What Fifty Years does

Fifty Years (legal entity Fifty Years Industries, LLC) is a privately-held, pre-seed and seed-focused venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco, founded in 2016 by Ela Madej and Seth Bannon. The firm invests in deep-tech founders — PhD scientists and engineers building companies in climate, synthetic biology, health, space, and connectivity — and wraps its capital in a multi-program platform designed to develop founders before they form companies. Its flagship 5050 program is a 14-week, no-equity curriculum that has supported 445 scientists and engineers and produced 105 alumni-founded companies with a 96% raise-success rate; complementary offerings include the Spinout Playbook (a public guide to academic spinouts), Manifest Grants (a $25K–$100K unrestricted fast-grants program with sub-tracks Manifest Climate and Repro Grants), Impact.Tech seminars, two podcasts (Translation, Progress), and a 9,000+ subscriber Substack newsletter.

The firm's technology layer centers on proprietary founder-sourcing infrastructure: the 5050 AI Request for Startups system, the Spinout Playbook, and the Manifest Grants platform, each operationalizing a different stage of the deep-tech founder pipeline. Distribution is community-led and event-driven — 5050 cohorts (US and UK), seminars, dinners, demo nights, podcasts, and Substack content — supplemented by strategic co-hosted programs with partners such as ARIA (UK) and EQT Foundation (Manifest Climate).

Fifty Years' revenue model follows standard VC mechanics: management fees on assets under management from a distinctive LP base of 46 founders of $1B–$100B companies (the "League of Giants," whose portfolio companies include Twitch, Spotify, Dropbox, Cruise, Skype, Unity, Snowflake, GitHub, and Klarna), plus the option-style upside of carried interest from pre-seed/seed equity stakes in 86–130+ portfolio companies that have collectively raised over $4.6 billion in follow-on capital. The firm has a UK regional presence via a dedicated UK Lead team and an ARIA partnership, and is preparing a 5050 AI investment track launching cohorts in March 2026 and the UK in September 2026.

Name

Fifty Years

Legal name

Fifty Years Industries, LLC

Website

https://fiftyyears.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fifty Years is a San Francisco-based pre-seed and seed venture capital firm that backs deep-tech PhD founders in climate, synbio, health, space, and connectivity. It invests through a platform of programs — the 5050 founder program, Manifest/Repro Grants, and the Spinout Playbook — backed by an LP base of 46 billionaire founders.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Pre-Seed Deep-Tech Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (52394)

akta.pro primary industry

Sector-Focused Venture Capital (Vertical Specialists) (FSANAAAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Accelerators & Incubators (Investor-Operated) (FSANAAAM)

Keywords

• Pre-seed venture capital
• Deep tech investing
• Founder development programs
• Academic spinout support
• Translational research grants

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Investment Returns (Carried Interest): Primary upside driver for a VC firm: equity stakes in pre-seed/seed deep-tech companies with potential for outsized returns as companies scale and exit. Portfolio includes companies such as Solugen, Astranis, BilliontoOne, Athelas, and Substack.
2. Management Fees: Standard VC management fees on assets under management from limited partners (the firm's capital base is backed by 46 founders of $1B+ companies — the "League of Giants").

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Fifty Years is a pre-seed and seed-focused deep-tech venture capital firm that invests capital in founders using technology to solve the world's biggest problems (climate, health, food, space, connectivity). It surrounds its capital with a 5050 founder development program (14-week, no-equity curriculum), the Manifest Grants fast-grants program ($25K–$100K), the Spinout Playbook for academic spinouts, and content/community channels such as podcasts and the Substack newsletter.

Product overview

Fifty Years is a pre-seed and seed-focused deep-tech venture capital firm that operates as a platform of programs, content, and tools rather than a single unified software product. The core offering is the 5050 founder program (a 14-week, no-equity curriculum with US and UK cohorts) that surrounds its capital deployment; the AI-focused 5050 AI RFS track and the 5050 UK partnership with ARIA are specialized offshoots. Capital allocation is paired with the Manifest Grants fast-grants program (with bio x climate and reproductive-science sub-programs Manifest Climate and Repro Grants), the Spinout Playbook (an open guide for academic spinouts), the Impact.Tech seminar series, and ongoing content via the Translation Podcast, Progress Podcast, and the Fifty Years Substack newsletter. A jobs board (jobs.fiftyyears.com) aggregates open roles across the firm's portfolio companies. The firm explicitly positions itself as "a VC firm that builds" and has shipped founder/scientist tools under its "We Build" initiative, but its primary value to founders is the combination of pre-seed/seed capital with the 5050 program, grants, and educational content.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• 5050:

Products and services

• 5050 Founder Program A 14-week, no-equity program that helps scientists, researchers, and engineers become deep-tech founders. Combines weekly workshops, one-on-one mentorship from Fifty Years partners, and a 3-day cohort camp. Free of charge with no equity, fees, or unusual clauses. Has supported 445 scientists/engineers, helped launch 78 companies, and alumni have achieved a 96% raise success rate.
• 5050 AI RFS (AI Track) AI-focused track of the 5050 program that publishes Requests for Startups in five areas: Mission Control for Agents (multi-agent oversight), Hugging Face for Mech-Interp (mechanistic interpretability tooling), Fort Knox for Models (model-weight security), Space Airlock for Models (structured model access for evaluations), and Psychic Shield for Models (mental-health evals). Cohort begins March 2026.
• Spinout Playbook Free, living playbook that walks academic researchers through spinning companies out of universities. Covers founding-team formation, patents, tech-transfer office (TTO) negotiations, incorporation, licensing terms (royalties, equity, milestones, anti-dilution), and post-signing renegotiation tactics. Distilled from Fifty Years' experience backing dozens of university spinouts.
• Manifest Grants Fast-grants program awarding $25K–$100K to academic scientists for translational research, with a 2-page application, 21-day decision turnaround, and no IP claim. Operates as a non-profit under the Open Collective Foundation's fiscal sponsorship. Includes Manifest Climate (bio x climate) and Repro Grants (female reproductive science) sub-programs.
• Manifest Climate Sub-program of Manifest Grants focused on bio x climate solutions, awarding $25K–$100K to academic scientists for translational research that uses biology to mitigate the climate crisis. Backed by 50Y, EQT Foundation, Automattic, and Wave Foundation.
• Repro Grants Sub-program of Manifest Grants awarding $25K–$100K to researchers studying female reproductive biology and health. Established as a non-profit under the Open Collective Foundation; inaugural cohort received 465 proposals and funded 12 high-risk, high-reward projects across endometriosis, ovarian aging, infertility, and contraception.
• Impact.Tech Seminars Invite-only, 3-hour deep-dive seminars designed to inspire and educate people to start, work for, and fund companies solving the world's biggest problems. Each seminar pairs an expert presentation with Q&A and networking.

Quantifiable outcome

• Portfolio founders have collectively raised over $4.6 billion in follow-on capital
• +4 more outcomes

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• ARIA (UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic co-development partnership: Fifty Years and ARIA co-run the 5050 program in the United Kingdom, extending the 5050 founder-development model to UK-based PhD scientists and engineers.
• EQT FoundationcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerEQT Foundation is a co-supporter of the Manifest Climate grants program alongside Fifty Years, Automattic, and Wave Foundation. The partnership expands the pool of grant capital for climate-tech founders.
• AutomatticcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerAutomattic (parent company of WordPress.com, Tumblr, etc.) is a co-supporter of the Manifest Climate grants program alongside Fifty Years, EQT Foundation, and Wave Foundation.
• Wave FoundationcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerWave Foundation is a co-supporter of the Manifest Climate grants program alongside Fifty Years, EQT Foundation, and Automattic.
• Open Collective FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpen Collective Foundation supports the Repro Grants program, providing fiscal-sponsorship and infrastructure for distributing unrestricted grants to reproductive-health founders.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• SOSV: VC and accelerator operator running vertical programs (HAX for hardware, IndieBio for biology, dlab for blockchain). Overlaps with Fifty Years in operating founder-development programs that produce companies pre-investment.
• Breakthrough Energy Ventures: Patient, science-focused climate-tech fund backed by Bill Gates. Overlaps with Fifty Years' climate deep-tech thesis (bio x climate, energy) and similar willingness to fund decades-long R&D timelines.
• Khosla Ventures: High-conviction seed and early-stage investor with deep exposure to climate, health, and frontier tech. Comparable to Fifty Years in willingness to take large early bets on transformative science.
• DCVC (Data Collective): Deep-science VC firm investing pre-seed through Series A in computational and deep-tech companies. Operates a similar scientist-founder-focused thesis and comparable check sizes.
• Lux Capital: Early-stage deep-tech VC investing in science and technology founders across similar themes (climate, space, health, synbio). Both funds focus on PhD founders and have similar portfolio profiles (e.g., Astranis for Lux overlap).
• ARCH Venture Partners: Early-stage deep-tech and biotech investor founded to commercialize academic research. Comparable in deep-tech/science spinout focus, though typically deploys at Series A rather than pre-seed.

Broad incumbents

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Large multi-stage VC with dedicated bio/health and frontier-tech funds. Overlaps with Fifty Years at the seed stage for deep-tech and bio investments but operates at vastly larger fund sizes.
• Y Combinator: Largest pre-seed/seed accelerator. While not deep-tech focused, YC is the comparable incumbent for founder-development programming and represents Fifty Years' broadest competitive alternative for early founders.
• Founders Fund: Founder-led VC backing transformative science and technology companies. Shares the founder-led LP ethos with Fifty Years and overlaps in space, biotech, and frontier-tech investments.
• GV (Google Ventures): Multi-stage venture arm of Alphabet with deep biotech, health, and frontier-tech exposure. Comparable in deep-tech seed/Series A investing and partner-led thesis development.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/fiftyyears
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/10774072

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments187 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fifty Years