ACME Capital

About

ACME Capital is an early-stage venture firm headquartered in San Francisco that invests in frontier technologies before they reach the mainstream ¹. The firm was founded in 2018 by Hany Nada and Scott Stanford, emerging from the rebranding of Sherpa Capital, which Stanford had co-founded with Shervin Pishevar in 2013 ². Following Pishevar’s departure in late 2017, Stanford partnered with Nada, who had previously co-founded GGV Capital in 2000 ².

ACME closed over $300 million for its Fund IV and adjacent Opportunity Fund in February 2022, comprising a $240 million early-stage fund and a $60 million later-stage vehicle ³. This brought the firm’s aggregate capital commitments to $1.5 billion ³. The firm’s previous fund had closed at $181 million ³. ACME invests with a 10-year horizon, with an average time to liquidity of about seven years ⁴. The firm typically writes checks of $5–10 million and leads approximately 80% of its investments ⁴.

The founding team brings substantial prior experience: Nada spent over two decades in venture capital at GGV Capital and a decade on Wall Street at Piper Jaffray as a Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst ⁵. Stanford spent 12 years co-heading Goldman Sachs’s Global Internet Investment Banking, advising on over $80 billion in financings and transactions for companies including Facebook, Google, Airbnb, and Palantir ⁶. He also co-founded Silicon Foundry, a corporate innovation advisory firm ⁶.

Over 60% of the firm’s investments in recent years have been into companies with at least one non-male and/or non-white founder, and 68% of ACME’s employees are non-male, non-white, and/or members of the LGBTQ community ¹.

Stated Thesis

ACME publicly describes itself as investing in “frontier technologies before they’re mainstream,” backing “deep-tech founders combining technical ambition with decisive execution” ¹. The firm states its focus areas include aerospace and defense, physical AI, future of work, digital health, advanced materials, and next-generation manufacturing ¹.

Co-founder Hany Nada has described the firm’s approach as being “as off-Broadway as possible,” deliberately avoiding sectors that are currently hot in venture capital to identify what will be hot next ⁴. Nada emphasizes that customer validation and proof-of-concepts provide sufficient credibility for early-stage investment, and that deep tech companies should only commercialize products that are ready for self-deployment ⁴.

Scott Stanford has stated that the firm’s sweet spot is “that late seed, Series A” stage, and that “disruptive business models” and “disruptive technology” are at the core of ACME’s interests ⁷. Stanford has also said the firm requires only two partners to approve an investment: “We need two partners to make a decision. So if two partners are advocating for an investment, the investment will get done” ⁷.

The firm says it practices what it calls “Impact Value-Add” (IVA), distinguishing its founder support from table-stakes services that venture firms typically deliver ¹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 31 verified portfolio companies from the highlighted portfolio and public sources, ACME’s actual investment behavior shows the following patterns:

Sector Distribution (31 verified investments): - Enterprise Intelligence / Software: 9 of 31 (29%) — Braintrust, BoomPop, Decagon, Forma AI, Laurel, Partiful, Regology, SoLo Funds, Replika - Frontier Health / Digital Health: 7 of 31 (23%) — Tia, Brightside, Canopy, Conceivable, Camber, IonLace, Again - Aerospace & Defense: 4 of 31 (13%) — Astra, Muon Space, True Anomaly, Harmattan AI - Next-Gen Compute (Quantum, Semiconductors): 4 of 31 (13%) — IonQ, Forte, Sphere Semi, Blumind - Consumer: 3 of 31 (10%) — Savage X Fenty, Curio, Avia Games - Industrial Systems: 2 of 31 (6%) — Reshape Bio, Treon, Invert - Other: 2 of 31 (6%) — NIL Technology, Uhnder

Notable patterns: - While ACME emphasizes “deep tech,” a significant portion of the portfolio (29%) is enterprise software / AI-enabled SaaS, which is not typically classified as deep tech. The firm’s actual investing is broader than its stated thesis suggests. - The digital health allocation (23%) is substantial and driven largely by Partner Aike Ho’s focus area. This is consistent with the stated thesis. - Aerospace & defense is a genuine focus area (13%), with investments in multiple space companies (Astra, Muon Space, True Anomaly) and defense AI (Harmattan AI). - The firm has achieved notable public exits: IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR via SPAC in 2021), Cue Health (NASDAQ: HLTH IPO in 2021), and Braintrust (BTRST token) ³. Earlier portfolio companies under the Sherpa Capital umbrella include Uber, Airbnb, Robinhood, Slack, DraftKings, and Opendoor ⁸.

Stage focus: The firm targets seed through Series B, with a stated sweet spot at late seed / Series A ⁷. Typical check size is $5–10M ⁴.

Geographic focus: Primarily US-based companies, with up to 25% allocated to European companies ⁴. Partner Christian Tang-Jespersen is based in Denmark and focuses on European investments ⁹.

Co-investor patterns: ACME has co-invested with firms including Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Eclipse, and Y Combinator across various portfolio companies ¹⁰¹¹.

Sample size caveat: This analysis is based on 31 verified investments from ACME’s highlighted portfolio, out of an estimated 127–207 total investments reported by aggregators ⁸¹². The actual portfolio is larger and may show different sector distributions.

Portfolio

Note: This table represents approximately 35 of an estimated 127–207 total investments. Many investments, particularly those made under the Sherpa Capital name (Uber, Airbnb, Robinhood, Slack, Opendoor, Rent the Runway, Wag), are not included as they predate the ACME Capital branding. Years marked with ~ are approximations based on available data.

In Their Own Words

Hany Nada on their contrarian approach: “If there’s a sector that’s hot in VC we tend to shy away from it and look for whatever is going to be hot next. When we look at our investments in quantum computing and semiconductor chips, they were done way before other VCs got interested in those topics.” — Hello Tomorrow interview ⁴

Hany Nada on founder-market fit: “Alignment of passion + product + market of an entrepreneur = Gold.” — Hello Tomorrow interview ⁴

Hany Nada on early-stage conviction: “If you come to me and say ‘Listen, I have my prototype in a customer’s hands, the customer likes it, there are some things that we need to continue to work on, but I believe this initial indication from customers gives us credibility and confidence that this is the right go-to-market strategy and product’ — that’s enough for me as an early stage investor to invest in.” — Hello Tomorrow interview ⁴

Scott Stanford on risk calibration: “We are early stage investors and by definition, we are taking more risk than a growth investor. However, we’ve been through this, our 10th fund, if you look at it collectively between Hany and my experience, we found this kind of place, this calibration point where we’re not investing in science projects.” — LA Venture Podcast ⁷

Scott Stanford on decision speed: “We need two partners to make a decision. So if two partners are advocating for an investment, the investment will get done.” and “We could have a term sheet out in the night if we needed to.” — LA Venture Podcast ⁷

Scott Stanford on disruption: “Everything we look for kind of has disruption at the core. We thrive on disruptive business models.” — LA Venture Podcast ⁷

Aike Ho on digital health venture outlook: “It’s going to be a world of hurt for the next couple of years.” and “The reality is that healthcare, unlike many industries in this country, has its own laws of physics of how things work.” — Fortune Brainstorm Health, April 2023 ²⁰

What Founders Say

Carolyn Witte, Co-founder and CEO, Tia: “The ACME team, especially Aike, has been a friend of Tia, following our company closely and always there to offer helpful counsel.” She added: “I work closely with Aike and Scott Stanford on strategic partnerships. I have particularly benefited from Aike and Stanford’s willingness to roll up their sleeves and help us navigate complex business decisions.” — Crunchbase blog interview ¹⁸

Jonathan Dyer, CEO, Muon Space: Dyer has credited ACME with providing operational support beyond capital, including regulatory guidance and customer connections ¹.

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found beyond the firm’s own website testimonials.

Sources