OVNI Capital

Curious how venture capital funds are created? And how a mathematician thinks about money and deep tech? Bettine Schmitz offers a rare and candid account for Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund - from how she met her fund co-conspirators, to how they raised their GP commit and what it takes to build a track record. So grateful to her and Dr. Gesa Miczaika for not only investing in female founders, but also for being the very real representation of what is possible when you let yourself be bold and creative enough. Chapeau! Listen on your preferred medium: Youtube: https://lnkd.in/dQ7hSXhv Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dK-jQpFs Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dwkDdiTX And many more

Last week, our portfolio company Lithosquare announced a $25M seed round. By 2040, the world needs 1,000+ new mineral deposits to fuel electrification and digital infrastructure. Finding them today takes up to 15 years. Lithosquare's AI platform turns that into months: 10x faster exploration, less earth intrusion. Aymeric combines exceptional company-building skills with rare insight into where the exploration market is heading. He and Simon have been executing hard since day one. Critical infrastructure for the energy transition!! Congrats to the whole team, given your level of ambition, we know it's just the beginning.

Super proud of our General Partner Marie Outtier for speaking on the mainstage at SuperNova about her founder journey from first time founder to exit to Twitter. Her perspective as a French first-time founder who built an AI startup in the UK, sold it to US acquirers, and became one of the most active angel investors in Europe is rare. Full stop. But beyond the titles, she was generous enough to share the insider POV - including what being a parent and a CEO really meant at the time. We were lucky to convince her to join OVNI. And in this video, she explains exactly why she said yes - and what we actually care about as a fund. Worth 48 seconds of your time. 👇 📩 dealflow@ovni.vc for anyone who fits our thesis and actively fundraising.

In August 2023, the whole world was losing its mind over LK-99, a material that supposedly worked as a room-temperature superconductor, i.e. the holy grail of materials science. Andrew Côté, as one of the few people who had actually worked with superconductors, broke it all down in plain language in a viral tweet. The NYT cited him. His following exploded overnight. Today, he has 129K followers on X, runs Hyperstition, and organizes Deep Tech Week, a global conference putting frontier technology center stage. His simple mission: make science fiction real. Last month, Augustin Sayer talked to Andrew about this thread and what happens when deep expertise meets the right moment. Give it a listen, link in comments 👇 Arnaud Laurent Emily Eisenblätter Marie Outtier Thomas Renaudin Rebecca Miller

When most people can't see it yet, Adam Draper can. He invested in space companies when space was still a punchline. He wrote checks into science fiction when the rest of the world called it fantasy. That's optimism as a discipline. Then again, Venture is, as Adam puts it, the art form of his family. His great-grandfather built one of the first VC firms. His father Tim made early bets on Skype, Tesla and Bitcoin. In last week's episode of our podcast, Augustin Sayer and Adam talk about why optimism isn't just a personality trait in frontier tech, it's the actual job. You have to see the future so clearly, so vividly, that you're willing to bet on it before the rest of the world catches up. As an investor. As a founder. As a human. Because the people who built the internet, mapped the genome, and put rockets in orbit weren't the most realistic people in the room. They were the most stubborn optimists. Link in comments 👇

ICYMI: On last month's episode of the OVNI Capital podcast Matthieu Stefani and newest addition to the OVNI team, our Partner based in Berlin, Emily Eisenblätter, discuss why we structure a founder-centric due diligence process and how we provide value even pre-term sheet. Listen to the episode on whichever platform you prefer, subscribe to never miss an episode again! Apple Podcasts (https://bit.ly/4sMMpx6) Spotify (https://bit.ly/4sMiPbj) Youtube (https://bit.ly/4v9LuIU) OVNI Capital is a first-check deep tech venture capital firm backing European founders scaling internationally. Based in San Francisco, Paris, and Berlin, we lead early-stage rounds. Have an idea we simply need to know about? Reach out to our team! Arnaud Laurent Marie Outtier Augustin Sayer Emily Eisenblätter Rebecca Miller

In this episode of OVNI Capital's weekly podcast, Rebecca Miller welcomes Philip Stehlik, entrepreneur (🦄🦄), angel investor, coach and long-time builder in the tech ecosystem. Originally from Germany, Philip moved to San Francisco at just 21, discovered Silicon Valley and built several companies from the ground up - all of them first movers, some maybe even too early. He shares his founder journey, the dynamics of Silicon Valley, what it means to be first in a market and the mindset required to turn ideas into real companies. Is there such a thing as a "unicorn playbook"? All founders work towards a $1bn (or more) outcome, but what does it actually feel like to have those ideas turn into million-dollar companies? A thoughtful discussion for founders, operators, and anyone curious about what it truly means to be a builder in the tech world. Thank you for your candor Philip! To staying curious and building the future - whether that is starting from scratch, or scaling/optimizing something existing. Hope you have as much fun listening as we had recording this conversation. Give it a listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Youtube. Link in comments.

Piston raises €3M to build the operational backbone of mid-market industrial companies. 🏭 As Western's industrial base is being rebuilt, operations are becoming more complex and more critical than ever. Yet most manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers still rely on ERP systems that don’t actually run the business. Everything is still largely manual: Generating quotes, processing orders, updating inventory, coordinating with suppliers... and this is where time is lost, errors happen, and margins disappear. Piston replaces these systems with agents that execute workflows end-to-end. From quote generation to stock management and supplier interactions, the system helps run the business. The founders combine strong product intuition with firsthand operational pain. Congrats to Eric Lacaille, 🍐 Eugène Nélou, Florian Bachelot and team 👏 Proud to back your vision alongside daphni, Motier Ventures, Kima Ventures and Drysdale Ventures. cc. Marie Outtier Thomas Renaudin Augustin Sayer Arnaud Laurent Emily Eisenblätter Rebecca Miller

Yesterday, our portfolio company (baCta) announced a €7 million Seed round! 🦠🏭 Over the past year Mathieu, Marie and the team have worked to close the gap between biotech promise and industrial execution. Two structural shifts are finally making it real: - AI models trained on real production data are increasing the probability that what works in the lab performs at industrial scale, - A geopolitical shift toward onshoring critical biomanufacturing prioritizing resilience and supply security China and the US have already made biomanufacturing a national priority (https://lnkd.in/era8_jv3 & https://lnkd.in/eNJ_B_44). The stakes are high!! Glad to see LocalGlobe and daphni joining the partnership!! More information: https://lnkd.in/ehy7YJvB