Incite Ventures

About

Incite is a mission-driven venture capital firm based in San Francisco, co-founded in 2015 by Swati Mylavarapu and Matt Rogers ¹². The firm operates as a self-funded family office with no external limited partners, allowing it to deploy what Rogers has described as “much more patient capital” ³. Incite deploys roughly $4-5 million per year in venture investments and a similar amount in philanthropic grants ³.

Matt Rogers co-founded Nest Labs, where he built the team behind the first learning thermostat and the leading connected home brand, after starting his career at Apple as one of the first engineers on the original iPhone, with key roles in iPod and iPad development ¹⁴. He is also the founder and CEO of Mill, a food waste prevention company ⁴. Swati Mylavarapu was previously a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers focusing on consumer digital and hardware investments, and before that spent four years at Square leading international business operations and product marketing ¹⁵. She is a Rhodes Scholar with degrees from Harvard and Oxford ⁵. She also co-founded Arena, a nonprofit that trains political candidates and campaign staff ⁵.

Incite is organized into three branches: Incite Ventures (for-profit venture investments), Incite Labs (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit making grants and program-related investments), and an advocacy arm funding political initiatives ². Incite Ventures and the foundation are legally separate organizations from Swati and Matt’s personal activities ¹.

The firm reviews approximately 10-15 pitches per week and makes roughly 25-30 investments per year across both ventures and grants ³. Caroline Dillon serves as Partner, focusing on agtech, robotics, hardware, climate tech, deep tech, and biotech at the pre-seed and seed stages ⁶.

Stated Thesis

Incite publicly describes itself as “a not-so-typical venture capital firm that seeks folks shaping a radically better future” ². The firm states it supports “builders who build what matters, to make better — and to last” ².

The firm says it looks for four characteristics in investments: bold visions for change, diverse and passionate communities (“People”), founders willing to grapple with difficult ethical questions (“Values”), and ideas with potential to scale and become profitable (“Snowballs”) ¹.

Matt Rogers has stated: “We look for great people — from all backgrounds — with fresh ideas to create waves of catalytic change throughout an ecosystem. We’re not interested in incremental solutions” ⁴. He has also described the firm as “an impact generalist” with approximately “70% of things we do are climate related, based on my interest and my network” ³.

Swati Mylavarapu has described the firm’s approach as providing “catalytic capital” and has stated: “Climate is a grand challenge and a grand opportunity. It’s an area where we see so much creative potential, and it’s universal” ⁷.

Rogers has emphasized the firm’s contrarian positioning: “We look for mission oriented scientists and technologists and enable those folks to go build companies” and “the difference between existing and not existing is generally the way we see our money” ³.

The firm also states it has “a strict no assholes policy” ⁴.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 75 verified venture investments from Incite’s portfolio page ⁸, the firm’s actual investment behavior shows the following patterns:

Sector Distribution (75 verified venture investments): - Climate tech & clean energy: 29 of 75 (39%) — including Heirloom Carbon, Charm Industrial, Antora Energy, AMP Robotics, Quilt, Gradient, CarbonCapture, Carbon Engineering, Ebb Carbon, Windfall Bio, Orbital Materials, Tandem PV, SPAN, Solidia, Verse, HomeBoost, Absolute Climate, Dig Energy, Pearl Street Technologies, Onsemble, SparkMeter, Everrati, Rubi, CarbonWave, SVX, Rebound, RailVision, Clarasight, Commons - Food & agriculture: 9 of 75 (12%) — Mill, Crowd Cow, Zero Acre, Dispatch Goods, Blue Lake Packaging, Cove, Wildgood, Farm Raise, Robigo - Healthcare & biotech: 8 of 75 (11%) — Kindbody, Prenuvo, Curve Biosciences, Trial Library, Probably Genetic, Certis Oncology, Future Family, Helix Nanotechnologies - Consumer brands & lifestyle: 7 of 75 (9%) — Mejuri, KOTN, Kinfield, Better Place Forest, Co-Pilot, Rec, Spatial - Fintech & financial inclusion: 5 of 75 (7%) — Nav, Petal, Altro, Ellevest, Gusto - Agriculture & robotics: 4 of 75 (5%) — Monarch Tractors, Aigen, Saturday Robotics, Matician - Civic tech & social impact: 4 of 75 (5%) — ForceMetrics, Plural Policy, Justice Text, Violet - Education: 2 of 75 (3%) — Learnfully, Emerald Cloud Lab - Other (media, sustainability software): 7 of 75 (9%) — Courier, Roadio, Planet FWD, 73V, Galy, Liminal, Wright Electric

Stage Distribution: The firm invests primarily at the early stage. Matt Rogers has stated they are typically “the first funders or the second” ³. Signal by NFX lists the investment range as $100K-$5M with a sweet spot of $1.5M for Mylavarapu and Rogers ⁶. Caroline Dillon focuses on pre-seed and seed ⁶.

Key Patterns: - Climate tech dominates at 39% of the portfolio, consistent with Rogers’ stated “70% climate” figure when including adjacent categories like food waste, agriculture, and sustainability - Strong emphasis on hardware and deep tech companies solving physical-world problems (carbon removal, energy storage, electric vehicles, robotics), not just software - Meaningful healthcare allocation (11%) concentrated in reproductive health (Kindbody, Future Family, 73V) and diagnostics (Prenuvo, Probably Genetic) - Consumer brands cluster around ethical/sustainable consumption (Mejuri, KOTN, Kinfield) - Fintech investments focus on financial inclusion and credit access for underserved populations (Petal, Altro, Nav) - The portfolio is heavily US-based, centered on the San Francisco Bay Area

Notable gaps vs. stated thesis: The firm claims to back “people shaping a radically better future” across all domains, but the portfolio reveals a very specific concentration in climate and sustainability. There is minimal representation in sectors like enterprise software, cybersecurity, or pure consumer internet.

Portfolio

Note: Most investment years are approximated from founding dates or earliest known activity, as Incite does not publicly disclose specific investment dates for the majority of its portfolio. This table represents the venture investment portfolio only; Incite also makes philanthropic grants through Incite Labs to organizations including Carbon180, Arena, Grist, and ReFED ⁸.

In Their Own Words

“We look for early stage, either we’re the first funders or the second. Very early, where our money enables them to go accomplish their dreams.” — Matt Rogers, MCJ Podcast ³

“The difference between existing and not existing is generally the way we see our money.” — Matt Rogers, MCJ Podcast ³

“We’re an impact generalist… 70% of things we do are climate related, based on my interest and my network.” — Matt Rogers, MCJ Podcast ³

“We look for mission oriented scientists and technologists and enable those folks to go build companies.” — Matt Rogers, MCJ Podcast ³

“We have a spectrum of tools available to us… a vehicle that makes traditional seed investments in companies… we also make investments from our foundation.” — Matt Rogers, MCJ Podcast ³

“Because we have no accountability to LPs and are more interested in seeing the impact in the world, we provide a much more patient capital.” — Matt Rogers, MCJ Podcast ³

“We look for great people — from all backgrounds — with fresh ideas to create waves of catalytic change throughout an ecosystem. We’re not interested in incremental solutions.” — Matt Rogers, Activate blog ⁴

“The founder cannot simply draw up a culture document and call it a day; the founder must live out their values in every discussion and every decision.” — Matt Rogers, Activate blog ⁴

“Focus, focus, focus focus. And focus. It’s natural and healthy to dream big, but dreams don’t matter unless you can win one step at a time.” — Matt Rogers, Activate blog ⁴

“Climate is a grand challenge and a grand opportunity. It’s an area where we see so much creative potential, and it’s universal.” — Swati Mylavarapu, Climate Lead ⁷

“We believe in the power of innovation, and especially of young people, to build and create new things of importance.” — Swati Mylavarapu, Climate Lead ⁷

“Philanthropy is the ultimate creative capital.” — Swati Mylavarapu, Climate Lead ⁷

What Founders Say

“Heirloom wouldn’t even have existed if it wasn’t for the early support and guidance I got from the Incite team in understanding and navigating the fledgling carbon removal industry. They were thought partners, they made connections, provided moral support — the whole nine yards.” — Shashank Samala, Co-Founder & CEO of Heirloom Carbon, Incite.org ⁹

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found beyond Incite’s own website. The Samala quote above is sourced from Incite’s portfolio page, which may reflect curated content.

Sources