Overlap Holdings, a VC firm utilizing elements of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, today announced the final close of its first fund, Overlap Holdings Flagship Fund 1 (OHF1). The inaugural fund of $33 million will invest in early-stage (Seed through Series B) startups building technologies at the intersection of scientific innovation and hardware.
Justin Stevens, a former Senior Partner at Apollo Global Management who spent nearly two decades in private equity, launched Overlap Holdings after observing the value his Wall Street wisdom and connections brought to startups struggling through their funding journeys. Frontier tech companies often require creative financing to bridge the “valleys of death” inherent to early development stages. Their capital intensity is a major reason venture investors have flocked to software over frontier tech — a trend that Stevens believes has had a detrimental effect on society as a whole.
This fund OHF1 sits at the heart of the firm’s integrated model, which combines equity investments with introductions to non-dilutive funding sources (primarily debt). And frontier tech companies often depend on such capital to build a factory, finance a first-of-a-kind project, or scale their business more efficiently than with equity alone. The firm’s team includes Chief Operating Officer Rob Morelli, who ran a debt desk at UBS for a decade before founding his own startup, and Associate Gauri Jaswal, an experienced frontier tech investor previously with Conscience VC.
The firm invested in 11 frontier tech startups, including Impulse Space, Hadrian, Integrated Biosciences, Anthro Energy, and Mendaera. And it targets 30–35 total investments for OHF1, with average investments of approximately $700,000. The team utilizes a deep network of technical experts across their main focus industries to assist in their underwriting and drive further value for their portfolio companies.
KEY QUOTES:
“The mission of Overlap Holdings is to refocus venture on solving world-scale problems. Too often, frontier tech founders struggle not because they lack great ideas but because they lack access to the right type of capital, at the right time. The strategy for funding a startup’s entire capital journey is as important as the technology it creates. We believe that Overlap Holdings is the only frontier tech venture firm focused first and foremost on this capital journey.”
“Our key societal indicators of well-being tell a stark story: GDP growth is underwhelming, life expectancy is stagnant, and people are unhappy in record numbers. Venture capital should be a powerful force for true innovation. I founded Overlap Holdings to help make that happen.”
- Justin Stevens
“Overlap Holdings is not a typical venture capital firm. While most firms focus on engineering or operations, we bring 30-plus years of financial structuring expertise to this capital-intensive ecosystem. Whether funding a robotics breakthrough or securing a debt partner to advance a next-gen space company, we work tirelessly with founders to make their financing journeys easier.”
- Rob Morelli
“The connectivity with these industry leaders can be transformative for a startup. This is part of Overlap’s special sauce—our ability to blend investment insight, market intelligence, and relationship science to provide a differentiated process and support.”
- Gauri Jaswal
