Julian Capital

What Julian Capital does

Julian Capital is a San Francisco-based deeptech seed fund founded in 2022 that invests across nearly every hardware sector — robotics, chips, energy, medtech, climate, chemicals, materials, transportation, manufacturing, bio, space, and agriculture — while explicitly excluding pure software/AI startups without a hardware or lab component. The firm writes initial checks of $500K to $2M at the pre-seed and seed stages, decides on investments within 7–14 days, invests at a cadence of roughly one check per month, and reserves up to $15M of follow-on capital per top-performing portfolio company. Its stated portfolio metrics include a 100% Seed-to-Series A graduation rate across Fund 1, with three-year-old portfolio companies having collectively raised $600M+ and Aalo reaching a $2B+ valuation.

The fund's core proprietary technology is DeepChecks.vc, described as the largest source of deeptech deal flow in the world — a CRM of scientist founders spanning every niche from mining robotics to photonic chip interconnects, which the firm uses both as deal-sourcing infrastructure and as a portfolio-support network for introductions to customers, partners, investors, and hires. The team has also built VCSheet.com, a reference tool for venture capital research, and publishes free DeepChecks Playbooks on fundraising, hiring, and demand validation. The fund operates an embedded-operating model in which partners act as portfolio companies' growth team, building and maintaining websites and advising on social and PR strategy.

Julian Capital's revenue model is standard venture-fund economics: it earns returns through equity ownership in portfolio companies rather than fees charged to founders. The firm is led by three principals — Julian Shapiro (founder, formerly VP Marketing at Webflow and growth lead at Heap Analytics, founder of YC S19 Demand Curve), Jacob Jackson (partner, formerly CRO at MedStack and Head of Growth at Mammoth), and John Forbes (partner, formerly Partner at Dorm Room Fund for four years). Deal sourcing runs through both the proprietary DeepChecks.vc platform and a public website deck-submission funnel that has already converted two investments in 2026.

Name

Julian Capital

Website

https://julian.capital

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Julian Capital is a San Francisco-based deeptech seed fund founded in 2022 that invests $500K–$2M across hardware sectors using its proprietary DeepChecks.vc CRM for deal sourcing and an embedded growth-team operating model for portfolio support.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital / Seed-stage Deeptech Investing

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles (525), Other Financial Vehicles (52599)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

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

akta.pro secondary industry

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B) (FSANAAAB)

Keywords

• Deeptech seed funding
• Venture capital investing
• Pre-seed investment
• Hardware startup funding
• Startup growth support

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Fund Management / Equity Investment: Julian Capital generates returns through equity ownership in portfolio companies. As a seed fund, they invest in early-stage deeptech startups in exchange for equity stakes, with potential for significant returns upon portfolio companies' growth and exit events.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Julian Capital is a deeptech seed fund that invests $500K to $2M checks in pre-seed and seed-stage hardware startups across robotics, chips, energy, medtech, climate, chemicals, materials, transportation, manufacturing, bio, space, and agriculture. The fund decides on investments in 7-14 days, writes roughly one check per month, and reserves up to an additional $15M of follow-on capital for its best-performing portfolio companies. Portfolio companies also receive hands-on support including growth team embedding, website design, and introductions to customers, investors, and hires.

Product overview

Julian Capital is a deeptech seed fund that operates as a single unified investment service rather than a platform architecture. The firm offers pre-seed and seed-stage investment with follow-on capital up to $15M, bundled with operational support services including growth team embedding, website design, and strategic introductions. The fund complements its investment activities with two proprietary tools: DeepChecks.vc, a CRM platform for deeptech deal flow described as the largest of its kind globally, and VCSheet.com, a venture capital reference tool. Additionally, the team publishes Deep Checks Playbooks—free educational guides covering fundraising, hiring, and customer validation for deeptech founders. The investment focus spans all hardware sectors including robotics, chips, energy, medtech, climate, chemicals, materials, transportation, manufacturing, bio, space, and agriculture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Julian Capital Seed Fund Pre-seed and seed-stage equity investments of $500K to $2M per company across all deeptech hardware sectors, plus up to $15M of follow-on capital for top performers. Includes hands-on growth support, website design, and introductions to customers, investors, and hires. Targeted at deeptech founders from idea stage onward, with a 7-14 day decision process and approximately one check per month.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100% Seed to Series A graduation rate
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Bell Curve AgencyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerJulian Shapiro's marketing agency that has grown LinkedIn, Ancestry, TechCrunch and more. Related operational capability for portfolio companies.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Khosla Ventures: Large, deeptech-heavy venture firm making seed through growth investments across energy, AI, robotics, bio, and frontier tech. Direct peer in deeptech seed investing but with vastly larger fund sizes and follow-on capacity.
• Congruent Ventures: Early-stage venture firm focused on climate-tech, energy, and industrial deeptech. Comparable seed-stage deeptech mandate and similar check sizes to Julian Capital's pre-seed/seed activity.
• DCVC (Data Collective): Deeptech-focused venture firm investing in computationally driven science and engineering companies (compute, materials, biology, energy). Direct peer in seed-to-Series A deeptech investing with comparable thesis and target founder profile.
• Lux Capital: Long-standing early- and growth-stage deeptech/hardtech VC investing across chips, space, energy, biotech, and advanced materials. Most direct comparable in mandate, sector focus, and stage to Julian Capital, though with materially more AUM and a larger team.
• Fifty Years: Seed-stage fund investing specifically in deeptech founders tackling the world's most important problems across climate, health, and compute. Closely aligned with Julian Capital in thesis, stage, and founder-support orientation.
• Lowercarbon Capital: Early-stage firm concentrated on climate and energy-transition deeptech (fusion, batteries, carbon removal, advanced manufacturing). Comparable to Julian Capital's energy/climate/chemicals/materials sub-thesis at seed stage.

Broad incumbents

• Y Combinator: Largest pre-seed/seed accelerator globally, including a growing deeptech cohort. Functions as a top-of-funnel competitor and ecosystem anchor; comparable in stage but materially different in structure (batch model vs. rolling fund) and check size.
• Founders Fund: Multi-stage fund with deeptech exposure (space, biotech, defense, frontier compute). Less concentrated on hardware seed deals than Julian Capital but a comparable 'frontier-technology' brand competitor for deeptech founders at the same stage.

Emerging players

• Amino Capital: Early-stage fund with significant deeptech and frontier-tech exposure alongside software AI. Comparable to Julian Capital in early-stage orientation, with partial overlap on hardware-led AI and biotech.
• Refactor Ventures: Seed-stage fund backing climate-tech and decarbonization deeptech founders. Partial peer — similar seed-check sizing and climate/energy focus, but a narrower sector mandate than Julian Capital's cross-deeptech thesis.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Julian
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/julian-capital

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

Investments19 records

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

Frequently asked questions about Julian Capital