Zygote Ventures

What they do

Zygote Ventures is a privately held seed/angel venture capital fund. Zygote typically invests first, or very early, in innovative enterprises, most often technology, biotech, and agriculture. As a privately held “angel” investor, Zygote Ventures falls somewhere between an entrepreneur and a traditional venture capital fund. Most VC’s are limited partnerships, investing “other people’s money” and earning much of their profit as fees and carry. In contrast, Zygote invests only its principal’s money, and therefore earns no fees, profiting only from an increase in the value of the enterprise. This means that our interests are very closely aligned with the entrepreneur’s. Without limited partners, Zygote can be less risk-averse than most VCs. Because there is no pressure to do a certain number of deals, or to invest a fixed-size fund, Zygote can choose to partner with those opportunities where we can provide real value. At the same time, as an angel investor Zygote is very complementary with more traditional VC, helping to bring a company to readiness for a larger venture round if more capital is required, or co-investing with VCs and/or other angels in cases where we bring value to the enterprise.

What they look for

Zygote typically invests first, or very early, in innovative enterprises, most often technology, biotech, and agriculture. We are most interested in companies that can “change the game”, improving the world in a meaningful way.

Stage

Pre-seed, Seed

Sectors

Healthcare, Food and agriculture

Based

Berkeley, US