Refactor Capital

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Jan 6, 2026 ·

About

Refactor invests in seed-stage hard tech companies primarily in the US, focusing on founders willing to commercialize real science and scale systems.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Sep 1, 2025	Fyxer AI	$30.0M Series B	—	20VC, AirAngels, Capnamic Ventures, EQT Ventures, Vidu Shanmugarajah, Harmonix Fund, Humba Ventures, Madrona Ventures, World Fund, Christian Reber, Marc Benioff, Mario Götze, Nico Rosberg, Stefan Muehlemann
Aug 1, 2025	Therna Biosciences	$10.0M Seed	—	Harmonix Fund, Humba Ventures, Marc Benioff
Mar 1, 2025	Fyxer AI	$10.0M Series A	—	20VC, AirAngels, AIX Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures, Capnamic Ventures, Cocoa, EQT Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Vidu Shanmugarajah, Harmonix Fund, Humba Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, La Famiglia, Long Journey Ventures, Madrona Ventures, Mana Ventures, The Hit Forge, Trajectory Ventures, Transcend Fund, Visionaries Club, World Fund, Aravind Bharadwaj, Chris Carvalho, Eden Chen, Gokul Rajaram, Lukas Brosseder, Marc Benioff, Mario Götze, Nate Mitchell, Nico Rosberg, Robert Maier, Stefan Muehlemann
Feb 1, 2025	MIIST Therapeutics	$7.0M Seed	—	Ahren Innovation Capital, Alumni Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Moonstone Venture Capital, The Longevity Fund
Dec 1, 2024	Bluenote Health	$10.0M Venture Round	—	468 Capital, 7wire Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Artichoke Capital, Catalio Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Electric Capital, Lux Capital, Paradigm, Placeholder, Robot Ventures, Rocketship.vc, Sequoia Capital, Sherpalo Ventures, The Hit Forge, XFactor Ventures, Ameet Patel, Amjad Masad, Andy Coravos, Anne Wojcicki, Balaji Srinivasan, Baris Gultekin, Biz Stone, Dylan Field, Gokul Rajaram, Josh Elman, Kunal Shah, Varsha Rao
Oct 1, 2024	General Galactic	$8.0M Seed	—	8VC, Alumni Ventures, Bee Partners, Cantos Ventures, FJ Labs, Sequoia Capital, Verified Capital, Virta Ventures
Sep 1, 2024	Inflammatix	$57.0M Series E	—	Ahren Innovation Capital, Alumni Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Moonstone Venture Capital, The Longevity Fund
Aug 1, 2024	Kano Therapeutics	$5.0M Seed	—	Acre Venture Partners, Big Idea Ventures, Prelude Ventures, SOSV, The Engine, Vsquared Ventures
Jul 1, 2024	Hexium	$8.0M Seed	—	8090 Industries, Amplify Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Cantos Ventures, Fifty Years, FPV Fund, Helium-3 Ventures, Industry Ventures, Jude Gomila Rolling Fund, Lux Capital, UpHonest Capital, Venrock, Jaan Tallinn, Matt Bellamy, Sahin Boydas, Samvit Ramadurgam
Jun 1, 2024	Waabi	$200.0M Series B	—	Ahren Innovation Capital, AI4ALL, AIX Ventures, Alumni Ventures, BDC Venture Capital, Insight Partners, Khosla Ventures, Moonstone Venture Capital, The Longevity Fund, Alan MacIntosh
Apr 1, 2024	Rubedo Life Sciences	$40.0M Series A	—	7percent Ventures, Ahren Innovation Capital, Alumni Ventures, Catalio Capital, Gaingels, Khosla Ventures, MarsBio, Moonstone Venture Capital, Presight Capital, SOSV, The House Fund, The Longevity Fund, Tiger Global Management, TLV Partners, Tuesday Capital, Amjad Masad, Andy Coravos, Anne Wojcicki, Balaji Srinivasan, Dan Ciporin, Dylan Field, Fidji Simo, Justin Mateen, Rich Miner, Varsha Rao
Apr 1, 2024	Perplexity	$63.0M Series C	—	20VC, 2.12 Angels, 355 Capital, Kevin Hartz, Accomplice VC, Ambush Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Angel investor, Asylum Ventures, C2 Investment, Catalio Capital, Cedar Capital Group, Costanoa Ventures, DTCP, E1 Ventures, EQT Ventures, Family Office, Felicis Ventures, Fifty Years, Floodgate, Founders Fund, GSV Acceleration, Hanabi Capital, Hardware Club, Haun Ventures, Heroic Ventures, HOF Capital, Infinite Niches, Inflection, Insight Partners, Jefferies, Kindred Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital, Matchstick Ventures, Maven Ventures, Mustard Seed, NFX, Northzone, Race Capital, Rakuten Ventures, Sherpalo Ventures, Spark Capital, Susa Ventures, The Hit Forge, Thrive Capital, Uncork Capital, Union Square Ventures, UpHonest Capital, Wayra UK, Y Combinator, Aaron Harris, Amjad Masad, Andy Coravos, Anne Wojcicki, Arash Ferdowsi, Balaji Srinivasan, Charlie Songhurst, Chintan Patel, Fidji Simo, Jared Sleeper, Jonathan Lenson, Justin Kitch, Jutta Steiner, Mike Vernal, Mike Volpe, Miras Mami, Peter Sonsini, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Varsha Rao
Mar 1, 2024	LiveKit	$22.0M Series A	—	Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, Catalio Capital, Dan Cahana, Glenn Solomon, Preston-Werner Ventures, Andy Coravos, Anne Wojcicki, Balaji Srinivasan, Dylan Field, Fidji Simo, Varsha Rao, Guillermo Rauch
Mar 1, 2024	CodaMetrix	$40.0M Series B	—	Curie.Bio, First Round Capital, i/o Ventures, Meridian Street Capital, NextView Ventures, Niu Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Operator Partners, SignalFire, SV Angel, The General Partnership, Threshold Ventures, Transformation Capital, Venture Catalysts \| India's First Integrated Incubator, Aaron Patzer, Vivek Garipalli
Feb 1, 2024	Ezra AI	$21.0M Series B	—	Antler, Catalio Capital, FirstMark Capital, Silence, Amjad Masad, Andy Coravos, Balaji Srinivasan, Dylan Field, Fidji Simo, Gokul Rajaram, Manik Gupta, Miki Kuusi, Varsha Rao
Jan 1, 2024	Farm-ng	$10.0M ng - Series A	—	Acre Venture Partners, Big Idea Ventures, Prelude Ventures, SOSV, The Engine, Xplorer Capital
Dec 1, 2023	Orchid	$12.0M Seed	—	Kevin Hartz, Alchemy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Catalio Capital, CRV, Felicis Ventures, Founder Collective, Goat Capital, Greenoaks Capital, Haun Ventures, Infinite Niches, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Jetstream, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, N49P Ventures, NKM Capital, Glenn Solomon, Openview Venture Partners, Polychain Capital, Redpoint Ventures, RTP Global, TCV, The Hit Forge, Weekend Fund, WorkLife Ventures, Amjad Masad, Andy Coravos, Anne Wojcicki, Balaji Srinivasan, Barr Moses, Dylan Field, Fidji Simo, Gokul Rajaram, Immad Akhund, Julia Hartz, Varsha Rao, Vivek Patel
Oct 1, 2023	Aigen	$12.0M Series A	—	Atomic, Incite Ventures, Mayfield, Offline Ventures, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Sam Altman
Aug 1, 2023	Realm	$10.0M Venture Round	—	8VC, Alumni Ventures, Bee Partners, Cantos Ventures, FJ Labs, Sequoia Capital, Verified Capital, Virta Ventures
Jul 1, 2023	Readout AI	$2.0M Seed	—	Curie.Bio, First Round Capital, i/o Ventures, Meridian Street Capital, Niu Ventures, Operator Partners, SV Angel, Threshold Ventures, Transformation Capital, Venture Catalysts \| India's First Integrated Incubator, Aaron Patzer, Vivek Garipalli
May 1, 2023	Wellplaece	$6.0M Seed	—	8VC, Altair Capital Management, Alumni Ventures, Bee Partners, Cantos Ventures, FJ Labs, LombardStreet Ventures, Mantis VC, Outlier Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Verified Capital, Virta Ventures, WestRiver Group
Apr 1, 2023	ODAIA	$25.0M Series B	—	BDC Venture Capital, Curie.Bio, First Round Capital, Flint Capital, Innospark Ventures, i/o Ventures, Meridian Street Capital, Niu Ventures, Operator Partners, SV Angel, Threshold Ventures, Transformation Capital, Venture Catalysts \| India's First Integrated Incubator, Aaron Patzer, Amar Varma, Michelle McBane, Vivek Garipalli
Mar 1, 2023	Vital	$25.0M Series B	—	7wire Ventures, Bond, Curie.Bio, First Round Capital, General Catalyst, Ben Robbins, i/o Ventures, Khosla Ventures, LGF, Meridian Street Capital, Niu Ventures, Oak HC/FT, Operator Partners, Optum Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, SV Angel, Threshold Ventures, Transformation Capital, Venture Catalysts \| India's First Integrated Incubator, Vivek Garipalli
Feb 1, 2023	GovPort	$3.0M Seed	—	Andreessen Horowitz, Cambrian Ventures, Fin Capital, Harmonix Fund, Humba Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Luno Expeditions, NextGen Venture Partners, PruVen Capital, QED Investors, Timespan Ventures, Tribe Capital, Alex Adelman, Anshu Sharma, Marc Benioff, ArcTern Ventures, Point72 Ventures
Dec 1, 2022	Parallel Bio	$4.0M Seed	—	Atomic, Eclipse Ventures, Greenoaks Capital, Humba Ventures, Incite Ventures, Mayfield, Offline Ventures, SV Angel, Y Combinator, Sam Altman

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Refactor Capital.

Leadership Team

Key people at Refactor Capital.

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Refactor Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in seed and pre-seed investments primarily in hard tech sectors such as biotechnology, climate tech, energy, aerospace, and health technology. Its mission centers on investing in founders who are solving fundamental human and planetary problems by "refactoring" industries to improve efficiency and scalability. The firm typically invests $1-2 million per round from its fourth fund, focusing on companies that leverage technology to transform heavily regulated and complex sectors. Beyond capital, Refactor Capital provides personalized support including CFO services, communications training, and mental fitness programs, fostering strong founder relationships and operational success[1][2][5].

Origin Story

Founded in 2016 by Zal Bilimoria, who acts as a solo capitalist and sole decision-maker, Refactor Capital has evolved from initially focusing on biology and health sectors to a broader hard tech thesis that now includes climate technology and other impactful innovations. Zal’s approach emphasizes rapid decision-making and close, one-on-one engagement with portfolio companies. The firm is based in Burlingame, California, and has deployed multiple funds over the years, with the current $50 million fund launched in mid-2024[1][2][6].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Solo capitalist structure allows for fast, personalized investment decisions and deep founder engagement.
Network Strength: Access to a trusted advisory team providing CFO support, communications training, and mental fitness resources.
Track Record: Over 70 investments with a focus on hard tech startups addressing complex challenges in biotech, climate, and health.
Operating Support: Beyond funding, Refactor Capital offers hands-on operational assistance tailored to early-stage founders navigating regulated industries[1][2][5].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Refactor Capital rides the growing trend of investing in hard tech sectors that address critical global challenges such as climate change, human health, and sustainable energy. The timing aligns with increasing regulatory focus and technological breakthroughs in these fields, creating fertile ground for innovation. By backing companies that refactor traditional industries, the firm influences the ecosystem by accelerating scalable, efficient solutions that can reshape markets and improve planetary health. Its focus on seed-stage hard tech startups positions it as a key enabler of foundational innovation in sectors often underserved by traditional venture capital[1][2][5].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Refactor Capital is poised to deepen its impact by continuing to back transformative hard tech startups with personalized support and capital. Trends such as climate tech acceleration, advances in biotechnology, and the digitization of health services will likely shape its investment trajectory. As the firm grows its portfolio and influence, it may expand its advisory capabilities and potentially increase fund size to capture larger opportunities. Zal’s solo capitalist model and hands-on approach will remain a distinctive advantage, offering founders a rare blend of speed, focus, and operational partnership in a complex investment landscape[1][2][5].

This focus on refactoring industries to enhance efficiency and scalability ties back to the firm’s core mission of solving fundamental human and planetary problems through technology-driven innovation.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Who founded Refactor Capital?

Refactor Capital was founded in 2016 by Rick Barber (Cofounder).