Vale Ventures

Viktor Moszkowicz leads Vale Ventures as its founding head, a role he assumed in 2022. Prior to joining Vale, Moszkowicz was a partner at Antler, the global early-stage venture firm. He reports to Vale's executive leadership, but the unit operates with independent investment committee authority to make minority equity commitments within its $100 million mandate.

The key difference is Vale's explicit commitment to serve as the first large-scale customer for portfolio companies that reach commercial readiness. This means a startup developing a novel mining or metals-processing technology gets access to Vale's mines, plants, and logistics networks for deployment. For founders, this addresses the primary bottleneck for industrial startups: getting a first-of-a-kind plant built and validated at scale.

Vale Ventures invests at the early stage, typically seed and Series A rounds. The firm takes minority equity positions and has disclosed initial check sizes sufficient to anchor or lead rounds in the decarbonization and sustainable mining sectors. The mandate is to back technologies that are early enough to benefit from Vale's operational partnership but mature enough to reach commercial deployment within a few years of investment.

Vale Ventures makes direct equity investments into companies, not fund-of-funds commitments. The unit writes checks directly to startups, taking board observer or board seats where appropriate. There is no public record of the firm investing into other venture capital funds as a limited partner.

Vale Ventures has not published a formal exclusion list, but its three stated investment pillars — sustainable mining, decarbonization of metals processing, and new mineral applications for the energy transition — suggest it does not invest in generalist software, consumer internet, or sectors unrelated to its parent's industrial footprint. The firm's mandate is tightly coupled to Vale's operational and strategic interests.

The $100 million committed to Vale Ventures comes from Vale S.A.'s corporate balance sheet. Vale is one of the world's largest mining companies by revenue, with its capital generated primarily from iron ore, nickel, and copper production. The venture unit is a fully-owned subsidiary, not an external fund raised from limited partners.

Vale Ventures sources deals through a combination of proprietary inbound from the global mining and metals technology ecosystem, outbound thesis-driven search by the investment team, and partnerships with research institutions such as the Vale Institute of Technology. Moszkowicz's venture network from his time at Antler and the broader startup community in Brazil, North America, and Europe also contributes to deal flow, particularly in deep-tech and industrial biotechnology.