General Partner at ALPS Capital
Check size: No current ALPS check size is publicly disclosed. Laura's September 2026 criteria specify Pre-Seed to Seed companies valued below $30M; that is a valuation ceiling and stage filter, not a stated check range.
Laura currently backs institution-grade financial-market infrastructure for digital assets and AI as TradFi moves onchain. Her stated targets include payments, stablecoins, clearing and settlement, trading infrastructure, custody-as-a-service, insurance, lending, and agentic identity or payments, with a shipped MVP, institutional proof, real technical or regulatory advantage and a credible enterprise acquisition path.
Email the deck directly to lki@alpscapital.io; her current instructions explicitly say not to request an introductory call. Start with one line covering product, narrative and true USP. Include Pre-Seed/Seed round size and type, valuation below $30M, commitments, current and prior backers, lead status and capital already raised. Then show shipped MVP, institutional customers/MOUs/licenses/volumes, revenue model, founder track record, defensible edge and why institutions need the product.
Pre-Seed and Seed founders valued below $30M who have built and shipped an MVP; clear customer, license, volume, MOU or institutional-partner traction; proprietary technology, regulatory access or enterprise distribution as an unfair advantage; strong TradFi experience or advisors; repeat-founder evidence; and a specific institutional GTM funnel that compounds rather than relying on virality.
Pre-product, pre-revenue companies seeking inflated valuations; generic AI-for-everyone pitches; 'faster, cheaper or simpler' without a real USP; copycat projects such as an existing protocol moved to another chain; no competition used as proof of demand; vanity users without revenue or product-market fit; retail token incentives without institutional liquidity; and pitches that omit round mechanics, traction or thesis alignment.
Require a shipped MVP plus concrete customers, licenses, volumes, MOUs or institutional partners before treating infrastructure as institution-grade.
Look for at least one hard edge in regulatory permissions, proprietary technology or enterprise access; generic speed, price or simplicity is not enough.
Map an institutional acquisition funnel whose partnerships, integrations and trusted relationships accumulate over time instead of relying on retail virality.
A first review should make team credentials, round size, valuation, commitments, backers, lead status, prior capital and venture-scale outcome potential instantly clear.
Separate product-market fit and institutional liquidity from vanity users, farming incentives and artificial retail buy pressure before underwriting a token launch.
Venture-scale pitches must show return potential, a three-to-five-year plan, early distribution access, founder-market fit, genuine innovation and token economics that make sense in their macro context.
A useful inbound pitch makes product and USP, round mechanics, institutional proof, revenue model, team credentials and thesis alignment immediately legible, then sends the deck without demanding a call.
TradFi moving onchain creates demand for institutional infrastructure, but investable teams need a shipped MVP, regulatory or technical advantage, TradFi access and a compounding enterprise GTM funnel.