Zoic Capital

Zoic Capital

Zoic Capital was founded in 2019 by Timothy O'Neil-Schneider, a former operator and venture investor, with a mandate to back early-stage deep-tech companies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and biological engineering. The firm established its headquarters in Los Angeles, an emerging hub for frontier technology and aerospace, and positioned itself as an early institutional backer for technically complex startups often originating from university labs and defense-adjacent research ecosystems. The firm pursues a concentrated, sector-focused investment strategy centered on seed and pre-seed stages, with selective participation in Series A rounds. Core areas of active exposure include generative AI infrastructure, orbital services and space situational awareness, synthetic biology, and precision neuroscience. Portfolio companies disclosed by the firm include Cambrian Works, a developer of decentralized space communication networks, and Talus Bioscience, a drug-discovery platform building machine-learning models of intrinsically disordered proteins (per public filings, 2023–2024). Geographic reach concentrates on the US Mountain West and Pacific Coast, with secondary exposure to select European deeptech clusters. Zoic Capital maintains a lean operational architecture typical of an emerging venture manager, with founding partner Timothy O'Neil-Schneider leading investment decisions and portfolio support alongside partner Kyle Krpata, who brings operational experience from scaling technology companies. The firm deploys capital through a core commingled fund structure supplemented by separate special-purpose vehicles for specific high-conviction portfolio companies, enabling flexible allocation sizing beyond a standard fund-level check. In 2024, the firm participated in a seed extension for a quantum networking startup, consistent with its long-term emphasis on non-consensus technical due diligence and multi-year reserve planning. Structurally, Zoic Capital differs from generalist seed funds in its willingness to anchor technically dense pre-revenue companies with multi-year development timelines, a posture more common among mission-driven nonprofit funders than institutional VC firms. This orientation is enabled by a limited partner base that skews toward family offices and high-net-worth individuals with long-duration capital tolerances. Governance is centered on the two named partners, with no publicly disclosed advisory board or non-executive investment committee, producing high decision velocity relative to committee-governed peers.