What Catapult Ventures does

Catapult Ventures is a privately held, seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2018 by Darren Liccardo and Rouz Jazayeri and headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. The firm invests at the intersection of hardware, embedded systems, and software, with a stated thesis across AI, robotics, automation, internet-of-things, and embedded systems spanning automotive, aerospace, industrial manufacturing, construction, logistics, consumer electronics, and healthcare end markets. Its core product is an investment fund that provides first institutional money in priced rounds of up to $4 million, with initial checks typically ranging from $250,000 to $1.5 million, often leading rounds while syndicating with like-minded investors and reserving significant follow-on capital for subsequent rounds.

The fund sources deals through direct founder outreach via a structured application on catapult.vc and through its co-investor network, targeting 1-3 full-time founders with technical backgrounds primarily based in North America. Its portfolio of more than 20 active companies is concentrated in five clusters: aerospace and stratospheric platforms (Array Labs, SpinLaunch, Urban Sky, Pyka, FlightWave, Elroy Air); silicon photonics and sensors (ANELLO Photonics, OpenLight, Oculii); robotics and warehouse automation (Pickle Robot, Path Robotics, Starsky Robotics, Left Hand Robotics, Advanced Farm); AI infrastructure and embedded AI (Mythic, Eridu AI, Elastix, XNOR.ai, Engine ML, Biostate); and industrial smart-factory and building automation (Full Speed Automation, Pictorus, Sancho, ZeroMatter, Domatic, Resonado, Quadratic, CADY, Aulera, Camect, Strella Biotech, Urban Machine, Cyclone Labs).

The firm generates revenue through standard venture fund economics: management fees on committed capital and carried interest on exits, neither of which is explicitly disclosed. Catapult has recorded five or more portfolio exits, including Oculii's $308 million cash acquisition by Ambarella in November 2021, XNOR.ai by Apple, FlightWave by Red Cat Holdings in 2024, Left Hand Robotics by The Toro Company, and Engine ML by Ripcord. The team consists of the two co-founders plus Associate Michael Paniccia.

Name

Catapult Ventures

Legal name

Catapult Ventures

Website

https://catapult.vc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Catapult Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based, seed-stage deep-tech venture capital firm that invests $250k-$1.5M in rounds up to $4M at the intersection of AI, robotics, automation, IoT, and embedded systems, serving hardware-intensive founders across North America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Pre-Seed/Seed) (FSANAAAA)

Keywords

• Seed-stage venture capital
• Deep-tech investing
• AI robotics investing
• Hardware-software startups
• Pre-seed funding

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Altos

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Venture capital fund management: Catapult Ventures operates as a seed-stage venture capital fund, deploying first-institutional capital of $250k-$1.5M in priced rounds up to $4M, and reserving follow-on capital for subsequent funding rounds. Standard VC economics (management fees and carried interest on exits) are implicit but not explicitly disclosed.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Catapult Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund that provides first institutional capital of $250k–$1.5M in priced rounds of up to $4M, often leading rounds and syndicating with co-investors, while reserving significant capital for follow-on rounds. The fund targets pre-seed and seed-stage startups at the intersection of AI, robotics, automation, IoT, and embedded systems, based primarily in North America, with a portfolio spanning aerospace, silicon photonics, autonomous systems, robotics, smart-factory software, and AI infrastructure.

Product overview

Catapult Ventures is a seed-stage deep tech venture capital firm (founded by Darren Liccardo and Rouz Jazayeri and based in Silicon Valley, California) whose core product is its investment fund offering first institutional money in priced rounds of up to $4M, with initial checks of $250k–$1.5M, often leading and syndicating with like-minded investors and reserving significant capital for follow-on rounds. The firm invests at the intersection of AI, robotics, automation, internet-of-things, and embedded systems, with an investment thesis spanning four pillars — Automate Everything, Next Generation Interfaces, Compute Everywhere, and Beyond Deep Learning. Its offerings to limited partners consist of a portfolio of independent hardware-intensive portfolio companies spanning aerospace (Array Labs, SpinLaunch, Urban Sky, Pyka, FlightWave, Elroy Air), silicon photonics and sensors (ANELLO Photonics, OpenLight, Oculii), robotics and warehouse automation (Pickle Robot, Path Robotics, Starsky Robotics, Left Hand Robotics, Advanced Farm), industrial and smart-factory software (Full Speed Automation, Sancho, Pictorus, ZeroMatter, Mythic, Resonado Labs), drones and GNSS (HYFIX), AI infrastructure (Eridu AI, Engine ML, Elastix, XNOR.ai, Biostate), security and physical goods authentication (Camect, Aulera), building automation (Domatic), agriculture biotech (Strella Biotech), construction and salvage (Urban Machine), data and productivity tools (Quadratic, CADY), and maritime autonomy (Cyclone Labs), with notable exits including Oculii acquired by Ambarella for $308M, XNOR.ai by Apple, FlightWave by Red Cat Holdings, Left Hand Robotics by The Toro Company, Advanced Farm, and Engine ML by Ripcord.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Catapult Ventures Seed-Stage Deep-Tech Investment Fund

Quantifiable outcome

• $308M exit of portfolio company Oculii acquired by Ambarella in November 2021
• +2 more outcomes

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Afore Capital: Pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm focused on technical founders building deep-tech and infrastructure products. Comparable stage and check-size discipline, with overlap in AI, automation, and enterprise infrastructure themes.
• Bolt (hardware-focused VC): Seed-stage investor and platform focused exclusively on hardware startups, with a thesis around capital efficiency and supply-chain support. Comparable in hardware-only seed mandate, though concentrated earlier in the company lifecycle.
• DCVC (Data Collective): Deep-tech venture firm backing founders applying deep technical expertise to data, AI, robotics, photonics, and computational biology. Directly comparable in seed-stage deep-tech focus, including silicon photonics, autonomous systems, and AI infrastructure — overlapping Catapult's portfolio themes such as OpenLight and Mythic.
• Lux Capital: Early- and growth-stage venture firm investing at the intersection of science, technology, and deep tech (AI, robotics, space, photonics, advanced manufacturing). Directly comparable thesis to Catapult's hardware/software intersection mandate, with comparable exit profile in defense and autonomous systems.
• Root Ventures: Seed-stage venture firm investing in hard-tech, robotics, infrastructure, and engineered systems. Comparable in stage (seed), check size discipline, and operator-led thesis around deep-tech founders building hardware-intensive businesses.
• Founders Fund: Venture firm with a stated frontier-tech and contrarian thesis, including significant exposure to space, autonomous systems, deep tech, and hard science. Comparable in operator-investor culture and willingness to fund hardware-intensive, longer-time-horizon seed and Series A rounds.
• Khosla Ventures: Venture firm with a heavy frontier-tech and deep-tech focus, including AI infrastructure, robotics, autonomous systems, and hard-tech. Comparable in thesis breadth and willingness to back capital-intensive, hardware-heavy seed-stage bets, though at materially larger check sizes and fund AUM.
• Lemnos Labs: Venture firm focused on early-stage hardware, robotics, and connected-device startups. Comparable as a seed-stage deep-tech investor with a hardware-software intersection thesis, though with a narrower portfolio focus.
• Bloomberg Beta: Early-stage venture firm with a focus on the future of work, including AI, automation, and applied machine learning. Comparable in seed-stage automation/AI mandate, though generally with a software and applied-AI emphasis versus Catapult's hardware-heavy portfolio.

Emerging players

• Lux Ventures (seed-stage deep tech): Smaller, emerging deep-tech seed fund with comparable stage and theme focus, including AI infrastructure, robotics, and frontier computing. Less established brand than Lux Capital but directly comparable in seed-stage deep-tech investing.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/catapultseed
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/catapultventures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments28 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Catapult Ventures