Undeterred Capital

We are in the midst of technological shifts at a pace faster than ever before. Calculus VC capitalizes on these shifts to deliver returns and impact. We invest in the Series A and Series B stages of startups in the below sectors: FUTURE OF COMPUTING AND AI Continued advancements in AI will demand new developments in hardware and software. New computing materials and interfaces may emerge. Computing power may be more distributed, and the world will be infinitely more connected. These and more, are our areas of interest: Intelligence beyond language: We expect AI to understand quantitative models and physical phenomenon just as well as it understands language. Large Quantitiative Models are a focus for us. New hardware, materials, and architectures: We expect that demand for computing power will grow exponentially. Quantum computing, as well as distributed computing are expected to grow. We expect advancements in computing materials beyond silicon. Immersive and neural interfaces: These interfaces already exist, we expect they will become more mainstream. Spatial computing, integrating the physical world with digital environments may be our future. COMPUTATIONAL LIFE SCIENCES AND HEALTHTECH Breakthroughs in biology, materials, sensors, and data science are converging to redefine healthcare. Precision and personalization will take center stage as AI enhances how we detect, monitor, and treat disease. Areas of interest include: AI-First Therapeutics and Discovery Platforms: ML-powered platforms designing drugs and biologics via simulation, predictive modeling, and data-rich experimentation. Infrastructure for Programmable Biology: Tools that make biology engineerable – lab automation, bioinformatics, 3D bioprinting, next-gen diagnostics and R&D devices. Continuous, Data-Driven and Personalized Care: Wearables, medical devices, and diagnostics to deliver patient-centric care. These models turn users into real-time data streams, enabling adaptive treatment and personalized interventions. ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES As we expand the frontiers of possibility, we expect industry to evolve with intelligence, autonomy and environmental sustainability at its core. Areas of focus include: AI and automation in industry: Intelligent machines will optimize production, reduce waste, and enable new workflows. From predictive maintenance to robotic manufacturing, automation will power the next industrial revolution. We support startups enabling this vision. Land, ocean, and space transport and communications: We are interested in advanced materials, robotics, sensors, systems and software that will unlock new frontiers from deep-sea mapping to planetary missions. Resource efficiency: Building the future will demand large reserves of energy and natural resources. Technologies that can serve our energy, food, water, and agricultural needs while supporting a better planet are of interest to us.

Our world stands at the threshold of a new era shaped by Trustless Infrastructure, Digital Intelligence, Atomic Breakthroughs. Over the next decade, these forces will render legacy models obsolete and form the foundations of civilizational change. Crypto Crypto is freedom technology. Fundamentally, it creates a new way for human beings to coordinate at scale, removing intermediaries and replacing them with code and incentives. With native monetization baked into open source technology, crypto represents both a computational and financial innovation simultaneously with massive surface area for experimentation. We believe these systems are early in a profound shift that will disintermediate every vertical where network effects are captured by centralized entities. Deep tech AI is ushering in a golden age of Deep Tech. A new breed of founder is gaining unprecedented execution leverage on complex science and engineering problems. This is powered by ever-evolving foundational models and massive capital outlays. This leverage compounds, driving breakthroughs in both bits (algorithms, synthetic data, advanced simulations) and atoms (robotics, bioengineering, materials science). We believe this confluence is fundamentally rewiring entire industries and tackle civilization-scale problems. Our story Forged in the fires of crypto, Delphi helped write the playbook for an entirely new class of founder that leveraged open source, composable primitives to rapidly innovate. Over the past 7 years, our broader hivemind has navigated the bleeding edge of technology from the researcher, builder, and investor perspectives. With the advent of AI, a new breed of founder is emerging with immense execution leverage both in the digital and natural world.

We invest in early-stage R&D-focused individuals and teams solving complex technical challenges with large potential for commercial application. INVESTMENT AREAS We like to invest in teams building solutions in these technical domains: Software++AI & ML Big Data AR, VR & XR Cybersecurity Cloud/DevSecOps Distributed systems Performance computing Life SciencePersonalized medicine Drug discovery software Precision medicine Biofabrication Digital twins Organoids other BioTech, MedTech HardwareRobotics Automation IoT Industry 4.0 Nanotechnology Material Science Space

Our planet is facing a multitude of urgent challenges; from climate change, dwindling natural resources and rapid urbanisation, to a growing demand for accessible healthcare. These pressing issues call for innovative and sustainable solutions that only scientific advancements can provide. Deep Science as an Asset Class.We invest in scientific breakthroughs that together advance human capability and create financial returns. We’re looking for: Entirely new technologies developed from fundamental research IP-rich innovations with competitive defensibility Solutions to real problems in Life Sciences, Advanced Materials, TechBio, Photonics and Quantum Hardware, Robotics and Automation, AgChem/Tech and DeepTech We offer portfolio exposure to deep science investments supported by a best-in-class due diligence process conducted by experienced entrepreneurs, operators, investors and scientists Investing with Empirical Ventures. ACCESS: leading pre-seed and seed rounds by leveraging our market-leading due diligence and domain expertise, opening doors to the best deals and co-investors SELECTION: our robust, highly selective process identifies cutting-edge scientific advances from the UK R&D landscape with the most compelling commercial opportunities SCALE: Our track record presents unparalleled opportunities to scale our portfolio companies and attract the best follow-on investors and talent POSITION: Our approach increases the probability of reaching Series A, a key inflection point for pre-seed and seed investors.

We partner early with unstoppable entrepreneurs leveraging breakthrough science and technology to pursue progress at scale. Everything we do revolves around a single problem: What are the best ways to reconcile economic growth with human and planetary health? We invest in teams and solutions that address multi-decade problems that humanity has no choice but to solve. Our focusing questionsHow can we decouple improving living standards from resource depletion? How can we ensure food, energy and materials supply security when confronted by deglobalization, multipolarity and the distractions of the attention economy? How can we improve life on Earth and unlock future economic growth potential by leveraging next-generation computing and exploring outer space? How can the clean industrialization of biological processes reduce humanity’s impact on our planet? How we invest in unstoppable founders We look to problems and unmet needs first and then to which technologies and solutions have the potential to address those problems effectively. We don’t push any one type of technology or limit ourselves to one field. We look for founders and companies at the pre-seed and seed stages leveraging the three basic disciplines (physics, chemistry, biology) to engineer economically viable solutions. We look for teams that are uniquely suited to address the opportunity and its inherent challenges and for solutions that are radically better, technically viable, and defensible. Some of the areas we are keen to continue exploring include clean commodities, space technology, industrial decarbonization, electro- and green chemistry, next-generation computing, new materials & production methods. How we partner for the long-term Starlight is a Pre-Seed and Seed investor and ideally the first institutional check into your company. Having been in your shoes as founders and scientists ourselves, we will serve as an ally in the journey ahead. Here’s what you can expect from working with us: We will lead or co-lead your first institutional round. We reserve capital for follow-on investment in later rounds, and we have to ability to partner with our LPs to augment our participation in future opportunities. We will be personally invested in your success, as a large portion of our fund comes from our own team. We will put a particular focus on ensuring that your roadmap is focused on the key risks and milestones unique to addressing the most pressing problems. We will work with you to establish rock-solid governance and operational practices that hold up to the scrutiny of the world’s best institutional investors. We will help you line up and credibly engage the right future investors for your business and trajectory. Let’s partner and make change happen.

Our portfolio boasts over 300 active patents covering world-changing innovations. We back the teams we believe are best able to deploy revolutionary technologies. We have board representation at over 80% of our portfolio companies. We're committed to working alongside our founders to commercialize scientific discovery. Our portfolio companies have collectively raised over two billion dollars. We invest across the life cycle of a company from pre-seed to pre-IPO. Our Name The name, Fine Structure Ventures®, is perhaps most meaningful to the scientist-entrepreneurs we partner with. In physics, the fine-structure constant, commonly denoted by α (the Greek letter alpha), is named for the spacing between the spectral lines in the fine structure of the hydrogen atom. It is a dimensionless, fundamental physical constant which describes the interaction between elementary charged particles, such as electrons, and an electromagnetic field. If the value of alpha were much different from the one we know, it would impact whether nuclear fusion within stars produces carbon or whether atoms can form stable molecules–both of which are critical for life. The fine structure constant is moreover the single best predicted constant in all of physics. Quantum electrodynamics, a field founded by Julian Schwinger, Richard Feynman, and Freeman Dyson, predict its value from first principles, and the associated experiments match to 11 digits. At Fine Structure Ventures, we are also making predictions to realize alpha, used in this context to represent excess return on investment. We take a first principles approach, looking for technologies that, if realized at scale, would have obvious, dramatic, global impact. While we only aspire to the brilliance of Dyson or Feynman, we nevertheless seek unprecedented accuracy in our evaluation of investment opportunities. A Rich Legacy Fine Structure Ventures is rooted in one of America’s great entrepreneurial success stories. Fidelity Investments was founded in 1946 and grew from a single mutual fund into one of the largest asset management firms in the world, with over $2 trillion under management. For the last fifty years, our independent venture capital group has had the privilege of backing other great entrepreneurs as they built ground-breaking companies, including Atari and MCI in the early days. A Focused Team of Specialists Although we are backed by a resourceful global platform, we are a small team passionate about the impact science can make and singularly focused on the success of the entrepreneurs we are privileged to work with. We bring together decades of experience in investments, operations, entrepreneurship, and in scientific research.