Flywheel Ventures

Trevor Loy is the Managing Partner and leads investment decisions at Flywheel Ventures. He founded the firm in 1999 and has driven its thesis around commercializing research from the Southwest's national laboratories. Public records identify Loy as the primary decision-maker on the firm's venture allocations.

Flywheel focuses on seed and early-stage investments, often providing the first institutional capital to startups spinning out of federal research labs or universities. The firm also participates in early-stage venture rounds and commercialization-stage spin-offs, per its disclosed strategy. It does not operate as a growth-equity or late-stage investor.

Flywheel invests in enterprise software, clean technology, and advanced materials. Its portfolio emphasizes companies addressing water scarcity, energy resilience, and infrastructure efficiency—sectors where the Southwest's national laboratories generate core intellectual property. The firm has also backed AI/ML applications built on lab-originated sensor data.

The firm sources deals primarily from the Mountain West region—Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas—with an emphasis on companies connected to Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the University of New Mexico. This geography-driven sourcing model exploits a structural gap: most coastal venture firms have limited presence around these research institutions.

Flywheel Ventures remains an active firm based in Santa Fe. However, the firm does not publicly disclose current fund size, recent closes, or deployment pace. Its public communications and digital presence are minimal compared to larger venture platforms, consistent with its historically low-profile operating style.