Fifty Years is an entrepreneur-run early stage venture fund based in San Francisco, California focused on investing in technology companies. Fifty Years funds companies which are attempting to solve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on synthetic biology and food technology companies. Fifty Years VC focuses primarily on seed stage investments into companies with built products and some market validation.
The fund was founded by Seth Bannon and Ela Madej in 2016, and formed its name from a famous essay "Fifty Years Hence" written by Winston Churchill in 1932.
Investments
Notable companies Fifty Years VC has invested in include: Geltor, Memphis Meats, Starsky Robotics, Astranis, and Cofactor Genomics.
In July 2019, Fifty Years VC announced they raised $50 million for their second fund. The fund will be used to invest in companies employing technology to improve food supply, healthcare and other areas with global impacts.
Fifty Years VC produces and supports Impact.tech, which is an event series for scientists, entrepreneurs and investors focused on solving problems through business.
Timeline
Funded Companies
Starsky RoboticsDriverless truck company based in San Francisco, California.
San Francisco
Memphis MeatsCompany making cultured meat based in San Francisco founded by Uma Valeti, Nicholas Genovese and Will Clem.
California
United States
Rebellyous FoodsSeattle Food Tech is a food manufacturing technology and production company producing plant-based meats. They make plant-based food and plant-based chicken nuggets.
Seattle
AstranisA satellite communications company building small telecommunication satellites.
BillionToOneA Diagnostic DNA Testing Company Using Quantified Biological Data
Palo Alto, California
BloomAPIBloomAPI: A Healthcare Company Focused in Bettering Communication Practice
SolugenA speciality chemical manufacturing company replacing petroleum-based chemicals with alternatives made from plant-based substitutes.
Houston
Philadelphia
ExVivo LabsCompany working on in vitro diagnostics based in Canada.
Kitchener, Ontario
Boundary Layer TechnologiesBoundary Layer Technologies is a company building hydrofoil cargo ships.
Brave CareBrave Care is a pediatric urgent care clinic in Portland, Oregon founded in 2017 by Darius A Monsef IV.
Portland, Oregon
Medella HealthA company developing smart contact lenses for monitoring glucose level in diabetic patients.
Waterloo, Ontario
AdvanoA company developing technology to increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries
Los AngelesPeople
Ela Madej
Partner & Founder
Katariina Helaniemi
Operations at Impact.tech
Richard Chen
Investor
Seth Bannon
Partner & Founder
Shuo Yang
Principal
Further reading
Chafing Against Regulation, Silicon Valley Pivots to Pandemic
Andrew Leonard
Web
April 15, 2020
Climate change isn't going anywhere, and investment could soon rise - Marketplace
Molly Wood
Web
June 9, 2020
Deep tech VCs on what they view as some of the most impactful young startups right now
Connie Loizos
Web
January 18, 2020
Fake-meat startups rake in cash amid food supply worries - BNN Bloomberg
Larissa Zimberoff
Web
May 1, 2020
Fifty Years — The new Silicon Valley VC that wants to save the world AND make money
Mike Butcher
Oct 3, 2016
Fifty Years Offers Unusual Funding to Its Startups Tackling Coronavirus
Tomio Geron
Web
March 26, 2020
Fifty Years Raises Second Fund Focused on Biotech Startups
Heather Mack
Web
July 1, 2019
Fifty Years' $50 million fund signals tech's turn toward impact | ImpactAlpha
David Bank
Web
July 2, 2019
Meet The Forbes Under 30 Founders Leading The Next Billion-Dollar Startups
Alexandra Wilson
Web
May 28, 2020
Silicon Valley is throwing money behind Covid-19 efforts, hoping for results
Shannon Liao, CNN Business
Web
May 27, 2020
Taking risks on 'impact tech' to make exponential progress toward the global goals (video) | ImpactAlpha
David Bank
Web
October 31, 2019
Tech mobilization around COVID starts to show results | ImpactAlpha
Dennis Price
Web
April 8, 2020
Tech Startups Ask Workers to Trade In Salary for Stock
Shelly Banjo
Web
April 17, 2020
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
Danny In The Valley - Fifty Years' Seth Bannon: "Passing the Mr. Burns test"
Jan 24, 2020
Danny In The Valley: Fifty Years' Seth Bannon: "When a bear chases you into a tree, how do you get down?" on Apple Podcasts
March 25, 2020
Seth Bannon, Founding Partner at Fifty Years on How Science Startups Build the Future | Ausha
May 6, 2020
Companies
References
Fifty Years
Venture capital firm
CompanyCompany attributes
Venture capital
Plant-based meat
Cell-based meatVenture Capital Firm attributes
NurxCategories
Related Topics
Contributors
- 1
Alex Mieszczak
Executive assistant at Fifty Years. - 2
Aleksander Holm
Interested in understanding the world we live in. - 3
Kata Helaniemi
Life enthusiast intrigued about impact+tech. Supporting entrepreneurs using technology to solve the world's biggest problems. - 4
Dawson Sewell
Seeking to explain science and technology through simple writing. - 5
Jude Gomila
Founder and CEO of Golden, Entrepreneur. Investor in 200+ companies. Cantabrigian (Gonville and Caius). Interested in the universe. - 6
Melanie Manipula
Researcher, writer and a former librarian - 7
Jason D. Rowley
Golden researcher based in Chicago, IL. - 8
Neelam Jhaveri
Techno Geek + Gamer + Fashionista + Sense of Humor = It's ME - 9
Tianchang He
Stanford EE MS, interested in machine learning, front-end and all things tech. - 10
Carla Faraguna
Golden People and Operations.
