Outlander VC

Founders raising pre-seed in 2026 are operating in a totally different environment. You can go from idea to MVP in weeks. Early decisions compound fast. And the choice of your first institutional partner matters more than ever. So we put together a curated Field Guide: 26 Pre-Seed VCs to Pitch in 2026. This isn’t a random list. These are firms actively backing founders at the earliest stages across AI, software, hard tech, defense, and legacy industries, including: Outlander VC, 640 Oxford, Antler, Behind Genius, Breakwater Ventures, Boost VC, Cade Ventures, Comma Capital, Critical VC, GoAhead Ventures, Hustle Fund, K9 Ventures, M25, PAX, Precursor Ventures, Protagonist, Untapped Ventures, and more. Each entry includes stage, check size, focus areas, and notable investments so founders can build a real fundraising strategy, not just a spreadsheet. If you’re raising pre-seed this year, this should save you weeks of work. If you’re an investor, send this to the founders you’re backing. And tag any amazing emerging VCs backing founders at the earliest stages in the comments so we can spread the word! 👉 Read the full Field Guide: https://lnkd.in/eYKMYyqk #preseed #venturecapital #fundraising #founders #startups #VC

We are thrilled to announce our investment in MATERIAL’s $7.1M seed round, co-leading alongside Harpoon to support an extraordinary team and their vision to redefine energy storage. When we first met Gabe, Miles, and Chris last year it was immediately clear they were special founders with world-class technical depth and a bold mission to reinvent how batteries are made. Material’s HYBRID3D technology enables energy to take any form, unlocking performance and design possibilities that were previously impossible. This is exactly the kind of category-defining potential Outlander loves to back, and we could not be more excited for what’s ahead. Jordan Kretchmer AJ Smith Gabe Elias Christopher Reyes, PhD Miles D. GoAhead Ventures, Myelin VC, Demos, and Giant Step Capital #startups #funding #vc

We’re excited to share that Kairo, an Outlander portfolio company, is hiring a Founding Product Designer. Kairo is building the next generation of mental training for athletes. Using advances in LLMs, they’re making elite tools like visualization and mental rehearsal personalized, accessible, and genuinely effective. Since launching in September, the platform is already being used by hundreds of athletes across 15+ sports, including D1 athletes, NBA players, elite runners, and Olympians. They’re now looking for a founding designer to help shape the product, the experience, and the category as Kairo becomes the mental training platform for athletes and coaches worldwide. If you care about performance, human potential, and building from day zero, this is a rare opportunity. Apply now: https://lnkd.in/ewXUMeek

We just led Terranova’s seed round with Congruent Ventures to back a company that is literally reshaping the world beneath our feet. Laurence Allen and Trip Allen are obsessive, brilliant builders who fuse robotics and AI into an army of machines that analyze the ground below and then physically lift and stabilize it. Flooding and land subsidence cost the U.S. over $180B every year, part of a multi-trillion dollar global challenge, and this team is tackling it with rare vision and execution. Highways, coasts, farms, cities...they can all be protected and transformed by what Terranova is building. We couldn’t be more excited to back these founders as they launch a new era of industrial innovation. Learn more: www.terranova.inc AJ Smith Jordan Kretchmer Paige Craig GoAhead Ventures Phil Brady Kevin Kopczynski Ponderosa Ventures Gothams #startups #fundraise #climatetech #robotics

Lula Commerce just raised an $8M Series A, led by SEMCAP, with participation from Rich Products Ventures, GO PA Fund, NZVC, UP.Partners, Green Circle Foodtech Ventures, and Outlander VC. The idea behind Lula started when 🏪 Adit Gupta watched his family’s convenience store struggle - and eventually shut down - during the height of COVID. He realized that while 155,000+ convenience stores serve 160M people in America every day, fewer than 10% offered any form of online ordering or delivery. That insight became Lula Commerce: an AI-powered operating system helping convenience retailers get online. Lula unifies delivery apps, powers branded online ordering, and automates operations. Today, Lula powers 2,000+ retailers across the U.S. - including Circle K franchisees, Jacksons, United Pacific, and dozens of regional chains - transforming how an entire industry goes digital. Proud to have backed Adit and the Lula team early on in their journey and proud to support them as they modernize one of the largest offline sectors in America! #AI #transformativetech #RetailTech #OutlanderVC #PortfolioCompany #startups #founders

We are moving very fast to deliver next-gen undersea technology, and my co-founder John Huddleston and I are honored to have some incredible backers supporting our team. Albacore Inc. (YC S25) has closed a $6.5m round led by Outlander VC, with participation from D3 Venture Capital Firm, Y Combinator, BoxGroup, Heliad AG, UA1 VC, Liquid 2 Ventures, Rsquared VC, Brave Capital, Channel 39 Ventures, R-G AI, Crosscourt Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Karman Ventures, 468 Capital, Virgo Venture Capital, and Spot VC. Also grateful to have stellar angels investors and founder friends like Soren Monroe-Anderson, Devan Plantamura, Russell Smith, Pete Mathias, Cory Levy, Max Glik, Ethan Gibbs, Kevin Dackow, and Abe Burns in our corner. There are truly too many supporters to mention in this post, we appreciate you all. Special thanks to Eveline Buchatskiy and the D3 Venture Capital Firm team for your heroism that extends far beyond being our first institutional backers, Sam Russo and Bill Lebo of Channel 39 Ventures for helping pave the path we walk on, Jared Friedman at Y Combinator for all your efforts to bring hard tech to Silicon Valley, and last but certainly not least Paige Craig and AJ Smith for tirelessly supporting the small but mighty Outlander VC natsec ecosystem. 10 months ago, Albacore was just a napkin idea. Since then we’ve put drones in the water and blown up boats, and we are just getting started. If you want to support American reindustrialization and undersea dominance, reach out or come find us in Philadelphia, PA. 🇺🇸 https://lnkd.in/ezTKHZzE

Founders — we want YOU. Yeah, you. The ones who’ve pitched in the trenches. The ones who’ve pulled an all-nighter, shipped a product at 4 a.m., and then raised a round with a smile that said, “Everything’s fine.” I spent 15 years in the military and war zones, and I’ve seen a lot of chaos. But nothing — and I mean nothing — prepares you for startup life. It’s chaos with a cap table. That’s why at Outlander, we’re not looking for bankers or analysts. We’re recruiting founders — scarred, stubborn, brilliant weirdos who know what it takes to build something from nothing — to join our investor team. If you’ve fought through the mud of building, you can help the next generation win their battles. This isn’t a cushy VC gig. It’s a mission. 👉 Check out the role: https://lnkd.in/e7Zp8SB8 ⚡️ No tourists. No spectators. Only founders.