If this is your first time getting our update, welcome to the fam! VSC Ventures is built on the core thesis that it has gotten easier than ever before to start a startup, but harder than ever before for that company to get noticed. We're building a one-of-a-kind fund to invest in early stage startups AND help them break out!
Published November 7, 2021
VSC Ventures No. 004
TechCrunch Writes a Deep Dive
As every venture firm attempts to adopt a the full-stack approach and offer a suite of services beyond simply capital, TechCrunch wanted to cover our approach and why it has resonated so strongly with our co-investors and portfolio companies.
Natasha Mascarenhas writes about VSC Ventures: "These days, founders want valuable services from their investors, such as hiring help, or simply, hype. Those within the media have found themselves in a fortuitous, and potentially lucrative spot, as the storytelling skill set skyrockets in demand from aspiring entrepreneurs."
Thanks Natasha — We couldn't have said it better ourselves!
Read more: https://bit.ly/VSCVenturesLaunch and heard the hosts of TechCrunch's 'Equity Podcast' discuss VSC Ventures on their latest episode (starts at 21m05s)
Portfolio Updates
Each update, we'll share news about investments. For our LPs, we'll follow up with more detail about new marks & material updates in VSC portfolio positions.
Meet Neuralight—"Eyes Are The Windows To the Brain"
Key Highlights on our Third Investment: NeuraLight
- NeuraLight's computer vision algorithms can get medical-grade microscopic eye movement measurements, which will ultimately increase the speed and accuracy of drug discovery in neurology
- Over 100M people in the US and at least 1B across the world suffer from neurological disorders. CNS drug market is $150B/y in the US alone.
- NeuraLight's work will help accelerate clinical trials and increase the probability of success of future therapies for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases
- Neuralight was founded by Dr. Micha Breakstone PhD, the former co-founder/president of Chorus AI, alongside co-founder and CTO Edmund Benami, and the pair have recruited talent from the research and pharmaceutical industries, along with alumni from Google, Chorus.ai and Viz.ai.
- We were referred to NeuraLight from the founder of Immunai, who VSC launched two years ago and is worth $250M+ already
- NeuraLight's $5.5M seed round included participation from Operator Partners, MSAD, Kli, Tuesday, and VSC Ventures.
TechCrunch article on Neuralight linked here (3-for-3 on VSC Ventures shoutouts!)
For VSC Ventures LPs: We have a detailed written deal memo available upon request
VSC Announces 'CLIMB'
As you know, VSC Ventures has 3 core categories we invest in. Our '3 Dubs' — Work, Wellness and World-Saving
As part of last week's unveiling of our fund, we also announced that we're *literally* putting money where our mouth is when it comes to Climate Tech.
In our commitment to fighting climate change, we've committed $7M (~1/3 of our fund) to invest in climate tech startups in partnership with Climb — VSC's brand new climate tech PR practice.
We feel confident in this approach because individually both Vijay & Jay have been investing climate-focused companies for many years (before it became cool) — notably investments in Revel, Modumate, Zume, Poshmark, Molekule and Rocean. As 'World' is just one of our 3 Dubs, we will continue to back compelling teams and startups in future of work and wellness, as well.
Learn more at www.vsc.co/climb
Thank you so much for reading our latest update from VSC Ventures Fund I. We're in the early days of our long and healthy partnership with all of you, so please reach out to us with additional questions on anything above. Thank you again for your support for our vision and our fund!
Best,
Vijay Chattha & Jay Kapoor
