By J. Spencer, Tech Finance Correspondent Published: April 17, 2026
Thiel, a former quant at D.E. Shaw, brought the financial rigor. Together, they raised a $75 million debut fund from a consortium of European deep-tech family offices and a single, prescient American university endowment. Their first three investments set the template: a startup building a chip-scale atomic clock, another developing a cryogenic probe station for qubit readout, and a third creating a hyperspectral imager for vertical farming. InstrumentLab VC
Hardware takes a decade. ILVC’s funds are 10+2 vehicles, but even that may be insufficient. “They’re building beautiful, Nobel-worthy science,” says a partner at a competing growth-stage fund who asked for anonymity. “But who buys a gravimeter? The market is tiny. They’re banking on these companies becoming platforms, not products. That’s a bet, not a thesis.” Together, they raised a $75 million debut fund