Venture Capital · Profile from Venture Capital Research Companion
Lux Capital
The New York firm that began as a nanotech specialist in 2000 and became one of the leading "science and national security" venture investors, known for Josh Wolfe's contrarian theses, company creation, and early positions in Anduril, Hugging Face and Auris Health.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2000, New York City
- Founders
- Josh Wolfe, Peter Hébert, Robert (Bob) Paull
- Headquarters
- New York City (Manhattan); second office in Menlo Park / Silicon Valley
- Ownership / structure
- Private partnership; closed-end venture funds (Lux Ventures I–IX) plus opportunity / "Total Opportunities" vehicles; first outside investor reported to be Carlyle co-founder Bill Conway
- Leadership (2026)
- Co-founders and managing partners Josh Wolfe and Peter Hébert; partners reported to include Bilal Zuberi, Shahin Farshchi, Deena Shakir, Brandon Reeves, Grace Isford and others; venture partners include Gen. (ret.) Tony Thomas (2020) and Brett McGurk (2025) (verify current roster)
- AUM / capital raised
- ~$7bn under management (reported, January 2026) after closing Lux Ventures IX at ~$1.5bn, its largest fund
- Stage focus
- Seed through Series B in science-driven companies; opportunity funds for later rounds; in-house company creation (Lux Labs, formalised 2024)
- Signature investments
- Anduril, Hugging Face, Auris Health (J&J), Kurion (Veolia), CTRL-labs (Facebook), Recursion, Together AI, Runway, Applied Intuition, Hadrian; failures and disappointments: Desktop Metal, Tempo Automation, several SPAC-era hardware names
9 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2008
Kurion
Founding / Series A Investment
2012
Auris Health
Series A
2015
Desktop Metal
Series A / Founding Round
2015
Zoox
Early Venture Round
2016
Recursion
Series A
2017
Anduril
Seed
2017
CTRL labs
Series A
2019
Hugging Face
Series A
2023
Together AI
Seed