Investors / United States / Velocity Catalyst
Velocity Catalyst
Venture capital · Chicago, IL, United States · North America
Velocity Catalyst is a Chicago-based hybrid venture capital firm that makes direct pre-seed investments and also acts as a fund-of-funds, writing anchor checks into emerging fund managers. It describes itself as catalytic capital supporting Chicago and Illinois businesses.
Invests inHealthcare & Biotech
In its own wordspre-seedfund-of-fundsemerging managersmidwestchicagodeep tech
Your fit with Velocity Catalyst
Four questions about your startup
See how your round matches what it backs, point by point.
Or find every investor that fitsVelocity Catalyst lists 51 checked portfolio companies on its own site and is named in 1 funding round. Its most frequent entry is Pre-seed, 100% of the companies with a known first round. Its largest themes are Healthcare & Biotech (29%), Fintech (13%) and AI & Machine Learning (10%). 96% of its companies are based in United States. It invests most often alongside Groove Capital, Techstars and Y Combinator.
Counts come from funding rounds that name Velocity Catalyst, complete from mid-2025: earlier rounds appear only when they were reported later. Round amounts and full round histories are on Fundup AI.
Round figures show recent activity, not Velocity Catalyst's whole history. Rounds on record name 1 company; its own site lists 51. Funding rounds are complete from mid-2025, so counts and the yearly trend undercount a firm that invested before then. The portfolio, themes and places come from its own site and are not affected.
Entry stage
share of companies by the stage of its first roundShow as a table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Pre-seed | 100% |
| Seed | 0% |
| Series A | 0% |
| Series B | 0% |
| Growth | 0% |
Activity by year
rounds it joined, last 10 yearsShow as a table
| Total | Rounds it led | |
|---|---|---|
| '17 | 0 | 0 |
| '18 | 0 | 0 |
| '19 | 0 | 0 |
| '20 | 0 | 0 |
| '21 | 0 | 0 |
| '22 | 0 | 0 |
| '23 | 0 | 0 |
| '24 | 0 | 0 |
| '25 | 0 | 0 |
| '26 | 1 | 0 |
Investor profile
percentile among all firmsShow as a table
| Measure | Percentile of all firms | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio size | 84th | 51 companies |
| Recent activity | 59th | 1 rounds in 12 months |
| Early stage | 100th | 100% of entries at pre-seed or seed |
| Evidence | 54th | 2% of companies confirmed by a round |
| Sector focus | 49th | 29% in its largest sector |
| Reach | 42th | 2 countries |
Investment themes
share of its checked companiesThis firmAll checked companies
Show as a table
| This firm | All checked companies | |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare & Biotech | 29% | 15% |
| Fintech | 13% | 12% |
| AI & Machine Learning | 10% | 18% |
| Food & Agriculture | 10% | 3% |
| Industrial & Manufacturing | 8% | 7% |
| E-commerce & Marketplaces | 8% | 6% |
| Consumer | 7% | 3% |
| Education | 3% | 7% |
Invests most often with
firms sharing its portfolio companiesShow as a table
| Share | |
|---|---|
| Groove Capital | 4 |
| Techstars | 4 |
| Y Combinator | 4 |
| LongJump | 3 |
| Swizzle Ventures | 3 |
| 11 Tribes Ventures | 2 |
| Connetic Ventures | 2 |
| Flux Capital | 2 |
Its portfolio companies
where they are based, and what their own sites showSite status
- Site answers5098%
- No longer answers00%
- Points to another company12%
- Parked or sold domain00%
A site that stops answering three checks in a row is counted as no longer answering; that is not proof of closure. A site that points to another company is often an acquisition.
Co-investor network
who it backs companies with, and who they back togetherCompare Velocity Catalyst head to head
portfolio size, rounds, entry stages, themes and the companies both backThree or more firms at once: portfolio overlap.
Recent portfolio activity
when companies last raised with Velocity Catalyst| Date | Company | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Nov 2026 | Pre-Seed |
Round details for Velocity Catalyst
Amounts, full round histories and every co-investor in Velocity Catalyst's rounds are on Fundup AI. VCinfo covers investors and their portfolios.
Portfolio
51 companies checked against their own sites| Company | What it does | Themes | First round with it | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acorn Genetics builds genomics tools for simple, affordable, and impactful biological analysis. | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Portfolio page | ||||
| Cashdrop Inc. sells tools for creators, restaurants, and real-world local businesses. | E-commerce & MarketplacesFintech | Portfolio page | ||
| Coologics is advancing a novel, drug-free medical device designed to address vaginal yeast infections in women's health. | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Curiva develops a non-invasive cervical cancer diagnostic patch | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Daybird formulates makeup, skincare, and sunscreen hybrids that work with every wear. | Healthcare & BiotechConsumer | Portfolio page | ||
| EeroQ develops quantum computer hardware using standard CMOS technology and electron qubits | Healthcare & BiotechIndustrial & Manufacturing | Portfolio page | ||
| The company produces and sells allergen-friendly snacks | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| The company provides a generative AI canvas for creative teams to create images, videos, 3D, and more with various models in a single place. | Media & EntertainmentE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| FARE operates fast food locations serving seasonal food in Chicago and North Carolina. | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| FullSeam automates accounting and finance workflows, such as close management, cash application, and reporting, using AI agents that plug into existing ERP systems and spreadsheets. | FintechAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page | ||
| Ganance makes a device that can be attached to a traditional watch to add smartwatch features | ConsumerHealthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Gemist provides a custom jewelry design and ordering platform for fine jewelry brands to embed into their websites | E-commerce & MarketplacesFintech | Portfolio page | ||
| LUWI develops and sells intimate care products, including lube and a pleasure-centered alternative to condoms. | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Globowl produces internationally-inspired baby and toddler meals | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| Harper Court Ventures is an early-stage deep tech venture fund focused on accelerating the commercialization of groundbreaking technologies emerging from the University of Chicago ecosystem. | AI & Machine LearningHealthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Hello Divorce handles the legal details of a divorce, pairing clients with a Forms Specialist and offering access to licensed divorce attorneys. | Legal & Compliance | Portfolio page | ||
| The company develops an AI-driven portable and automated 3D breast ultrasound scanner | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| The company sells adaptive clothing for people with various needs and disabilities. | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Portfolio page |
About this data
site last read 5 Nov 2026- Site
- vcf.vc
- Last read
- 5 Nov 2026
- Watching since
- 6 Nov 2026
- Rounds since
- 2 Nov 2026
- Companies checked
- 51
Rates come from what VCinfo has observed since observation_start. Firms tend to remove companies that closed, so early rates understate reality. A company leaving a portfolio page does not mean it closed or exited. An unreachable site means our checks failed, nothing more.
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