Wedbush Ventures

We're a community of students backing outlier startups in Southern California. With 20 partners spanning 12+ universities, we build relationships with SoCal's best founders and companies. As students, we connect with alumni and founders before they're founders. We run a syndicate, connecting SoCal's biggest dreamers with funding from our community of angels. SoCal has a gap between founders and capital.SoCal universities produce top technical talent but its founders have little access to early-stage venture capital. Deal flow from regional universities is opaque for institutional investors - meaning most miss out on the region's outlier returns. And we've bridged it once before. At California Crescent Fund, we invested 20+ portfolio companies to bridge SoCal's best talent with the capital they need. We've worked with our LPs to back outlier companies and make our impact - now, we're spinning out and ready to do it again through a new Syndicate. We're looking for founders who…Have SoCal in their DNA: 1+ founding member being a SoCal student, dropout, or alum. Hold an Unfair GTM Advantage: What makes you the right team to build and sell this product? Build & Test Quickly: Focused on building product, launching fast, and iterating. Chase a "Why Now?" Timing matters: how do you see the world around you right now?

Pinecone is a "venture studio" – a company dedicated to building impactful businesses by collaborating with driven founders. We focus on turning ambitious ideas into successful and meaningful ventures. STUDIO VS. INCUBATOR/ACCELERATOR – WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? Unlike incubators and accelerators, venture studios generate their own ideas, create startups from scratch, provide funding, recruit founders, and actively participate in operations without a fixed timeline. Studios also assume a significant portion of the responsibilities and risks associated with ideation, validation, and launch, making them more deeply involved in the long-term success of their startups compared to other startup support models. WHY CO-FOUND WITH PINECONE? Co-founding with Pinecone is akin to getting 10+ co-founders on your team, for the "price" of one. Through mentorship, network and access to capital, we greatly increase your chances – and speed – of success. WHO CAN CO-FOUND WITH PINECONE? We partner with people who are determined to create something big, something meaningful. You should possess an unfair advantage, whether industry insights, skills or network/distribution. We mainly base our decision on trust, a shared vision and ambition are must-haves. We also look for traits like: resilience, adaptability, resourcefulness, curiosity, humility, passion, and drive. Last, but not least, we consider the ability to rally people behind a vision, a rare, yet decisive, skill. CAN PINECONE INVEST IN MY STARTUP? While our main focus is to build companies from scratch, with or without a co-founder from the start, we occasionally will look at investment opportunities that align with our portfolio. Such strategic investments should bring value to our existing portfolio companies or vice versa. WHERE IS PINECONE LOCATED? Pinecone is based in Oslo, Norway. However, we operate globally with partners of several nationalities and locations, and we invest and build companies globally, too.

Lumma is a global accelerator program designed to help founders and operators build, scale, and expand high-potential businesses into sustainable, internationally competitive companies. Founded with the vision of creating globally connected accelerator ecosystems, Lumma operates structured accelerator programs that combine execution-focused mentorship, market-driven strategy, and performance management. Our model enables local operators to run accelerators in their own markets while remaining aligned with a unified global framework. By connecting founders, investors, corporate partners, and regional ecosystems, Lumma accelerates growth, strengthens execution, and supports long-term value creation. Our approach balances global standards with local insight, allowing businesses to scale efficiently and responsibly across markets.

We’re EQT Ventures, a VC built by former founders and operators ready to support the next generation of global winners. Building a global tech company is challenging. We know because we’ve done it too. Without the right people around you, getting to great is almost impossible. That’s why we decided to create EQT Ventures, a new kind of VC, the VC we always wanted on our own startup journeys. A VC that is accessible, supportive and fully committed. A partner that knows what it takes to put everything on the line. A VC built to serve the founders it backs. From offices in Stockholm, London, Berlin, Paris and San Francisco, we invest in and support entrepreneurs building the next-generation of global winners. Entrepreneurs will always be at the core of everything we do. We’re entrepreneurs at heart and there’s nothing we thrive from more than working with founders. No matter where you are on your journey or the challenges you face, chances are we’ve been there too and can overcome them together.

We lead pre-seed and seed rounds. We commit meaningful amounts of capital to empower founders to build the future before it becomes obvious. Deep Partnership We are company builders. We have built products, teams and companies in Southeast Asia. We care about your vision and product in a deep way. We believe that hands-on support makes a difference. Unparalleled Network We provide access. We have spent our entire careers at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship and venture. Our network is comprised of world class founders, investors and technologists.

WE HELP SUPPORT TALENTED ENTREPRENEURS’ WILDEST DREAMS. WE PROVIDE THEM WITH AN ECOSYSTEM OF GLOBAL PARTNERS AND PURPOSE-DRIVEN THINKERS – ALL WITH SHARED VALUES FOR CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND POSITIVE IMPACT. THE IDC VENTURES TEAM UNDERSTANDS THE POWER OF FOUNDERS AND SHARING PLATFORMS TO BUILD FUTURE WINNERS. Our network is valuable. That’s how we’ve successfully helped investors provide value in deal flow, diligence, and market and industry expertise. As entrepreneurial experts, we’ve enabled partnerships and new opportunities for founders since 2019.