Tierra Adentro Growth Capital, operating as TAG Capital, has launched its New Mexico strategy through the Tierra Adentro Fund, a $100 million infrastructure investment vehicle dedicated to financing physical assets for next-generation technology companies building in the state. The fund’s launch follows years of conversations with the New Mexico State Investment Council, the state’s approximately $71 billion sovereign wealth fund, and is designed to bridge the gap between the SIC’s investments in venture firms focused on advanced energy, deep tech, and aerospace and defense, and the capital necessary for those companies to build physical infrastructure in New Mexico.
The fund targets investments ranging from a few million dollars to $40 million and has already made its first commitment to Zanskar, described as the world’s first AI-native geothermal energy developer. Alok Sindher will lead TAG Capital as Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer.
The fund’s structure is intentionally designed to complement equity financing rather than replace it, offering infrastructure capital that allows founders to retain more autonomy and ownership as they grow their operations in New Mexico. J2 Ventures, a Boston-based firm backed in part by the SIC that invests in companies across advanced computing, biomedical engineering, cybersecurity, and infrastructure, will provide continued strategic advisory support to TAG Capital through its co-founders Alexander Harstrick and Jonathan Bronson. New Mexico has seen growing ecosystem activity as a result of the SIC’s Strategic Venture Capital Program, which has committed $1.8 billion to top-tier venture funds over the past three years, and Tierra Adentro is intended to translate that momentum into physical infrastructure build-out within state borders.
Chris Cassidy, the Director for Private Equity and Venture Capital at the SIC and the Tierra Adentro Fund’s primary investor, described the fund as filling a clear gap in the New Mexico investment ecosystem — one that has become increasingly apparent as major infrastructure platforms consolidate and demand from next-generation deep tech companies accelerates. New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rob Black expressed confidence that the state’s incentives and environment, combined with Tierra Adentro’s capital, create the right conditions for attracting world-class operators to build in New Mexico.
The fund represents a model that observers of the venture and infrastructure ecosystem are watching closely: a state-aligned, infrastructure-focused vehicle designed to catalyze the physical build-out of advanced technology industries in a geography that has traditionally struggled to convert research and development talent into scaled commercial operations.
KEY QUOTE:
“Entrepreneurs thinking about expanding in New Mexico are embracing the model we are building at Tierra Adentro. At the end of the day we are helping companies scale in a way traditional equity financing cannot and frankly should not. Founders can instead retain more autonomy and ownership of their company as they grow in, or expand to, New Mexico.”
Alok Sindher, Managing Partner and CIO, TAG Capital
