Hard tech is hard, but with major breakthroughs, it can come with big returns and big opportunities. Cantos has closed its third fund to invest in science-forward companies at the pre-seed and seed stages to ‘improve billions of lives and save the planet’.
“I have a bachelor’s degree in international relations. I’m not technical. I’ve always been a science fiction reader and watcher,” says Ian Rowntree, GP and founder of Cantos Ventures. “You hear all these myths of what I think are modern venture capital. Those myths are ‘hardware is hard and slow’ and assumptions that hard technology raises more capital. It’s not good as an investment. And yet, if you’re looking at the big problems in the world; It makes you wonder. If we’re going to reduce climate change, disease, armed conflict, existential risk, poverty — building real junk in the real world is probably more impactful than software in many respects, but venture capital was basically scared. That didn’t sit well with me.”
Rountree took a deep look at the sector, and where others saw danger, he saw opportunity.
“if so All of Sandhill Road is saying don’t invest in hardware and bio, then that might be an interesting gap to get into,” Rountree says.
Cantos 3 is focusing on pre-seed and seed-stage investments in deep tech startups, techbio, aerospace and next-gen computing. It focuses on taking technical risks with its founders and is more tolerant than other venture companies, he says.
“We want to reduce market risk, and we’re looking for companies that make goods cheaper and have a lower carbon footprint, raise the standard of care or improve the defense capabilities of democracies. We believe that when they’re well served, great companies can have the biggest positive impact on people and our shared planet. We aim to support the desire to build billion-dollar to $100-billion companies and beyond.” Our thesis is that such companies will either provide platform capabilities or be fully aligned. We see our founding partners as innovative industrialists.
