Venture capital firm Bison Ventures has successfully raised $135M in funding. The firm invests in frontier technology companies addressing global challenges through innovative science. Whether it’s combating climate change, advancing healthcare, or meeting the growing demand for computing, Bison supports bold, technical solutions with the potential for significant impact.
The team, comprised of Founding Partners Ben Hemani and Tom Biegala, along with Principals Ari Wright and Caleb Appleton, brings engineering backgrounds to identify attractive investment opportunities often overlooked by mainstream venture capital. The firm is committed to investing in and supporting teams tackling pressing global issues with innovative science and deep technology.
Ben Hemani, Founding Partner of Bison Ventures, said in a statement:
“Most venture dollars today continue to chase pure software companies. However, it was frontier technologies such as NVIDIA’s GPUs and Ginkgo Bioworks’ microbe engineering platform that enabled today’s revolutions in AI and synthetic biology respectively. With diversified engineering backgrounds, we are not afraid to deal in the physical and biological world. We know that the best solutions derive from technology integration from different industries and applications, and we are comfortable backing bold companies early on in their lifecycle when technical risk still exists.”
The fund has already invested in six diverse fields: climate and sustainability, precision agriculture, behavioral health, generative AI, and computational drug discovery. Notably, Bison has supported CEOs, with over 80% belonging to groups traditionally underrepresented in venture-backed companies. This includes half who are women.
Founding Partner Tom Biegala commented:
“Learning curves mean that today’s products are constantly getting better — just look at Moore’s Law. But there are thorny challenges ahead, and to address them, we’re not interested in incrementalism. We believe that backing 10x, step-change innovations at an early stage is the only way to build successful frontier tech companies, which is exactly what we founded Bison to do. We are more excited than ever to find the right companies to partner with and to build the next generation of industry in a world that needs it.”