Breakthrough Initiatives
4 West 43rd Street, Suite 715, New York, NY, 10036, USA
Overview
So wondered the great physicist Enrico Fermi. The Universe is vast and ancient. Life, he reasoned, has had plenty of time to get started – and get smart. But we see no evidence of anything alive or intelligent in space. In the last five years, we have discovered that planets in the habitable zone of stars are common. Based on the numbers discovered so far, there are estimated to be billions more in our galaxy alone. And there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the visible Universe. Yet we are still in the dark about life. Are we really alone? Or are there others out there? It’s one of the biggest questions. And only science can answer it. The Breakthrough Initiatives were founded in 2015 by Yuri and Julia Milner to seek scientific evidence of life in the Universe.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 1
Sector focus
- Innovation Management
- Project Management
- Search Engine
Investment portfolio
- Fantasy Chess
Participated · Seed · Jun 2024
Fantasy Chess is an interactive chess platform founded by 17-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in April 2023 and based in Oslo. The product aims to broaden chess’s spectator appeal by offering a rewarding, user-friendly way for casual fans to follow top professional tournaments. The company plans an official launch in October and intends to assemble a global team to develop, support, and market the platform. In November 2023 Carlsen appointed Mats André Kristiansen, co-founder of Oda, as CEO to lead platform development and scaling. Fantasy Chess is hiring for multiple senior roles (CTO, CFO, CPO) and other positions as it builds toward attracting millions of casual players. Financially, the startup completed a $3M (≈€2.8M) pre-seed round to support expansion and enhancement of the interactive platform.
Team
Julia Milner
Founder