Calibrate Ventures — Research Report
Overview
Calibrate Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Pasadena, California. Founded in 2017 by Jason Schoettler and Kevin Dunlap — both veterans of Shea Ventures, a family office — Calibrate backs visionary founders leveraging deep tech to transform major industrial sectors. The firm raised an $80 million debut fund in 2018 and a $97 million Fund II in December 2021, bringing total committed capital to approximately $177 million. Calibrate operates as a partner-led firm with no junior investment staff, emphasizing deep operational involvement with each portfolio company.
Investment Thesis
Calibrate's thesis centers on what it calls "Industrial Revolution 2.0" — the belief that global industry is undergoing its most profound technology transformation in over a century. The firm identifies technical breakthroughs positioned to address large-scale market opportunities with proven, near-term applicability. Calibrate specifically backs AI, computer vision, machine learning, robotics, and automation companies that are generating early recurring revenues (typically below $5M ARR) and are ready to scale. The firm invests across five target macro-industries: (1) Transportation & Logistics, addressing a 50% projected freight growth by 2050; (2) Food & Agriculture, targeting doubled food demand by 2050; (3) Healthcare, targeting the 12 million annual misdiagnoses problem in the US; (4) Manufacturing, addressing a projected 2.1 million job shortage by 2030; and (5) Enterprise Services, including legal, finance, and education technology driven by AI automation.
Stage Focus
Calibrate invests at Pre-Seed and Seed stages, preferring to be among the first institutional investors in a company. They have made follow-on investments as companies mature but their primary entry point is early-stage.
Check Size
Calibrate does not publicly disclose specific check sizes. Based on fund sizes ($80M Fund I, $97M Fund II) and a portfolio of ~28 companies across both funds, typical checks are estimated in the $1M–$7M range for initial investments, with reserves for follow-on. The firm has led rounds in companies including TruckLabs and Collaborative Robotics.
Lead Tendency
Calibrate frequently leads rounds, as evidenced by their documented lead role in TruckLabs (2021) and early/lead positions in Collaborative Robotics and FarmWise. They are also known to co-invest with firms including General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures (both participated in Collaborative Robotics' Series B alongside Calibrate as an existing investor).
Recent Activity (2023–2025)
- May 2025: Invested in SigIQ's $9.5M seed round — an AI-powered personalized tutoring platform serving students in India and the US.
- 2024: Added three new portfolio companies — Sensei Robotics, Prorata.ai, and SigIQ.
- 2024: Collaborative Robotics (portfolio company) raised $100M Series B led by General Catalyst. Calibrate was an existing investor from the seed round.
- 2024: GrayMatter Robotics (portfolio company) raised $45M Series B led by Wellington Management, with Calibrate as an existing investor.
- January 2024: Katie Vasquez joined as an Investor, expanding the investment team.
- November 2023: Portfolio company TruckLabs was acquired by ConMet, a global manufacturer, marking a successful exit for Fund I.
Portfolio Highlights
Calibrate has backed 27+ companies across both funds:
Robotics & Automation:
- Collaborative Robotics (co.bot) — mobile collaborative robots; raised $140M+ total
- Gray Matter Robotics (graymatter-robotics.com) — AI robotics for manufacturing; raised $65M+ total
- Built Robotics (builtrobotics.com) — autonomous construction equipment
- FarmWise (farmwise.io) — autonomous farming robots
- Sensei Robotics (senseirobotics.com) — robotic picking and warehouse automation
- Sydekick Robotics (sydekick.bot) — robotics for industrial applications
- TruckLabs (trucklabs.com) — aerodynamics tech for trucks; acquired by ConMet in 2023
Healthcare & Life Sciences:
- Regard (withregard.com) — AI diagnostics platform for clinicians
- Manifold (manifold.ai) — AI-powered clinical research acceleration (10x faster)
- Oxipital AI (oxipitalai.com) — AI medical imaging
AI & Enterprise Software:
- aiXplain (aixplain.com) — AI platform for developers and enterprises
- Howso (howso.com) — explainable AI infrastructure beyond LLMs
- Parallel Domain (paralleldomain.com) — synthetic data generation for AI training
- SigIQ (sigiq.ai) — AI personalized tutoring platform
- Flux (askflux.ai) — AI for enterprise workflows
- KronosAI (kronosai.co) — AI-powered enterprise solutions
- Vibranium (vibraniumlabs.ai) — AI infrastructure
- FortyFive Labs (fortyfive.ai) — AI applications
Legal & FinTech:
- Trellis (trellis.law) — state trial court document digitization and AI litigation tools
- Realized (realized1031.com) — 1031 exchange and real estate investment platform
- Prorata.ai (prorata.ai) — AI for content licensing and payments
Other Deep Tech:
- EeroQ (eeroq.com) — quantum computing
- Grid.Aero (grid.aero) — aerospace/drone technology
- Rangeview (rangeview.co) — precision agriculture/data
- Broadly (broadly.com) — SMB business management software
- Feedback Loop/Disqo (disqo.com) — customer insights platform
Team
Jason Schoettler, Co-Founder and Managing Partner — Previously an investor at Shea Ventures (family office) where he backed companies including Ring, SolarCity, Dollar Shave Club, Chegg, and ServiceMax over two decades. Recognized in the 2020s as a leading LA-area VC. Based in Pasadena, CA.
Kevin Dunlap, Co-Founder and Managing Partner — Former partner at Shea Ventures, with a background in mechanical engineering. Previously invested in Ring, SolarCity, and other breakout consumer and industrial tech companies. Combined experience with Schoettler of 45+ years in deep tech investing.
Katie Vasquez, Investor — Joined Calibrate in January 2024, bringing a fresh perspective to investment strategy.
Nick Nolan, VP of Capital Formation and Corporate Development — Manages LP relations and corporate strategy.
Daniel Murray, Venture Partner — Provides operational support and domain expertise.
Paolo Pirjanian, Venture Partner — Robotics expert, joined as venture partner in 2021.
Advisors include Dr. Henrik Christensen (robotics professor, UC San Diego, co-founder of Robust.AI) and Don Barnett (former CEO of Sun Basket, serial food-tech operator).
Geographic Focus
Calibrate invests throughout the United States, with particular strength in the West Coast. Portfolio companies span Pasadena/LA, the Bay Area, Seattle, and other US hubs.
Decision Process
Calibrate operates as a partnership model with two managing partners (Schoettler and Dunlap) making decisions jointly. The firm emphasizes domain expertise and long-term founder relationships over transactional dealmaking. They self-describe as a "partner-only" firm with no junior investment professionals on the investment team.
Founder Preferences
Calibrate backs visionary technical founders who are scaling proven deep tech (AI, robotics, computer vision) for large industrial problems. They prefer founders who are generating early recurring revenues and are ready for institutional support. Prior industry expertise is valued — many portfolio founders have domain expertise in construction, agriculture, healthcare, or manufacturing.
Anti-Thesis
Calibrate does not invest in pure consumer apps, social media, cryptocurrency/blockchain, or companies that are pre-product. They also avoid companies where the technology is not yet demonstrably market-ready or where the founder lacks domain knowledge in the target industry.