our Theory of Change

We back bold, growth-oriented Founders transforming how the world is moved, powered, and built — with software, hardware, and everything in between.

The Moment: Physical Infrastructure Under Pressure

We are in the early innings of a new industrial revolution that is reshaping the global economy.

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• Surging Energy Demand: Demand for electricity from the grid in the U.S. is expected to increase by 25% by 2030. The second-largest utility in the U.S. plans to double its capacity in the next six years, a buildout that previously took nearly 100 years.
• A New Era of Climate Resilience: Annual insured losses from natural disasters have topped $100 billion for five years straight, a sea change from previous years.
• Reindustrialization of the U.S.: Over $3 trillion and counting has been committed to U.S. manufacturing by global public and private actors.

The challenges are massive, but so are the opportunities. Industries that took decades to change are now transforming in years.

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Our Focus: The Intersection of AI and the Systems That Move, Power, and Build the World

While software ate the DIGITAL world, AI is eating the PHYSICAL world.

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Energy

AI + electrification requires over $21 trillion of investment in our electric grid over the coming decades, forcing a complete rethinking of how we generate, store, and manage power. Our systems must become dramatically more flexible, resilient, and clean. AI is the only toolset capable of orchestrating that transformation at scale. Companies like Tyba (AI-optimized energy storage operations and trading) and NMT (AI-driven geothermal discovery and site validation) show how intelligence is becoming the new backbone of the energy system itself.

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Mobility

From autonomous driving to EV charging optimization to AI-accelerated mining of critical minerals, mobility is being rebuilt from the ground up. In our portfolio, Plug is redefining how EVs change hands - an AI-native Carvana where pricing optimization, generative agents, and workflow automation make buying and selling EVs seamless, transparent, and far more efficient.

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Built World

AI is enabling buildings and infrastructure to be designed, constructed, and operated better, faster, and more profitably than ever before. Companies like Treehouse (AI-enabled electrification and installation services) and Lumina (all-electric, autonomous construction equipment) are accelerating the shift to an electrified built environment. Others, like FutureProof (AI-driven flood and fire insurance), are fortifying our infrastructure against climate risk.

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Our Lens: Business Models That Scale Without Massive Dilution

We find the most bold, growth-oriented Founders solving the biggest problems in these physical systems, and help them scale with capital-efficient strategies. We invest across sectors and business models, from pure SaaS to deep tech, whichever model can create and capture significant value in a particular sector. Critically, we look for models that scale without relying on excessive costly equity.

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This isn’t a contradiction.

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Capital-light and equity-light are not synonyms. The myth that hard tech startups are always more dilutive than software has become one of VC’s most expensive misunderstandings. Hardware companies that master structured finance and non-dilutive capital can often scale more efficiently than software companies burning equity on customer acquisition. We agree with Packy McCormick:

‍“Capital Intensity Isn't Bad”

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SpaceX was less dilutive to its Founders than Uber. These are the companies defining the next age: SpaceX, Tesla, and Anduril. These companies also tend to build deeper moats, combining software, hardware, proprietary data, and distribution into defensible innovation stacks.

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We back Founders who can build those innovation stacks, raise capital on their terms, and strategically leverage non-dilutive funding as they scale.

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Our Edge: Founder-First Support with Deep Operating Experience

We back Founders who are deeply committed to personal growth.

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What sets Virta apart is how we support Founders on that growth journey. We’ve built a network of world-class executive coaches who work directly with our portfolio CEOs, often subsidized by Virta at the earliest stages. Coaching allows founders to uplevel themselves, build resilience, sharpen execution, and learn the tools to scale through chaos. Steve Jobs, Sam Altman, and Brian Armstrong all exemplify these traits, and they had coaches from the earliest days.

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We combine that Founder-first coaching with sector expertise from a team with deep operating experience across energy, mobility, and the built world.

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