Frontier Systems
The toolchain for designed biology
Designing a protein or a cell is getting cheap. Making it, clearing it and finding out whether it works is not. California's gene synthesis law puts a dated, penalised gate between a designed sequence and physical DNA from Jan 1, 2027, and the tighter screening rules bite there from Oct 13, 2027. We'd back the software that sits at that gate: the step that takes a designed construct, clears it, gets it made and records what happened.
First product Pre-synthesis clearance and ordering software sold to teams that design sequences with models, with a signed record of what was designed, cleared and made
Frontier Systems
Seafloor monitoring for deep-sea mining and undersea infrastructure
The US is close to deciding its first commercial deep-sea mining permit, and the seafloor is filling up with cables that now carry security rules. Every one of those activities will need someone to watch the seafloor continuously, and today that takes a research ship. We'd back the software that turns cheap seafloor sensors into monitoring a regulator accepts.
First product Plume and impact analytics for mining permit conditions
Frontier Systems
Autonomy for low-cost military drones
The Pentagon plans to buy more than 200,000 small attack drones by 2027 through a series of fly-off competitions. The airframes are getting cheap. What will be scarce is software that still finds and hits a target when GPS and radio links are jammed. We'd back that software, sold to every drone maker in the competition.
First product Visual navigation and terminal guidance module for drone makers
Frontier Systems
Software for orbital data centers
The first data center satellites aim to be fully operational in 2027. They need inference software that tolerates radiation and a way to decide what to send to the ground. We'd back that software, and we think the winner can become the company that runs the orbital cloud without building the satellites.
First product Radiation-tolerant inference runtime for orbital compute
Silicon & Quantum
Yield and process control for new fabs
New companies are trying to build fabs and lithography in the US for the first time in a generation. A new process needs new ways to measure and fix it. We'd back yield software for those fabs, and we think the winner can grow into the inspection and metrology company for the new process, the way KLA did for the last one.
First product Small-data defect classification for new fabs
Silicon & Quantum
Error correction and control software for quantum computers
Every team trying to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer needs a classical system that catches and fixes qubit errors in real time, plus a compiler that targets logical qubits. Two people can build the first version of that today. We'd back a team that starts with one decoder for one qubit type and grows into the control layer that sits under every vendor's machine.
First product Real-time decoder for one non-superconducting qubit type, as FPGA IP
Frontier Systems
Software for running lab instruments with AI
DOE's Genesis Mission pays national-lab facilities to run AI-driven experiments, and those facilities need software that lets an agent drive existing instruments safely. We'd back that control layer, and we think the winner ends up owning the largest record of machine-run experiments anywhere.
First product Closed-loop driver for one instrument class at DOE facilities
Frontier Systems
Neuron-on-chip assays now, biological computing later
Computing on living neurons is at least a decade away. FDA's move away from animal testing makes neurons on electrode arrays useful as a drug-discovery assay now, and that can pay for the compute research. We'd back a team whose first revenue is pharma and whose end state is a new kind of computer.
First product Analysis software and data standard for neuron-on-array readouts
Frontier Systems
Power for data centers that can flex
Grid operators are rewriting the rules for large loads in 2026. Data centers that can prove they cut load on demand may get power years sooner. We'd back the software that proves it, and we think the winner grows into the energy company for compute.
First product Curtailment attestation an RTO accepts
Silicon & Quantum
Memory and optical interconnect tooling
Moving data now costs more energy than computing on it. The fixes are stacked memory, optics in place of copper, and weights built into the chip, and all three need billions of capex. We'd back the tooling those companies need, then look for the team that can grow from tools into silicon.
First product Checkpoint-to-hardwired-silicon compiler
Physical AI & Robotics
Safety evidence for learning robots
From Jan 20, 2027, EU machinery whose safety depends on machine learning needs a notified body to sign off. Every retrained policy raises the same question again. We'd back the independent evidence and change-control system that answers it, starting in the EU and growing with every learning robot that ships.
First product Log-to-conformity-file pipeline with change control on retrain
Silicon & Quantum
AI chip design tools for the work Synopsys and Cadence won't do
Synopsys and Cadence both ship verification agents by the end of 2026. Once that happens, a startup selling front-end verification is selling against a free bundle. We'd back back-end tools trained on a customer's own tape-outs, and work that spans more than one vendor's tools.
First product Timing-closure agent trained on a customer's own tape-outs
Frontier Systems
Proof checking for AI-written code
Agents now write code faster than people can review it, and passing tests doesn't mean the code is right. The EU's Cyber Resilience Act fully applies in December 2027. We'd back an independent checker that verifies machine-made proofs and produces evidence a regulator or insurer accepts.
First product Proof-checking CI service for one vertical, with CRA evidence
Frontier Systems
Identity and permissions for AI agents
Companies are about to run thousands of agents that log into real systems with real credentials. Identity tools were built for people who sign in once a day. We'd back the company that gives each agent only the access one task needs, can revoke it in seconds, and can show afterwards who did what.
First product Task-scoped credential broker for agents with an audit log
Open Infrastructure
Verifying and paying for agent work
Regulated US stablecoins arrive on Jan 18, 2027, and the issuers' anti-money-laundering programs assume a human customer. Agents with wallets break that assumption. We'd back the credential and verifier that tell an issuer or exchange which accountable person or company an agent acts for and what it may spend, and grow from there into checking the work itself.
First product Know-your-agent credential and verifier for stablecoin issuers and exchanges, with an exportable audit trail
Silicon & Quantum
Software for agent CPUs
Agents spend most of their time on CPU work, and NVIDIA and Arm both start shipping CPUs sold for agents by the end of 2026. We think the software that packs thousands of agent sandboxes onto one rack is the opening, and nobody we found is funded to build it.
First product Fast snapshot-and-fork sandbox runtime with an open density benchmark
Open Infrastructure
Operations for mixed AI clusters
Inference racks now mix NVIDIA GPUs, inference chips and soon co-packaged optics. Neoclouds and enterprises can't hire hyperscaler-size ops teams to run them. We'd back the company that keeps those racks running to an SLA, in software and on site.
First product Failure diagnosis and repair for neocloud racks, software plus technicians
