Ground Up Ventures and Microsoft Israel R&D launch program for moonshot ideas
Ground Up Ventures and Microsoft Israel R&D launch program for moonshot ideas
The Liftoff program is designed to support 10 companies each year. It will focus on projects that solve significant and challenging problems such as energy supply, energy storage and smart grid, food security for a growing population, smart construction and sustainable construction, defense and the future battlefield, and infrastructure for a modern labor market
The venture capital fund Ground Up Ventures, which invests in early-stage startup companies, is launching the Liftoff program in collaboration with Microsoft's research and development center in Israel. The program focuses on moonshots—radical and bold ideas with the potential to impact millions or billions of people worldwide.
The term 'moonshots' originated from the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969 but has been adopted by the Silicon Valley startup scene in recent decades to describe big technological bets—ambitious, groundbreaking projects with low certainty, high risk, but significant potential for humanity.
The Liftoff program is designed to support 10 companies each year. It will focus on projects that solve significant and challenging problems such as energy supply, energy storage and smart grid, food security for a growing population, smart construction and sustainable construction, defense and the future battlefield, and infrastructure for a modern labor market.
"With the completion of our second fundraising, we decided to complete our deal mix with Deep Tech investments at an early stage, even before a standard Seed round," explained Navot Volk, venture partner in the fund, and David Stark, a general partner. "Unlike most SaaS companies, groundbreaking Deep Tech companies face great ambiguity regarding project programming and the path to success. Most venture capital investors shy away from such investments due to the high risk involved. This is exactly where we decided to support the companies. The Liftoff program is designed to give Deep Tech entrepreneurs better conditions for success," added Stark.
"Facing climate challenges is an urgent problem for our society and requires groundbreaking solutions in areas such as green energy, carbon trading, new materials, optimization of processes, and more," said Moran Haviv, manager of strategic partnerships and startups in the CTO office of Microsoft R&D Israel.
Entrepreneurs selected to participate in the program will benefit from a complete package that includes workspace, mentoring, networking, access to design partners and potential customers, as well as credits for using software and infrastructure worth over $500,000 and an equity investment of $400,000.
Ground Up Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in pre-Seed and Seed startup companies in the United States and Israel. The fund is based in New York and manages over $65 million across two funds.
