• Neurophos

  Participated · Series A · Jan 2026

  Neurophos is an Austin-based semiconductor startup building optical processing units (OPUs) that integrate more than one million micron-scale optical processing elements onto a single chip. Using proprietary metamaterial optical modulators—miniaturized 10,000-fold versus prior photonic components—the company targets up to a 100× gain in both speed and energy efficiency over leading silicon GPUs. Its technology is positioned as a drop-in replacement for current data-center accelerators, addressing power, scalability and cost constraints facing large-scale AI inference. Total capital raised now stands at $118 million, providing resources to commercialize the first integrated photonic compute system, complete with datacenter-ready OPU modules, software stack and developer hardware. The Series A proceeds will support expansion of the Austin headquarters and the opening of a San Francisco engineering office to serve early customers. Neurophos’ founding team includes veterans from NVIDIA, Apple, Intel and other major chipmakers, bolstering its credibility in bringing photonic computing to market.

• Succinct

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2024

  Succinct is a Web3 infrastructure provider that aims to make zero-knowledge proofs accessible to any developer. Its Prover Network and SP1 are designed to deliver high-performance, general-purpose ZK that can be deployed without complex infrastructure. The Succinct Prover Network is described as a hosted infrastructure layer that lets applications outsource proof generation for open-source proving systems. The company emphasizes ease of deployment and performance for universal ZK use cases. Succinct recently completed a $55 million financing led by Paradigm, indicating fresh strategic backing for its infrastructure offerings.

• Taproot Wizards

  Participated · Seed · Nov 2023

  Taproot Wizards is focused on advancing OP_CAT, a Bitcoin improvement proposal its founders say could enable Ethereum-like smart contract functionality via covenants. The group plans to use the funding to build an ecosystem of applications that leverage OP_CAT for permissionless programmability, including lending and trading while preserving self-custody. Taproot Wizards previously sold a collection of 3,000 NFT-like pieces called "Quantum Cats" about a year ago to drum up support for OP_CAT. The project says it has been attempting to "meme OP_CAT back into existence" and frames the feature as the "missing piece" for Bitcoin programmability. The proposal was originally included in Bitcoin's code by Satoshi Nakamoto but removed over concerns such as DoS risks, and many developers remain wary of reintroducing it. The group positions its work under a vision to "make Bitcoin magical again." Taproot Wizards is an Ordinals-based NFT collection on Bitcoin inspired by a decade-old Reddit wizard meme, with a limited mint of 2,121 wizards. As of the article, 2,106 (99.3%) have been inscribed to the blockchain, but fewer than 1% — just 20 Ordinals — have been distributed, and the team is intentionally pacing releases. Co-founders Udi Wertheimer and Eric Wall emphasize community-driven activities (a “wizard school,” tattoos, videos and other participation) and a mission to "bring innovation back to Bitcoin." The project raised $7.5 million in a round led by Standard Crypto and declined to disclose a valuation. Funds will be used to rebuild Bitcoin’s “wizard village,” compete with other chains like Ethereum and Solana, and pursue brand and infrastructure opportunities for a more dynamic Bitcoin ecosystem. The article places Taproot Wizards within broader Ordinals momentum: Ordinals launched in December 2022, inscriptions hit 40.4 million, and Bitcoin was the second-largest blockchain by NFT sales (~$163M in the past 30 days).

• Magicave

  Led · Seed · Aug 2022

  Magicave is building digital hobbies focused on beautiful, playful, tactile virtual items that sit at the center of an ecosystem of games, apps, players and creators. Its first project, dN (short for “d‑Number”), combines collectible virtual dice with figures, tiles, stories and worlds and makes use of game and blockchain technology. The company positions blockchain not just as an economic layer but as a way to enable consumer‑owned, object‑oriented digital items. Founders are game industry veterans Harry Holmwood (CEO), Ste Curran (Creative Director) and Ed Thorley (CTO). Concept backed Magicave in a 2021 pre‑seed and the team has since expanded with further investor support. The company reported a total raise of $6.4M, enabling continued product development and team growth.

• RISC Zero.

  Participated · Seed · Aug 2022

  Risc Zero is a Seattle, WA-based developer of general purpose zero-knowledge (ZK) virtual machine technology. Led by CEO Brian Retford, the company provides a zkVM that enables developers to build ZK-powered applications with conventional languages such as Rust and C++. Its zkVM leverages advanced features like continuations to run programs of arbitrary complexity while using off-the-shelf computing platforms. Risc Zero is developing Bonsai, a computing platform to support rapid application development and deployment in both cloud and decentralized environments. Bonsai is intended to offload proof orchestration and server infrastructure, bringing massively parallel ZK-proving functionality to developers in any language and on any chain. The company raised $40M in Series A to bring Bonsai to market. Risc Zero builds a scalable blockchain powered by zero-knowledge proof technology and a RISC-V zkVM. The zkVM enables any program to run in a verifiable manner with no trusted authorities and allows developers accustomed to Rust, Go, C++ and other standard languages to write on-chain decentralized applications. The company released its first open-source product, the RISC Zero zkVM, in March 2022. A developer-oriented preview of its new network was planned for Q3 2022 to let developers build on core innovations ahead of the blockchain launch. Risc Zero said it will use the seed proceeds to accelerate growth and expand development efforts. The company is based in Seattle, WA and had previously raised a $2M pre-seed.

No current team members are available.