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UP.Partners
UP.Partners operates from Santa Monica with a thesis built around what the firm calls the Kinetic Age — the convergence of physical infrastructure and digital...
UP.Partners
UP.Partners operates from Santa Monica with a thesis built around what the firm calls the Kinetic Age — the convergence of physical infrastructure and digital intelligence across mobility, aerospace, and automation. The team consists of engineers, pilots, and industrialists who worked in operating roles before they started writing checks. The firm's strategy is anchored in a belief that the same hands that build complex machinery are better positioned to fund it. The firm invests across early-stage and late-stage companies in sectors that include electrified aviation, advanced robotics, space transport, and energy systems. UP.Partners structures commitments as direct equity and co-investments, often acting as the lead or anchor in rounds for companies that sit at the intersection of hardware and software. Portfolio exposure spans electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing airframes, autonomous heavy equipment, satellite propulsion, and battery manufacturing — a mix that reflects the firm's view that transportation and energy are now a single integrated problem. Team size and total deployed capital are not publicly disclosed. The firm maintains a single office in Santa Monica and uses its annual UP Summit — a private gathering of founders, policymakers, and corporate strategists who operate in the mobility sector — as both a convener platform and a proprietary deal-sourcing flywheel. The Summit doubles as a market-intelligence node, giving the firm real-time visibility into supply-chain shifts, regulatory openings, and founder talent years before those signals reach a generalist investor. What structurally differentiates UP.Partners from a standard venture firm is the operating-company mentality embedded in its partnership contract. The senior team does not see deal-sourcing as a spreadsheet exercise; they treat the fund as an extension of an industrial project lab, where capital deployment is the final step after years of direct engineering collaboration. That architecture — a venture fund that self-positions as a multi-industry infrastructure builder — means limited partners are backing a thesis execution engine more than a diversified portfolio of startup bets.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2019
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Santa Monica
Corporate office
Santa Monica, CA, United States
Principals
Ben Marcus
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Adam Grosser
Chairman & Co-Founder
Cyrus Sigari
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at UP.Partners?
Investment decisions are led by co-founders Ben Marcus and Cyrus Sigari, both managing partners who oversee deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio construction. Chairman Adam Grosser, a former managing director at Silver Lake, provides strategic and governance oversight. The partnership operates without a traditional hierarchical investment committee common at multi-stage funds, relying instead on the co-founders' shared sector expertise.
How does UP.Partners source proprietary deal flow?
The firm sources through a network of mobility-specific operators, aerospace executives, and regulatory contacts built over years of sector focus. Its co-investment relationship with Walden Catalyst provides additional technical and entrepreneurial referrals. Unlike generalist firms competing on brand alone, UP.Partners' narrow mandate makes it a default first call for founders building in electric aviation, autonomous systems, and space logistics.
Does UP.Partners participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
UP.Partners invests directly into portfolio companies, primarily through equity rounds from Seed to Series B. It does not operate as a fund-of-funds and is not known to allocate capital to other venture firms as a limited partner. The firm may, however, invest alongside co-investors and strategic partners on a deal-by-deal basis.
What investment stages does UP.Partners typically target?
The firm targets early-stage companies, from pre-seed and seed rounds through Series B, with occasional participation in later-stage rounds for existing portfolio companies. This stage focus aligns with its thesis that mobility's most significant value creation occurs at the intersection of technical breakthrough and regulatory milestone, well before commercial scale is reached.
Which sectors does UP.Partners explicitly avoid?
UP.Partners avoids sectors outside mobility and transportation, including enterprise SaaS, fintech, digital health, and consumer internet. Within mobility, the firm has not publicly invested in oil and gas extraction technologies or traditional internal-combustion engine programs, maintaining a focus on electric, autonomous, and space-based propulsion systems.
How is UP.Partners related to Walden Catalyst?
UP.Partners and Walden Catalyst maintain a close co-investment relationship anchored by shared sector conviction in deep tech and mobility. Adam Grosser's ties across both firms reinforce the collaboration, though the two entities remain independently managed. The relationship allows UP.Partners to access Walden Catalyst's technical due-diligence capabilities and its network of university research labs and enterprise partners.
Does UP.Partners maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
UP.Partners has not publicly disclosed a dedicated philanthropic arm. The firm's public communications and filings focus exclusively on its for-profit venture mandate. Founders Ben Marcus and Cyrus Sigari may engage in personal philanthropy, but no institutional foundation is known to operate alongside the fund.
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