Halcyon Futures Research
Investment Thesis
Halcyon Futures is a hybrid nonprofit grantmaker, incubator, and venture capital firm founded by Mike McCormick (started around October 2023, publicly launched under the "Halcyon Futures" brand in 2025). Its thesis is that the single biggest bottleneck to addressing the risks of transformative AI is a shortage of exceptional founders and leaders willing to build the technologies and institutions needed to make AI go well for humanity. Rather than investing purely for financial return, Halcyon backs mission-driven builders in AI safety, biosecurity, and critical cybersecurity with "whatever they need" — grants, equity investment, career-transition support, introductions, and community. The venture capital arm operates alongside the nonprofit (sometimes referred to externally as "Halcyon Ventures") and frequently invests in companies it has already supported at the pre-institutional stage via grants or incubation.
Sector Focus
Halcyon concentrates on four areas of concern tied to transformative AI:
- AI Safety & Alignment (interpretability, evaluations, red-teaming, oversight)
- Biosecurity (biodefense, pathogen detection, biosecurity infrastructure)
- Cybersecurity (AI-enabled and AI-directed cyberattack defense, agent security)
- Governance & Policy (legal, diplomatic, and organizational infrastructure for responsible AI development)
Stage Focus
Halcyon typically engages "at the founding stage" — often before a company has formally incorporated, via a grant or incubation relationship that can convert into an equity investment as the company matures (e.g., Goodfire received a career-transition grant before Halcyon later invested in every subsequent round). This places most of its activity at pre-seed and seed, with selective follow-on into later rounds for portfolio companies it has backed from the start (e.g., Goodfire's Series B).
Check Size
Halcyon operates across three capital vehicles with different check sizes:
- Career transition grants: up to $500K
- Nonprofit seed grants: up to $1M, often wired within days
- Venture capital investments: up to $1M initially, "and sometimes much more" for follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies
Lead Tendency
Not clearly stated on the website. Halcyon appears to act primarily as an early, mission-aligned backer and frequent follow-on participant (e.g., "Invested in Every Round" for Goodfire) rather than a traditional lead investor on institutional rounds, which are typically led by larger VC firms (Goodfire's Series B was led by B Capital; AIUC's Series A was led by Ribbit Capital).
Recent Activity
- February 2026: Portfolio company Goodfire closed a $150M Series B at a $1.25B valuation, led by B Capital. Halcyon has invested in every round since making Goodfire founder Eric Ho a career-transition grant.
- September 2026: Portfolio company AIUC (Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company) raised a $40M Series A led by Ribbit Capital and First Harmonic, bringing its total raised to $55M following a $15M seed.
- The firm reports having launched more than 25 new organizations and companies, supported 150 career transitions, and helped its network raise more than $400M in follow-on funding to date.
Portfolio Highlights
Halcyon's portfolio and grant/incubation network spans AI safety, security, and biosecurity companies, including Goodfire (AI interpretability, $150M Series B, $1.25B valuation), AIUC (AI agent certification and insurance infrastructure, $40M Series A), Transluce (nonprofit AI research lab for understanding frontier models, co-founded by Jacob Steinhardt and Sarah Schwettmann, Halcyon-founded grant recipient and board seat), Hadrian (precision manufacturing/aerospace supply chain), Gray Swan (AI red-teaming and safety evaluation), Haize Labs (AI robustness testing), Red Queen Bio (biosecurity), Andon Labs, Depthfirst, Softmax, Kradle, Lucid Computing, Theorem Labs, Seismic, Fathom, Confident Security, and Archia, among others. Workshop Labs, a former portfolio company, was acquired by Thinking Machines.
Team
- Mike McCormick, Founder & CEO — Started Halcyon in 2023; has publicly discussed helping the network raise $300M+ in funding.
- Michael Chang, Partner, Biosecurity — Leads the firm's biosecurity focus area.
- Shelby Summerfield, Head of Operations — Based in New York; runs day-to-day operations.
- Ross Matican, Investor — Co-leads mentorship streams (e.g., MATS program) alongside McCormick.
- Charlie Petty, Venture Partner — Co-founded an initiative at Stripe focused on reducing the threat of respiratory viruses (biosecurity background).
- Max Henderson, Venture Partner — Co-founder and CEO of Ergo Impact; philanthropist and investor who has helped incubate, operate, and fund numerous organizations; also a board member at AVERI, a Halcyon-backed organization.
- Nick Raushenbush, Operating Partner — Operating partner supporting portfolio and incubated organizations.
Decision Process
Halcyon operates as a small partnership of investors and venture/operating partners under Founder & CEO Mike McCormick, rather than a solo-GP structure or large investment committee. The firm emphasizes speed, describing itself as able to wire grant money within days.
Founder Preferences
Halcyon seeks "talented, experienced, mission-driven leaders" — founders, operators, and researchers ready to build in AI safety, biosecurity, cybersecurity, or AI governance. It explicitly supports people at "career inflection points," including researchers and operators transitioning out of frontier AI labs, academia, or large companies into founding roles, and maintains an open "Request for Founders" application rather than requiring a warm introduction.
Geographic Focus
Team members are based in the US (San Francisco Bay Area and New York), and the firm's legal entity is registered in Santa Monica, CA. Its portfolio and grantee network is overwhelmingly US-based, with a deep network across frontier AI labs, startups, nonprofits, VC firms, philanthropic funders, and governments.