# HCVC

HCVC is a Venture Capital based in Paris, France.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Venture Capital
- **Headquarters:** Paris, France
- **Region:** Europe
- **Address:** Paris, France
- **Founded:** 2015
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed (Altss estimate: sub-$100M fund size)
- **Website:** hardwareclub.co
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/hcvc

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

We are a venture capital firm that helps fearless founders tackle hard problems with capital, resources and collaboration.

## Sectors

- Industrial Tech
- Robotics & Automation
- SpaceTech
- Mobility & Transportation
- AI/ML

## People

- Alexis Houssou — Founder & Managing Partner
- Jerry Yang — Founding Partner
- Aymerik Renard — General Partner

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at HCVC?

Founder and Managing Partner Alexis Houssou leads the partnership alongside General Partner Aymerik Renard. The investment committee is engineering-heavy, reflecting the firm's thesis that deep-tech underwriting requires operator-level fluency in robotics, manufacturing, and aerospace. Founding Partner Jerry Yang also contributes to sourcing and diligence. The firm's lean structure means investment decisions are made by a small group of partners who have direct experience founding or scaling hardware companies.

### How does HCVC source proprietary deal flow?

HCVC's primary sourcing channel is a membership network of hundreds of hardware founders worldwide, a structure inherited from the firm's origins as Hardware Club — a community platform that predates the formal venture fund. Founders share supplier contacts, manufacturing benchmarks, and introductions to emerging teams before they begin institutional fundraising. This network gives HCVC early visibility into technical teams that often bypass traditional VC pipelines.

### Which sectors does HCVC explicitly avoid?

HCVC avoids pure software-as-a-service, consumer internet, fintech, and digital media investments — sectors that dominate the portfolios of generalist European seed funds. The firm also does not invest in therapeutics, medical devices requiring FDA clearance, or hardware startups that are primarily consumer-goods branded rather than technologically differentiated. Its mandate explicitly requires a defensible hardware or physical-engineering moat.

### How is HCVC different from generalist European seed funds?

HCVC is one of the few European venture firms that invests exclusively in hard-tech — companies where the primary competitive moat is a physical product, not a software platform. The entire partnership possesses technical fluency in robotics, aerospace, and manufacturing, which allows the firm to underwrite technical risk that deters generalist seed investors. It also maintains a proprietary sourcing network of hundreds of hardware founders, a structural advantage in a category where warm technical introductions carry far more signal than cold outreach.

## Related profiles

- [HCS Capital Partners](https://altss.com/profile/hcs-capital-partners)
- [HCX Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/hcx-ventures)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/hcvc

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