Humboldt Fund

Humboldt Fund is a venture capital firm founded in 2020 and based in New York City, focused on early-stage companies at the intersection of engineering and life sciences. It was established by General Partners Sebastian Bernales, Francisco Dopazo, and Benjamin Quiroga, who bring backgrounds spanning biotech co-founding, private equity, and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. The firm concentrates on synthetic biology as a general-purpose technology, backing "bio revolution" companies replacing conventional industrial inputs with biology-based alternatives, investing globally across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe rather than maintaining a purely domestic focus. Its sector focus spans biotech, healthcare, food and agtech, materials, energy, and climate. With over 30 investments to date, notable portfolio companies include NotCo (unicorn), Metagenomi, Miroculus, Geltor, MycoWorks, and Spiral Therapeutics, with several exits via IPO and acquisition. Humboldt typically writes checks between $100K and $5M at the pre-seed through Series A stages, without leading rounds. The firm's approach combines deep scientific expertise with hands-on, operator-first support, leveraging its partners' direct experience founding and operating biotech companies to guide portfolio founders through R&D and commercialization challenges.