Boost VC

Know what the firm funds

• The firm's pages describe its focus in different ways. Check which description fits your company before you apply.
• The Winter Fellowship is aimed at founders building sci-fi tech, according to its pages.

How applications work

• The Winter Fellowship uses a form linked from its Fellowship page.
• Pre-seed investment has no public entry point. Its pages say next steps follow an initial call.

Before you apply

• Confirm whether founders based in India are eligible. The pages do not say.
• Check the deadline year on the form. The Fellowship page shows 1 December without a year.

Boost VC is a venture capital firm with its office in San Mateo, in the heart of Silicon Valley. It was founded in 2012 and invests in startups. It leads or co-leads pre-seed rounds, and it says most of its deals are pre-seed or Fellowship cheques.

What it invests in

The firm describes its focus in two ways that do not match. Its pages frame the mission in sci-fi terms, saying its aim is to make sci-fi a reality by investing in startups, and they describe the Winter Fellowship as aimed at founders building sci-fi tech. Its homepage, however, describes it as a generalist investor that has backed companies in fields ranging from nuclear reactors and satellites to electric boats. The firm also names the emerging and frontier categories it invests in: robotics, AI, bio, health, materials, space tech, computing, crypto, ocean tech, AR/VR, climate and energy, among others. This page does not choose between these descriptions. Check the current focus with the firm before you apply.

Cheque sizes and fund size

The firm's pages give different cheque sizes and fund figures, and the pages do not reconcile them. This page does not publish those figures. Ask the firm for the current terms before you plan around any number.

Who can apply

According to its pages, the Winter Fellowship is for founders building sci-fi tech who need a first backer to get going. The pages do not say whether founders based in India are eligible. The firm says it invests globally, but that does not settle eligibility for the Fellowship, so confirm it on the application form before you apply.

How to apply

For pre-seed investment, the site does not publish a public way in. Its pages say that next steps follow an initial call, and that the firm aims to give them within a week of that call. The Winter Fellowship is applied for through the form linked from its Fellowship page. That page lists a 1 December deadline without a year, so check the year on the form.

Scale

These are the firm's own figures, and they have not been checked independently. It says it invests in more than 70 startups every year. It says it makes more than 1,000 introductions a year to high-quality VCs for its portfolio startups. It also says it offers more than 50 internal discounts across cloud, finance, marketing, HR and hardware providers, and that founders can reach hundreds of active portfolio companies through an internal network. Its homepage refers to a new Fund 4. The pages do not say how these figures were counted, so treat them as claims rather than results.

Portfolio

The firm names Radiant Nuclear as one of its portfolio companies. Its pages say Boost VC led the company's Series D round and has backed it since its pre-seed round.

Beyond its first cheque, the firm says it is also willing to follow on in rounds, and that its portfolio has gone on to raise follow-on capital. The pages give no breakdown of which companies did so.

Who runs it

Adam Draper is listed as Managing Director and founder of Boost VC. The site describes him as a fourth-generation venture capitalist.

Locations

The firm's office is in San Mateo. Its pages say visiting founders can get free housing at Draper University, across the street from the office. They also describe a semi-annual Founder Summit, held at the San Mateo office for the firm's newest portfolio founders. It is not an open programme. Visiting founders should confirm the housing terms with the firm before they travel.