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Tower Research Ventures

tower-research.com/ventures · New York, NY

“Build and invest in category-defining companies at the earliest stages (incubation to pre-seed), leveraging Tower Research Capital's 25+ years of trading infrastructure expertise and technical depth to help founders succeed.”

$250K – $3M
Check Size
Leads & Follows
Lead Tendency
01Investment Thesis

Build and invest in category-defining companies at the earliest stages (incubation to pre-seed), leveraging Tower Research Capital's 25+ years of trading infrastructure expertise and technical depth to help founders succeed.

Exclusion Criteria

Consumer-only plays without technical depth. Companies that cannot benefit from Tower's infrastructure and trading expertise.

02Investment Team
JY
Jared Young
Director of Venture Capital
PD
Pietro Decio
Ventures Team
NB
Neel Baronia
Ventures Team
AS
Amelia Steinmetz
Ventures Team
FO
Frank Odom
Ventures Team
03F4 Research Brief

Tower Research Ventures Research

Overview

Tower Research Ventures is the venture capital arm of Tower Research Capital, a 25+ year old quantitative trading firm. The ventures team builds and invests in category-defining companies with the same enthusiasm and discipline that Tower applies to public markets.

Tower Research Capital was founded over 25 years ago and is home to the world's best quantitative trading teams, powered by a high-performance technology platform. The firm operates across any time horizon, any market, and any asset class. Tower Research Ventures leverages this deep technological expertise, trading infrastructure knowledge, and financial acumen to identify and support early-stage startups.

Investment Thesis

Tower Research Ventures combines unique technological expertise with thoughtful due diligence and market insight to find value before anyone else. They partner with startups in the earliest stages — from incubation to pre-seed — no company or idea is too early.

The team seeks bold ideas, thoughtful approaches, and intelligent people who are passionate about what they're building. They closely partner with portfolio companies, offering a diverse set of business, technical, and financial expertise to help them reach their goals — from product development to business development to fundraising and beyond.

Fund Details

  • Stage: Incubation, Pre-seed, Seed
  • Focus: Deep tech, AI/ML, crypto/web3, fintech, developer infrastructure
  • Location: New York, NY (Tower Research Capital headquarters)
  • Parent Company: Tower Research Capital LLC (25+ year old quantitative trading firm)
  • Approach: Active partnership with portfolio companies

Portfolio

Tower Research Ventures has invested in 18+ companies across crypto/web3, AI/ML, fintech, and developer infrastructure.

Crypto / Web3:

  • Alliance (alliance.xyz) — Leading crypto accelerator and founder community
  • Bluefin (bluefin.io) — Decentralized, order-book based exchange with high-performance trading infrastructure
  • Magna (magna.so) — One-stop solution for token-based companies to track token allocations
  • Quantstamp (quantstamp.com) — Global leader in blockchain security, securing billions in digital assets
  • Snarkify (snarkify.io) — Infrastructure and tools to build, deploy and scale Zero Knowledge Proof applications

AI / Machine Learning:

  • Assembli (assembli.ai) — AI-powered construction estimating solution
  • Atomic Canyon (atomic-canyon.com) — AI for nuclear energy sector, modernizing operations. Raised $7M Series A led by Energy Impact Partners (May 2025)
  • Caseblink (caseblink.com) — AI-powered immigration workflow automation
  • Pine Sports (pine-sports.com) — Sports analytics AI modeling platform for US sports bettors
  • Procurement Sciences (procurementsciences.com) — All-in-one AI platform for government contractors. Raised $30M Series B (Nov 2025)
  • Guard Owl (guardowlco.com) — AI for physical security transparency and automation

Fintech / Trading Infrastructure:

  • Sk3W Technologies (sk3w.net) — Levels the latency playing field, provides transparent access to trading ecosystem
  • Spline Data (splinedata.com) — Municipal bond price estimations using advanced mathematical models
  • Sporttrade (getsporttrade.com) — Modernizes sports betting with proprietary technology and capital markets expertise
  • SalesDraft (salesdraft.io) — Sales/finance tools
  • TXSE (txse.com) — Trading exchange infrastructure

Logistics / Supply Chain:

  • Mentium (mentium.io) — AI-powered payment automations for shippers, brokers, and factoring companies. Raised $3.2M (Oct 2025)

Insurance:

  • Arvor Insurance (arvorinsurance.com) — Insurance technology

Developer Tools:

  • Coplay (coplay.dev) — Developer tools/platform

Recent Portfolio Activity

November 2025: Procurement Sciences closed $30M Series B to accelerate AI platform for government contractors

October 2025: Mentium raised $3.2M to bring modern technology to freight brokerages

May 2025: Atomic Canyon raised $7M Series A led by Energy Impact Partners for AI-powered nuclear energy innovation

Lead Tendency & Decision Process

Lead Tendency: Both — Tower Research Ventures can lead rounds or participate alongside other investors.

Decision Process: Team-based — decisions made by the Ventures team with input from Tower Research Capital's broader technical and financial expertise.

Approach: Deep partnership model. The team works closely with founders, offering not just capital but access to Tower's technical infrastructure, trading expertise, and financial networks.

Founder Preferences

  • Technical founders — Those building deep technology (AI, crypto, infrastructure)
  • Early-stage — Incubation and pre-seed preference
  • Domain experts — Founders with deep expertise in their target market
  • Bold ideas — Category-defining ambitions

Sector Focus

  • AI/ML Applications — Applied AI across industries (construction, nuclear, legal, sports)
  • Crypto/Web3 — Infrastructure, security, ZK proofs, DeFi
  • Fintech — Trading infrastructure, payments, capital markets
  • Developer Tools — Infrastructure and platforms for developers
  • GovTech — Government contracting technology

Geographic Focus

  • Primary: United States
  • Secondary: Global (crypto/web3 is inherently global)

Events & Community

Tower Research Ventures hosts regular events in New York:

  • TRV Talk series — Technical discussions on topics like Applied ZKPs, Generative AI security
  • Speaker events — Featuring founders and technical experts from portfolio companies and broader ecosystem

Strategic Advantage

Being part of Tower Research Capital provides unique advantages:

  • Trading infrastructure expertise — 25+ years building high-performance systems
  • Technical depth — Access to world-class engineers and quants
  • Financial acumen — Deep understanding of markets, risk, and capital
  • Network — Connections across finance, technology, and crypto ecosystems

Contact

  • Website: tower-research.com/ventures/
  • Parent Company LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/tower-research-capital/
  • Location: New York, NY
  • Contact Form: Available on website for partnership inquiries
04Selected Portfolio
Climate & Sustainability
Atomic Canyon
Crypto & Web3
Bluefin
Enterprise Software
Assembli·Mentium·Procurement Sciences·Sk3W Technologies·Snarkify·Guard Owl·SalesDraft·Sharp Sports
Fintech & Payments
Alliance·Spline Data·Sporttrade·TSXE
Gaming
Pine Sports·Coplay
Insurance
Arvor Insurance
Legal & Regtech
Caseblink
Manufacturing & Industrial
Magna
Security & Cybersecurity
Quantstamp
Open the full portfolio→
05Recent Updates

Fresh signals from public announcements, essays, and portfolio activity.

See full activity (5) →
Published Part 2 of a thesis essay on the prediction markets opportunity.
ESSAY·tower-research.com
APR 16, 2026
Comprehensive analysis of prediction markets' regulatory and market evolution from 1988 to 2026, covering the path to Kalshi and Polymarket's recent regulatory breakthroughs.
ESSAY·tower-research.com+1
MAR 10, 2026
Led Guard Owl's $3M seed round in physical security automation alongside Pear Ventures.
INVESTMENT·tower-research.com+1
FEB 12, 2026
Essay on AI-powered services opportunities, arguing that building ground-up AI services businesses outperforms rollup strategies.
ESSAY·tower-research.com+1
NOV 17, 2025
Published an essay on cybersecurity threat vectors introduced by generative AI in the enterprise.
ESSAY·tower-research.com
SEP 29, 2025
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Quick Reference
Check Size
$250K – $3M
Stages
Pre-Seed · Seed
Decision
Partnership
Warm Intro
Not Required
Involvement
Advisor
Location
New York, NY
Sector Focus
Fintech & PaymentsEnterprise SoftwareDeveloper Tools & InfrastructureSecurity & Cybersecurity
Models
Deep TechCrypto/Web3FintechAI/ML
Technology
AI/MLBlockchainZero Knowledge ProofsTrading Infrastructure
See all Fintech & Payments investors →See all Enterprise Software investors →See all Developer Tools & Infrastructure investors →
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Focus Areas
Fintech & PaymentsEnterprise SoftwareDeveloper Tools & InfrastructureSecurity & Cybersecurity

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F4 Intelligence Report · Last Researched July 20, 2026F4 Research Engine