New deep tech fund Wave Function Ventures raises $15 million

Jamie Gull, a former SpaceX engineer and Y Combinator venture partner, has launched Wave Function Ventures, closing its inaugural deep tech fund at $15.1 million. The fund aims to make approximately 25 seed or pre-seed investments across sectors such as nuclear energy, robotics, and aerospace, leveraging Gull's extensive operational and investment experience. This new fund emerges amidst a rising trend in deep tech funding, with Gull anticipating significant long-term returns from companies that can utilize diverse capital sources and build robust market positions.

Analysis

Jamie Gull, a former aerospace engineer with experience at SpaceX and Scaled Composites, has launched Wave Function Ventures, a new $15.1 million deep tech fund. This fund, which has already made nine pre-seed or seed investments in sectors including nuclear energy, robotics, and aerospace, plans to build a portfolio of approximately 25 companies. The fund's emergence aligns with a broader trend of rising investment in deep tech, underscored by the recent launch of larger funds like the $300 million Leitmotif backed by the Volkswagen Group. Gull's investment thesis posits that while deep tech startups are capital-intensive, they can achieve superior long-term returns and build more defensible moats than software companies by leveraging non-venture funding sources, such as government contracts and asset-backed lending. Gull's own background, which includes founding an acquired eVTOL startup and serving as a venture partner at Y Combinator's Pioneer Fund, provides him with the operational and investment-side experience to guide founders through the high-uncertainty early stages of development.

Key Decisions for Investors

• The launch of small, specialized funds like Wave Function Ventures is a leading indicator of growing pre-seed and seed-stage momentum in aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing; investors should watch this space for future growth-stage opportunities and potential M&A targets.
• For Limited Partners, the profile of Jamie Gull underscores the importance of backing deep tech fund managers who possess both elite technical engineering experience and a proven track record in venture capital and startup operations.
• Investors tracking the deep tech sector should scrutinize a company's ability to secure non-dilutive capital, such as government contracts, as this is a key part of the investment thesis for building a defensible moat and validating the technology's viability in capital-intensive industries.