Lachy Groom

Background

Lachy Groom is an Australian-born entrepreneur, solo GP investor, and co-founder of Physical Intelligence ¹². Born in Perth, Australia, Groom began learning HTML and CSS at age 10 from his grandfather and built and sold three profitable internet businesses before turning 18, including PAGGStack.com (a nutritional supplements e-commerce site launched at age 13) and PSDtoWP (a PSD-to-WordPress conversion service) ¹³.

Rather than attending university, Groom moved to San Francisco at 17 to join the startup ecosystem ¹. In 2012, he joined Stripe as employee #30, where he spent roughly six years in roles spanning growth, global business development, and operations ¹⁴. He led Stripe’s expansion into Singapore, Hong Kong, and New Zealand, and eventually headed Stripe Issuing, the company’s card issuance product, managing payment operations and partnerships with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express ¹⁴⁵.

In 2018, Groom left Stripe to become a full-time investor, adopting a “solo capitalist” model ¹. He launched LGF (Lachy Groom Fund), initially based in West Hollywood, California ⁶. His first fund, LGF I, raised approximately $48.8 million according to a February 2020 SEC filing ⁶. He was reported to be raising approximately $100 million for a second fund by the Wall Street Journal in 2020 ⁷. By June 2024, he had raised a third fund of $250 million according to securities filings, bringing total assets under management to approximately $400 million across multiple vehicles ⁸⁹.

In March 2024, Groom co-founded Physical Intelligence, a robotics AI company building foundation models for robotic control, alongside Karol Hausman, Chelsea Finn, Adnan Esmail, Brian Ichter, Sergey Levine, and Quan Vuong ²¹⁰. Physical Intelligence has raised over $1 billion in funding at a $5.6 billion valuation from investors including Thrive Capital, Lux Capital, CapitalG, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Jeff Bezos ¹¹⁰. Groom serves as co-founder and CEO ².

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Groom says publicly about his approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Groom’s publicly stated investment philosophy centers on bottom-up adoption and solving real workflow problems. He has described his approach as backing tools that users and developers love organically, rather than software they are forced to use ³⁷.

On the Nooks Series A, Groom stated: “They have this unique combination of insane customer love & engagement, a world-class team shipping product at breakneck pace, and market timing — there’s a huge opportunity to build the next-gen sales stack” ¹¹.

On leading the Speak Series B-2, Groom said: “Education will continue to be a sector most profoundly transformed by AI. The most effective approach to learning is through one-on-one human tutoring” — emphasizing Speak’s AI tutor as addressing the scarcity of human language educators globally ¹².

On leading the Alt Carbon seed round, Groom stated: “Alt Carbon is tackling a once-in-a-generation challenge… This is a category-defining deep-tech company that will reshape how the world thinks about climate action” ¹³.

He has also been characterized as investing based on product-market pull — looking for organic adoption signals rather than paid acquisition metrics — and focusing on markets where he has genuine expertise from his Stripe operating experience ³.

Inferred Thesis

Based on analysis of 35 verified investments (across ~30 unique companies, some with follow-on rounds) in the portfolio table below:

Stage distribution: Groom invests across a wide range, but tilts toward early-to-growth stages. Of 35 verified investment rounds: 10 seed/pre-seed (29%), 9 Series A (26%), 5 Series B (14%), 5 Series C (14%), 3 Series D+ or late-stage (9%), 3 unknown stage (9%). Despite his stated focus on early-stage, a significant portion of his capital is deployed at Series A and beyond, consistent with his fund growing from ~$49M to $250M. He frequently leads rounds at seed through Series B.

Sector breakdown (35 unique companies): The portfolio skews heavily toward B2B SaaS and workflow tools: 8 of 35 HR/workplace/productivity tools (23%) including Ashby, Humaans, Lattice, Ethena, Nooks, Deel, Rise, Vise; 6 of 35 fintech/payments (17%) including Ramp, Pipe, Metronome, Convictional, Imprint, Meter; 5 of 35 AI/ML infrastructure (14%) including Roboflow, Replicate, turbopuffer, Speak, Baseten; 5 of 35 healthcare/biotech (14%) including Luminate Medical, Vital Biosciences, SWORD Health, Even Healthcare, Modern Health; 3 of 35 developer tools/productivity (9%) including Deepnote, Superhuman, Notion; 3 of 35 climate/deep tech/defense (9%) including Alt Carbon, Hadrian, Anduril; 5 of 35 other (14%) including Zepto, Figma, Meadow Memorials, Airbound, OpenAI. (Some companies span categories.)

Geographic focus: Predominantly US-based companies, especially San Francisco Bay Area. Notable international investments include Humaans (UK), Luminate Medical (Ireland), Alt Carbon (India), Zepto (India), Even Healthcare (India), Airbound (India), and turbopuffer (Denmark/US). India is emerging as a secondary market, with at least 4 investments there.

Check size and role: Groom frequently leads rounds as sole or co-lead investor. He writes checks ranging from co-leading $2.1M seed rounds (Roboflow) to participating in $200M later-stage rounds (Zepto Series D). His sweet spot appears to be leading $15M-$30M Series A/B rounds. Signal by NFX reports his investment range as $100K-$10M with a $1M sweet spot ⁷.

Founder profile patterns: Strong preference for technical founders with deep domain expertise. Many portfolio companies are founded by engineers or operators with experience at major tech companies (Stripe, Shopify, Capital One, Google).

Co-investor patterns: Frequently co-invests with Y Combinator, Neo, 8VC, Craft Ventures, Elad Gil, and Sequoia Capital. Multiple investments alongside Thrive Capital. The Stripe alumni network is a significant deal flow channel.

Notable divergences from stated thesis: While Groom’s stated thesis emphasizes bottom-up B2B adoption and staying in his lane, his actual portfolio includes healthcare (Luminate Medical, SWORD Health, Vital Biosciences), climate tech (Alt Carbon), and Indian quick-commerce (Zepto) — sectors well outside his core B2B SaaS and fintech focus. His investment in later-stage rounds (Series C-F) at companies like Zepto, Ramp, Anduril, and Deel also diverges from the early-stage angel investor characterization, suggesting his larger funds have expanded his stage range significantly.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 35 unique companies of Groom’s 200+ claimed investments (roughly 17%). Different sources report varying portfolio sizes: PitchBook cites 204 investments across 122 companies; other aggregators report 146-209 investments ¹¹⁵. The discrepancy likely reflects differences in counting methodology across personal angel investments, LGF fund investments, and SPV co-investments.

In Their Own Words

On investing in Nooks: “With their 4x year-over-year growth, Nooks is one of the fastest growing companies in my portfolio. They have this unique combination of insane customer love & engagement, a world-class team shipping product at breakneck pace, and market timing — there’s a huge opportunity to build the next-gen sales stack.” — Lachy Groom, Nooks Series A announcement, April 2024 ¹¹.

On investing in Speak: “Education will continue to be a sector most profoundly transformed by AI. The most effective approach to learning is through one-on-one human tutoring.” — Lachy Groom, Speak Series B-2 announcement, August 2023 ¹².

On investing in Alt Carbon: “Alt Carbon is tackling a once-in-a-generation challenge… This is a category-defining deep-tech company that will reshape how the world thinks about climate action.” — Lachy Groom, Alt Carbon seed round announcement, May 2025 ¹³.

On Ashby’s Series C: “Despite a tricky market, Ashby has 6x’d the business since the Series B and has garnered a lot of love from customers in a space that historically had really low NPS.” — Lachy Groom, Ashby Series C press release, June 2024 ²⁴.

On Physical Intelligence’s commercialization approach: “I don’t give investors answers on commercialization.” — Lachy Groom, TechCrunch, January 2026 ².

On Physical Intelligence: Groom has said he is “working with people who’ve been working on this problem for decades and who believe the timing is finally right, which is all he needs to know.” — as reported by TechCrunch, January 2026 ².

What Founders Say

Anonymous founders reviewed Groom on VC Guide (as analyzed by The Business of Business in September 2020), where he received an average rating of 9.8 out of 10 across 5 reviews, ranking 8th overall among rated VCs ²⁷:

“Best investor I’ve ever worked with. Kind, fiercely intelligent, and changes the trajectory of your business and life.” — Anonymous founder, VC Guide review (pre-September 2020) ²⁷.

“Have worked with investors with much bigger names there were not even a tenth of as helpful as Lachy.” — Anonymous founder, VC Guide review (pre-September 2020) ²⁷.

“Every interaction with Lachy has been nothing less than stellar. I’ve also never heard anything bad about him — which surprises me, that’s not supposed to happen.” — Anonymous founder, VC Guide review (pre-September 2020) ²⁷.

Benjamin Encz, CEO of Ashby, stated that the company chose Groom to lead their $30M Series C because of his track record: “We decided to go with Lachy Groom, who also led our seed round and has a deep understanding of how we operate.” — Benjamin Encz, Ashby Series C announcement, June 2024 ²⁴.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, posted on X: “lachy is one of four people i ask for career advice; this is a good offer.” — Sam Altman, X post, May 2019 ²⁸.

Sources