Deep Tech VC Firms: The 340 Investors Behind the Index

Deep tech VC firms and other investors named in the HardwareMap index number 340 as of REV 26.09, spread across the 127 companies whose records list investors. This roundup ranks them by one rule: how many index companies name them. It covers venture firms, corporates, sovereign funds and asset managers, with every portfolio company linked. It sits under hardware startup funding.

How the ranking works

Each index record names between one and nine investors, drawn from public round announcements. The median record lists 4. We counted, for each investor, how many company records name it, after folding 16 name variants together (NVentures into NVIDIA, Eclipse Ventures into Eclipse, Lightspeed Venture Partners into Lightspeed, and so on). Ties are broken alphabetically.

Two cautions. First, a named investor is usually a lead or a large participant, so this is a count of visible bets, not a full portfolio. Second, coverage varies: 38 of 44 silicon companies list investors, but only 3 of 11 defense companies and none of the 9 fabrication companies. Investors focused on defense are undercounted here. The method is described in how the HardwareMap index works.

The 20 investors named on three or more index companies

Nine of the 20 are venture firms. The rest are corporates (5), crossover funds, asset managers and a trading firm (4), and public or sovereign bodies (2). The corporates invest where they buy or supply: NVIDIA in robots and autonomy that run on its compute, Mercedes-Benz in a humanoid, an edge AI chip company and an autonomous-driving company, Amazon in two robot makers and an analog sensing chip.

Focus shows in the portfolios. Breakthrough Energy Ventures is named only on energy companies. Jane Street is named only on AI chip companies. Blume Ventures backs three Indian companies and GreyOrange, which began in India, and Temasek spans space, chips, hydrogen and consumer devices across four countries.

Deep tech VC firms named on two index companies

Of the 44 investors named on exactly two companies, 25 are venture firms:

The other 19 two-company investors: corporates Arm, Dell Technologies Capital, Google, Honda, Intel Capital, Kakao Investment, Microsoft, Prosperity7 Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Toyota Ventures, Uber and Zoho; sovereign funds GIC and Qatar Investment Authority; and asset managers 360 ONE Asset, Atreides Management, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and M&G.

What the investor data says about hardware VC

• The tail is long. 276 of 340 investors (81%) appear on one company. A founder's target list should be built from investors who have backed a comparable product, not from a short list of famous names.
• Strategics are central. Corporates are a quarter of the top 20. A strategic investor can also be a customer or supplier, which is valuable and also limits who else will buy from you.
• Late money is generalist. Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and Tiger Global appear mostly at Series C and later. Early rounds are led by specialists.
• Regional firms matter. Blume Ventures, 3one4 Capital, IvyCap Ventures and Speciale Invest together cover 8 Indian index companies.

Before a first meeting, compare our count with the firm's own portfolio page, which will be longer because it includes companies outside this index and rounds where the firm did not lead. Eclipse↗, DCVC↗ and Breakthrough Energy↗ all publish theirs. Look for a company that shipped a comparable product, then ask its founders how the firm behaved when a build slipped. That answer is worth more than a portfolio count.

To see every company an investor backs, search the investor's name in the index directory, which matches named investors. For the earliest money, see hardware accelerators compared and how hardware startups raise a seed round.

Continue with VC Hardware Portfolios: Who Backs What, From the Index.

Frequently asked questions

Which VC firm invests in the most hardware startups?

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In the HardwareMap index, no single venture firm dominates. The most frequently named investors are NVIDIA and Temasek, each on 6 companies, and neither is a venture firm. The venture firms with the most index companies are Blume Ventures, General Catalyst, Spark Capital and Valor Equity Partners, each named on 4. 276 of the 340 investors appear on only one company.

What is a deep tech VC firm?

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A deep tech VC firm invests in companies whose main risk is technical: new chips, robots, energy systems, spacecraft or medical devices, rather than software distribution. These firms tend to hold larger reserves for later rounds, hire partners with engineering backgrounds, and accept longer paths to revenue. Examples named in the index include Eclipse, DCVC, Khosla Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

How were these investors counted?

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Each index record lists the investors named in public sources, usually two to four leads or notable participants rather than the full cap table. We counted how many company records name each investor, after merging 16 name variants such as NVentures into NVIDIA. The count therefore favors firms that lead or co-lead rounds and understates firms that join as smaller participants.

Do corporate investors count as deep tech VC firms?

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Not strictly, but founders meet them in the same rounds. Corporate venture arms such as Qualcomm Ventures, TDK Ventures and Intel Capital invest from a balance sheet and often want a commercial relationship too. In the index, 5 of the 20 most frequently named investors are corporates. The table labels each investor by type so you can filter for pure venture firms.

HardwareMap updates this roundup with each REV as new rounds are named. Building a hardware company with investors we have missed? Submit it and get a part number.