Fifty Years

Fifty Years is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, United States, founded in 2015, that invests in deep tech startups. It backs founders using technology to solve large problems such as the climate crisis, disease, connectivity and malnutrition. Examples of the work it supports include factory-manufactured nuclear reactors, decarbonizing chemicals production through enzymatic manufacturing, single-molecule diagnostics, and low-cost rapid blood diagnostics powered by machine learning. The firm looks for scientists, engineers and hackers, and many of the founders and CEOs it backs hold PhDs. Fifty Years invests at the pre-seed and seed stages. Beyond capital, it runs 5050, a cohort-based program that helps scientists and engineers become entrepreneurs and start deep tech companies, publishes a Spinout Playbook for researchers leaving academia, and offers Manifest Grants, fast funding for translational science.