Hat-Trick Capital Research
Investment Thesis
Hat-Trick Capital is a Palo Alto, California venture firm, founded in late 2021 by Managing Partner Peter (Junguang) Pan, who spent roughly a decade in strategic and financial leadership roles at global corporations, including initiating ventures at Amazon. The firm describes itself as Silicon Valley-based and backed by multi family offices, with about $100M in assets under management. Its name is its thesis: like a hat-trick in sports, a startup needs team, market and product all at once, which is rare and game-changing. It looks for ambitious teams with complementary expertise, legacy markets primed for disruption, and products built to deliver. It also says it supports immigrant founders who are ruthless in execution, and its tagline is Backing visionary founders to build the future of technology.
Sector Focus
Three focus sectors, per the firm's site:
- Agentic AI (B2B and B2C): autonomous decision-making systems replacing traditional software, from enterprise copilots to consumer assistants. The firm says 36 of its roughly 70 portfolio companies sit here.
- Robotics (atoms plus bits): automation infrastructure for warehouses, manufacturing and service work, and full-stack robots that bridge AI, hardware and the real world (about 16 companies).
- Consumer tech (habit-making): AI-powered experiences, new platforms and innovative hardware that change consumer habits (about 18 companies).
Third-party profiles also show earlier exposure to enterprise SaaS, web3 infrastructure (Consensys, Sui) and logistics (UniUni, Kargo), so the portfolio is broader than the current three-sector pitch.
Stage Focus and Check Size
Pre-seed through Series A, with checks of $1M to $3M stated on the firm's site. Aggregator profiles list $500K to $3M. Tracxn records first-round entries mostly at Seed (5) plus Series B (2, including Gency AI). Seed rounds it joins are often large, with round sizes from about $3M to $12M.
Lead Tendency
ConnectLab labels the firm as leading rounds. The public deals found (Respan, AdsGency, Gency AI) show participation alongside a named lead (Gradient, XYZ Venture Capital). Lead tendency is therefore unclear and left as unknown.
Recent Activity
- March 2026: participated in Respan (formerly Keywords AI) $5M seed led by Gradient, with Y Combinator.
- March 2026: participated in Gency AI's $20M round with TikTok, HF0, XYZ, Streamlined Ventures and others.
- October 2025: participated in AdsGency's $12M seed led by XYZ Venture Capital.
- October 2025: follow-on into TestSprite seed (first invested November 2024 alongside Techstars).
- PitchBook lists a May 2026 investment in Nara Health and counts 82 investments in total.
- The homepage lists recent investments in Kylon, Aether Manufacturing, Synphony Robotics and Generalist AI.
The site claims about 70 portfolio companies; Tracxn counts 25 and PitchBook 82, so counts differ by source. The firm appears actively deploying.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable names: UniUni (parcel delivery, Series D March 2026), Rescale (HPC platform), Consensys and Sui Foundation (web3), Portside (aviation fleet software), TestSprite (AI testing), Respan, Kargo and Botrista. Tracxn lists three acquired portfolio companies: Vertify (to Digibee, November 2025), WorkRamp (October 2025) and Tranch (January 2025). The site shows 0 unicorns in its stat block while Tracxn flags Consensys as a unicorn.
Team
- Peter (Junguang) Pan, Managing Partner: founder; University of Oregon; ex-Amazon and corporate strategy and finance.
- Gary Lin, Partner: based in Hong Kong per Tracxn.
- Carl Hinrichsen, Venture Partner.
- Candice Liu, Principal: ex-Apple, ex-IMF.
- Patrina Fan, Chief of Staff (listed as Principal by Tracxn).
- Cai Chen, Investor.
The site offices list Palo Alto, New York and Hong Kong.
Decision Process
The firm says it is run by a solo GP and a small team, one person makes the call, and a first conversation can become a term sheet in days, not quarters. The decision process is solo GP.
Founder Preferences
Immigrant founders, ambitious teams with complementary expertise, ruthless execution, and builders who have shipped in the category. A bench of 15+ domain experts across PLG, B2B growth, marketing and supply chain supports portfolio companies from MVP to product-market fit to early growth.
Research Output
The firm publishes research: an interactive AI Agent TAM Atlas comparing software and labor markets across 201 tracks (April 2026) and a paper on trading products research in the era of large language models (July 2025).
Geographic Focus
Primarily the United States, with some investments in Canada and Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong network).