Participated · Series A · May 2026

Pumpkinseed is building the deSIPHR platform to enable de-novo protein sequencing, with the goal of reading proteins directly at the resolution of single amino acids. The company says it aims to manufacture billions of sensors across a silicon wafer to scale access to protein-level biological data. Pumpkinseed presented a team of founders and technical leads in its announcement and plans to grow headcount following the Series A. The startup frames its technology as unlocking biology’s functional layer by enabling direct protein reading rather than inferring function from DNA. The company secured $20M in Series A financing to advance the platform and accelerate hiring and development efforts. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the announcement.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2025

Niobium Microsystems is a Dayton-based company developing specialized chips that bring fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) into practical commercial use. Its custom silicon architecture allows data to remain encrypted even while it is being processed, offering mathematically guaranteed privacy for customers handling sensitive information. Led by CEO Kevin Yoder, the firm is currently building a production-ready application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and enhancing supporting infrastructure for pilot integrations. With offices in Portland and San Francisco, Niobium plans to broaden ecosystem enablement so partners can more readily adopt FHE-based solutions. The company recently secured more than $23 million in fresh capital to finalize its production silicon design and bolster customer-facing capabilities. Although financial performance metrics such as revenue or user count were not disclosed, the size of the latest raise underscores investor confidence in the company’s technology roadmap.