Family office  ·  Toronto  ·  Since 2012

The first cheque for deep‑tech moonshots.

We invest our own money in Canadian scientists and engineers at the very beginning. Up to $250K on a standard SAFE, after one meeting, with an answer in days.

Show us what you're building How we invest

Our companies went on to raise from

Andreessen Horowitz  Founders Fund  Khosla Ventures  Lux Capital  Y Combinator

Companies backed
40+
Unicorns
5
Acquisitions
9
Meeting to a decision
1

Portfolio

All 40+ companies

In early. Before
the headlines.

A selection of the companies we've backed, every one of them at the angel or pre-seed stage.

Factory-built nuclear micro-reactors to power AI data centres. Nuclear Energy Unicorn
Making pharmaceuticals in microgravity and flying them home by re-entry capsule. Space Manufacturing Unicorn
Permanent carbon removal using the ocean. XPRIZE Carbon Removal winner. Carbon Removal
Zinc-air batteries that store grid energy for days, not hours. Long-Duration Storage
Gallium nitride power semiconductors, the successor to silicon in power conversion. Power Semiconductors Acquired by Infineon
Machine learning for molecular discovery. AI Drug Discovery Acquired by Recursion
Computational protein design for faster, more precise peptide therapeutics. Protein Design 40+ See the full portfolio View all

Thesis

Read our thesis

What we look for.

New science makes new companies possible. We look for three things before anything else.

01 / Team

Deeply technical founders.

Scientists and engineers who understand something the rest of the market doesn't yet. Often, the people who invented the science.

02 / Solution

First, best, or unique.

Genuinely novel technology. If a dozen teams could build the same thing, it isn't for us.

03 / Market

Problems that matter.

Energy, health, defence, space. The harder the problem, the more interested we are.

How We Invest

Process, terms & FAQ

One meeting.
An answer in days.

One decision-maker, a short process, and standard terms. You'll spend your time building, not fundraising.

  1. 01

    Reach out.

    Tell us what you're building. Send a deck, paper, prototype video, or whatever explains it best.

  2. 02

    One meeting.

    A conversation, not an interrogation. We want to understand how it works, and why now.

  3. 03

    An answer in days.

    Yes or no, with our reasoning either way. If it's a yes, we review your documents and send the wire.

Instrument
YC Post-Money SAFE
First cheque
Up to $250K
Board seat
None
Stage
Angel to Seed

Who You'll Work With

About Adam
Adam McNamara

An engineer on your side of the table.

I co-founded a startup that Shopify acquired, then became Shopify's first VP Product. Before that, I was a computer scientist writing software for Canada's signals-intelligence and anti-money-laundering agencies.

Since 2012, we've invested our own money in founders working on things most people think can't be done. No outside investors, no fund cycle, no pressure to sell early.

More about Adam

Working on something most people think can't be done?

Adam reads every note personally.

Show us what you're building