“Best” depends on what you’re building and what kind of help you need at the first check (spinout/IP, hardware supply chain, government sales, bio labs, etc.). Here’s a current shortlist of pre‑seed and seed firms that repeatedly show up as strong partners for deep tech founders, grouped by focus/region. I prioritized funds that actually lead/anchor earliest rounds and do the unglamorous lab‑to‑market work.
Cross‑vertical deep tech (US)
- Fifty Years (SF) — Pre‑seed/seed, backs founders using tech to solve big problems; explicitly deep‑tech friendly and helps start companies. www.fiftyyears.com
- Khosla Ventures — Has a dedicated Seed Fund and frequently runs early “option value” experiments across frontier areas (AI, robotics, hard tech). www.khoslaventures.comwww.nj.gov
- Eclipse Ventures — Leads the first institutional round for industrial/automation/“real economy” companies. confluence.vc
- Root Ventures — Deep‑tech seed for hardware/robotics/engineering‑led companies. www.root.vc
- Lemnos — Pre‑seed/seed hardware specialist with hands‑on support for building physical products. www.lemnos.vcfoundry.vc
- Construct Capital — Early stage for foundational industries (manufacturing, logistics, defense, energy); just raised a new fund to keep leading Seed/A. www.constructcap.comwww.wsj.com
- Schematic Ventures — Early stage across supply chain, manufacturing, and industrial software/infrastructure. www.schematicventures.com
- First Spark Ventures — Deep‑tech specialist backing breakthrough science and engineering at Seed. www.firstsparkventures.com
Climate & hard‑science climate
- Lowercarbon Capital — Climate specialist that invests from pre‑seed/seed up; very active across decarbonization. lowercarbon.comwww.axios.com
- Congruent Ventures — One of the earliest dedicated climate Seed firms; invests from formation through Series A. www.congruentvc.com
- Third Sphere (fka Urban Us) — Early‑stage climate investor with a broad mitigation/resilience thesis. thirdsphere.com
- Toyota Ventures (Climate & Frontier funds) — Corporate VC, but genuinely early‑stage and active across climate/frontier tech. pressroom.toyota.comtoyota.ventures
Bio / TechBio
- Petri — Company‑formation program plus funding; 12‑month program includes at least $250k and lab access for biotech founders. www.fiercebiotech.com
- KdT Ventures — Seed fund at the science/tech intersection; techbio, materials, and adjacent deep science. www.preqin.com
Space / dual‑use / defense‑adjacent
- Seraphim Space — Space‑only specialist with funds plus a VC‑led accelerator from pre‑seed to Series A. seraphim.vcaccelerator.seraphim.vc
- Space Capital — Seed‑stage fund focused on the space economy (GPS, GEOINT, comms). www.spacecapital.com
- E2MC Ventures — Seed investor with a global network, particularly active in Europe/Israel. fi.cowww.vcsheet.com
Europe (general deep tech)
- Quantonation (Paris/Boston) — Early‑stage deep physics/quantum specialist (pre‑seed through B). www.quantonation.com
- High‑Tech Gründerfonds (Germany) — Prolific pre‑seed/seed platform for industrial, climate, life‑sciences deep tech. www.htgf.de
- Supernova Invest (France) — Deep‑tech seed; current fund writes ~€1–3M initial checks. tech.eu
- Octopus Ventures (UK/EU) — Dedicated Deep Tech team; invests as early as idea/pre‑seed. octopusventures.comoctopusgroup.com
Israel
- Amiti Ventures — Deep‑tech outliers across semis/quantum/computing; active at seed. www.amiti.vc
- StageOne Ventures — Leads early‑stage rounds for Israel‑related B2B deep‑tech startups. stageonevc.com
- Earth & Beyond Ventures — DeepTech/SpaceTech investor from concept to seed with an IIA‑backed incubator partnership. www.earthandbeyond.venturesfinder.startupnationcentral.org
Australia / New Zealand
- Main Sequence (CSIRO) — Built specifically to bridge the research‑to‑company “valley of death”; hands‑on deep‑tech investor. www.csiro.au
- Blackbird — Generalist but very deep‑tech friendly from the very beginning; portfolio includes space/advanced engineering. blackbird.vc
How I think about “best” at pre‑seed/seed (and how to pick for your needs)
- Technical diligence depth: partners who read papers, understand TRLs, and help with IP strategy (e.g., Quantonation for quantum). www.quantonation.com
- Company‑building infrastructure: access to labs, manufacturing partners, SBIR/EIC/EIC‑style grants, dual‑use pathways (e.g., Seraphim’s accelerator for SpaceTech). accelerator.seraphim.vc
- Lead propensity + reserves: who actually leads first checks and has follow‑on firepower (e.g., Eclipse often leads the first institutional round). confluence.vc
- Category networks: climate (Lowercarbon/Congruent), bio (Petri/KdT), space (Seraphim/Space Capital). lowercarbon.comwww.congruentvc.comwww.fiercebiotech.comwww.preqin.comseraphim.vcwww.spacecapital.com If you want, I can tailor this to your exact domains and geographies (say, TechBio in the US and quantum in Europe) and deliver a shortlist with check sizes, lead/follow tendencies, and recent co‑investors. I can also add Asia (e.g., UTEC/SGInnovate, India’s Speciale/pi) if that’s relevant.