SOSV: The Deep-Tech Powerhouse Running HAX, IndieBio and 800+ Startups

SOSV is a global multi-stage venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Sean O'Sullivan and headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. It describes itself as the world's most active deep-tech venture capital firm investing at pre-seed — a claim backed by a genuinely distinctive model: SOSV runs world-class startup development programmes and writes the first cheque, then follows on through seed, venture and growth-stage rounds via its core and select funds.

The engine of the firm is its programme stack. HAX backs hard tech and hardware founders from facilities in Newark (New Jersey), Shenzhen and Tokyo; IndieBio supports human and planetary health startups with wet-lab infrastructure in New York and San Francisco; Orbit Startups targets emerging markets; and earlier programmes included Chinaccelerator, MOX and the Web3 programme dlab (spun out as a standalone fund). In 2024 SOSV closed SOSV V, a $306 million deep-tech fund dedicated to human and planetary health, following $25 million grants each from Empire State Development and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority for its New York and Newark facilities. The firm's latest reported assets stand at around $1.5 billion.

The scale numbers from the firm's own site are striking: more than 800 portfolio companies, $7.5 billion raised by portfolio companies between 2021 and 2025, 2,700 co-investors, 85,000 square feet of lab and office space, and founders with PhDs making up 44% of recent cohorts. SOSV invests in roughly 60 pre-seed startups per year through its programmes, with founders from 75 nationalities operating in 40 countries, and a third of its startups having at least one female founder.

• NotCo — AI-driven plant-based foods, Chile's breakout
• Upside Foods — cultivated meat pioneer
• Formlabs — 3D printing leader
• Opentrons — open-source lab robotics
• Perfect Day — precision-fermentation dairy
• unspun & Smartex — climate-tech manufacturing plays