BetterWay Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
BetterWay Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm founded in 2023 and headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina. The firm is led solely by GP and Founder Anthony del Porto. BetterWay's defining thesis centers on industrial sustainability hard tech — physical, non-software companies that reduce humanity's environmental footprint while being economically competitive with legacy alternatives.
The firm's core principle is what Anthony calls "no green premium": BetterWay exclusively backs startups where the sustainable solution is also the economically superior one, not just the environmentally friendly one. Green premium is treated as a deal-killer. As the first substantive document in any evaluation, Anthony requires a third-party techno-economic analysis demonstrating that the sustainable product can compete on price from day one.
Sector Focus
BetterWay invests exclusively in hard tech (non-software) green technology and industrial sustainability. Key focus areas include:
- Advanced materials: Carbon composites, sustainable conductive materials, next-generation alternatives to traditional industrial inputs
- Circular economy: Textile recycling, materials recovery, closed-loop manufacturing processes
- Electric mobility and propulsion: Next-generation motors and drivetrain components that reduce reliance on rare earth metals
- Sustainable construction and manufacturing: Digital manufacturing for homes, ADUs, precision-built structures
- Clean energy infrastructure: Enabling technologies for green industrial transformation
The firm explicitly avoids pure software plays and consumer-facing sustainability products. Their portfolio reflects deep industrial sectors: advanced carbon materials (DexMat), textile recycling (Ravel), next-generation electric motors (Torev Motors), digital construction manufacturing (Construx), and biotech-enabled sustainability (One.bio).
Stage Focus
BetterWay invests at Pre-Seed and Seed stages, typically aiming to be the first institutional investor in hard tech companies. They have led rounds as small as $650K and participated in seed rounds of $5M+.
Check Size
Specific check sizes are not publicly disclosed. Based on portfolio evidence, BetterWay's lead investment in Torev Motors' $650K pre-seed suggests checks of approximately $150K–$400K at pre-seed. Seed participation in larger rounds (DexMat, Ravel) likely represents $100K–$500K checks.
Lead Tendency
BetterWay leads pre-seed rounds and co-invests or participates at seed stage. They led Torev Motors' oversubscribed pre-seed round; they participated alongside At One Ventures in Ravel's pre-seed, and alongside non sibi ventures in DexMat's seed. This reflects a lead-at-pre-seed, follow-at-seed pattern common for early-stage solo GP funds.
Recent Activity
BetterWay has been actively deploying capital from Fund I since 2023:
- January 2026: Participated in DexMat's $5M+ seed round (Galvorn carbon conductor)
- March 2025: Participated in Ravel's pre-seed (textile purification recycling)
- November 2024: Invested in One.bio (industrial biotechnology)
- June 2024: Led Torev Motors' $650K pre-seed (next-gen electric motors)
The fund has made at least 5–7 investments in total as of early 2026.
Portfolio Highlights
DexMat (dexmat.com) — Houston, TX Develops Galvorn, a lightweight carbon-based conductive material as a high-performance alternative to copper. Targeting aerospace, defense, automotive, and energy wire/cable/EMI applications. 2.5x revenue growth in 2025, 20x production capacity increase, 96% production cost reduction since pre-seed. Named Trellis 2025 Startup of the Year.
Ravel / Ravelfuture (ravelfuture.com) — Seattle, WA Textile recycling startup using proprietary "purification recycling" technology to recover individual fibers from blended textile materials (e.g., cotton-polyester-spandex blends). Backed by At One Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Climate Capital, and BetterWay in March 2025 pre-seed.
Torev Motors (torevmotors.com) — Arlington, VA Makes next-generation electric motors using a patented double axial flux design that reduces reliance on rare earth metals and improves vehicle efficiency and performance. BetterWay led their $650K oversubscribed pre-seed in June 2024 alongside EcoSphere Ventures, Climate Avengers, and Intbox Ventures.
Construx (buildconstrux.com) — Charleston, SC Disrupting residential construction with innovative software and digital manufacturing technology allowing homes and ADUs to be precision-manufactured and rapidly assembled on-site without skilled framing labor.
One.bio — Biotechnology company focused on industrial sustainability applications. Invested November 2024.
Team
Anthony del Porto, GP & Founder Anthony holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech (2007) and spent several years doing industrial process automation before pivoting to fintech as COO of Questis, an early-stage financial wellness startup. This combination — deep technical credibility in hard physical systems plus firsthand experience building a high-growth software company — is central to BetterWay's investment approach. He brings genuine operational and manufacturing expertise to portfolio companies, not just capital.
As a solo GP, Anthony is the sole decision-maker, enabling fast, founder-friendly decisions without investment committee delays.
Decision Process
BetterWay is a solo GP fund. Anthony del Porto makes all investment decisions independently. This enables rapid decisions, typically without committee overhead. The firm evaluates deals using techno-economic analysis as the primary filter before any deeper diligence.
Founder Preferences
Anthony backs technical founders with deep domain expertise in hard physical systems. Key preferences:
- Companies that demonstrate profitability at small scale before building large manufacturing plants
- Circular economy business models with natural insulation from tariff and supply chain risk
- Founders who can clearly demonstrate economic competitiveness of their sustainable solution
- Skeptical of university spinouts with excessive equity structures (50%+ institutional equity can destroy cap tables)
Geographic Focus
US-based companies only. Portfolio spans the Southeast US (Charleston, SC), Mid-Atlantic (Arlington, VA), Pacific Northwest (Seattle, WA), and South-Central (Houston, TX).
Investment Approach
BetterWay's approach is thesis-first and technically rigorous. Anthony's background as a mechanical engineer who has built industrial systems gives him the ability to evaluate hard tech claims that most generalist VCs cannot. His anti-portfolio includes deals he passed on that still worked, but his conviction is in backing founders whose sustainability advantage is also their economic advantage — making the climate bet redundant because the business case stands alone.