Mark Scianna

Mark Scianna is the General Partner at Forward Deployed Venture Capital in the United States. He previously spent 11 years as a forward deployed engineer at Palantir, where he operated in conflict zones like Afghanistan and Iraq while developing products that secured an $800 million Army contract. Scianna began investing during Palantir's Series D round in 2010, later completing the Y Combinator Startup Investor program and building a personal portfolio of 28 companies with a 43% internal rate of return. After being named a top emerging manager by Signature Block in 2022, he launched his firm's $10 million Fund I, which he recently followed with a $45 million Fund II to back mission-critical founders. His current investment strategy focuses on early-stage and growth equity opportunities across the defense, energy, industrials, and applied artificial intelligence sectors.