1517 Fund

Reviewed Updated Jul 16, 2026

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Location Telluride, CO
Founded 2015
Fund Size $175M+ across 4 flagship funds and 15+ SPVs
Website https://www.1517fund.com/
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed
Sector Focus
deep-tech hardware ai biotech quantum-computing aerospace-defense climate-tech developer-tools robotics

Team

Danielle Strachman Co-Founder & General Partner
Michael Gibson Co-Founder & General Partner
Zak Slayback Partner
Nick Arnett Partner
Haylee Johnson Operations Partner

About

1517 Fund is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Telluride, Colorado, co-founded in 2015 by Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson 12. The firm’s name references the year Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, drawing an analogy between the Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences and the modern university system’s sale of diplomas 3. Gibson has stated: “We thought we’d name our fund 1517 as a way to show we don’t believe in modern indulgences” 3.

Strachman and Gibson previously co-founded the Thiel Fellowship with Peter Thiel in 2010, a program that gave $100,000 grants to young people to skip or leave college and pursue entrepreneurship 12. Thiel Fellows from the program they ran include Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum), Dylan Field (Figma), Austin Russell (Luminar Technologies), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO Rooms), and Laura Deming (Longevity Fund) 4. By 2015, Strachman and Gibson decided to launch a venture fund based on their thesis about finding talented young people outside the credentialed path 3.

The firm has raised four flagship funds: Fund I at $20 million (2015), Fund II at approximately $24 million (circa 2019-2020), Fund III at $80 million (2022), and Fund IV at $100 million (2025), bringing total capital committed to over $175 million 356. The firm has also deployed 15+ follow-on SPVs for top-performing portfolio companies 1. First checks range from $50,000 at the idea/R&D stage to $1,000,000 for seed-stage deep-tech companies, with an average pre-seed check of approximately $400,000 17.

Fund I has delivered a 4.41x DPI (cash returned to investors) and 9.65x TVPI with a 38.86% IRR, placing it in the top 5% of 2015-vintage venture funds per Cambridge Associates benchmarks 4. The firm describes itself as “technically a venture capital fund, but we like to think of ourselves as an anti-establishment educational institution” 4.

Beyond direct investments, 1517 runs the Medici Grant Program, distributing over 3,000 no-strings-attached grants of $1,000 or more to teenagers and young builders pursuing passion projects 14. The firm also operates an “Invisible College” program, deploying $50,000-$100,000 checks into companies at the R&D frontier of deep technology 3. The firm maintains a community of over 6,000 members including hackers, scientists, and young founders 1.

Stated Thesis

1517 Fund publicly describes its mission as backing “dropouts, renegade students, and sci-fi scientists” at the earliest stages 1. The firm states it supports “makers, hackers, and scientists interested in working outside tracked institutions because we believe that the path geared towards higher education is not for all” 2.

Strachman has stated that approximately “85 percent of our deals fit that dropout category. And then 15 percent…we will break our dropout thesis in the name of science fiction” 8. The firm’s stated focus areas include software, hardware with a data play, deep tech/sci-fi technology, and biotech 1.

Gibson has described the ideal founder as someone who is “both insiders and outsiders at the same time,” adding: “We love when we meet people with that kind of vision. But the vision has to be matched by dedication and execution” 3.

Strachman has described the qualities she looks for as “social geeks…extraordinarily mission driven…willing to die on your sword for what you’re doing” 8. She has emphasized that founders should be able to explain their work accessibly: “Speak to us like we are the dumbest golden retrievers you have ever met” 8.

The firm explicitly positions itself as a “first believer” investor, often knowing founders for months or years before writing a check 8. Strachman has stated: “The role we play the most is that of first believer. And trusted confidant” 1.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 28 verified portfolio investments (see Portfolio table below), the following patterns emerge. Note: 1517 reports over 100 investments across its funds; this analysis covers approximately 28% of the total portfolio, so percentages should be treated as directional rather than definitive.

Sector Distribution (28 verified investments): - Deep Tech / Hardware / Sensors: 8 of 28 (29%) — Luminar, Positron AI, Mach Industries, Solideon, Presso, eEva, CalWave Power Technologies, Marathon Fusion - AI / ML Infrastructure: 5 of 28 (18%) — Lambda, Deepgram, HelloWoofy, Trilobio, Pareto - Aerospace / Space: 3 of 28 (11%) — Xona Space Systems, Rainmaker, Mach Industries (dual-counted above) - Quantum Computing: 1 of 28 (4%) — Atom Computing - SaaS / Software: 6 of 28 (21%) — Loom, Fountain, FOSSA, nTopology, Cents, Office Otter - Biotech / Life Sciences: 2 of 28 (7%) — Miist Therapeutics, Ceragen - Other: 3 of 28 (11%) — Figma (design tools), JobPixel, Stark Therapeutics

Stage Distribution (28 verified investments): - Pre-Seed / R&D: approximately 18 of 28 (64%) — consistent with stated focus as first check writer - Seed: approximately 10 of 28 (36%) - The firm’s self-description as an extreme-inception investor is strongly supported by the data

Founder Profile Patterns: - The majority of identified portfolio founders lack traditional undergraduate degrees or dropped out of college, consistent with the stated thesis. Examples include Austin Russell (dropped out of Stanford at 17), Stephen Balaban (Lambda), Ethan Thornton (MIT dropout, Mach Industries), Augustus Doricko (UC Berkeley dropout, Rainmaker), and Kevin Wang (FOSSA, 2013 Thiel Fellow) 49. - Strong overlap with Thiel Fellowship alumni: multiple portfolio companies (Luminar, Figma, FOSSA, Positron AI, Mach Industries, Rainmaker) were founded by Thiel Fellows 4. - Founders tend to be young (teens to mid-20s) with deep technical obsession in a specific domain.

Geographic Distribution: - U.S.-focused, with concentrations in San Francisco Bay Area and other major tech hubs. The firm also has a presence covering the Midwest (partner Nick Arnett is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana) and international markets through partner Babar Khan (Saudi Arabia, Asia, Europe) 10.

Co-investor Patterns: - At the pre-seed/seed stage, 1517 often invests alongside or ahead of Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, and other early-stage specialists. Later rounds of portfolio companies have attracted Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, B Capital Group, Nvidia, and Insight Partners 111213.

Notable Gaps: - Despite claiming to be tech-agnostic across verticals, the portfolio shows a pronounced tilt toward hard tech (hardware, sensors, quantum, fusion, space) and AI infrastructure, with relatively fewer pure consumer internet or fintech investments compared to the broad sector list on aggregator sites.

Portfolio

Company Stage Year Sector Source
Luminar Technologies Seed (USD 36M round; Canvas Ventures, GVA Capital, 1517 Fund among investors — 1517’s individual check size undisclosed) 2017-04-13 LiDAR / Autonomous Vehicles 9264849
Lambda Seed (Fund I first check at ~USD 4M pre-money valuation per 1517; USD 3.96M seed tranche closed 2019-04-28 at ~USD 23M post-money alongside Gradient Ventures + Bloomberg Beta per aggregator records — no contemporaneous primary press was issued for the 2019 seed) 2019-04-28 (aggregator-reported close date; pre-2019 undisclosed-investor tranches per amch.ltd December 2017 Form D filings not independently attributed to 1517) AI / GPU Cloud 414279697
Loom (as OpenTest) Pre-Seed (USD 600K; 1517 Fund led; Elementum Ventures + angels Andy Chou + Eric Wittman participated; specific day/announcement not disclosed in primary press — Wellfound aggregator dates the round to October 2016 following Loom’s June 30, 2016 Product Hunt launch as Openvid) 2016-10 Video SaaS 111285051
Deepgram Seed / Series A (USD 1.8M; Y Combinator + Metamorphic Ventures / Compound lead per TechCrunch contemporaneous press; 1517 Fund named as participant by Tracxn aggregator alongside Zillionize, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and Ludlow Ventures — 1517 NOT independently named in TechCrunch primary press. Odin Times 4 describes 1517’s Deepgram investment as a “small 2017 round,” which may indicate a separate follow-on tranche not corroborated in primary sources) 2016-09-27 AI / Speech Recognition 815295398
Figma Fellowship-era attribution — Dylan Field was a 2012 Thiel Fellow (Gibson/Strachman ran the Thiel Fellowship program at Thiel Foundation before founding 1517 in 2015; Figma’s USD 3.8M seed on 2013-06-26 was led by Index Ventures/Danny Rimer with 1517 Fund NOT named in any primary press or SEC Form D); retained for historical context 2012 (Fellowship, not a 1517 investment) Design Tools 43057
nTopology (nTop) Series A ($7.6M; Data Collective + Root Ventures co-led; CrunchFund, Haystack, Pathbreaker, 1517 Fund participated) 2017-12-01 Engineering Software 16315455
FOSSA Seed (USD 2.2M; Bain Capital Ventures led; angels named — Marc Benioff, Steve Chen, Jaan Tallinn, Amr Awadallah, Justin Mateen. 1517 Fund NOT named in primary press — aggregator-only attribution pattern matches Wildfire/MakerBot/Fountain/Deepgram cases previously flagged) 2017-02-23 Developer Tools / Open Source 178081
Atom Computing Seed (~$5M; Venrock led per Ethan Batraski blog; 1517 confirmed on own portfolio page but NOT named in Venrock or Atom’s public materials) 2018-08 (Venrock GP blog dates seed to “August”; Crunchbase Form D lists 2018-05-10) Quantum Computing 1183256
Fountain (as OnboardIQ) Seed (USD 1.65M; SoftTechVC, Slow Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Bastian Lehmann (Postmates CEO), Ilya Fushman, and all four Caviar founders named as participants. 1517 Fund NOT named in primary press (contemporaneous VatorNews weekly roundup) — aggregator-only attribution pattern matches FOSSA/Deepgram cases previously flagged) 2015-05-18 HR Tech / Hiring SaaS 193382
Cents Seed (USD 4.25M; Bessemer Venture Partners led; Newfund Capital + Riverpark Ventures + 1517 Fund + Jason Finger of Seamless/Upper90 participated; 1517’s own blog announced their check on 2020-09-24, ahead of the formal round close) 2021-02-15 (public announcement; Crunchbase records round date as 2020-11-01, likely Form D filing) Laundromat SaaS 20606162
Xona Space Systems Pre-Seed ($1M; 1517 led; Seraphim Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, Stellar Solutions participated) 2020-05-14 Space / Navigation 213452
Positron AI Seed (USD 23.5M; no single lead named — Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, Flume Ventures, and Resilience Reserve participated; 1517 Fund named in follow-on Series A and portfolio pages but not in seed press) 2025-02-11 AI Inference Hardware 43546656686
Mach Industries Seed (USD 5.7M; Sequoia Capital led — Sequoia’s first-ever defense-tech investment; Marque VC + Champion Hill Ventures named in PR Newswire release; 1517 Fund named as participant in TechCrunch’s October 2023 Series A retrospective) 2023-06-16 (PR Newswire dateline; Sequoia’s own partnership blog posted 2023-06-15) Defense / Unmanned Systems 436456667
Rainmaker Seed (USD 6.3M; no formal lead named; Long Journey Ventures, Day One Ventures, Tamarack Global, 1517 Fund, Starship VC, Champion Hill Ventures participated with angels Garry Tan and Balaji Srinivasan) 2024-05-07 Climate Tech / Cloud Seeding 4377879
Marathon Fusion Seed (co-led with Anglo American, USD 5.9M; Übermorgen Ventures + Shared Future Fund + Malcolm Handley participated; DOE ARPA-E CREATE award brings total funding to USD 6.9M) 2024-07-18 Fusion Energy 227172
Trilobio Pre-Seed (USD 3M; Argon Ventures + Lowercarbon Capital named as pre-seed leads per company communications; 1517 Fund confirmed as investor in cumulative “over USD 11M raised” summary in the 2025-05-05 seed announcement but NOT independently named in pre-seed primary press) ~2022–2024 (pre-seed announcement date not disclosed in primary sources; company founded 2021, seed announced 2025-05-05) Lab Robotics 43865
Solideon Pre-Seed (oversubscribed beyond USD 5M initial target; 8090 Industries + 1517 Fund + Stellar Ventures + Boost VC + 10X Founders + Pathbreaker Ventures + AIN Ventures + Tiny VC + MD One Ventures + Reinforced Ventures + Techstars Space + Capital Factory + Vibe Capital + Gaingels participated; no single lead named in primary press) 2024-07-17 Deep Tech / 3D Printing 2339737475
Ceragen Seed (co-led with Divergent Capital; USD 2.7M CAD / USD 2M USD; Ajira Ventures participated; brings total funding to USD 4.8M CAD / USD 3.5M USD including prior Velocity Fund + Ontario Centre of Innovation backing; 1517 named as “existing investor” — participated in prior round) 2024-07-16 Biotech 24407677
Miist Therapeutics Seed (USD 7M; no single lead named — Refactor Capital, 1517 Fund, Freeflow Ventures, Entrepreneur First, and California Innovation Fund participated) 2025-02-05 Biotech / Therapeutics 2441676887
Presso Pre-Seed (USD 1.6M; Pathbreaker Ventures + AME Cloud Ventures + SOSV + 1517 Fund + YETI Capital participated; no single lead named) 2020-12-16 Hardware / Automation 1426364
eEva (Paradigm Evergreen) Pre-Seed (aggregator/portfolio-page-only 1517 attribution — 1517 lists eEva on their own portfolio page but does NOT disclose date, amount, or lead. Company was founded by Nico Ramirez, who dropped out in 2021 to pursue laundry hardware full-time. Company raised ~USD 500K per Refresh Miami (2023-04-13), with USD 100K from Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Climate fellowship. 1517 not independently named in primary press) ~2021–2023 (post-Ramirez dropout, pre Refresh Miami coverage; specific 1517 check date not disclosed) Hardware / Consumer Appliances 183
Office Otter Seed (USD 1.6M; Bonfire Ventures, 1517 Fund, Invariantes Fund, Beresford Ventures, Root and Shoot Ventures, Alumni Ventures + Titan Fund listed as participants — no single lead named; 8 total institutional investors per Tracxn) 2021-07-20 Productivity SaaS / Task Management 248485
JobPixel Pre-Seed (1517 Fund; amount undisclosed) 2021-02-08 HR Tech / Video Hiring 24899091
HelloWoofy Pre-Seed (~$500K pre-seed VC total per company press; Wefunder/Republic Reg CF supplements. 1517 Fund NOT independently named in primary press — attribution comes only from Kingscrowd/Wefunder team pages 9293 — aggregator-only pattern matches FOSSA/Fountain/Deepgram cases) ~2019–2020 (Republic campaign Dec 2019; Wefunder team-page attribution) AI / Social Media Marketing 249293
CalWave Power Technologies Seed (aggregator-only 1517 attribution — CalWave’s own fact sheet names Breakout Labs 2018-01-04, Autodesk, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, and High Tide Foundation 2019 as venture-side investors, with the balance from DOE grants; 1517 Fund is NOT named in CalWave primary materials. Note: Breakout Labs is a fund within the Thiel Foundation — same parent org that ran the Thiel Fellowship under Strachman/Gibson before they founded 1517 in 2015 — which likely explains the aggregator cross-attribution) ~2019 (per Tracxn aggregator; not corroborated in primary press) Wave Energy 245859
Stark Therapeutics Seed (aggregator-only 1517 attribution — Stark Therapeutics’ own website lists no investors; company primary sources give no announcement date, amount, or investor list. Founded 2018 in Madison, WI by Anthony Stark. Pitchbook indicates ~USD 650K total raised; 1517 Fund and Reinforced Ventures cited only by aggregators. Wefunder Reg CF campaign surfaced by Kingscrowd summary dated 2021-04-05 with USD 8M valuation cap 94. No dated primary press for a 1517-branded round exists — jobs board listing at jobs.1517fund.com confirms Stark as portfolio company 95) 2018 (founding year proxy; specific seed date not disclosed in primary sources) Therapeutics / Gene Therapy 543689495
Pareto Seed (USD 4.5M; TechCrunch primary press names MaC Venture Capital, Seabed VC, Soma Capital, Fearless Fund, Liquid2 Ventures, Slope Agency, and Jonathan Swanson (Thumbtack founder) — 1517 Fund NOT independently named in primary press; only Crunchbase (aggregator) lists 1517 as participant. Same aggregator-only pattern as FOSSA/Fountain/Deepgram cases) 2022-03-14 (public announcement per TechCrunch; round closed November 2021) AI 44469
Rainmaker (Series A follow-on) Series A (USD 25M; Lowercarbon Capital led; Starship Ventures, 1517 Fund, Long Journey Ventures, Day One Ventures, Tamarack Global, Garry Tan, and Naval Ravikant participated) 2025-05-07 Climate Tech / Cloud Seeding 2447697088

Portfolio Completeness Note: This table represents approximately 28 of over 100 reported investments (roughly 28%). The firm states it has made approximately 40 investments across Funds I and II, and approximately 100 investments in Fund III alone 8. Only investments with at least one verifiable source are included.

Notable Exits: - Luminar Technologies: 1517 first entered via the April 13, 2017 seed round ($36M total with Canvas Ventures, GVA Capital) 4849. IPO via SPAC in December 2020 at $3.4 billion valuation; returned approximately 3.5-4x on Fund I 89. Filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025 4. - Loom: 1517 led the October 2016 pre-seed at $600K (as OpenTest) with Elementum Ventures and angels Andy Chou and Eric Wittman 5051. Acquired by Atlassian in October 2023 for approximately $975 million; 1517 achieved approximately 25x MOIC on its early investment 1125. - Lambda: Valued at $5.9 billion at its November 2025 Series E 414. First invested at approximately $4 million valuation 4. - Deepgram: Raised $130 million at $1.3 billion valuation in January 2026 15.

In Their Own Words

“By 2015, Danielle and I were thinking, ‘Wow, we’ve been doing this as a non-profit, but we could launch a venture capital fund based on our thesis about finding talented young people and the uncredentialed.’” — Michael Gibson, Raging Capital Ventures interview 3

“Our first fund was $20m. Our second about $25m. Our third fund is $80m, so we’re going to be making more investments and writing larger first checks into companies.” — Michael Gibson, Raging Capital Ventures interview 3

“One new program is something we call our ‘Invisible College.’ These are $50k-$100k checks into companies that are really early in the R&D phase on the frontier of a deep technology.” — Michael Gibson, Raging Capital Ventures interview 3

“Young people should be taken seriously, outstanding founders are found without credentials and even in the oddest of places, and that the edges of technology and science can and often are advanced by those least likely to be recognized by sclerotic institutions.” — Michael Gibson, The Odin Times 4

“At some point in the last fifty years, our culture flipped. Dedication to the truth became the counterculture. The establishment became denial. For us as a venture capital fund, the truth became profitable.” — Michael Gibson, The Odin Times 4

“85 percent of our deals fit that dropout category. And then 15 percent…we will break our dropout thesis in the name of science fiction.” — Danielle Strachman, First Funders podcast 8

“We’re really like, cutting the leash for people who have very untapped potential.” — Danielle Strachman, First Funders podcast 8

“A lot of times when we’re writing a check, we’ve already known the founder sometimes for months or sometimes for years.” — Danielle Strachman, First Funders podcast 8

What Founders Say

“1517 believed in me first.” — Stephen Balaban, CEO of Lambda, 1517 Fund website 1

“Danielle and Michael were our biggest early believers. They met with us weekly, gave us feedback, and wired us money before the deal docs were done as our pre-seed lead so that we wouldn’t run out of money 48hrs later.” — Joe Thomas, Co-founder & CEO, Loom, 1517 Fund website 1

“Danielle, Michael, Zak and the whole team are genuinely invested in our success and have been there to support us through the good and the challenging times. This is one of many reasons that 1517 Fund has cultivated an amazing group of founders in their portfolio.” — Portfolio founder testimonial, 1517 Fund website 1

“Can’t honestly say Loom would be a company if it hadn’t been for their belief.” — Joe Thomas, Co-founder & CEO, Loom, 1517 Fund website 1

Note: The above founder quotes are sourced from 1517 Fund’s own website and should be considered in that context. No independently sourced founder testimonials from third-party publications were found during this research.

Sources

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  41. TechCrunch, “Miist, founded by a 25-year-old, wants people to vape their way out of smoking addiction and migraines,” February 4, 2025. https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/04/miist-founded-by-a-25-year-old-wants-people-to-vape-their-way-out-of-smoking-addiction-and-migraines/↩

  42. TechCrunch, “Dry-cleaning robotics startup Presso raises $1.6M as it shifts focus to Hollywood,” December 16, 2020. https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/16/dry-cleaning-robotics-startup-presso-raises-1-6m-as-it-shifts-focus-to-hollywood/↩

  43. Tracxn, “Stark Therapeutics — 2026 Company Profile, Team & Competitors,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/stark-therapeutics/__xwHVIC6-Jd9WLyOqu-uEVkpnf2JF-vESEAJW8mUycXE↩

  44. Crunchbase, “Seed Round — Pareto.AI — 2022-03-14,” accessed April 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/pareto-65f7-seed–42c87537↩↩

  45. TechCrunch, “Defense startup Mach Industries closes $79M Series A at $335M valuation,” October 4, 2023, accessed May 2026 (references prior $5.7M seed round led by Sequoia Capital ~four months earlier, June 2023, with 1517 Fund and Champion Hill Ventures as early investors). https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/04/defense-startup-mach-industries-closes-79m-series-a-at-335m-valuation/↩↩↩

  46. Reuters via Yahoo Finance, “AI chip startup Positron raises $23.5 million seed round to take on Nvidia,” February 11, 2025, accessed June 2026 (1517 Fund listed as participant in $23.5M seed). https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ai-chip-startup-positron-raises-161917664.html↩

  47. FinSMEs, “Rainmaker Technology Raises $25M in Series A Funding,” May 2025, accessed June 2026 (Crunchbase round profile lists 2025-05-05; 1517 Fund listed as participant alongside lead Lowercarbon Capital). https://www.finsmes.com/2025/05/rainmaker-technology-raises-25m-in-series-a-funding.html↩

  48. Alan Ohnsman, “A 22-Year-Old CEO Has A Vision For Making Self-Driving Cars A Reality,” Forbes, April 13, 2017, accessed July 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2017/04/13/a-22-year-old-ceo-has-a-vision-for-making-self-driving-cars-a-reality/↩↩

  49. “Luminar enters lidar fray with $36M splash,” Optics.org, April 13, 2017, accessed July 2026. https://optics.org/news/8/4/24↩↩

  50. Steven Li, “Nearly-Broke To $1.5 Billion: How He Built Loom And Grew It To 14 Million Users,” Forbes, March 14, 2022, accessed July 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenli1/2022/03/14/nearly-broke-to-15-billion-how-he-built-loom-and-grew-it-to-14-million-users/↩↩

  51. BestPitchDeck, “OpenTest (Loom) Pitch Deck,” accessed July 2026 (confirms October 2016 $600K pre-seed led by 1517 Fund with Elementum Ventures and angels Andy Chou and Eric Wittman). https://bestpitchdeck.com/opentest-loom↩↩

  52. Via Satellite / SatelliteToday, “PNT Startup Xona Space Systems Raises $1M in Pre-Seed,” May 15, 2020, accessed July 2026 (independently confirms $1M pre-seed on May 14, 2020, led by 1517 with Seraphim Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, and Stellar Solutions participating). https://www.satellitetoday.com/finance/2020/05/15/pnt-startup-xona-space-systems-raises-1m-in-pre-seed/↩

  53. TechCrunch, “Launching a ‘Google for sound’, Deepgram raises $1.8 million,” September 27, 2016, accessed July 2026 (confirms Metamorphic Ventures led $1.8M seed with Y Combinator; 1517 Fund NOT named as investor in primary press). https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/27/launching-a-google-for-sound-deepgram-raises-1-8-million/↩↩

  54. 3D Printing Industry, “nTopology CEO gives insight into generative design after raising $7.6M,” December 5, 2017, accessed July 2026 (confirms $7.6M Series A led by Data Collective and Root Ventures; James Hardiman DCVC quote). https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/ntopology-ceo-gives-insight-generative-design-after-raising-7-6m-125665/↩

  55. MCADCafe / Digital Engineering, “nTopology Announces Series A Funding of $7.6M,” December 1, 2017, accessed July 2026 (confirms 2017-12-01 announcement with Data Collective and Root Ventures leading; 1517 Fund among participants alongside CrunchFund, Haystack, Pathbreaker). https://www10.mcadcafe.com/nbc/articles/1/1551871/nTopology-Announces-Series-Funding-$7.6M↩

  56. Ethan Batraski (Venrock partner), “A Radical New Paradigm in Quantum Computing, Venrock’s Investment into Atom Computing,” Medium, September 25, 2018, accessed July 2026 (confirms Venrock led seed round in “August”; Atom Computing founded January 2018 by Ben Bloom and Jonathan King). https://medium.com/ethanjb/a-new-paradigm-in-quantum-computing-venrocks-investment-into-atom-computing-cea467daaeb↩

  57. Index Ventures (Danny Rimer), “Figma Goes Public: Thirteen Unforgettable Years with Dylan Field,” 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.indexventures.com/perspectives/figma-goes-public-thirteen-unforgettable-years-with-dylan-field/ — Danny Rimer’s first-person account confirming Index Ventures led Figma’s 2013 seed round with USD 1.7-1.8M (of a USD 3.8M total). Cross-referenced with TechCrunch Alexia Tsotsis “21-Year-Old Thiel Fellow Raises Three-Point-Eight Million Dollars For Figma” 2013-06-26 (https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/26/21-years-4-million-dollars/) which lists Terrence Rohan, Jeff Weiner, DJ Patil, Adam Nash, LocalGlobe as seed participants. 1517 Fund (founded 2015) is NOT named in either primary source; the Figma-1517 attribution derives entirely from Field’s 2012 Thiel Fellowship (Gibson/Strachman ran the program under Thiel Foundation before founding 1517 as a separate venture entity). ↩

  58. CalWave Power Technologies Fact Sheet, calwave.energy, accessed July 2026. https://calwave.energy/pressroom/fact-sheet/ — Company primary source listing venture-side investors as Breakout Labs (2017), Autodesk (2017), Sustainable Ocean Alliance (2017), High Tide Foundation (2019). U.S. Department of Energy grants total: USD 7.5M in 2022 plus earlier smaller awards. 1517 Fund is NOT named on CalWave’s own fact sheet. ↩

  59. Offshore Energy, “CalWave gets Breakout Labs funding,” January 4, 2018, accessed July 2026. https://www.offshore-energy.biz/calwave-gets-breakout-labs-funding/ — Primary contemporaneous press confirming Breakout Labs (a fund within the Thiel Foundation) provided an undisclosed research grant to CalWave on 2018-01-04. No other institutional investors named. 1517 Fund NOT named — aggregator-only attribution pattern matches Wildfire/MakerBot/FOSSA/Fountain/Deepgram cases previously flagged. ↩

  60. Cents company press release, “Cents Announces $4.25M Fundraising Round,” accessed July 2026. https://www.trycents.com/news/cents-announces-4.25m-fundraising-round — Company primary source confirming Bessemer Venture Partners led the $4.25M round with Newfund Capital, Riverpark Ventures, 1517 Fund, and Jason Finger (Seamless founder / Upper90 Chairman) as participants. ↩

  61. Crunchbase, “Seed Round — Cents — 2020-11-01,” accessed July 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/cents-ba2f-seed–fe92f668 — Records the Cents seed round date as 2020-11-01 (likely the Form D filing date), distinct from the 2021-02-15 public announcement in Cents’ own press release. ↩

  62. Commercial Observer, “Cents, a Proptech Firm Aimed at the Garment Industry, Sews Up $40M,” August 8, 2024, accessed July 2026. https://commercialobserver.com/2024/08/cents-proptech-laundry/ — Series B primary press confirming $40M Camber Creek-led round on 2024-08-08 with Bessemer, Tiger Global, Tech Pioneer Fund, RADV, Derive Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Toast, Jobber, Squarespace, and Stripe participating; total funding described as $77M since founding in 2021. ↩

  63. Hypepotamus, “Atlanta-based Presso raises $1.6M as Hollywood takes notes of its dry cleaning robot,” December 16, 2020, accessed July 2026. https://hypepotamus.com/news/presso-pre-seed/ — Independent primary contemporaneous press confirming $1.6M pre-seed on 2020-12-16 with Pathbreaker, AME Cloud Ventures, SOSV, 1517 Fund, and YETI Capital participating. Includes Danielle Strachman (1517 Partner) quote: “Having worked first with the Presso team as a grantee and now as portfolio founders, we are thrilled with the progress.” ↩

  64. Presso company blog / press repost, “Dry-cleaning robotics startup Presso raises $1.6M as it shifts focus to Hollywood,” December 16, 2020, accessed July 2026. https://getpresso.com/dry-cleaning-robotics-startup-presso-raises-1-6m-as-it-shifts-focus-to-hollywood/ — Company primary source confirming the same $1.6M pre-seed close on 2020-12-16 with Pathbreaker, AME Cloud Ventures, SOSV, 1517 Fund, and YETI Capital. ↩

  65. SynBioBeta, “Trilobio Raises $8m to Deliver Whole Lab Automation for Biologists,” May 5, 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.synbiobeta.com/read/trilobio-raises-8m-to-deliver-whole-lab-automation-for-biologists — Trade press coverage of Initialized Capital-led $8M seed round on 2025-05-05; states total funding “over $11 million” including 1517 Fund alongside Julian Capital, Juniper, Future Labs Capital, Alumni Ventures, Angel Squad, Sequel, Nucleus Capital, Gaingels, “and others” — confirming 1517’s participation in Trilobio’s earlier fundraising even though 1517 is not named in $3M pre-seed primary press (Argon Ventures + Lowercarbon Capital-led). ↩↩

  66. PR Newswire, “Sequoia Capital Partners with Mach Industries to Revolutionize Defense Technology for the United States,” June 16, 2023, accessed July 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sequoia-capital-partners-with-mach-industries-to-revolutionize-defense-technology-for-the-united-states-301852798.html — Primary company press release confirming $5.7M seed led by Sequoia Capital (Stephanie Zhan and Shaun Maguire) with Marque VC and Champion Hill Ventures participating. This was Sequoia’s first-ever defense-tech investment. 1517 Fund is not named in this PR release but appears in the subsequent October 2023 Series A retrospective (see 45). ↩↩↩

  67. Sequoia Capital, “Partnering with Mach Industries: A New Generation of Defense Technology,” June 15, 2023, accessed July 2026. https://sequoiacap.com/article/partnering-with-mach-a-new-generation-of-defense-technology/ — Sequoia’s own first-party partnership announcement, posted one day before the PR Newswire release. Confirms Sequoia leads Mach’s seed round; funding amount not disclosed in this post. Cross-references with PR Newswire 66 and TechCrunch retrospective 45 confirm $5.7M total with 1517 Fund + Marque VC + Champion Hill Ventures participating. ↩↩

  68. Stark Therapeutics company website, accessed July 2026. https://starktx.com/ — Company primary source; site header and navigation only, no funding history or investor list disclosed. Combined with Wefunder crowdfunding presence (KingsCrowd summary) and 1517 Fund’s own jobs board listing Stark Therapeutics as a portfolio company, this confirms 1517’s participation qualitatively but no dated primary press for a 1517-branded seed round exists. ↩↩

  69. Christine Hall, “Pareto makes it easy to collect lead-generation data,” TechCrunch, March 14, 2022, accessed July 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/14/pareto-seed-lead-generation-data/ — Primary contemporaneous press for Pareto’s $4.5M seed (closed November 2021, publicly announced 2022-03-14). Investors named: MaC Venture Capital, Seabed VC, Soma Capital, Fearless Fund, Liquid2 Ventures, Slope Agency, and Jonathan Swanson (Thumbtack founder). 1517 Fund is NOT named in this primary press; the 1517-Pareto attribution comes only from aggregator sources (Crunchbase 44, Tracxn 4). ↩↩

  70. Axios Pro Climate Deals, “Rainmaker closed a $25M Series A to boost rain with drones,” May 5, 2025, accessed July 2026. https://www.axios.com/pro/climate-deals/2025/05/05/rainmaker-25m-cloud-seeding-drones — Independent VC-trade press confirmation of Rainmaker’s USD 25M Series A on 2025-05-05, led by Lowercarbon Capital with Starship Ventures, 1517 Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Day One Ventures, and Tamarack Global participating. ↩

  71. FinSMEs, “Marathon Fusion Closes $5.9M Seed Funding,” July 18, 2024, accessed July 2026. https://www.finsmes.com/2024/07/marathon-fusion-closes-5-9m-seed-funding.html — Independent trade press confirming Marathon Fusion’s USD 5.9M seed on 2024-07-18 co-led by 1517 Fund and Anglo American with Übermorgen Ventures, Shared Future Fund, and Malcolm Handley participating. Total funding reaches USD 6.9M with DOE ARPA-E CREATE award. ↩

  72. VCNewsDaily, “Marathon Fusion Closes $5.9M Seed Round,” accessed July 2026. https://vcnewsdaily.com/marathon-fusion/venture-capital-funding/cgsswnhkvf — Third independent press confirmation of the USD 5.9M seed on 2024-07-18 with 1517 Fund + Anglo American as lead co-investors, and Übermorgen Ventures + Shared Future Fund + Malcolm Handley as additional participants. ↩

  73. Yahoo Finance / AccessNewswire, “Solideon Oversubscribes Pre-Seed Goals, Advances Vision for Future Manufacturing Technology,” July 17, 2024, accessed July 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/solideon-oversubscribes-pre-seed-goals-020000011.html — Primary company press release confirming Solideon’s pre-seed round on 2024-07-17 (Wednesday), oversubscribed beyond USD 5M initial target. Participants: 8090 Industries, 1517 Fund, Stellar Ventures, Boost VC, 10X Founders, Pathbreaker Ventures, AIN Ventures, Tiny VC, MD One Ventures, Reinforced Ventures, Techstars Space, Capital Factory, Vibe Capital, Gaingels, plus other strategic investors (unnamed). No single lead designated. Corrects earlier profile characterization as “Seed | 2024-10-28” — the October 28, 2024 TechCrunch article was a company profile referencing “USD 6.5M raised to date,” not a funding round announcement. ↩

  74. AccessNewswire (identical release, canonical URL), “Solideon Oversubscribes Pre-Seed Goals, Advances Vision for Future Manufacturing Technology,” July 17, 2024, accessed July 2026. https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/industrial-and-manufacturing/solideon-oversubscribes-pre-seed-goals-advances-vision-for-future-manuf-8899 — AccessNewswire primary distribution of the same July 17, 2024 press release, independently confirms the pre-seed round type, date, and full participant list. ↩

  75. 3D Adept Media, “Robotic metal 3D printer manufacturer Solideon just surpassed its initial $5,000,000 goal,” July 2024, accessed July 2026. https://3dadept.com/robotic-metal-3d-printer-manufacturer-solideon-just-surpassed-its-initial-5000000-goal/ — Independent additive-manufacturing trade press confirming Solideon’s pre-seed round exceeded USD 5M goal with the same participant list (8090 Industries, 1517 Fund, Stellar Ventures, Boost VC, 10X Founders, Pathbreaker Ventures, AIN Ventures, Tiny VC, MD One Ventures, Reinforced Ventures, Techstars Space, Capital Factory, Vibe Capital, Gaingels). ↩

  76. BetaKit, “Ceragen closes $2.7 million CAD to boost greenhouse food production with ‘probiotics for plants,’” July 16, 2024, accessed July 2026. https://betakit.com/ceragen-closes-2-7-million-cad-to-boost-greenhouse-food-production-with-probiotics-for-plants/ — Primary Canadian tech trade press confirming Ceragen’s USD 2.7M CAD (USD 2M USD) seed on 2024-07-16, co-led by 1517 Fund (Colorado-based, existing investor) and Divergent Capital (New York, equity), with Ajira Ventures (Germany, SAFE) as additional participant. Financing structure: half via SAFE agreements from 1517 and Ajira, half equity from Divergent. Total funding to date: USD 4.8M CAD / USD 3.5M USD including prior Velocity Fund + Ontario Centre of Innovation. ↩

  77. iGrow News, “Ceragen Raises $2M in Seed Funding to Expand Operations,” July 17, 2024, accessed July 2026. https://igrownews.com/ceragen-raises-2m-in-seed-funding-to-expand-operations/ — Independent agriculture trade press confirming Ceragen’s seed round co-led by Divergent Capital and 1517 Fund with Ajira Ventures participating. USD 2M USD figure aligns with USD 2.7M CAD BetaKit primary. ↩

  78. Sacra, “Rainmaker — funding, news & analysis,” accessed July 2026. https://sacra.com/c/rainmaker/ — Independent analyst report summarizing Rainmaker funding history. Confirms May 2024 USD 6.3M seed with Starship Ventures, 1517 Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, and angel investors, and separately the May 2025 USD 25M Series A led by Lowercarbon Capital with Starship, 1517, Long Journey, Garry Tan, Naval Ravikant, Day One Ventures, and Tamarack Global participating. ↩

  79. HubSpot Marketing Blog, “Meet the Founder Who Raised $6.3M to Literally Make It Rain,” accessed July 2026. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/meet-the-founder-who-raised-6.3m-to-literally-make-it-rain — Founder interview with Rainmaker CEO Augustus Doricko. Confirms the USD 6.3M seed round and cites Garry Tan among investors. Independent long-form journalism. ↩

  80. PR Newswire, “FOSSA Raises $2.2 Million to Help Companies Manage Open Source Licenses; Releases Product,” February 23, 2017, accessed July 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fossa-raises-22-million-to-help-companies-manage-open-source-licenses-releases-product-300412662.html — Primary company press release confirming FOSSA’s USD 2.2M seed on 2017-02-23 led by Bain Capital Ventures. Named angel participants: Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Steve Chen (YouTube), Jaan Tallinn (Skype), Amr Awadallah (Cloudera), Justin Mateen (Tinder). No venture funds beyond Bain Capital Ventures are identified by name. 1517 Fund is NOT listed — aggregator-only attribution pattern matches Wildfire/MakerBot/Fountain/Deepgram cases. ↩

  81. XSeed Capital news repost, “FOSSA Scores $2.2M To Help Developers Manage Open Source Licenses,” February 23, 2017, accessed July 2026. https://xseedcap.com/news-article/fossa-scores-2-2m-to-help-developers-manage-open-source-licenses/ — Independent secondary press republication of TechCrunch’s coverage, confirming the same USD 2.2M seed on 2017-02-23 with Bain Capital Ventures lead and the five named angel investors. 1517 Fund is NOT named. ↩

  82. VatorNews, “Funding roundup – week ending 5/22/15,” May 22, 2015, accessed July 2026. https://vator.tv/2015-05-22-funding-roundup-week-ending-5-22-15/ — Contemporaneous weekly funding roundup referencing OnboardIQ’s USD 1.65M seed announcement on 2015-05-18. Named participants: SoftTechVC, Slow Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Bastian Lehmann (Postmates CEO), Ilya Fushman, and all four founders at Caviar. 1517 Fund is NOT named in this primary contemporaneous roundup. OnboardIQ later rebranded to Fountain. ↩

  83. Refresh Miami, “Doing laundry stinks, but this Miami startup makes it easy and eco-friendly with its reimagined washer-dryer,” April 13, 2023, accessed July 2026. https://refreshmiami.com/news/doing-laundry-stinks-but-this-miami-startup-makes-it-easy-and-eco-friendly-with-its-reimagined-washer-dryer/ — Miami startup press profile of eEva (Paradigm Evergreen), the compact 2-in-1 washer-dryer hardware startup. Founder Nico Ramirez dropped out of college in 2021 to build Paradigm Evergreen full-time. Company raised ~USD 500K including USD 100K from Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Climate fellowship. 1517 Fund is NOT independently named in this or any other primary contemporaneous press. 1517’s own portfolio page (1) is the sole source of the eEva attribution — aggregator/self-attributed pattern; prior “~2019” year on the row was factually impossible since the company did not exist until 2021. ↩

  84. Alumni Ventures blog, “Office Otter: Increasing Workplace Productivity and Unlocking Upward Mobility,” August 15, 2021, accessed July 2026. https://www.av.vc/blog/office-otter-increasing-workplace-productivity-and-unlocking-upward-mobility — Alumni Ventures portfolio-side confirmation of Office Otter’s USD 1.6M seed round, naming Bonfire Ventures, the 1517 Fund, Titan Fund, Invariantes Fund, Beresford Ventures, and Root and Shoot Ventures as backers alongside Alumni Ventures’ Seed Fund. Company co-founded 2020 by Shayanne Wright and Jordan Boudreau in Santa Monica. ↩↩

  85. Tracxn, “Office Otter — 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed July 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/office-otter/__FM6_jJxVgE3eHFpfuDT70S5utM-g-AyHvzaZhSlzRBQ/funding-and-investors — Aggregator listing giving specific seed round date (2021-07-20) and amount (USD 1.6M) with lead investors: Bonfire Ventures, 1517 Fund, Invariantes Fund, Beresford Ventures, Root and Shoot Ventures, Alumni Ventures. 8 total institutional investors reported. Corroborated by Alumni Ventures blog 84. ↩

  86. Positron AI company press page, accessed August 2026. https://www.positron.ai/press — Company primary press index confirming the February 11, 2025 seed announcement with the headline “AI chip startup Positron raises $23.5 million seed round to take on Nvidia.” Also references the July 2025 $51.6M Series A led by Valor Equity Partners and the February 2026 $230M Series B at $1B+ valuation. ↩

  87. StartUp Health, “Miist Therapeutics Raises $7M in Seed Funding | StartUp Health Insights: Week of Feb 11, 2025,” accessed August 2026. https://www.startuphealth.com/startup-health-blog/miist-therapeutics-raises-7m-in-seed-funding-startup-health-insights-week-of-feb-11-2025 — Independent healthcare-focused trade press confirming Miist’s USD 7M seed round on February 5, 2025 with the same investor list: Refactor Capital, 1517 Fund, Freeflow Ventures, Entrepreneur First, California Innovation Fund. ↩

  88. dot.LA, “This LA Startup Wants to Make It Rain and Just Raised $25M to Do It,” May 9, 2025, accessed August 2026. https://dot.la/losangeles-startup-rainmaker-secures-25million-2671924648.html — Contemporaneous LA tech press confirming Rainmaker’s USD 25M Series A led by Lowercarbon Capital, with Starship Ventures, 1517 Fund, Long Journey Ventures, and Naval Ravikant among participants. Independent third-party confirmation of the Lowercarbon primary announcement. ↩

  89. JobPixel blog, “Announcing 1517 Fund’s Investment in JobPixel,” February 9, 2021, accessed August 2026. https://blog.jobpixel.com/news-announcing-1517-funds-investment-in-jobpixel — Company primary source announcing 1517 Fund as backer of JobPixel’s pre-seed round. Amount undisclosed. Founders Omar Khateeb (CEO) and Anthony Duerr (CTO). ↩

  90. 1517 Fund blog, “JobPixel,” February 8, 2021, accessed August 2026. https://www.1517fund.com/post/jobpixel — Investor primary source confirming 1517 Fund’s pre-seed investment in JobPixel; describes CEO Omar as “an excellent salesman” and CTO Anthony as “an experienced founder with exits.” Company founded May 2020. ↩

  91. Crunchbase, “Pre Seed Round — JobPixel — 2021-02-08,” accessed August 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/jobpixel-pre-seed–f935243 — Aggregator round record confirming 2021-02-08 pre-seed with 1517 Fund. Corroborated by Tracxn (which also lists a separate 2022-02-07 seed round from Nama Ventures — a distinct later round, NOT part of the 1517-led pre-seed). ↩

  92. Kingscrowd, “HelloWoofy.com on Wefunder,” accessed August 2026. https://kingscrowd.com/hellowoofy-com-on-wefunder/ — Reg CF crowdfunding analysis platform naming Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson of 1517 as team/investor connections. Not a primary press release. Company valuation cap $9.5M. ↩↩

  93. KissPR / Arjun Rai press release, “REPOST: Arjun Rai — HelloWoofy — Press Release,” July 11, 2022, accessed August 2026. https://news.kisspr.com/2022/07/11/repost-arjun-rai-hellowoofy-press-release_315448.html — Founder-issued press release stating Arjun Rai “has raised from professional investors and personally invested nearly $500,000 in pre-seed VC funding” and secured “over $135,000 in strategic resources” from Microsoft and Google partnerships. Does NOT name 1517 Fund or any specific investors — confirms only aggregate pre-seed total. ↩↩

  94. Kingscrowd, “Stark Therapeutics on Wefunder,” April 5, 2021, accessed August 2026. https://kingscrowd.com/stark-therapeutics-on-wefunder/ — Reg CF crowdfunding analysis dated April 2021 with USD 8M valuation cap. Names 1517 Fund as prior investor. Not a primary press release — no dated round announcement exists. ↩↩

  95. 1517 Fund jobs board, “Stark Therapeutics,” accessed August 2026. https://jobs.1517fund.com/jobs/stark-therapeutics — 1517-hosted portfolio company jobs listing confirming Stark Therapeutics as an active portfolio company. Investor primary source (though not a funding announcement). ↩↩

  96. amch.ltd, “Pre-IPO Lambda Labs” venture asset page, accessed August 2026. https://amch.ltd/venture/asset/lambda — Secondary-market data aggregator listing Lambda’s full round history: three undisclosed-investor “Series Seed” tranches on 2017-12-20 (USD 150K, USD 370K, USD 195K), a USD 3.96M “Series Seed” on 2019-04-28 naming 1517 Fund + Bloomberg Beta + Gradient Ventures, and Series A (2021-07-14) with Bloomberg Beta + Gradient Ventures + Razer + Georges Harik. 1517 Fund is only attributed to the 2019-04-28 tranche in this dataset. ↩

  97. Clay.com dossier, “How Much Did Lambda Raise? Funding & Key Investors,” accessed August 2026. https://www.clay.com/dossier/lambda-funding — Independent aggregator confirming Lambda’s April 2019 seed round at USD 3,960,000 with post-money valuation USD 23,230,000 and lead investors Gradient Ventures, 1517 Fund, and Bloomberg Beta. Corroborates amch.ltd date/amount but resolves to month-only precision. ↩

  98. Tracxn, “Deepgram — 2026 Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed August 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/deepgram/__ThWYvD43I1HgSdguaRgcoZ1dLjXMEMfCv1tzktOKL2k/funding-and-investors — Aggregator dataset listing Deepgram’s 2016-09-27 USD 1.8M “Series A” round with Y Combinator + Compound as leads and Zillionize + Pegasus Tech Ventures + 1517 Fund + Ludlow Ventures as additional participants. 1517 Fund is NOT named in TechCrunch’s contemporaneous coverage 53 — attribution here is aggregator-only. ↩