HCVC (formerly known as Hardware Club) is a community-based early-stage venture capital firm backing hardtech and deep tech founders across Europe and North America. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Paris, the firm invests from pre-seed to Series A in sectors including robotics, AI, biotech, climate, and space.
Founded 2015
Type Venture capital 2 HCVC Fund II 2023-10-03 2023-10-03 $75M USD75M closed, originaltargetUSD60M; historical reportedAUMUSD130M separate. 2023 preseed/seed EUR250k-2.5M policy distinctfrom currentFAQ.
Hardware Club Fund I 2018-12-11 2018-12-11 $50M Finalclose November2018 USD50M, firstclose2017 USD28M. Pressrelease dated2018-12-11 published12-14; formation2017 distinctfrom community2015.
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— $100K – $1M San Francisco, California · Paris, France · Tokyo — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – — — — – —
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$— 2026-02-06 Chiral Crane Venture Partners , HCVC $5M 2025-12-15 Navier HCVC , GV $— 2025-08-22 Karavela HCVC , Daphni , First Momentum Ventures $14M 2025-07-29 Delian HCVC , Nathan Benaich $4M 2025-04-16 Cosmic Robotics HCVC $— 2025-03-31 Chef Robotics HCVC €10M 2025-03-06 Alpine Eagle HCVC $10M 2025-03-05 Alpine Eagle General Catalyst , HCVC , IQ Capital $5M 2025-02-25 Fuse Vectors HCVC $20M 2025-02-19 Karman+ Hummingbird Ventures , Plural , HCVC , Barend Van den Brande $14M 2025 Delian HCVC $— 2025 Lendurai Expeditions , HCVC , Vsquared Ventures €5M 2024-06-20 atmio HCVC $— 2024-02-27 Chiral HCVC $22M 2024-01-29 Transmutex HCVC $16M 2022-12-05 Giraffe360 Founders Fund , Plug and Play Tech Center , Hoxton Ventures , Lanchi Ventures , HCVC , Charge Ventures $4M 2022-08-09 Antaris HCVC $80M 2022-01-26 Cowboy HCVC , Triple Point Ventures $28M 2021-10-20 ANELLO Photonics Catapult Ventures , HCVC $31M 2021-06-08 Gideon Brothers HCVC $31M 2021-06-08 Gideon HCVC $31M 2021 Gideon Brothers HCVC $4M 2020-11-17 Giraffe360 HCVC $26M 2020-07-23 Cowboy HCVC $— 2019-10-11 Augmenta HCVC $10M 2019-09-11 Caper Y Combinator , HCVC , First Round Capital , Lux Capital , FundersClub , Sidekick Partners , First Round $40M 2019-09-04 Bellwether Coffee HCVC $7M 2019-03-19 Automata Hummingbird Ventures , HCVC $2M 2019-01-10 Caper First Round , Y Combinator , Instacart , HCVC , Credo Ventures , Precursor Ventures , Sidekick Partners $— 2018-10-22 Cowboy HCVC $10M 2018-08-27 Bellwether Coffee HCVC $3M 2018-04-24 Cowboy HCVC $40M 2015-09-09 Chef HCVC $2M Unknown date Spectrohm HCVC $12M Unknown date Remedee Labs HCVC $— Unknown date Orakl HCVC $— Unknown date Numi HCVC $3M Unknown date Full Speed Automation HCVC $— Unknown date Aryballe HCVC $— Unknown date Aryballe HCVC $4M Unknown date Cosmic Robotics Y Combinator , HCVC , MaC Venture Capital , Giant Ventures $— 2025-08-22 Karavela Ai HCVC €5M 2025-05-28 kyron.bio HCVC $— 2024-03-27 Surge Care HCVC
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team@apexlogos.ai · 4 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 status
| Vehicle/metric | Amount and status | Date and supporting evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hardware Club Fund I | **US$50m final close**; first close was US$28m in 2017. Created in 2017 and finally closed in November 2018. | Bpifrance press release dated **2018-12-11**, published **2018-12-14**, explicitly distinguishes first and final close: [official LP press release](https://presse.bpifrance.fr/hardware-club-annonce-le-closing-final-de-son-premier-fonds-a-hauteur-de-50-millions-de-dollarsnbsp/?lang=fra ). |
| HCVC Fund II | **US$75m closed fund**, announced **2023-10-03**. | [Tech.eu, 2023-10-03](https://tech.eu/2023/10/03/hcvc-raises-75m-for-second-fund-aiming-at-10-deals-hardtech-per-year/ ). |
| Fund II target and firm AUM | Initial target **US$60m**; firm **US$130m AUM** reported in October 2023. These are separate metrics from the US$75m fund close. | [French Tech Journal interview with Alexis Houssou, 2023-10-14](https://www.frenchtechjournal.com/spotlight-interview-hcvc-alexis-houssou/ ). AUM is historical, not a verified 2026 figure. |
| HCVC Fund III | A **2026 formation lead**, with no verified target, commitments, first close or final close amount. | [Le Figaro legal-announcement aggregation, notices March 5 and March 27, 2026](https://entreprises.lefigaro.fr/hcvc-fund-iii-75/entreprise-101336063 ), directly read. The page describes activity starting February 11, 2026 and SIREN 101336063, but its older notice includes inconsistent identifiers/general-partner naming. Verify against original registry documents before treating vehicle identity as settled. Formation does not demonstrate money raised. |
Fund II is the **latest verified sized/closed fund found**, rather than a claim that no later fund exists. Searches for HCVC Fund III and 2025/2026 new funds found the legal-formation lead above but no substantiated fundraising amount. Do not add Fund I plus Fund II and call the resulting US$125m current AUM; the independently reported historical US$130m AUM is a different measure.
Funds recorded in Adex after this review:
| Fund | Disclosed amount | Announcement / filing date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hardware Club Fund I | USD 50000000 | 2018-12-11 |
| HCVC Fund II | USD 75000000 | 2023-10-03 | SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · 5 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / HCVC / sha256:4f93a9559a8117a73b30572531d8eee42ed0bce6cadc51cbc897e10626715fda / 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.
| **Renaissance Fusion; Karman+; Fuse Vectors; Kyron.bio** | Additional directly attributable portfolio examples: stellarator fusion/liquid-metal shielding, asteroid-mining spacecraft, cell-free viral-vector manufacturing, and precision glycan engineering, respectively. | [Official HCVC homepage](https://www.hcvc.co/ ), undated, and [official portfolio](https://www.hcvc.co/pages/portfolio ), undated. Homepage describes €32m Renaissance financing, US$20m Karman+ seed, US$5.2m Fuse financing led by HCVC and approximately US$6m Kyron seed led by HCVC. These are supporting portfolio/technology leads; exact announcement dates, financing composition and original round documents were not separately rechecked here. |
The official portfolio also identifies Automata, Cosmic Robotics, Transmutex, Sarcura and other hardtech/biotech companies. This memorandum provides substantiated examples, not a claim to exhaustively validate every historical portfolio round. General e-commerce, payments or ordinary software companies should not inherit a deep-tech label solely from firm membership. [Official portfolio, undated](https://www.hcvc.co/pages/portfolio ).
## Named previous neurotech investments
| Company | Classification and rationale | Investment attribution, date and caveats |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Karavela** | **Brain-data/neuroimaging/neuro-AI technology**: foundation model trained on task-based fMRI, intended for biomarkers, clinical tools and future brain-computer interfaces. BCI is an intended application, not proof of a deployed implant or mature BCI product. | **€2m+ pre-seed**, official announcement **2025-08-22**, names HCVC, Daphni and First Momentum with angels. No lead investor or HCVC amount disclosed. [Official Karavela funding release](https://karavela.ai/en/news/karavela-raises-eur2m-pre-seed-to-collect-its-flagship-brain-dataset ). [Official HCVC portfolio](https://www.hcvc.co/pages/portfolio ) independently confirms pre-seed portfolio attribution. |
| **Remedee Labs** | **Direct neuromodulation**, specifically a non-invasive millimeter-wave wrist device intended to stimulate peripheral nerves and endorphin release for pain management. This is broader neurotechnology, not a brain implant/BCI. Device/efficacy descriptions are the company's claims rather than independent clinical assessment. | **€12.2m financing, 2022-12-06**, with Generali France, historical investors **HCVC and Habert Dassault Finance**, private investors, BPI and banks. Company explicitly attributes HCVC participation. Total mixes funding sources and is not established here as wholly equity; stage/HCVC check unknown. [Official dated English press-release PDF](https://remedeelabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-PR-Press-Release-05122022.pdf ); [company technology page, undated](https://remedeelabs.com/en/ ); [official HCVC portfolio, undated](https://www.hcvc.co/pages/portfolio ), which labels initial entry Seed. |
These are two verified firm-attributed neurotechnology investments in different categories. Do not count general AI, oncology organoids (Orakl), digital olfaction (Aryballe), antibody engineering (Kyron.bio) or founders' earlier BCI careers as additional direct HCVC neurotech investments without a specific investment/technology source.
## Conflicts, missing information and later Adex review
1. **Wrong Chef identity/round likely:** snapshot includes `Chef`, US$40m Series E, dated 2015-09-09, with a Chef.io source. That is **Chef Software/DevOps**, not Chef Robotics. The [official Chef Software announcement, 2015-09-09](https://www.chef.io/blog/chef-raises-40-million-in-series-e ) lists DFJ Growth, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Battery Ventures, Citi Ventures, DFJ, Ignition Partners, ScaleVP and Hewlett Packard Ventures; it does **not** list HCVC/Hardware Club. Quarantine/review this participation before reuse. The separately verified Chef Robotics 2025 transaction should remain distinct.
2. **Duplicate companies/rounds:** `Karavela` and `KaravelaAi` share the same 2025-08-22 funding lead; Gideon/Gideon Brothers has multiple June 2021/2021 entries; Alpine Eagle has adjacent date/currency variants; Delian has two 2025 entries. Review identities and preserve source history before consolidating. Karavela's amount is **€2m+**, not an exact €2m cap.
3. **Remedee financing:** snapshot's undated US$12m entry cites a 2022 regulatory-device release, which is not sufficient to date/classify a new investment round. The verified **€12.2m December 2022** financing is separate evidence; do not overwrite/merge the older claim until its original funding context is checked.
4. **Financial review:** populate source-backed Fund I and Fund II vehicle amounts/status separately; current AUM and Fund III commitments/target remain unverified. The 2026 legal page is an unresolved newer-vehicle lead, with internal identifier discrepancies.
5. **Stage/check review:** official FAQ can support the currently blank check fields, with currency and access date retained. Keep 2023 Fund II's euro-denominated ticket policy separate. Historical Series A participation is compatible with seed initial-entry labels; neither demonstrates a growth-stage mandate.
6. **Attribution limits:** Hardware Club community membership does not establish an HCVC investment. The official FAQ explicitly distinguishes the community from its smaller invested subset. Firm portfolio listing or company transaction announcement is required. No assigned fund vehicle has been established for the individual investments above unless expressly stated.
7. **Coverage/access:** directly checked saved exact record, NFX, official FAQ/home/portfolio, company financing announcements, Bpifrance, Tech.eu, French Tech Journal and legal-formation reporting. NFX extraction was sparse; the Remedee HTML funding page timed out, so the dated official PDF supplied the stronger evidence. The full historical portfolio, current team roles, ownership percentages, individual check amounts and 2026 live deployment capacity remain outside verified findings.
All linked sources were accessed **2026-10-06**; publication/announcement dates are identified above where available. Undated live official pages are access-date evidence. Proposed Adex corrections are review notes only; this research did not patch records, update the database or commit changes. SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · 5 hours ago
Match research 2026-10-06 / HCVC / sha256:4f93a9559a8117a73b30572531d8eee42ed0bce6cadc51cbc897e10626715fda / 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.
# HCVC
- Exact Adex ID: `HCVC`; canonical record: https://adex.page/firms/HCVC .
- Research date and source access date: **2026-10-06**.
- Status: complete research memorandum; no Adex/database changes made.
HCVC is an early-stage hardtech investor operating from Paris and San Francisco, associated with the Hardware Club community. Its official mandate spans company formation/pre-seed through Series A, with most activity in Europe and North America. Verified investments include advanced semiconductors, photonics and robotics, plus **Karavela** (brain modeling/neuroimaging with prospective BCI applications) and **Remedee Labs** (peripheral neuromodulation for chronic pain). The two neurotechnology categories should remain distinct. [Official FAQ, undated](https://www.hcvc.co/pages/faq ); investment evidence below.
## Starting evidence: Adex and NFX Signal
Read the exact-ID saved MCP Search snapshot `data/research/_sources/HCVC.adex.json`, retrieved 2026-10-06T19:29:38.992Z. The existing description gives founding year 2015, former Hardware Club identity, Paris headquarters and pre-seed–Series A activity across Europe/North America. Its check-size fields are null. It lists Alexis Houssou, Jerry Yang, Aymerik Renard, Alexandre Flamant, Isabel Zhang and Cyril Abiteboul in investment/team roles; these roles were starting leads, not all independently revalidated here. Public Bpifrance reporting confirms the Hardware Club community's January 2015 launch and subsequent investment activity; the 2017 fund inception is a separate milestone. [Bpifrance, press release dated December 11, 2018, page published December 14](https://presse.bpifrance.fr/hardware-club-annonce-le-closing-final-de-son-premier-fonds-a-hauteur-de-50-millions-de-dollarsnbsp/?lang=fra ).
The snapshot carries numerous investment participations, including Chiral, Karavela/Karavela Ai, Chef Robotics, ANELLO Photonics, Gideon/Gideon Brothers, Remedee Labs and ordinary commercial hardware companies. It contains apparent duplicate entities/rounds and an unsupported Chef Software attribution discussed below. Existing sources include Goldi.ai; these aggregator-derived records are leads rather than independent verification.
Directly opened [NFX Signal HCVC](https://signal.nfx.com/firms/hcvc ), undated. Readable content confirms the firm name and Paris, France location. The extracted page showed a Team heading but no usable team names, stages, checks, fund sizes or portfolio detail. Signal was inspected directly, but its limited extracted content supplies no additional independently verified financial or transaction facts.
## Fund size and status
| Vehicle/metric | Amount and status | Date and supporting evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hardware Club Fund I | **US$50m final close**; first close was US$28m in 2017. Created in 2017 and finally closed in November 2018. | Bpifrance press release dated **2018-12-11**, published **2018-12-14**, explicitly distinguishes first and final close: [official LP press release](https://presse.bpifrance.fr/hardware-club-annonce-le-closing-final-de-son-premier-fonds-a-hauteur-de-50-millions-de-dollarsnbsp/?lang=fra ). |
| HCVC Fund II | **US$75m closed fund**, announced **2023-10-03**. | [Tech.eu, 2023-10-03](https://tech.eu/2023/10/03/hcvc-raises-75m-for-second-fund-aiming-at-10-deals-hardtech-per-year/ ). |
| Fund II target and firm AUM | Initial target **US$60m**; firm **US$130m AUM** reported in October 2023. These are separate metrics from the US$75m fund close. | [French Tech Journal interview with Alexis Houssou, 2023-10-14](https://www.frenchtechjournal.com/spotlight-interview-hcvc-alexis-houssou/ ). AUM is historical, not a verified 2026 figure. |
| HCVC Fund III | A **2026 formation lead**, with no verified target, commitments, first close or final close amount. | [Le Figaro legal-announcement aggregation, notices March 5 and March 27, 2026](https://entreprises.lefigaro.fr/hcvc-fund-iii-75/entreprise-101336063 ), directly read. The page describes activity starting February 11, 2026 and SIREN 101336063, but its older notice includes inconsistent identifiers/general-partner naming. Verify against original registry documents before treating vehicle identity as settled. Formation does not demonstrate money raised. |
Fund II is the **latest verified sized/closed fund found**, rather than a claim that no later fund exists. Searches for HCVC Fund III and 2025/2026 new funds found the legal-formation lead above but no substantiated fundraising amount. Do not add Fund I plus Fund II and call the resulting US$125m current AUM; the independently reported historical US$130m AUM is a different measure.
## Investment stages, checks and geography
The [official FAQ, undated](https://www.hcvc.co/pages/faq ) says pre-seed through Series A, as early as formation, typically leading at pre-seed/seed or co-investing. It lists **US$100k–US$2.5m** checks and Europe/North America as the main geography. It accepts technically defensible software, hardware or both. Its broad statement about being stage/geography agnostic appears within community/company evaluation text; use the explicit investment-stage wording for the firm mandate.
Fund II launch reporting describes a narrower **pre-seed/seed** focus, with **€250k–€2.5m** tickets and around ten deals yearly. Treat that as the **2023 vehicle strategy**, not a replacement for the current public FAQ. The currencies/minimums differ; retain source dates and avoid collapsing them into a single range. [Tech.eu, 2023-10-03](https://tech.eu/2023/10/03/hcvc-raises-75m-for-second-fund-aiming-at-10-deals-hardtech-per-year/ ).
## Named previous deep-tech investments
Round totals below are company financing totals, **not HCVC check amounts**. Classification is based on the described engineering/scientific technology; no personal investments at former firms are credited to HCVC.
| Company | Technology and verified firm attribution | Round/date and sources |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Chiral / Chiral Nano AG** | Robotic integration of nanomaterials into semiconductor wafers, addressing post-silicon manufacturing. Company announcement explicitly names HCVC participating alongside Quantonation and Founderful; Crane Venture Partners led. | **US$12m seed, 2026-02-06**. [Company-issued GlobeNewswire release](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/06/3233564/0/en/Chiral-raises-12M-to-unlock-post-silicon-computing-beyond-Moore-s-Law.html ). Includes public funding from Innosuisse; do not characterize every dollar as equity. |
| **ANELLO Photonics** | Integrated silicon-photonic optical gyroscope and proprietary waveguide manufacturing for autonomous navigation. Company explicitly names **Hardware Club**, consistent with HCVC's official portfolio. | **US$28m Series A, 2021-10-20**, led by New Legacy Ventures. [Company-issued PR Newswire release](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anello-photonics-completes-28m-series-a-funding-for-worlds-first-integrated-siphog-301404196.html ). |
| **Gideon Brothers** | Autonomous mobile robots using AI and 3D vision for logistics/material handling. Company explicitly names **HCVC (Hardware Club)** as an existing shareholder participating. | **US$31m Series A, 2021-06-08**, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies. [Company-issued PR Newswire release](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gideon-brothers-raises-31-million-series-a-to-expand-its-portfolio-of-ai--3d-vision-autonomous-mobile-robots-301307461.html ). Official HCVC portfolio labels its entry round Seed, which is compatible with a later Series A follow-on. |
| **Chef Robotics** | Physical food manipulation/meal-assembly robots using embodied AI. Official announcement names HCVC among equity investors; Avataar Venture Partners led equity. | **US$43.1m combined equity/debt financing, 2025-03-31**, headline labeled Series A. Equipment debt supplied by Silicon Valley Bank. [Official company announcement](https://www.chefrobotics.ai/post/weve-raised-43-1m-to-accelerate-our-ai-enabled-robot-deployments ). Do not call US$43.1m an entirely equity round. | SHOW MORE
team@apexlogos.ai · 22 days ago
MATCH 
Y Combinator
Caper$10M · 2019-09-11
Cosmic Robotics$4M · Unknown date
Barend Van den Brande
Karman+$20M · 2025-02-19
Catapult Ventures
ANELLO Photonics$28M · 2021-10-20
Giraffe360$16M · 2022-12-05
Crane Venture Partners
Chiral$— · 2026-02-06
Expeditions
Lendurai$— · 2025
First Momentum Ventures
Karavela$— · 2025-08-22
Founders Fund
General Catalyst
Alpine Eagle$10M · 2025-03-05
IQ Capital
Lux Capital
Nathan Benaich
Delian$14M · 2025-07-29
Triple Point Ventures
Cowboy$80M · 2022-01-26
Vsquared Ventures
