Onto Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Onto Ventures (formerly ReGen Ventures, renamed on 13 July 2026) describes itself as "a frontier venture firm building future abundance, from the atomic to the cosmic." Its stated mission is to build the enabling technology that makes material and energy abundance real. The firm organizes its thinking around four themes shown on its site: Intelligence, Energy, Autonomy and Matter. Its writing covers protein foundation models, robotics for harsh environments ("Ultrarobots"), new materials, ocean infrastructure and the convergence of robotics and AI. Earlier positioning as ReGen Ventures was regenerative technology that restores ecosystems rather than only reducing harm; the rebrand widens that to frontier science and deep tech. Its LinkedIn tagline says it backs founders engineering solutions to existential challenges in climate, food, water and energy at the earliest stages.
Stage Focus
The firm invests at the earliest stages. The portfolio and recent rounds show seed leads (Actinide, March 2026; Electric Plant) and at least one Series A lead (BurnBot's $20M Series A, 2024). Onto says it partners with "a select number of founders" so it can give each of them everything it has. No stage focus is published on the website itself, so stage preferences here are inferred from deal activity.
Check Size
No check size is published. Fund I was a US$50M target (first close of US$20M announced in November 2021), and the firm says it works with more than fifty founders. Check size is therefore left unset.
Lead Tendency
The firm leads rounds. Evidence: it led Actinide's oversubscribed seed in March 2026, led Electric Plant's seed (announced October 2026), and led BurnBot's $20M Series A in 2024.
Recent Activity
- March 2026: led the oversubscribed seed round of Actinide, which later became the first startup to enrich natural uranium to HALEU.
- July 2026: rebranded from ReGen Ventures to Onto Ventures.
- October 2026: led the seed round of Electric Plant Company, which announced Bombadil, a foundation model trained on more than seven million hours of electrical recordings from over 125 plant species. Electric Plant has raised $11.2M in total.
- Fund status: Fund I (US$50M target, first close US$20M in 2021) is the only fund found. The firm is still actively adding companies, so it is treated as actively deploying.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio page lists 23 companies: Actinide, Aigen, Altered Systems, Anthrogen, Arch, Asterix, Banyu Carbon, BurnBot, CREW Carbon, Clean Crop Technologies, Differential Bio, Electric Plant Company, Face Plant, Foray Bioscience, Hum, Lavoit, Merino Energy, PACT, Recheck, Rhizocore, Seqana, Spinor Energy and Ulysses. Public coverage spans nuclear fuel (Actinide), protein foundation models (Anthrogen), wildfire robotics (BurnBot), solar-farm and agricultural robotics (Aigen, Ulysses), soil carbon measurement (Seqana), and carbon capture materials (Banyu Carbon). No exits were found.
Team
- Dan Fitzgerald, Founder and Managing Partner, Byron Bay and San Francisco. Former investment banker and hedge fund manager; founded the firm in 2020.
- Rose Marcario, Partner, Los Angeles. Former Patagonia CEO and Rivian board member.
- Tom McQuillen, Partner, Byron Bay.
- Sebastian Schiavuzzi, Chief Financial Officer, Byron Bay.
- Elena Klonsky, Senior Associate, Byron Bay.
- Erika Jurvetson, Associate, San Francisco.
- Uma Barnes, Data and Operations Analyst, Byron Bay and Melbourne.
- Advisory board includes Boyd Varty, Renee Beaumont, Cameron Adams, Carrie Ellen Phillips, Peter Gold, Alex Honnold, Rich Roll and Seth Godin.
Decision Process
Partnership model with three named partners. No decision timeline is published.
Founder Preferences
The firm backs unusually ambitious, science-driven founders working at the frontier of physical-world technology, and calls them "alien founders forging the frontier." It runs a fellowship program for high-agency early builders (ReGen Fellowship cohort 1 completed in 2025) and publishes long technical essays as a way of meeting founders.
Geographic Focus
Global. Headquartered in Byron Bay, Australia, with offices in San Francisco and New York, and a team presence in Stockholm. Portfolio companies are mainly US-based with some European (Differential Bio in Munich, Lavoit in Stockholm) and Australian companies.
Contact
Website onto.vc, email [email protected]. The website is thin: team page, portfolio list and essay titles only, with no stage, check size or fund size published. Several fields in this profile are inferred from press, LinkedIn and deal announcements and carry lower confidence.