SciFi VC

Max and Nellie Levchin are the firm's co-founders and public faces, and the firm's website presents them as its principal investment decision-makers. Max Levchin brings his experience as co-founder of PayPal and founder of Affirm; Nellie Levchin is listed alongside him as a co-founder of SciFi. The firm does not disclose an investment committee structure beyond the named co-founders and team members.

SciFi's most distinctive sourcing channel is its "Brainstorm Stage" approach, where the partners work with founders before company formation — helping define product, strategy, and even models — and then lead the seed round. This operator-intensive, pre-incorporation model is designed to identify exceptional founders before broader market visibility. The firm's deep domain expertise in fintech infrastructure also attracts founders building in credit, payments, and regulated financial markets.

SciFi is a venture firm, not a single-family office: it raises external capital as an early-stage generalist fund, though the precise fund structure and limited partner base are not disclosed. The firm's public branding centers on Max Levchin's operational reputation rather than family wealth preservation. It invites external founders to partner with the fund.

SciFi's stated model is exclusively direct investing — partnering with founders at the brainstorm, seed, Series A, and opportunistic growth stages. The firm's website makes no mention of fund-of-funds commitments, SPVs for third-party fund access, or club-deal structures. All observed portfolio references point to direct company investments.

The firm operates across three stages: Brainstorm (pre-incorporation, leading to a seed round), Early Stage (Seed and Series A), and Growth (follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies, plus opportunistic later-stage rounds). The Brainstorm Stage is the most structurally unusual, functioning as a hybrid between venture studio and seed fund.

SciFi describes itself as a generalist fund, but its stated emphasis — fintech, AI, and science — suggests it looks for technical, regulated, or research-intensive categories. The firm's site suggests it is less likely to invest in consumer brands, pure-play content, or light-tech services, though it does not publish an explicit exclusion list beyond its thematic focus.

There is no formal corporate relationship between SciFi VC and Max Levchin's prior operating companies — Affirm, Slide, or PayPal. However, the firm's strategy and network are deeply informed by that history: its fintech thesis draws on Levchin's experience building payments and credit infrastructure, and portfolio companies such as Brex operate in markets adjacent to those he shaped.