Firms

Fifty Years

San Francisco, California · San Francisco, California, US

substack.fiftyyears.com

linkedin.com

Pre-seed and seed venture firm in San Francisco that backs scientists and engineers building companies to solve large global problems, including climate, disease, connectivity, and food. Founded in 2015 by Ela Madej and Seth Bannon; backed by dozens of billion-dollar-company founders.

Founded: 2015
Type: Venture capital

Funds3

Fifty Years Fund V2026-03-262026-03-26—
Size and closed amount unverified; fundraising/open-market lead [Private Equity International profile](https://www.privateequityinternational.com/institution-profiles/fifty-years.html), undated, accessed 2026-10-06, lists open date January 2026; [Disclosure Quest SEC filing index](https://disclosurequest.com/results?search_form%5Bcik%5D=0002117206), Form D accepted 2026-03-26, accession 0002117206-26-000001, offering indefinite Secondary filing index and reputable industry profile, not verified final close. Direct SEC archive retrieval failed. Do not translate “indefinite” into a target or closed size.
Fifty Years Fund III2021-10-272021-10-27$90M
Historical USD 90 million raised fund; USD US-context currency presentation, not AUM. Fund V secondary filing/open-market lead does not establish final close.
Fifty Years Fund IV—$126M
Partner disclosed $126 million raised; dollar currency interpreted as USD from context but not explicitly expanded. Exact publication/close day unavailable (relative 1y), so monetary field/date left unknown rather than asserting verified precision.

Team

Seth Bannon Fifty Years, Founding Partner	$1M$400K – $1M	San Francisco, California
Chris Castiglione Fifty Years, Investor	$250K$200K – $300K	New York, New York
D. Scott Phoenix Fifty Years, Partner	—— – —	Berkeley, California
Josh Santos Fifty Years, Founder Mentor, 5050	—— – —	London, United Kingdom
Alex Teng Fifty Years, Partner	—— – —	San Francisco, California
Ela Madej Fifty Years, Founding Partner	—— – —	San Francisco, California
Tony Kouzarides Fifty Years, Venture Partner	—— – —

Operations and support

Alejandra BordaHead of 5050 · Head of 50

Alex Teng, PhDPartner

Ania ScigalskaChief of Staff · Chief of Staff to Seth Bannon

Drew MoxonHead of Product and Platform · Head of Platform and Product

Joe FoxEngineer

Kasia BojanowskaDesigner

Kia FathiHead of Engineering

Ola MieszczakData Administrator

Ola RyckoExecutive Assistant

Peregrine BadgerInstigator

Prof. Sir Tony KouzaridesVenture Partner / Resident Knight

Souvid DattaCreative Director

Stephanie AvraamidesUK Lead

Ueli FriedliHead of Finance

Vaitea CowanUK Lead

Investments

$252M2026-01-15	Merge Labs	Bain Capital, OpenAI, Interface Fund, Julia Prakapovich, Fifty Years, Seth Bannon, Gabe Newell, Interface Capital, Sequoia Scout Fund, OpenAI, Day One Ventures
$40M2026-09-01	Wafer	Marathon Venture Capital, Chemistry, Fifty Years, Y Combinator
$20M2026-04-20	Dinamo Biotechnologies	Fifty Years, True Ventures
$—2026-04-16	Herdora	Fifty Years, Y Combinator, Liquid 2 Ventures
$4M2026-04-14	Wafer	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon, Y Combinator, Liquid 2 Ventures
$50M2026-02-04	Adaption	Fifty Years, Emergence Capital, Mozilla Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Neo, Alpha Intelligence Capital
$50M2026-02-04	Adaption Labs	Emergence Capital, Fifty Years, Mozilla Ventures
$—2026-01-20	Apollo Research	Fifty Years
$50M2026	Adaption Labs	Fifty Years, Emergence Capital, Mozilla Ventures, Threshold Ventures, z21 Ventures, Alpha Intelligence Capital
$50M2026	Adaption	Fifty Years, Emergence Capital, Mozilla Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Neo, Alpha Intelligence Capital
$13M2025-11-19	OnePot AI	Fifty Years, Khosla Ventures
$55M2025-11-17	Gridware	Tiger Global Management, LLC, Fifty Years
$10M2025-10-01	Electroflow	Union Square Ventures, Voyager Ventures, Fifty Years, Harpoon Ventures
$16M2025-06-04	Vercept	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon, Eric Schmidt
$14M2024-06-28	Waypoint Bio	Fifty Years
$130M2024-06-22	BillionToOne	Fifty Years
$130M2024-06-21	BillionToOne	Fifty Years, Adams Street Partners, Premji Invest, Baillie Gifford, Neuberger Berman, Libertus Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, Firat Ileri
$25M2024-06-20	Molten Industries	Fifty Years
$150M2024-05-13	Bot Company	Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Nabeel Hyatt, Quiet Capital, Patrick Collison, John Collison, Elad Gil, Fifty Years
$4M2024-02-06	Cosmic Aerospace	Fifty Years, Pale Blue Dot, Aera VC, Y Combinator, Possible Ventures, Samurai Incubate
$4M2024-02-06	Cosmic Aerospace	Pale Blue Dot, Fifty Years
$—2023-09-25	Elicit	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon, Basis Set Ventures
$10M2023-06-13	Gridware	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon, Wireframe Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Kindergarten Ventures, Convective Capital
$3M2023-05-16	Tangible	Fifty Years, Foundamental, Pi Labs, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Do Ventures
$3M2023-05-16	Tangible	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon
$11M2023-04-11	Noya	Fifty Years, Foundation Capital, New Climate Ventures, Collaborative Fund, EQT Foundation, Union Square Ventures
$6M2023-04-11	Aalo Atomics	Fifty Years
$9M2023-02-09	Rebellyous Foods	Fifty Years
$—2023-01-24	Journey Clinical	Fifty Years, Union Square Ventures, Gaingels, Palo Santo, Solari Capital, Coalition Operators
$3M2023	Tangible Materia	Fifty Years, Foundamental, Pi Labs, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Suffolk Technologies
$11M2023	Noya	Fifty Years, Collaborative Fund, EQT Foundation, Union Square Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Y Combinator
$83M2022-12-15	BillionToOne	Fifty Years
$200M2022-11-02	Solugen	Fifty Years, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, Refactor Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Baillie Gifford, Kinnevik
$8M2022-09-08	Harmonic Discovery	Fifty Years, Innovation Endeavors, Y Combinator, Caffeinated Capital, Blossom Capital, Joel Dudley
$17M2022-09-07	Arpeggio Bio	Fifty Years
$15M2022-07-19	Persephone Biosciences	Fifty Years
$40M2022-07-14	Manifold Bio	Fifty Years
$28M2022-06-02	LatchBio	Fifty Years, Brandon Reeves
$68M2022-04-11	Ansa Biotechnologies	Fifty Years
$100M2022-03-23	World	Fifty Years
$50M2022-02-16	Antora Energy	Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Fifty Years, Seth Bannon
$37M2022-02-11	Zero Acre Farms	Fifty Years, Lowercarbon Capital
$37M2022-02-02	Zero Acre Farms	Fifty Years, Collaborative Fund, Lowercarbon Capital, Virgin Group, S2G Investments, FootPrint Coalition
$55M2022-01-19	64xBio	Fifty Years, Future Ventures
$1M2022-01-11	HealthLeap	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon
$1M2022-01-06	Healthleap	Fifty Years
$1M2022	HealthLeap	Fifty Years
$20M2022	Arpeggio	Fifty Years, TAU Ventures, BoxOne Ventures, Y Combinator, FundersClub, Khosla Ventures, Builders VC
$28M2022	LatchBio	Fifty Years, Coatue Management LLC, Mantis VC, Haystack, Caffeinated Capital, Lux Capital, Hummingbird Ventures
$—2022	Planet A Foods	Fifty Years
$7M2021-12-15	Valence Discovery	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon, Nathan Benaich
$11M2021-12-07	Nabla Bio	Khosla Ventures, Fifty Years, Zetta Venture Partners, Cantos
$60M2021-10-30	Cover	Fifty Years
$6M2021-10-27	QOA	Fifty Years, EQT Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Cherry Ventures, World Fund, Nucleus Capital
$25M2021-10-21	World	Fifty Years, Andreessen Horowitz
$—2021-10-01	LatchBio	Lux Capital, Fifty Years
$3M2021-09-17	Journey Clinical	Fifty Years, PsyMed Ventures, Palo Santo
$350M2021-09-09	Solugen	Fifty Years, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, GIC Private Limited, Refactor Capital, Y Combinator, Carbon Direct Capital
$357M2021-09-09	Solugen	Fifty Years, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, BlackRock-managed funds, Lowercarbon Capital, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund
$357M2021-09-09	Solugen	Founders Fund, Trae Stephens, Sean Liu, Fifty Years, Lowercarbon Capital, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, BlackRock-managed funds, Baillie Gifford
$75M2021-07-27	Nobell Foods	Fifty Years, Andreessen Horowitz, AgFunder, Y Combinator, GL Ventures, Germin8 Ventures
$75M2021-07-26	Nobell Foods	Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Fifty Years, Andreessen Horowitz
$4M2021-06-03	Faction	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon
$4M2021-06-02	Faction	Fifty Years, Trucks Venture Capital
$5M2021-05-25	Gridware	True Ventures, Fifty Years
$5M2021-05-24	Gridware	Fifty Years, True Ventures
$250M2021-04-15	Astranis	Fifty Years
$110M2021-03-09	Valo	Fifty Years, Koch Disruptive Technologies
$—2021	unspun	Fifty Years
$—2021	Atom Computing, Inc.	Fifty Years
$20M2021	Multiply Labs	Founders Fund, Casdin Capital, Fifty Years, Y Combinator, Lux Capital, Pathfinder
$9M2020-12-08	Varda Opportunity	Founders Fund, Fifty Years, Talis Capital, Lux Capital
$20M2020-12-08	Deepcell	Fifty Years
$9M2020-12-08	Varda Space Industries	Founders Fund, Trae Stephens, Delian Asparouhov, Fifty Years, Lux Capital, Talis Capital
$—2020-09-22	Ansa Biotechnologies	Fifty Years
$27M2020-09-16	Brightseed	Fifty Years
$5M2020-09-08	Manifold Bio	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon
$15M2020-04-16	54gene	Fifty Years
$6M2020-04-13	Rebellyous Foods	Fifty Years
$3M2020-03-09	Microverse	Fifty Years
$90M2020-02-14	Astranis	Fifty Years
$161M2020-01-23	UPSIDE Foods	Fifty Years
$—2020	BioRender	Fifty Years
$—2020	Meati	Fifty Years
$1M2019-11-30	Mindset Health	Fifty Years, Y Combinator
$4M2019-11-26	Rad AI	Fifty Years
$5M2019-09-10	Brave Care	Fifty Years
$—2019-07-01	54gene	Fifty Years, Y Combinator, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Better Capital
$15M2019-04-02	BillionToOne	Fifty Years
$15M2019-03-28	BillionToOne	Y Combinator, Fifty Years, NeoTribe Ventures, HOF Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, Civilization Ventures
$13M2019-03-24	Solugen	Fifty Years, Y Combinator, Founders Fund
$13M2019-03-24	Solugen	Founders Fund, Trae Stephens, Sean Liu, Fifty Years, Y Combinator
$—2019	Gordian Biotechnology	Fifty Years
$—2019	Octant Bio	Fifty Years
$—2019	Ethic	Fifty Years
$—2019	HelixNano	Fifty Years
$2M2018-05-02	Substack	Fifty Years
$2M2018-05-01	Substack	Fifty Years, Y Combinator, Garage Capital
$16M2018-03-09	Starsky Robotics	Fifty Years
$13M2018-03-03	Astranis	Fifty Years
$—2018	CATALOG	Fifty Years
$—2018	Geltor	Fifty Years
$—2018	Athelas	Fifty Years
$—2017-03-10	OpenTrons	Fifty Years, Y Combinator
$500K2017-03	ADVANO	Fifty Years
$—2017	Lygos Inc	Fifty Years
$—2017	Quantstamp	Fifty Years
$—2017	Earth AI	Fifty Years
$5M2016-10-31	Nurx	Fifty Years
$120K2016-01	Astranis	Fifty Years, Seth Bannon
$200MUnknown date	Solugen	Fifty Years, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, Illusian, Refactor Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Baillie Gifford
$350MUnknown date	Solugen	Fifty Years, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, Illusian, Refactor Capital, Baillie Gifford, Carbon Direct Capital
$32MUnknown date	Solugen	Fifty Years, Illusian, Refactor Capital, Y Combinator, Founders Fund
$13MUnknown date	Solugen	Fifty Years, Illusian, Y Combinator, Founders Fund
$150MUnknown date	Bot Company	Fifty Years, Quiet Capital
$4MUnknown date	Clippership	Fifty Years
$37MUnknown date	Zero Acre Farms	Fifty Years, Collaborative Fund, Lowercarbon Capital, S2G Investments, FootPrint Coalition, Incite
$55MUnknown date	64x Bio	Fifty Years, Northpond Ventures, Refactor Capital, Future Fund, First Round Capital, Lifeforce Capital
$22MUnknown date	Elicit	Fifty Years, Basis Set Ventures, Spark Capital, Footwork
$—Unknown date	Arpeggio	Fifty Years, Y Combinator, FundersClub, Khosla Ventures
$10MUnknown date	Electroflow	Fifty Years, Union Square Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, Voyager Ventures
$75MUnknown date	Nobell	Fifty Years, Andreessen Horowitz, AgFunder, FootPrint Coalition, GL Ventures, Germin8 Ventures
$60MUnknown date	Gordian Biotechnology	Fifty Years, Founders Fund, Gigafund, The Longevity Fund
$17MUnknown date	UPSIDE Foods	Fifty Years, SOSV, DFJ Growth, Atomico, New Crop Capital, Inevitable Ventures
$357MUnknown date	Solugen	Fifty Years, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, GIC Private Limited, Lowercarbon Capital, Harpoon Ventures, Carbon Direct Capital
$13MUnknown date	OnePot AI	Norrsken VC, Speedinvest, Khosla Ventures, Fifty Years, CPT Capital
$—2026	Archived duplicate of MergeLabs round 9197	Fifty Years
$13M2025-11-19	OnePot	Fifty Years, Speedinvest, Khosla Ventures
$17M2022-09-07	Arpeggio Biosciences	Fifty Years, TAU Ventures, Tencent Investment, Khosla Ventures, Builders VC, Aster Capital, Form Ventures
$13MUnknown date	OnePot	Fifty Years, Norrsken VC, Speedinvest, CPT Capital, Khosla Ventures

team@apexlogos.ai16 hours ago
Investment-fund research reviewed 2026-10-06. Publicly identified funds, dates, amounts and fundraising status are below. Undisclosed commitments remain unknown; this is not a complete register of private SPVs or parallel entities. Fund size and investment stages | Fund / financial measure | Amount and status | Date and evidence | Caveat | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fifty Years Fund IV | $126 million raised, according to founding partner; interpreted as USD in US firm context | [Seth Bannon announcement](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sethbannon_we-raised-126m-for-fifty-years-fund-iv-activity-7361774298392350720-LRjz), directly read 2026-10-06, relative date “1y” | Announcement says raised, not merely target; exact close and publication dates were not exposed. Currency is not explicitly spelled out. Latest-known raised amount, not a claim that no later fund exists. | | Fund III | $90 million raised | [Official firm announcement](https://substack.fiftyyears.com/p/fifty-years-has-90m-more), 2021-10-27 | Historical fund; superseded by IV as latest-known publicly stated raised amount. This is not firm AUM. | | Fund V | Size and closed amount unverified; fundraising/open-market lead | [Private Equity International profile](https://www.privateequityinternational.com/institution-profiles/fifty-years.html), undated, accessed 2026-10-06, lists open date January 2026; [Disclosure Quest SEC filing index](https://disclosurequest.com/results?search_form%5Bcik%5D=0002117206), Form D accepted 2026-03-26, accession 0002117206-26-000001, offering indefinite | Secondary filing index and reputable industry profile, not verified final close. Direct SEC archive retrieval failed. Do not translate “indefinite” into a target or closed size. | | Investment check size | $500K–$4M, according to Bannon | Same Fund IV partner announcement, accessed 2026-10-06 | Distinct from fund size; wider than Bannon's Signal profile range. Reconfirm before storing as durable current firm-wide policy. | Current official mandate is **pre-seed and seed**. The Fund IV announcement describes investment at the earliest stages and willingness to lead rounds. Historical follow-on records do not establish a broad growth-stage mandate. [Homepage](https://fiftyyears.com/), undated, accessed 2026-10-06; [Fund IV announcement](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sethbannon_we-raised-126m-for-fifty-years-fund-iv-activity-7361774298392350720-LRjz), accessed 2026-10-06. The research checked for newer funds beyond III and identified both IV and V. Firm-wide AUM, deployable reserves and a definitive current flagship vintage are not verified. A low-quality aggregator listed IV as “$126” with a 2026 vintage; it is not reliable enough to resolve dates or units against the partner's explicit $126m statement. [Aggregator lead](https://privatemarketview.com/investors/fifty-years/funds), accessed 2026-10-06. Funds recorded in Adex after this review: | Fund | Disclosed amount | Announcement / filing date | | --- | --- | --- | | Fifty Years Fund IV | USD 126000000 | Unknown | | Fifty Years Fund III | USD 90000000 | 2021-10-27 | | Fifty Years Fund V | Undisclosed / unverified | 2026-03-26 |
team@apexlogos.ai17 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / FiftyYears / sha256:05ccb9ae8083b2d9a2de80527b2200dd3b70c549ead10b9d514b921e2fdf5cab / part 2 of 2 Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats. **Merge Labs — verified direct neurotechnology investment.** Butterfly Network's official 2026-09-01 announcement explicitly names Fifty Years among investors in Merge's **$252 million seed funding at its January 2026 launch**. The venture develops ultrasound-based brain-computer interfaces and obtains access to Butterfly's ultrasound-on-chip technology; this is direct neural-interface research. The source identifies institutional Fifty Years participation, not its check size, lead status or fund vehicle. [Butterfly investor-relations announcement](https://ir.butterflynetwork.com/News/press-releases/news-details/2026/Merge-Labs-and-Butterfly-Network-Partner-to-Advance-Ultrasound-Based-Brain-Computer-Interfaces/default.aspx), 2026-09-01, accessed 2026-10-06. The baseline's $250 million and $252 million entries should not create two financings. Prefer the later primary-source $252 million figure, preserving the discrepancy as reporting/rounding history. TechCrunch's January 15 article used $250 million. [TechCrunch reporting](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/15/openai-invests-in-sam-altmans-brain-computer-interface-startup-merge-labs/), 2026-01-15. The partnership announcement does not itself prove that Fifty Years invested in Butterfly or Forest Neurotech, and no such attribution is made here. **BIOS Health — verified direct neural technology investor relationship; round attribution limited.** BIOS's official **2023-06-22** release says it closed a venture round and lists Fifty Years among its major institutional investors. BIOS develops neural-data and AI tools for precision medicine of the nervous system, supporting bioelectronic treatments and drug discovery. This is direct neural-data/bioelectronic technology, with adjacent drug-discovery applications. The release's institutional-investor paragraph does not unambiguously separate participating investors in that new round from existing backers. Record company-level backing as verified; do not assign Fifty Years a specific June 2023 contribution, lead status, round amount or stage without stronger evidence. [BIOS fundraise release](https://www.bios.health/bios-fundraise-press-release-6-23), 2023-06-22, accessed 2026-10-06. BillionToOne and Athelas are general diagnostic technologies, not automatically neurotech. Engineers previously employed by Neuralink participating in the firm's 5050 program do not prove an investment in Neuralink. ## Conflicts, missing information and later Adex review 1. **Fund data:** Add Fund IV as a partner-disclosed $126 million raised amount, with announcement/close-date uncertainty. Retain III as historical. Investigate Fund V's underlying Form D and later close announcements before describing it as closed or supplying a size. No verified firm AUM was found. 2. **Checks/stages:** Pre-seed/seed mandate is independently confirmed by the firm. Bannon's newer $500K–$4M statement differs from Signal's narrower individual range; store source, date limitation and attribution rather than silently overwriting with directory figures. Do not use Madej's Signal zeros. 3. **Neurotech:** Merge Labs is strongly supported by a dated official commercial-partner release. Consolidate duplicate $250M/$252M financing records after later review. BIOS Health backing is verified; round-level detail remains uncertain. 4. **Portfolio precision:** Numerous snapshot deals are imported database claims with null announcement dates. Selected investments above were verified; this memo does not certify every snapshot transaction. Duplicated aliases and conflicting dates should be reviewed against original funding releases before database edits. 5. **Location/team:** Signal lists New York alongside San Francisco and only three team profiles. Aalo supports San Francisco identity; no inference that Signal is a full current team or headquarters directory. Baseline duplicate person roles require separate identity review. 6. **Source access:** Signal, official firm pages, investee announcements, partner LinkedIn and Butterfly IR were directly readable. LinkedIn did not expose an exact publication date. SEC archive page failed to open; Fund V remains a secondary-source filing lead. Paywalled financial databases were not treated as verified totals. All sources were accessed 2026-10-06. No Adex/database modification, MCP Patch or commit was performed.
team@apexlogos.ai17 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / FiftyYears / sha256:05ccb9ae8083b2d9a2de80527b2200dd3b70c549ead10b9d514b921e2fdf5cab / part 1 of 2 Imported completed research. Baseline Adex/Signal statements describe prior state, not independent verification. Retain cited attribution, date, currency and classification caveats. # Fifty Years - **Exact Adex ID:** `FiftyYears` - **Adex webpage:** https://adex.page/firms/FiftyYears - **Official website:** https://fiftyyears.com/ - **Research date:** 2026-10-06 - **Status:** Complete research memo; findings and open verification limits below. Research only; no Adex changes made. ## Summary and identity Fifty Years is a science and engineering oriented venture firm with an explicit pre-seed and seed mandate. Its official website features nuclear energy, biotechnology, diagnostics and satellite companies. Verified direct neurotechnology exposure includes **Merge Labs** and **BIOS Health**. Its latest-known publicly stated raised flagship fund amount is **Fund IV, $126 million**, disclosed by founding partner Seth Bannon; a newer **Fund V** fundraising lead exists, with no verified final close or size. [Official homepage](https://fiftyyears.com/), undated, accessed 2026-10-06; [Bannon's Fund IV announcement](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sethbannon_we-raised-126m-for-fifty-years-fund-iv-activity-7361774298392350720-LRjz), date displayed only as “1y,” accessed 2026-10-06. The saved Adex record describes a San Francisco firm founded in 2015 by Ela Madej and Seth Bannon. Exact-ID identity is clear from the saved snapshot and official branding; the founding year is retained as baseline context rather than newly documented with a founding announcement here. Aalo's official financing announcement identifies Fifty Years as San Francisco based. [Aalo announcement](https://www.aalo.com/post/aalo-atomics-raises-6-26m-seed-round), 2023-04-11. ## Starting evidence: Adex and NFX Signal Read `data/research/_sources/FiftyYears.adex.json`, retrieved 2026-10-06 at 19:29:52 UTC, from read-only Adex MCP Search. Baseline includes deep tech, climate, biotech, health, space, food technology, synthetic biology and AI categories; null firm-level check minimum/maximum/sweet spot; a historical $90 million Fund III reference; imported Goldilocks and other database deal records; and Merge Labs records with both $250 million and $252 million round totals. The snapshot includes duplicate company/round representations such as Cosmic Aerospace, OnePot/OnePot AI and Adaption/Adaption Labs. Baseline records are leads, not independent verification of rounds or investor checks. Directly read [NFX Signal firm profile](https://signal.nfx.com/firms/fifty-years) on 2026-10-06. It displays New York and San Francisco and lists Seth Bannon, Chris Castiglione and Ela Madej. Bannon's profile categories include pre-seed/seed deep tech, biotech, climate and space, with $400K–$1.5M range and $1M sweet spot. Castiglione's displayed range is $200K–$300K; Madej's range/sweet spot are zero-valued. These are individual profile fields and may be stale. Zero values should not become actual check terms. Introduction paths require Gmail login; public team/category fields were readable. Signal is supporting directory context, not a verified firm-wide investment policy or full current team roster. ## Fund size and investment stages | Fund / financial measure | Amount and status | Date and evidence | Caveat | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fifty Years Fund IV | $126 million raised, according to founding partner; interpreted as USD in US firm context | [Seth Bannon announcement](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sethbannon_we-raised-126m-for-fifty-years-fund-iv-activity-7361774298392350720-LRjz), directly read 2026-10-06, relative date “1y” | Announcement says raised, not merely target; exact close and publication dates were not exposed. Currency is not explicitly spelled out. Latest-known raised amount, not a claim that no later fund exists. | | Fund III | $90 million raised | [Official firm announcement](https://substack.fiftyyears.com/p/fifty-years-has-90m-more), 2021-10-27 | Historical fund; superseded by IV as latest-known publicly stated raised amount. This is not firm AUM. | | Fund V | Size and closed amount unverified; fundraising/open-market lead | [Private Equity International profile](https://www.privateequityinternational.com/institution-profiles/fifty-years.html), undated, accessed 2026-10-06, lists open date January 2026; [Disclosure Quest SEC filing index](https://disclosurequest.com/results?search_form%5Bcik%5D=0002117206), Form D accepted 2026-03-26, accession 0002117206-26-000001, offering indefinite | Secondary filing index and reputable industry profile, not verified final close. Direct SEC archive retrieval failed. Do not translate “indefinite” into a target or closed size. | | Investment check size | $500K–$4M, according to Bannon | Same Fund IV partner announcement, accessed 2026-10-06 | Distinct from fund size; wider than Bannon's Signal profile range. Reconfirm before storing as durable current firm-wide policy. | Current official mandate is **pre-seed and seed**. The Fund IV announcement describes investment at the earliest stages and willingness to lead rounds. Historical follow-on records do not establish a broad growth-stage mandate. [Homepage](https://fiftyyears.com/), undated, accessed 2026-10-06; [Fund IV announcement](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sethbannon_we-raised-126m-for-fifty-years-fund-iv-activity-7361774298392350720-LRjz), accessed 2026-10-06. The research checked for newer funds beyond III and identified both IV and V. Firm-wide AUM, deployable reserves and a definitive current flagship vintage are not verified. A low-quality aggregator listed IV as “$126” with a 2026 vintage; it is not reliable enough to resolve dates or units against the partner's explicit $126m statement. [Aggregator lead](https://privatemarketview.com/investors/fifty-years/funds), accessed 2026-10-06. ## Named previous deep-tech investments Round amounts below are investee financing totals, **not Fifty Years' contribution**. | Company | Technology rationale | Verified firm attribution / transaction | Supporting URL and date | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Aalo Atomics | Small nuclear fission reactors; substantial physical engineering and nuclear commercialization | Company says Fifty Years **led** its closed **$6.26 million seed equity round** | [Aalo announcement](https://www.aalo.com/post/aalo-atomics-raises-6-26m-seed-round), 2023-04-11 | | Cosmic Aerospace | Electric aircraft with advanced airframe, propulsion and embedded wing development | Named participant in **$4.5 million seed financing**, led by Pale blue dot | [Company announcement](https://www.cosmicaerospace.com/news/cosmic-aerospace-secures-4-5-million-in-seed-funding), 2024-02-06 | | Solugen | Enzymatic chemical manufacturing | Firm states it was the first VC partner and **led the pre-seed**; current website features Solugen | [Fund III announcement](https://substack.fiftyyears.com/p/fifty-years-has-90m-more), 2021-10-27; [homepage](https://fiftyyears.com/), undated, accessed 2026-10-06. Original round date and amount not verified here. | | Astranis | Advanced communications satellites for high orbits | Firm states it was the first VC partner and **led the pre-seed**; official website identifies satellite focus | [Fund III announcement](https://substack.fiftyyears.com/p/fifty-years-has-90m-more), 2021-10-27; [homepage](https://fiftyyears.com/), undated, accessed 2026-10-06. Original round date and amount not verified here. | | BillionToOne | Single-molecule molecular diagnostics | Official Fifty Years website presents the company among backed founders; company-level attribution verified, specific round unverified here | [Homepage](https://fiftyyears.com/), undated, accessed 2026-10-06 | These constitute substantive science/hardware investments. Substack and other ordinary software businesses appearing in the broader portfolio are not classified as deep tech solely because they are backed by Fifty Years. Investor portfolio descriptions are primary evidence of the firm's claimed involvement; Aalo and Cosmic provide stronger investee-side round attribution. None of these examples relies on a partner's previous-employer investment. ## Named previous neurotech investments
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