Foundamental Research
Investment Thesis
Foundamental is a specialist venture firm for what it calls the "project economy": CapEx-heavy, project-based sectors that "stack atoms." Its focus is construction and AEC (architecture, engineering, construction), building materials, infrastructure, renovation, 2D/3D and computer-aided design, and heavy-industry supply chains. Opportunistically it invests in lot-size-1 manufacturing such as shipbuilding, and in aerospace and defence where the work has project characteristics. The firm says it makes no investments outside these sectors.
Its core method is hunting "vertical singularities": opportunities hidden from generic investors but obvious to industry insiders ("hidden in spite of obvious"). It looks for companies that build or own capacity (cloud manufacturers, robotics operators, vertical neobanks, vertical integrators, forward-deployed AI wedges) rather than pure-play software, arguing software is only 2-3% of project spend while materials, labor, machinery and working capital make up about 85%. It favors compounding optionality, meaning multi-product "capacity bathtubs" such as ERPs, systems of record and authoring tools, and inverted cost models that convert variable costs into fixed-cost capacity sold on usage.
Stage Focus
Pre-seed, seed and Series A, with initial investments up to Series A and B. The firm says it invests "as early as day zero" and leads first institutional rounds.
Check Size
First cheque of $500K to $5M. More than 50% of fund capital is reserved for follow-ons, and the firm has pre-empted large follow-on rounds in portfolio companies.
Lead Tendency
Leads first institutional rounds, but is comfortable being the only investor or building a syndicate alongside others.
Fund Status and Recent Activity
Founded January 2019 with $60M in commitments and now manages more than $300M across three funds. Fund II closed at $85M in December 2022 (TechCrunch). The letter, updated January 2026, says that as of late 2025 and its third fund the firm is "flush" with capital, so it is actively deploying. Recent public content includes the Rayon EUR 10M Series A announcement, the State of AEC-Tech Q1 2026 report, a robotics foundation models essay and a monthly AEC-Tech Internet Index. It also runs the AEC VC podcast and Foundamental University, a founder masterclass series.
Portfolio Highlights
The firm reports 145 investments across 22 countries, $6.5B combined portfolio valuation, $2.3B of capital raised by portfolio companies, more than 90% follow-on funding rate, 7 companies above $100M annualized revenue and 10 net-profitable. Highlights:
- Infra.Market (India, building materials, MARS invested $50M at a $2.5B valuation in 2024)
- Tazapay (cross-border trade payments, backed by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia)
- Speckle (open-source AEC data hub, $12.5M raise)
- Snaptrude (building design, Series A 2023)
- Enter (home energy renovation, EUR 19.4M Series A 2023)
- Brick & Bolt (tech-enabled home building)
- Faktus (SMB contractor financing, France)
- Metalbook, PermitFlow, Monumental, Rayon, CarbonBuilt, SafeAI, HoloBuilder
Team
- Patric Hellermann (investing)
- Shub Bhattacharya (investing)
- Irénée Martre (investing)
- Fabio Bronzin (investing)
- Jon Schröder (investing)
- Gabriele Tinelli (investing)
- Jacopo Siniscalco (investing)
- Dustin DeVan (advisor)
- Nina Weidenauer (Head of Communications)
- Ed Korenblum (Chief of Staff)
- Anton v. R. (Engineering) and Krithi Ravindra (Content) on the platform team
Decision Process
A small, unified investment committee in which every investment team member participates weekly. Teams are spread across North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, embedded in local markets but deciding globally. Patric Hellermann publicly states his KPI is replying to every founder WhatsApp within 60 minutes.
Founder Preferences
Founders with deep vertical insight and empathy for contractors, manufacturers, procurement and supply-chain users. It favors founders who can run 5-10 parallel experiments with forensic ROI visibility, and who are told they are "too early." It avoids category clones and herd-driven categories (quick commerce, BNPL, enterprise carbon accounting, solar installers).
Geographic Focus
Global, with no restriction: more than 22 countries and 75 geographies across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa. The portfolio skews to India, Europe and North America.