Mission
A pre-seed venture firm for New York deep tech and AI-accelerated companies. Founders prove customer demand in Signal; capital follows the evidence.
We are building a path for New York's breakthrough technologies to move from lab to enterprise, helping highly technical founders validate commercial potential and turn innovation into enduring companies.
Build Validation. Invest in Growth.
The Gap
New York produces breakthrough research and deeply technical founders. But between early traction and institutional Seed capital lies a gap where too many companies stall.
Ideas. Research. Early traction.
A deep and consistent pipeline of innovation across New York.
The validation gap
The hardest stretch for founders: too early for institutional capital, too far to go it alone.
UPNY Ventures bridges the gap.
Pre-seed capital + GTM support.
Scale. Institutional support.
Seed capital and the partnerships that help companies keep growing.
$7.6B
spent on research by New York universities in a year, second only to California
NYS Comptroller, Higher Education in New York (NSF HERD data, FY2021)
$3.9B
in federal science funding to New York campuses in FY2023, also #2
NSF NCSES, Federal S&E Support to Higher Education by State (FY2023)
1 in 3
new Upstate startups receives investment: 72 of the 218 founded each year
Dealroom, Upstate New York ecosystem
$456M
Upstate NY venture capital in 2024 vs. $28.5B in the NYC metro, about $1 for every $62
PitchBook via Rochester Beacon, Jul 2025; NYS Comptroller, Oct 2025
What We Back
Networking, sensing and computing hardware
Materials, storage and grid technology
AI built into one industry's workflow
Care delivery, diagnostics and clinical data
Optics, semiconductors, AI infrastructure
Uncrewed systems and physical AI
Plus: New York technology startups built around customer demand and high growth.
About
UPNY Ventures is building a new path from New York innovation to enterprise.
We combine Signal and the UPNY Commercialization Engine with pre-seed investment to help New York deep tech and AI-accelerated companies build commercial evidence, reduce market risk, and become stronger, more investable companies.
We founded UPNY Ventures around a conviction:
New York breathes innovation, but it needs a stronger path from technical potential to commercial evidence and growth.
Investor inquiries: invest@upny.vc
UPNY Ventures does not offer or sell securities through this website. Nothing on this site is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any offering is made only through confidential offering documents.
