Early stage, deep tech ventures of consequence
Nor’easters are forceful storms created when frigid polar air and warm ocean air converge over New England. These powerful and disruptive cyclones deliver unforgiving snow, wind, and tides.
When innovative deep tech and visionary entrepreneurs converge, powerful new startups emerge that challenge the status quo, remake business processes, and transform markets.
We created Nor’easter Ventures to invest in these disruptive companies and their storm-chasing entrepreneurs.
We invest in teams building climate solutions with deep tech
Today we work with mission-driven entrepreneurs dedicated to the sustainability of people and the planet. They are growing businesses enabled by leaps in polymer chemistry, computational modeling, nano-materials, computer vision, machine learning, cryptography, robotics, electrochemistry, and synthetic biology.
Please tell us how your breakthrough innovation and exceptional team improve the quality of life in the context of a warming planet.
AI, ML & GANs
Synthetic Biology
Electrochemistry
Cryptography
Robotics
Computer Vision
Sensors
Photonics
Portfolio
Creating meat without animals
Building energy-efficient homes for the missing middle
Reimagining the future of energy storage
Enabling long endurance portable power
Enabling secure, trustless and scaleable transactions
Modulating brains to improve sleep
Developing resistance resistant antibiotics
Destroying PFAS chemicals in water
The Nor’easter Team
As a team of serial entrepreneurs and operators, we invest time and capital partnering with scientific founders to navigate the turbulent path from laboratory to market. We help define beach-head markets, land pilots, hone strategies and build incredible teams.
Josh Wachman, Managing Partner
Serial entrepreneur turned early stage investor.
Founded and led three deep tech startups with roots in MIT. Disney Imagineer. Fidelity Strategist. Dreamworks Animator. Media Lab Researcher. Espresso fiend.
Ben Levitan, Venture Partner
Five-time CEO of VC and PE stage companies; Growth Advisor.
Former In-Q-Tel Partner. Strategic Coach to CEOs, Founders, Investors. Independent Board member.
Pete Ort, Venture Partner
Wall Street veteran turned entrepreneur/investor.
Goldman Sachs. Co-founded CurAlea Associates and MapText. Cambium Capital. Fulbright Scholar. JD/MBA. Triathlete.
Contact us.
We principally source companies from the vibrant startup ecosystem in the greater Boston area where we have longstanding and deep ties into academic laboratories, research groups and incubators.
Our portfolio strategy is to invest time and capital with a select set of high potential, high conviction startups where we believe we can accelerate growth with first hand experience, relationships and capital.
If you are leading a startup leveraging a scientific breakthrough and you have verifiable market insights on how your audacious approach solves an urgent business problem, we want to hear from you!
Frequently Asked Questions
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Wikipedia has good definition of deep tech here.
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Early stage, typically at the Seed or Series A. Your company may have secured funding via SAFE notes, angel investments, or non-dilutive funds (SBIRs, DARPA, NSF, etc), but we aim to be among the first institutional capital sources involved in your company.
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We pool our capital with money from family offices and high net worth individuals to invest in your company. We deploy capital via, so called, special purpose vehicles (SPVs) funds that are created specifically to invest in your company and none other.
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We share the goal of traditional venture capital funds to generate outsized returns on our invested capital, but we are not subject to many of the economic pressures traditional funds endure such as deploying capital at a particular cadence or returning capital on a specified schedule. At Nor’easter, we identify business opportunities in which we have high conviction and raise whatever capital is appropriate for investing in your company. When we appear on your capitalization table, you see and interact with our firm as a single entity.
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$600k - $1m
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Our investment strategy is to risk-reduce a set of technical and business risks within an 18-24 month period. Ideally, our investment helps you deliver your first product to a customer or pilot your platform in order to demonstrate that your solution has satisfied its intended customer and market.
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We are market-agnostic. We draw on a diversity of experience building companies in biotech, fintech, cybersecurity, energy, transportation, enterprise software, digital health, media, marketing, and entertainment. We are technology and business generalists driven by curiosity and motivated by elegant competitive solutions to big problems in big markets. Recently we have prioritized climate and sustainability given the urgency of that opportunity. We steer away from companies that sell to consumers or distribute products via retail channels. We only invest in companies that compete on the basis of proprietary technological innovation as opposed to innovations in business models.
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No.
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Yes we do, but leading or co-leading is not a requirement.
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We prefer the mutual clarity of priced equity.
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As serial entrepreneurs, we have founded companies which exited successfully and others which failed to return capital. Our first-hand experience as founders and operators has sensitized us to categories of execution risk that financial investors may misjudge or ignore. We believe our experience keeps us humble and ambitious.
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We engage with our portfolio company executives directly and authentically. Your company has its own needs and those needs vary over time. It is your company to operate, but we aim to collaborate and hope our involvement helps you perform better and more efficiently. At the seed stage, there is more work than people to perform it. If we invest, we are in the scrum, offering perspectives on key hires, debating strategies, and engaging in business development. If the only value we could possibly provide your company is capital then it is not a fit for Nor’easter.
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Contact us.