Hico Ventures Research
Overview
Hico Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2023 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The fund focuses on two primary technology themes: artificial intelligence (with a long-term view toward artificial general intelligence) and blockchain/digital assets. Hico aspires to be the first institutional check in a startup's journey, investing at the pre-seed and seed stages.
The firm operates the Hico-Bow Joint Fund in partnership with Bow Capital, a University of California ecosystem fund. Key limited partners include SK Networks (an F500 conglomerate and anchor LP) and SK Magic. Through this partnership, portfolio companies gain exclusive access to the University of California network, sports and media relationships, and Silicon Valley's broader ecosystem.
Investment Thesis
Hico Ventures' AI thesis centers on "advancing AI to the extent that we achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI)" by backing venture-scale winners in infrastructure and middleware layers. Rather than chasing application-layer AI companies, Hico focuses on the foundational components that will power the AI economy — tooling, reasoning systems, orchestration layers, and enabling infrastructure.
For blockchain and digital assets, Hico invests in companies that either integrate with existing financial systems to enable regulatory compliance and institutional adoption, or that provide superior consumer/enterprise alternatives where existing financial infrastructure falls short. A key differentiator is Hico's willingness to back blockchain applications in traditionally non-crypto sectors such as healthcare claims, insurance, and enterprise data management.
Hico describes itself as "geography-agnostic" — willing to back the best founders globally — while remaining operationally rooted in Silicon Valley. The partnership with Bow Capital adds meaningful distribution reach into the UC ecosystem and institutional LP networks.
Stage Focus
Hico is an early-stage fund with explicit ambition to be the first institutional check in a company's life. Their typical entry points:
- Pre-seed: Concept stage with strong founding team
- Seed: Working product with initial market validation
They do not have a stated appetite for Series A or later, though they reserve capital for follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies.
Check Size
Hico writes initial checks of $250,000 to $1,000,000, with reserved capital maintained for follow-on participation in subsequent rounds. Given their partnership with larger institutional co-investors (including Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Surface, and Bow Capital), Hico typically participates as a collaborative, value-added investor alongside larger leads — though they will lead rounds for category-defining companies.
Team
Samuel Kim — Managing Partner Samuel Kim brings a background in investment banking and corporate development, with experience at Hico Capital, SK Networks, Lazard, and Macquarie Group. He has spent his career financing critical infrastructure projects (highways, ports, power plants) and establishing strategic partnerships across Asia, the Middle East, and the US. Having lived on four continents, he operates with a genuinely global perspective. Kim holds an MBA from London Business School. His investment philosophy centers on partnering with "razor-focused, purpose-driven founders" who embrace unconventional thinking and challenge the status quo.
Hardik Mittal — Partner Hardik Mittal studied Electrical Engineering at UCLA before joining Texas Instruments, where he led a distributed timing product line that grew to millions in ARR. He subsequently moved into venture at SK Networks' corporate venture arm, investing in startups and funds. Mittal focuses on backing founders who have genuine ambitions to be the best problem-solvers in their industries. He maintains an influential anonymous Twitter account in the tech community.
Nkechi Iregbulem — Founding Principal Nkechi Iregbulem is a prolific early-stage angel investor who joined Hico as Founding Principal to formalize her early conviction investing. She holds a BS in Business from University of the Pacific and has made over 20 investments to date, including first checks into companies such as Aeon, Neros Technologies, Laborup, Astrus, Coframe, Gradient, and Loop AI. Her focus spans defense, industrial revitalization, and AI for advanced hardware and design — areas tied to national resilience and frontier innovation.
Portfolio Companies
Hico's portfolio of seven announced companies reflects the dual AI/blockchain thesis with impressive range:
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Poetiq (poetiq.ai) — Self-improving inference-time reasoning system for LLMs. Led by former Google DeepMind researchers (Shumeet Baluja & Ian Fischer). Participated in $45.8M seed round (Jan 2026) alongside Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Surface, and others.
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Final Round AI (finalroundai.com) — AI-powered interview preparation and live interview coaching platform. CEO Michael Guan (previously founded and sold CYNK, a carbon credits trading platform). Participated in $6.88M oversubscribed seed round (Jan 2025).
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Merklebase (merklebase.io) — Digital asset data management for financial institutions, covering trade capture, portfolio management, risk, and accounting. CEO Hod Hirshman previously managed $1B at JP Morgan.
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Irys Insurtech (irys domain) — AI-powered agency management system for insurance brokers, automating front-to-back office workflows. CEO Margaux Giles brings 15 years of insurance industry experience. Targets the $1.2B legacy AMS duopoly.
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Medex Finance (medexfinance.com) — Healthcare insurance claims factoring platform enabling providers to access reimbursements upfront. Uses blockchain to reduce securitization costs and access crypto liquidity. CEO Akul Penugonda.
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Recur Software (recursoftware.com) — Acquires mission-critical software companies and drives post-acquisition growth via fintech and generative AI. Founded by alumni of Accel, Goldman Sachs, and General Atlantic who collectively deployed over $600M.
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Upside (upside.tech) — GTM revenue attribution and automation platform built on a knowledge graph. Founded by Branch alumni who scaled $100M+ ARR. CEO Mada Seghete.
Geographic Focus
Hico Ventures is geography-agnostic in its investment mandate but operationally based in Palo Alto/Silicon Valley. Its portfolio reflects primarily US-based startups, though the SK Networks LP relationship opens doors to Korean and Asian portfolio support for internationalization.
LP Relationships & Ecosystem Value
Hico's LP roster provides portfolio companies with meaningful strategic leverage:
- SK Networks (SK Group): F500 Korean conglomerate offering support for fundraising, internationalization, and business plan execution
- SK Magic: Strategic LP
- Bow Capital: UC ecosystem fund providing access to the University of California network, sports/media relationships, and Silicon Valley institutions
Assessment
Hico Ventures is a small but active early-stage fund with a clear dual thesis (AI infrastructure + digital assets), differentiated LP relationships (SK Group, UC ecosystem), and a growing portfolio of technically strong companies. With 7 portfolio companies announced and active deployment continuing into 2026, the fund is building meaningful deal flow. Check sizes of $250K–$1M position Hico as a high-conviction early partner rather than a lead fund, though they aspire to lead category-defining rounds. Their co-investor network (YC, 468 Capital, Bow Capital) suggests strong signal quality.