Alumni Ventures Recognized as Top National Security VC
Big News: AV is a Top National Security VC
For nearly a decade, Alumni Ventures has been quietly — but fiercely — backing America’s national capabilities. Today, we’re proud to share: AV has been named a Top National Security VC investor. Why does this matter? Which portfolio companies at AV are included? Read on — together, we’re making the U.S. stronger.
Background: Why This Matters
The Silicon Valley Defense Group’s (SVDG) NATSEC100 ranks the top venture-funded startups in national security technologies. Comprehensive and data-driven, this list not only profiles the emergent techno-security ecosystem but also drives discourse on the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and the broader National Security Innovation Base (NSIB). For example, last year’s list sparked significant discussion and informed debate among policymakers, venture capitalists, and the press, highlighting the importance of innovation in national security.
This year’s list features 44 new companies, reflecting a broader assessment that includes non-traditional defense sectors like homeland security and AI-enabled synthetic biology.
Alumni Ventures was recognized alongside IQT, Lux, Founders Fund and others. This is the result of dedicated efforts to catalyze the community– not only by investing, but via ecosystem building too. For example, Alumni Ventures co-hosted NYC’s “Dual Use” community with Lockheed Martin and recently co-organized the first-of-kind “Nuclear Energy VC Summit” at Idaho National Laboratories.
Top 2024 NATSEC100 VC Investors
Alumni Ventures is honored to be recognized as a leader in national security investing.
Rank: #4
Lambda is a hybrid AI cloud infrastructure provider that offers on-site and cloud-based GPU computing infrastructure, along with a software stack for AI engineers and deep learning operations.
Rank: #9
Axiom is opening new markets in low-Earth orbit (LEO) through operating end-to-end missions to the International Space Station while privately developing its successor — a permanent commercial destination in Earth’s orbit.
Rank: #12
Groq’s single core chip, with its tensor streaming processor architecture, seeks to unleash the potential of AI by driving the cost of compute to zero
Rank: #20
Ursa Major is building turnkey rocket engines that can be used for a variety of applications and space markets.
Rank #40
ZeroAvia is enabling scalable, sustainable aviation by replacing conventional engines with hydrogen-electric powertrains,
Rank #55
Unstructured effortlessly extracts and transforms complex data for use with every major vector database and LLM framework.
Rank: #60
HawkEye 360 is a Radio Frequency (RF) data analytics company operating a commercial satellite constellation to identify, process, and geolocate a broad set of RF signals.
Rank: #64
Capella Space develops cost-effective SAR satellites that are able to see through clouds, at night, and even underground.
Rank: #67
Impulse Space creates orbital maneuvering vehicles for last-mile payload delivery that can transport multiple payloads to unique orbits from a single launch.
Rank: #96
TRM Labs provides blockchain intelligence to help government agencies, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency businesses detect, investigate, and mitigate crypto-related fraud and financial crime.
Rank: #100
Venus Aerospace focuses on hypersonic technology to improve global travel, enabling passengers to travel more quickly and efficiently. The company aims to build a plane that can travel across the globe in just an hour.
This recognition is just the beginning– we are doubling down on National Security tech innovation, launching a dedicated U.S. Strategic Tech Fund. If interested, we recommend securing a spot. This is your opportunity to invest in technologies vital to U.S. national interests in a portfolio of ~15-20 venture investments made over ~12-18 months — diversified by stage, sector, and geography.
This is how we win.
— U.S. Strategic Tech Team
Pete Mathias
Former Partner, U.S. Strategic Tech FundAlumni Ventures' U.S. Strategic Tech Fund was led by Former Partner Pete Mathias until July 2025, personally ranked by Business Insider as a Top Defense VC to Watch. Pete joined Alumni Ventures from the $1.5B+ venture capital arm of Bertelsmann, where he was a Senior Director across the European Union, China, and U.S startup ecosystems. Previously a fellow at .406 Ventures and alumnus of the Harvard Innovation Lab, Pete has substantial entrepreneurial and startup operating background. He has an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth, an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School, a Master’s with Distinction from Oxford, and a BA (magna cum laude) from Dartmouth. He has recently been selected as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Pete has a creative core as drummer for the indie rock band Filligar, which has been designated as “Cultural Ambassador” by the U.S. Department of State. He is an avid skier, marathon runner, and ice hockey player.
Drew Wandzilak
Principal, U.S. Strategic Tech FundDrew Wandzilak invests in breakthrough technologies that matter to the real world—systems that generate power, move hardware, secure nations, or decode biology. He focuses on companies operating in high-heat, high-speed, high-stakes environments where technical performance is existential and strategic value is measured in megawatts, meters per second, or mission success. Across aerospace, energy, and defense, Drew backs founders who don’t just pitch vision—they bend atoms, trajectories, and supply chains to make it real. Funds actively worked on: Yard Ventures Green D Ventures U.S. Strategic Tech Fund Investment Areas of Focus: His investment lens prioritizes platforms over point solutions, scale advantages rooted in physics or manufacturing, and mission alignment with long-term public interest. That includes nuclear reactors that deploy like data centers, orbital vehicles that reshape access to space, hypersonic systems built for rapid iteration, and genetic tools that bring diagnostics to the edge. These aren’t just technical moonshots—they’re foundational bets on how the next century will be powered, protected, and personalized. Drew led Alumni Ventures’ investment in Impulse Space, which is building the in-space logistics layer for a high-frequency orbital economy. He backed Aalo Atomics, a small modular reactor company designing standardized, factory-built nuclear power for grid-scale deployment. He also invested in Astro Mechanica, which is reinventing hypersonic aerospace testing for the modern battlefield, and Acorn Genetics, which is miniaturizing genomics to enable low-cost, distributed DNA testing anywhere. These companies reflect Drew’s broader strategy: to invest in enduring platforms that serve strategic industries and unlock decades of downstream innovation. He believes the next great venture outcomes will come not just from apps or algorithms, but from reengineering the physical world—and the infrastructure that underpins it.
Learn More About the U.S. Strategic Tech Fund
We are seeing strong interest in our U.S. Strategic Tech Fund. If you’d like to join us, we recommend securing a spot promptly.
Invest in technologies vital to U.S. national interests in a portfolio of ~15-20 venture investments made over ~12-18 months — diversified by stage, sector, geography, lead investor.
Max Accredited Investor Limit: 249
This communication is neither an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security or other investment. Such offers are made only made pursuant to formal offering documents that describe the risks (which are significant), terms and other important information that must be considered before an investment decision is made. Past performance does not guarantee future results. For additional information, please see here.