8090 Industries Research
Investment Thesis
8090 Industries is a New York-based venture capital firm founded in 2022 by Kerem Ozmen and Rayyan Islam. The firm backs "today's Carnegies and Rockefellers transforming the industrial complex," partnering with technical founders building breakthrough zero-carbon and hard-tech innovations that carry a clear economic advantage over incumbent industrial processes, not just an environmental one. The firm frames itself as a bridge between deep industrial expertise (its Operating Partners come from geothermal, energy, and industrial operating backgrounds) and early-stage capital, positioning itself as an operationally involved investor rather than a passive check-writer.
Sector Focus
8090 Industries concentrates on the "new industrial revolution" across:
- Industrial decarbonization and biological refining (e.g., Cemvita)
- Nuclear energy and radioisotope production (Oklo, Atomic Alchemy)
- Clean fuels: sustainable aviation fuel, e-fuels, green hydrogen (Infinium, Gold Hydrogen)
- Geothermal energy (Quaise)
- Fashion textile recycling (Circ)
- Edge compute, connectivity, and infrastructure software (Infraclear)
- Aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing (Varda Space Industries, Atomic Industries, Rilian Technologies)
- Supply chain resilience and sustainable coastal transport (Regent)
Broader coverage of the firm also lists biotech, healthcare, consumer, fintech, mobility, web3, and AI as opportunistic areas, but the overwhelming majority of disclosed activity sits in industrial decarbonization, energy, and hard-tech/defense.
Stage Focus
The firm invests primarily at pre-seed, seed, and select Series A, with occasional participation in later growth rounds for existing portfolio companies (it is a return investor across multiple rounds in names like Oklo).
Check Size
Typical entry check size is reported at roughly $500K–$5M, consistent with a pre-seed/seed-led early-stage strategy with selective follow-on reserves for winners.
Lead Tendency
8090 Industries operates as both a lead and a syndicate participant depending on the deal. It co-led Forge Industries' $3.85M seed round alongside Next Phase Capital in July 2026, but participated (without leading) in Rilian Technologies' $17.5M seed round led by 8VC, First In, and Tamarack Global in April 2026.
Recent Activity
The firm has stayed active through mid-2026:
- July 2026: Co-led a $3.85M seed round in Forge Industries, a waste-to-fuel biofuel company building its first U.S. commercial facility outside Las Vegas.
- April 2026: Participated in Rilian Technologies' $17.5M seed round for an AI-native cybersecurity and defense systems platform.
- March 2025: Portfolio company Atomic Alchemy (radioisotope production) was acquired by fellow portfolio company Oklo in a stock-and-cash deal, closing February 28, 2025 — a notable exit that also deepened the firm's nuclear-sector footprint.
- 2024: Portfolio company Oklo signed a landmark 500MW nuclear power purchase agreement with Equinix (with a $25M prepayment), and later completed its SPAC merger with AltC Acquisition Corp to go public.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable current and past portfolio companies include Oklo (public, nuclear micro-reactors), Cemvita (biological refineries; struck the largest sustainable aviation fuel offtake deal in history with United Airlines for up to 1 billion gallons of SAF), Gold Hydrogen, Circ, Infinium, Quaise, Exowatt, Regent, Maple Materials, Aquacycl, Infraclear, Calion Cooling, Armada, Atomic Industries, Varda Space Industries, Galvanick, Forge Industries, and Rilian Technologies. Atomic Alchemy was a realized exit via acquisition by Oklo in 2025.
Team
- Kerem Ozmen, CEO & Co-Founder — co-founded the firm in 2022 and leads overall strategy.
- Rayyan Islam, Co-Founder & General Partner — co-founder and GP, active on LinkedIn discussing portfolio company milestones.
- Wes Mendenhall, Partner
- Haluk Sabanci Dincer, Partner — background in sustainable technologies and environmental impact assessment.
- Ishan Meswani, Partner — fintech and consumer sector expertise.
- Shilpa Patel, Partner — healthcare/biotech focus, also associated with firm operations.
- Dominik Madani, Partner — mobility and transportation technologies.
- Charles Oppenheimer, Partner — market analysis and investment strategy.
- Fatimah Bello, Operating Partner
- David Deak, PhD, Operating Partner
- Ken Wisian, PhD, Operating Partner (Geothermal) — operating expertise supporting the firm's geothermal thesis (Quaise).
Decision Process
The firm runs a partnership model with a large bench of Partners and Operating Partners contributing sector-specific operating expertise alongside the investing GPs, rather than a solo-GP structure.
Founder Preferences
8090 Industries gravitates toward technical and industrial founders tackling capital-intensive, hard-tech problems where a breakthrough unlocks a clear cost or performance advantage over incumbents, rather than purely software-driven climate plays.
Geographic Focus
The firm has offices in New York, Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., and London, and invests globally but with a clear U.S. industrial and energy-corridor emphasis (Texas/Gulf Coast energy names alongside NY-based operations).
Fund Status
8090 Industries manages the 8090 Industries Zenith Fund, LP (~$200M) and the 8090 Industries Decarbonization Fund II, LP (~$90M), and is actively deploying capital as of mid-2026 given its July 2026 and April 2026 investments.