas Medola, Mark Casady, Rob Meyerson, Scott Belsky, Teddy Citrin, Zachary Hargreaves
Jul 1, 2025	Armada	$130.0M Venture Round	—	Afore Capital, Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Daft Capital, Founders Fund, Paradox Capital, Saga, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Virginia Venture Partners, Austin Ogilvie, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Justin Mateen, Kirill Silkin, Mattia Astori, Sahin Boydas, Sohila Zadran, Vineet Jain, William Miller
Jul 1, 2025	Hadrian	$110.0M Series C	—	2048 Ventures, Afore Capital, Also Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomic, Caffeinated Capital, Cherry Ventures, Construct Capital, Countdown Capital, Cubit Capital, Daft Capital, Felicis Ventures, Floodgate, Founders Fund, One Way Ventures, Paradox Capital, Picus Capital, Ravelin Capital, Saga, Stash Ventures, Stellar Capital, The Hit Forge, Virginia Venture Partners, Austin Ogilvie, Harry Hurst, Joao Otavio Oliverio, Justin Mateen, Koen Koeppen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mattia Astori, Rob Meyerson, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Sohila Zadran, Vineet Jain, William Miller
Jul 1, 2025	AirGarage	$23.0M Series B	—	Abstract Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, DCM, Felicis Ventures, Floodgate, Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Maniv Mobility, Next47, Scribble Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Seven Seven Six, Thrive Capital, Toyota Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Uncork Capital, Austin Ogilvie, Chris Bennett, Dylan Field, Jacob Kerzner, Justin Mateen, Prescott Watson, Sri Batchu
Jul 1, 2025	Ambience Healthcare	$240.0M Series C	—	Accel, Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Buckley Ventures, Floodgate, General Catalyst, Greylock, Haystack, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, LGF, Matrix, Next Play Ventures, Oak HC/FT, Open AI Startup Fund, Tribe Capital, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, Bradley Horowitz, Elad Gil, Gokul Rajaram, Henry Kravis, Justin Mateen, Nico Rosberg, Paul Graham

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Lux Capital.

Tess Van Stekelenburg

Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at Lux Capital.

Tess Van Stekelenburg

Partner

Deep Dive

Lux Capital is a venture capital firm that invests primarily in startups developing physical, material, and life sciences technologies, focusing on transformative, frontier science and deep technology ventures. Their mission is to back entrepreneurs with radical, paradigm-shifting ideas who aim to create long-term, high-impact businesses rather than incremental improvements. Lux Capital emphasizes sectors such as AI, biotechnology, aerospace, defense, robotics, sensing, and energy, supporting companies that leverage advanced science and technology to disrupt industries and solve complex problems[1][2][4].

Founded in 2000 by Peter Hébert, Robert Paull, and Josh Wolfe, Lux Capital began with a contrarian investment philosophy, targeting deep science companies often overlooked by traditional VCs. Over time, it has grown into a firm managing over $5 billion in assets with more than 30 professionals, expanding from New York City to Silicon Valley. The firm has built a strong track record by investing early in companies like Anduril (defense tech), Hugging Face (AI), and Recursion (biotech), helping them scale and achieve notable exits[1][2][4][6].

Core Differentiators

Contrarian and visionary investment model: Lux focuses on "sci-fi to sci-fact" startups, backing high-risk, high-reward technologies that many others avoid[1][6].
Sector specialization and technical expertise: Deep knowledge in life sciences, AI, aerospace, and defense enables Lux to evaluate and support complex technologies effectively[1][2].
Strong network and operating support: The firm offers founders access to a broad network of scientists, technologists, and industry experts, plus operational guidance across stages from seed to growth[2][6].
Track record of successful exits: Lux has invested in over 200 companies with multiple high-profile exits, validating its approach to frontier tech investing[1][4].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Lux Capital rides the wave of increasing convergence between advanced science and technology, where breakthroughs in AI, biotech, and materials science are enabling new industries and capabilities. The timing is critical as these fields mature and attract more capital, yet still require patient, knowledgeable investors willing to support long development cycles. Lux’s focus on deep tech and physical sciences fills a vital gap in venture capital, driving innovation that can reshape defense, healthcare, manufacturing, and space exploration. Their investments help accelerate the commercialization of frontier technologies, influencing the broader ecosystem by setting benchmarks for scientific rigor and long-term vision in VC[1][2][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Lux Capital is positioned to continue expanding its influence by increasing fund size and global reach, targeting emerging technologies that could define the next decades. Trends like AI democratization, genetic medicine, autonomous systems, and advanced materials will likely shape their portfolio. Their role as thought leaders and active partners suggests they will keep pushing the boundaries of what venture capital can achieve in science-driven innovation. As the world increasingly demands solutions to complex challenges, Lux’s contrarian, science-first approach will remain highly relevant and potentially even more impactful[1][2][5][6].

Sources

Core Differentiators

Contrarian and visionary investment model: Lux focuses on "sci-fi to sci-fact" startups, backing high-risk, high-reward technologies that many others avoid[1][6].
Sector specialization and technical expertise: Deep knowledge in life sciences, AI, aerospace, and defense enables Lux to evaluate and support complex technologies effectively[1][2].
Strong network and operating support: The firm offers founders access to a broad network of scientists, technologists, and industry experts, plus operational guidance across stages from seed to growth[2][6].
Track record of successful exits: Lux has invested in over 200 companies with multiple high-profile exits, validating its approach to frontier tech investing[1][4].