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Thales Investment Management
Maran Nelson and Michael Akilian's Thales Investment Management combines early-stage venture investing with company incubation in San Francisco.
Thales Investment Management
Thales Investment Management was founded in San Francisco by Maran Nelson and Michael Akilian as an early-stage venture and incubations firm. The firm positions itself at the intersection of company creation and venture capital, indicating that a portion of its activity involves internal incubation rather than purely third-party investment. The firm targets the earliest stages of a company’s life, operating at the seed and start-up phases while maintaining capacity for expansion capital. Sectors visible in prior Altss research include enterprise software and artificial intelligence. The firm's dual-track approach suggests that in addition to writing checks into external startups, Thales commits time and resources to building ventures from scratch within its own structure, a model that changes the risk and return profile compared to a standard committed-capital fund. Details on total deployment, team size, and additional offices remain unconfirmed. As of the latest review, no adjacent vehicles, philanthropic structures, or co-investor club memberships have been made public. Thales's structural differentiator lies in its incubation arm. Rather than functioning solely as a pool of discretionary capital, the firm operates as an active builder, blurring the line between investor and founder. This architecture means deal flow can be internally generated before it ever reaches the open market, creating a sourcing channel that is structurally unavailable to pure-play allocators.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Francisco
Corporate office
San Francisco, United States
Principals
Maran Nelson
Co-founder
Michael Akilian
Co-founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Thales Investment Management?
Maran Nelson and Michael Akilian co-founded the firm and appear to lead its operations. The firm's website presents them as the two principals driving the early-stage venture and incubations strategy.
Is Thales structured as a traditional venture firm or does it also build companies internally?
Thales operates a hybrid model. Alongside deploying capital into early-stage startups, it runs an incubations practice, meaning the firm generates its own deal flow from scratch before seeking external capital or scaling a concept internally.
What investment stages does Thales typically target?
The firm focuses on early-stage technology companies, specifically seed and start-up phases, and retains capacity for expansion or late-stage venture rounds. This gives it flexibility to support a company from formation through growth.
How does Thales source proprietary deal flow?
Through its incubations practice, a portion of Thales's pipeline is home-grown. The firm creates ventures internally, which means these opportunities do not appear in a standard auction or syndicate process before Thales is already involved.
Does Thales participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
The firm's disclosed model emphasizes direct early-stage venture investments and internal incubations. There is no public evidence that it acts as a limited partner in external funds or participates in club deals.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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