Athenian VC Athenian VC

We love meeting inspiring entrepreneurs and learning about the companies they're building. Have one you'd like to discuss? Let's talk!

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Behind every great founder is a conversation that sparked an idea, a connection that opened doors, or a vision that ignited a flame. We embrace risk and believe no company is too early. If you have an idea, and you're serious about building something great, let's talk.

Boston

Massachusetts

New York

New York

Palo Alto

California

FAQs


Our mission is to back promising founders innovating on long-term structural and macroeconomic trends at the very earliest stages of their entrepreneurial journeys.

We love partnering with very early-stage companies (Angel, Pre-Seed, Seed stage companies); especially those run by first-time founders who need help securing their first institutional check. We also strive to support diverse founders: Entrepeneurs from marginalized and historically underrepresented demographics in venture capital who are often overlooked by traditional investors.

We are early-stage investors and typically invest at the Angel, Pre-Seed, and Seed stages. We're usually the first institutional money in and it's not uncommon for us to work with founders who've raised money from friends, family, and angels before coming to us.

Though we consider ourselves industry agnostic, we're especially interested in AI, cybersecurity, digital assets, renewable energy, fintech, and logistics and transportaiton companies capitalizing on long-term macroeconmic trends. We don't shy away from risk and our goal as venture capital investors is to support founders with innovative ideas solving big problems.

We primarily invest in US- and UK-based companies. Our focus is on early-stage startups that are poised for significant growth and we believe that the economic and entreprenuaial environment in the United States and United Kingdom provides a unique and supportive environment for these types of ventures.

We take a thorough, rigorous, and data-driven approach to evaluating potential investments. We carefully review each company's business plan, market opportunity, and team, among other factors, to determine whether the company is a good fit for our fund. Our investment decisions are based on a combination of quantitative analysis and our team's extensive experience and knowledge of entrepreneurship and venture investing.

After we recieve your application we'll typically get back to you within a week. If you don't hear back from us by then, we encourage you to reach out to us by email or on social media. Our direct contact links are in our bios.

We believe a strong and capable founding team is crucial to the success of a startup. We look for teams with a diverse set of skills, experience, expertise, and a Companies of success in relevant industries. We also evaluate their ability to execute on their plans and lead the company to success. Because of this, we rarely invest in solopreneurs.

Tell us the amount you require during the application process and we'll be happy to discuss altering our initial check size or working with other investors to fill the round.

Venture Foundry is our in-hous eaccelerator available to the pre-seed companies we partner with. In addition to providing capital, we offer the support and guidance to help the companies we partner with achieve their goals and reach their full potential. This can include but is not limited to help with fundraising on the next round, strategic planning, and connecting companies with the resources and networks they need to succeed.

No one is going to steal your idea and we generally do not sign individual NDAs or confidentiality agreements. Ideas are meant to be shared and we encourage all founers to tell as many people about their idea as possible. That said, we take privacy seriously and have strict policies and procedures in place to protect the confidentiality of information shared with us.

Our commitment to our portfolio companies does not end with our initial investment. Put simply, we will move mountains to help you succeed in raising your next round. Whether it be a Seed round or Series A, we're here to help you meet your next investment milestone

An active and supportive role is crucial to the success of our portfolio companies. As such, we may take a board seat in certain cases to be closely involved with the company's development. Outside of formal board meetings, we also engage in "working sessions" with our portfolio companies, where we dedicate time to discussing and resolving significant challenges. Our aim is to provide valuable and impactful support, regardless of the format of our involvement.