14 VCs and 2 funds investing in Autonomous Systems
Managing Partner
Maki.vc (Web3)
Check: Maki's stated sweet spot is first rounds below EUR 5 million from day zero; this describes target round size, not Pauliina's personal check authority. The firm continues to support later rounds selectively.
Pauliina leads a sector-agnostic Nordic first-round strategy centered on exceptional technical founders with global ambition. Her attributed portfolio work spans clinical sensing, autonomous-mobility safety, consumer products, voice agents, quantum, fintech, and sustainability. She favors non-consensus decisions, products rooted in a clear user problem, strong design and customer experience, and teams capable of building category leaders from the Nordics.
Principal
Craft Ventures
Check: No Kindle-specific check range is public. Craft's live portfolio attributes her to growth, Series A and Series B investments, but those stage labels do not reveal individual allocation authority or check size. Confirm current vehicle, ownership and lead/co-invest posture directly.
Kindle invests where AI or advanced technology becomes a mission-critical operating layer in large, regulated or technically demanding markets. Her attributed work spans AI medical knowledge, regulatory compliance, autonomous defense systems, biotechnology and neurotechnology, with a recurring emphasis on trusted domain data, expert workflows, demonstrable adoption and products capable of becoming the intelligence layer for an industry.
Principal
Khosla Ventures
Check: No personal check range or signing authority is published. Khosla invests from pre-seed/seed through Series A and later via its Main Fund; historical seed commentary cited roughly $1M–$2M. Those are firm-level guideposts and should not be attributed to Niko personally.
Niko is a frontier-technology generalist focused on infrastructure, AI, robotics, and industrial systems. He combines prior investing across AI, robotics, frontier technology, and cybersecurity with founder and startup experience. Khosla's broader method suggests he is most relevant when an unconventional technical approach can create a large economic advantage and the team can turn uncertainty into explicit, capital-efficient experiments.
Founding Partner
Overlook Ventures
Check: $100K-$1M initial checks, as published by Overlook Ventures.
Amir Kabir invests or supports investments through Overlook Ventures's published strategy: Invest early in North American systems that measure, manage and transfer risk and enable safe deployment of AI and autonomous systems.
Venture Advisor
Overlook Ventures
Check: $100K-$1M initial checks, as published by Overlook Ventures.
Dr. Karl Muth is listed in a Venture Advisor capacity at Overlook Ventures. No person-specific investment thesis is published for this role; the firm's mandate is included only as shared context.
General Partner
Air Street Capital
Check: $500K-$10M published firm range; typical pre-seed and seed checks are $500K-$5M.
The official roster identifies Nathan Benaich as General Partner. This profile applies Air Street Capital's published strategy and does not infer undisclosed personal signing authority or a narrower individual mandate. Relevant founder fit follows the firm's thesis: Back technically differentiated AI-first companies as early as possible, especially frontier systems, infrastructure, autonomous systems, agents and AI-native life sciences.
Advisor
Air Street Capital
Check: $500K-$10M published firm range; typical pre-seed and seed checks are $500K-$5M.
The official roster identifies Paula Pastor as Advisor. This profile applies Air Street Capital's published strategy and does not infer undisclosed personal signing authority or a narrower individual mandate. Relevant founder fit follows the firm's thesis: Back technically differentiated AI-first companies as early as possible, especially frontier systems, infrastructure, autonomous systems, agents and AI-native life sciences.
Operating Partner
Air Street Capital
Check: $500K-$10M published firm range; typical pre-seed and seed checks are $500K-$5M.
The official roster identifies Phil Keslin as Operating Partner. This profile applies Air Street Capital's published strategy and does not infer undisclosed personal signing authority or a narrower individual mandate. Relevant founder fit follows the firm's thesis: Back technically differentiated AI-first companies as early as possible, especially frontier systems, infrastructure, autonomous systems, agents and AI-native life sciences.
Operating Partner
Air Street Capital
Check: $500K-$10M published firm range; typical pre-seed and seed checks are $500K-$5M.
The official roster identifies Gaile Gordon as Operating Partner. This profile applies Air Street Capital's published strategy and does not infer undisclosed personal signing authority or a narrower individual mandate. Relevant founder fit follows the firm's thesis: Back technically differentiated AI-first companies as early as possible, especially frontier systems, infrastructure, autonomous systems, agents and AI-native life sciences.
Operating Partner
Air Street Capital
Check: $500K-$10M published firm range; typical pre-seed and seed checks are $500K-$5M.
The official roster identifies Gabe Dulac-Arnold as Operating Partner. This profile applies Air Street Capital's published strategy and does not infer undisclosed personal signing authority or a narrower individual mandate. Relevant founder fit follows the firm's thesis: Back technically differentiated AI-first companies as early as possible, especially frontier systems, infrastructure, autonomous systems, agents and AI-native life sciences.
Operating Partner
Air Street Capital
Check: $500K-$10M published firm range; typical pre-seed and seed checks are $500K-$5M.
The official roster identifies Luc Vincent as Operating Partner. This profile applies Air Street Capital's published strategy and does not infer undisclosed personal signing authority or a narrower individual mandate. Relevant founder fit follows the firm's thesis: Back technically differentiated AI-first companies as early as possible, especially frontier systems, infrastructure, autonomous systems, agents and AI-native life sciences.
Operating Partner
Air Street Capital
Check: $500K-$10M published firm range; typical pre-seed and seed checks are $500K-$5M.
The official roster identifies Jan Erik Solem as Operating Partner. This profile applies Air Street Capital's published strategy and does not infer undisclosed personal signing authority or a narrower individual mandate. Relevant founder fit follows the firm's thesis: Back technically differentiated AI-first companies as early as possible, especially frontier systems, infrastructure, autonomous systems, agents and AI-native life sciences.
Partner
Khosla Ventures
Check: No personal check range is published. Khosla invests earliest from pre-seed/seed through Series A with conviction and also uses a Main Fund for later financings. Historical firm commentary described many seed investments around $1M–$2M; this is not Kanu's personal allocation range.
Kanu backs enterprise applications and infrastructure made possible by advances in AI, together with robotics and autonomous systems. Her technical and operating history spans hardware acceleration, predictive analytics, circuit simulation, and research, while her named portfolio covers conversational AI, world models, enterprise automation, navigation, weather, radar, warehouse robotics, autonomous trucking, and general-purpose robotics.
Principal
Craft Ventures
Check: No personal check-size range is published. Her disclosed Craft work spans venture and growth investments, including Series A, Series B, and growth-stage companies; public financing totals are not her individual allocation authority.
Kindle invests in technically differentiated AI, defense, and enterprise software that turns expert knowledge or hard engineering into a high-trust operational system. Her published cases favor products that automate expensive, consequential workflows while improving quality: regulatory agents that encode rules, medical intelligence grounded in evidence, and autonomous or frontier systems with strategic importance. Her growth background adds attention to adoption, category position, and scalable economics.