Rick Hao, solo GP and founder of Ruya Ventures, has revealed a $50 million (£38m) fundraise for his first VC fund.
The fund is focused on supporting global DeepTech innovation, as it shifts from the lab into real-world deployment.
Ruya Ventures, whilst rooted in Europe, will build a portfolio of 20 DeepTech companies worldwide, backing frontier technologies that solve meaningful but difficult problems that others would shy away from.
Rather than pursuing a broad-based approach, Ruya Ventures focuses on a select number of targeted technology value chains, where the firm has built deep conviction through its extensive academic research networks, prior commercialisation experience, and previous investments.
These sectors include artificial intelligence, batteries, robotics, semiconductors, materials science, and novel computing.
The fund is already deploying capital and its first investments include WLF Energy (developing energy infrastructure from generation to grid), MegaCool (cooling hardware tailored to modern compute needs) and three additional stealth-mode startups across AI, robotics and semiconductors.
As a day-zero fund and a long-term strategic partner to startups, Ruya Ventures aims to back founders in their first financing round and, in most cases, even before incorporation. The firm works closely with entrepreneurs from the earliest stages, helping transform breakthrough technologies into scalable businesses.
Leveraging deep networks across Asia, Ruya Ventures also supports founders through some of the most challenging aspects of company building, including commercialisation, manufacturing, supply chain development, and international expansion.
The firm’s inaugural fund reached its final close in less than a year and was highly oversubscribed.
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“DeepTech is a marathon not a sprint. Any successful founder in the space will tell you that getting out of the lab is not the hardest part of the journey,” said Hao. “Yes, timelines are lengthy and capital requirements hefty but DeepTech failures are not down to the science being wrong.
“Most DeepTech companies stall because no one helps founders figure out how to cross the chasm between a working prototype and a product that can be manufactured at scale and adopted by the market.
“DeepTech – and the supply chains that underpin it – is an inherently global game. A European lens alone is not sufficient. That is why Ruya Ventures is rooted in Europe but deliberately built with a network that spans Europe, the US, and Asia.
“We are interested in the work that happens after the cheque is written that closes that gap. It’s the commercialisation, the manufacturing strategy, the global network that most early-stage investors are not set up to do well.”
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