AE Ventures

AE Ventures Research

Investment Thesis

AE Ventures is the venture capital platform of AE Industrial Partners, LP (branded AeroEquity, founded 1998, rebranded AE Industrial Partners in 2014-2015), a $9.4B AUM private investment firm based in Boca Raton, FL with a second office in Washington, D.C. AE Ventures invests in early-stage companies tackling the most critical issues facing aerospace, national security, and industrial markets. The team describes itself as gravitating toward "brilliant founders who are addressing problems they've often faced firsthand," helping transform an excellent idea or product into a robust, scalable business. They position themselves as "the armor for companies selling into the government and large OEMs," helping startups bypass the valley of death and multi-year government procurement cycles to reach programs of record and sticky, recurring contracts — citing over $80M in revenue delivered to portfolio companies as a result.

Sector Focus

AE Ventures concentrates on aerospace, national security, and industrial technology, with recurring subthemes across the current portfolio: counter-drone and airspace security (Fortem Technologies), operational technology and platform cybersecurity (Shift5, Manifest, Second Front Systems), electrification and energy (Electric Power Systems, Last Energy, Salient Motion), simulation and autonomy tooling (Zeromatter, Code Metal), satellite communications (ALL.SPACE), space solar power (Solestial), and mission-critical decision software (Blank Slate Technologies, JuliaHub).

Stage Focus

AE Ventures self-describes as an early-stage investor, with initial checks historically spanning Seed through Series A/B as portfolio companies mature (e.g., early platform investments like Fortem and ALL.SPACE in 2019 vs. later additions like Blank Slate Technologies and Code Metal in late 2025). No formal published check-size range was found on the public site.

Lead Tendency

Partners Beckett Jackson and Tyler Rowe are both credited on the site with having "led" the firm's investments in named portfolio companies (Shift5, Solestial, Salient Motion for Jackson; Second Front Systems, JuliaHub, Tidelift for Rowe), indicating AE Ventures frequently leads or co-leads rounds rather than purely following.

Recent Activity

AE Ventures Fund I was formed in 2021 and Fund II launched in 2022, alongside Boeing's 2022 co-investment to anchor a $250M second venture fund (successor to the Boeing HorizonX Ventures program that AE Ventures head Brian Schettler originally founded). Recent disclosed initial investments include Blank Slate Technologies (December 2025), Last Energy (November 2025), Code Metal (October 2025), and Manifest (April 2025) — indicating an actively deploying fund as of early 2026. At the parent-firm level, AE Industrial Partners closed its main Fund III at $1.28B in July 2024, closed its second Aerospace Leasing Fund at $418M in May 2025, and closed the acquisition of L3Harris's Space Propulsion, Power and Electronics business (relaunched as Rocketdyne) in August 2026 — its largest disclosed platform deal to date. Total firm AUM has grown from roughly $6.2B (mid-2024) to $9.4B (mid-2026).

Portfolio Highlights

Active AE Ventures portfolio companies include ALL.SPACE (multi-network satellite terminals, London), Blank Slate Technologies (AI decision-support for mission-critical teams, NYC), Code Metal (AI-powered legacy code translation for defense/aerospace, Boston), Electric Power Systems (certified battery packs for Boeing, Bell, Embraer, Bye Aerospace, NASA; Logan, UT), Fortem Technologies (counter-drone radar and airspace awareness, Provo, UT), JuliaHub (cloud platform for the Julia programming language, Cambridge, MA), Last Energy (modular 20MWe nuclear microreactors, Washington D.C.), Manifest (AI/software supply-chain security, Westport, CT), Red 6 (AR synthetic training for military pilots, Orlando, FL), Salient Motion (electric motion operating system for aerospace/defense/auto supply chains, Irvine, CA), Second Front Systems (DevSecOps platform accelerating government SaaS adoption, Tysons, VA), Shift5 (OT cybersecurity for planes, trains, and tanks, Arlington, VA), Solestial (radiation-hardened space solar cells, Tempe, AZ), and Zeromatter (photorealistic simulation engine for autonomy/aerospace/robotics, Mountain View, CA). Team bios additionally reference board seats at Eos Aircraft, FLYR, Gamma Alloys, Near Earth Autonomy, Revolution Space, and Tidelift, and a prior board seat at Edge Autonomy before its 2025 sale to Redwire.

Team

• Brian Schettler — Partner, Head of AE Ventures. Founded Boeing HorizonX Ventures before joining AE Industrial in 2021; 20+ years in aerospace/defense strategy and corporate venture investing (Boeing, Cobham, ATK, Northrop Grumman).
• Tyler Rowe — Partner. Originally founded the early venture capital arm at AE Industrial in 2019; led investments in Second Front Systems, JuliaHub, and Tidelift.
• Beckett Jackson — Partner. Nearly a decade at Boeing (including the MQ-28A Ghost Bat program); led investments in Shift5, Solestial, and Salient Motion.
• Laurence Vigeant-Langlois, PhD — Partner, focused on business development and portfolio management across both PE and VC funds; board member at Eos Aircraft, FLYR, Gamma Alloys, Near Earth Autonomy, and Revolution Space; prior GE Aerospace and Sikorsky executive.
• Eugene Kim — Vice President; previously on AE Industrial's Private Equity team; ex-Boeing Corporate Development, ex-Sandler O'Neill.
• Chester Brown — Vice President; ex-VMO Air, H55, P2 Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley.
• Brett Johnson — Vice President; ex-Exome Asset Management, Lazard healthcare banking, and a former synthetic organic chemist at Amgen and Eli Lilly.
• Daniel O'Neill — Vice President; board seat at Electric Power Systems; prior corporate development roles at Latch, Shift Technologies, and Eventbrite.
• Lauren Graupman — Senior Associate; former Program Management lead at Knight Aerospace; Venture for America alumna.
• Laurel Grissom — Analyst; supports strategic investments and AE Shoals Manufacturing & Technology Center marketing.
• Ben Van Buskirk — Senior Advisor; retired Navy Captain, founding member of the Secretary of Defense's Office of Strategic Capital.

Decision Process

AE Ventures operates as a partnership within a larger institutional PE/VC platform (AE Industrial Partners), with a dedicated Head of Ventures (Schettler) and multiple partners sourcing and leading deals, indicating a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo-GP model.

Founder Preferences

The firm explicitly favors "brilliant founders who are addressing problems they've often faced firsthand" and makes "few, concentrated bets" so it can spend more time per founder. Its value proposition centers on deep relationships across the defense industrial base and operating experience helping founders navigate government procurement.

Geographic Focus

Primarily United States (concentration in the Northeast, DC-metro, and Southwest/West Coast defense-tech corridors), with at least one international portfolio company (ALL.SPACE, headquartered in London, UK).