Matter Venture Partners raises initial $300 million funding to invest in ‘hard tech’

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Kleiner Perkins investors Wen Hsieh and Haomiao Huang left the company in 2023 to form their own venture capital fund called Matter Venture Partners. The company was backed by Kleiner and Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC.

Shay is a long-time KPer, having been with KPer for 17 years. Mr. Huang had stayed there for four years. Passionate about what they called “hard technology,” Hsieh invested in companies such as LuxVue, a microscreen technology company acquired by Apple, and Amprius, which makes high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries. Huang led investments in drone maker DJI and 3D printing company Desktop Metal, which went public via SPAC in 2020.

On Thursday, they announced the closing of their first fund of $300 million. Hsieh told TechCrunch that this is considered one of the largest “first funds” raised in 2023. Median venture fund It raised about $37 million that year, according to a PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.

Matter Venture Partners originally planned to raise $200 million, but Hsieh said raising money in 2023 was “a tough time for everyone (startups and venture capitalists alike).” he admitted.

“We anticipated such challenges and approached it with very modest expectations,” Xie said. “But surprisingly, it worked out very well for us. Last year in full, he closed $300 million and was significantly over capacity.”

Know when to say “when”

Determining the optimal amount to close a fund is like playing “Goldilocks,” Hsieh said. Matter Venture Partners invests in large seed rounds, Series A and Series B.

Wen Hsieh, co-founder of Matter Venture Partners (Image courtesy of Matter Venture Partners)

He explained that if a fund is undercapitalized, it may not be able to compete competitively in deals or support portfolio companies across multiple rounds. Overcapitalized and may have too much money to deploy within a two- or three-year lifetime funding cycle. You may also write too large a check or the size of the check may be too large for adequate funding.

He attributes the oversubscription to Matter Venture Partner’s focus on hard technology. “The world is realizing that many of the fundamental technologies and trends in today’s society are built on hard technologies,” he said. “It’s really the wind blowing our way. We came out unscathed in a very positive sense and were very fortunate to be able to raise money at a difficult time.”

In addition to Kleiner LP and TSMC, individuals, entrepreneurs and family offices also support the fund. Mr. Hsieh and Mr. Huang, as well as John Budd, who joins them on the investment team, are also LPs in the fund.

Utilization of operating partners

Matter Venture Partners offers the unique aspect of having an operating partner, which is typically something only large companies have, Hsieh said. One is Mel Tan, former CFO of video doorbell company Ring, which was later acquired by Amazon.

Mr. Tang has experience in operations, supply chain management, and manufacturing unit economics, and Mr. Hsieh believes that having such expertise at an early stage in a hard technology startup brings great added value. Masu.

As for how Matter Venture Partners works with founders, Xie says the partners take pride in building the company, but not at the expense of getting in the founders’ way. Told. They like to be a coach, a partner, and participate when needed.

All about hard technology

Matter Venture Partners Co-Founder Haomiao Huang (Image courtesy of Matter Venture Partners)

They categorized “hard technologies” into six buckets: semiconductors, automation and robotization, generative AI, manufacturing onshoring and offshoring, energy building blocks, and life sciences.

“The common theme around these six areas is that we want to invest in the next ‘pick-up’ in all six trends,” Hsieh said. “There are many gold rushes going on and we want to provide a ‘pick and shovel’ for every case. We want to fund them and the entrepreneurs who contribute to these new innovations. ”

So far, Matter Venture Partners has invested in six companies that are not yet public. Also doubling down are two companies from his Kleiner Perkins days, including Ambiq Micro, a company that Hsieh described as “the kingpin of edge AI,” a concept that makes it easier to run his AI workloads. .

“The key is low power consumption,” he said. “The big topic is how much energy do we consume in inference or how much energy do we consume in training? Ambiq is a world leader in ultra-low power chip manufacturing. They dominate wearables. “This product is having a huge impact and we are riding a new wave of energy-efficient AI awareness.”

Ultimately, Matter Venture Partners plans to invest in 15 to 20 companies with the new fund, Xie said.