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Learn which startups Helium-3 Ventures invests in, what size check sizes they write, and who their partners are (e.g. Matthew Bellamy).
Key people at Helium-3 Ventures.
Helium-3 Ventures operates as a New York-based venture capital firm, specializing in early-stage investments across several strategic technology sectors. The firm directs capital towards innovative companies developing solutions in communications technology, renewable energy, space exploration, and advanced materials. Its core approach centers on identifying and supporting transformative technologies poised to redefine their respective industries.
The firm was established in 2021 by co-founders David Hendrickson, John Dauer, and Matthew Bellamy. Their foundational insight stemmed from a commitment to backing ventures that directly address pressing global challenges. This approach prioritizes companies capable of generating substantial, long-term impact through the application of cutting-edge technological advancements.
Helium-3 Ventures serves as a financial partner to early-stage companies within its target sectors. The firm’s overarching mission is to play a pivotal role in shaping the future trajectory of critical industries, ranging from energy and transportation to healthcare and manufacturing, by fostering the growth of its portfolio companies.
# Helium-3 Ventures: Backing Transformative Deep Tech
Helium-3 Ventures is a New York-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies building transformative technologies across multiple industries.[1] The firm's mission centers on backing founders developing innovative solutions in communications technology, renewable energy, space exploration, advanced materials, and other frontier sectors. Rather than chasing incremental improvements, Helium-3 Ventures targets companies addressing fundamental global challenges—from sustainable aviation to deep geothermal energy to humanoid robotics.
The firm's investment philosophy emphasizes long-term impact over quick exits. With a typical check size between $100K and $5M (sweet spot around $1.5M), Helium-3 Ventures positions itself as a patient capital provider for founders tackling moonshot problems.[1] The portfolio reflects this thesis: companies like Boom Supersonic (sustainable supersonic flight), Quaise (deep geothermal energy), Figure AI (general-purpose humanoids), and Space Forge (in-space manufacturing) represent the type of capital-intensive, technically ambitious ventures the firm prioritizes.[1][3]
Helium-3 Ventures was founded in 2021 by David Hendrickson, John Dauer, and Matthew Bellamy.[1] The timing of the firm's launch is notable—it emerged during a period of accelerating interest in climate tech, space commercialization, and AI-enabled hardware. The founders recognized a gap in the venture ecosystem: while many firms were chasing consumer software and fintech, fewer were systematically backing the deep technology companies that could reshape entire industries.
The firm's name itself signals its ambition. Helium-3, a rare isotope, represents both the frontier of energy research and the aspirational nature of the ventures it backs. This branding choice reflects the founders' conviction that transformative change requires looking beyond conventional wisdom and investing in technologies that seem audacious today but inevitable tomorrow.
Helium-3 Ventures operates with remarkable clarity about which problems matter. The firm concentrates on natural resources, energy & utilities, cleantech & sustainability, hardware/robotics/IoT, and software—sectors where technical depth and long development timelines are features, not bugs.[1] This focus allows the team to develop genuine expertise rather than spreading capital thinly across unrelated domains.
The firm's 22 investments span an impressive range of applications: contraceptive technology (Contraline), construction AI (Digibuild), humanoid robotics (Engineered Arts, Figure AI), sustainable materials (Genecis), space infrastructure (Stoke, Space Forge), and energy systems (Sage, Span, Runwise).[3] This diversity demonstrates the firm's ability to identify transformative potential across vertically distinct markets while maintaining coherent investment thesis.
Unlike venture firms optimized for 3-5 year exits, Helium-3 Ventures appears structured for longer holding periods. Companies developing deep geothermal systems, reusable rockets, or humanoid robots require 7-10+ year timelines to reach scale. The firm's willingness to support this timeline is a genuine differentiator in an ecosystem often obsessed with rapid returns.
The portfolio companies suggest a pattern: Helium-3 Ventures backs technical founders with domain expertise rather than pure business operators. Figure AI's founders came from robotics; Boom Supersonic's team has aerospace backgrounds; Quaise's leadership includes geothermal specialists. This founder-selection criterion reduces the risk of capital being deployed by entrepreneurs unfamiliar with their domain's technical constraints.
Helium-3 Ventures operates at the intersection of three major trends reshaping technology investment:
After years of venture capital flowing primarily to software and consumer internet, institutional capital is returning to hardware, materials science, and infrastructure. Helium-3 Ventures is part of this shift, recognizing that the most valuable companies of the next decade will likely be those solving physical-world problems—energy, transportation, manufacturing—rather than optimizing digital experiences.
The firm's heavy concentration in energy, cleantech, and sustainable materials reflects the reality that climate solutions have become economically rational, not just morally necessary. Companies like Sage (energy storage), Genecis (biodegradable plastics from waste), and Runwise (building optimization) address markets with tailwinds from both regulation and consumer demand.
Several portfolio companies—Machina (AI-powered metal fabrication), Exa (AI search infrastructure), Rain (neuromorphic hardware), Skillfully (AI hiring)—sit at the convergence of AI and physical systems. Helium-3 Ventures is positioned to benefit from the wave of AI applications moving beyond software into robotics, manufacturing, and infrastructure.
The firm's influence on the broader ecosystem is subtle but meaningful. By demonstrating that patient capital can back ambitious deep tech founders, Helium-3 Ventures helps legitimize longer time horizons and higher technical risk tolerance among other venture investors.
Helium-3 Ventures has positioned itself as a specialized player in an increasingly bifurcated venture landscape. While mega-funds chase AI software and growth-stage companies, and micro-funds support pre-seed founders, Helium-3 Ventures occupies a valuable middle ground: deep tech with conviction, patient capital with discipline, and sector expertise with portfolio diversity.
The firm's future influence will likely depend on portfolio company outcomes. If Figure AI achieves meaningful commercial traction in humanoid robotics, if Boom Supersonic successfully commercializes sustainable supersonic flight, or if Quaise's geothermal technology scales, Helium-3 Ventures will have demonstrated that deep tech venture investing can generate both impact and returns. This would validate the firm's thesis and potentially attract more capital to similar strategies.
The broader trend working in Helium-3 Ventures' favor is the growing recognition that venture capital's highest returns often come from solving hard technical problems, not optimizing existing markets. As energy costs rise, supply chains fragment, and climate pressures intensify, the companies Helium-3 Ventures backs—those building the infrastructure and materials of the next economy—may prove to be the decade's most valuable investments. The firm's early conviction on these themes positions it well to capture that value.
Key people at Helium-3 Ventures.
