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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.