About | Team | Portfolio | Working with Humba Ventures
ABOUT
Humba Ventures is a pre-seed and seed fund in the Susa Ventures family. While Susa Ventures is focused on leading early stage rounds in traditional sectors like enterprise SaaS, fintech, healthcare, and logistics, Humba Ventures is mainly focused on smaller, emerging sectors and technologies like robotics and manufacturing, climate and energy, and defense and security. Humba also occasionally invests as a supportive, non-lead investor in traditional sectors.
Humba typically writes $250k-$1m core checks with a high engagement model, and occasionally writes $50k-$100k scout checks.
We bring over a decade of institutional VC experience developed through supporting companies like Robinhood, Flexport, and Mux at their earliest stages, and apply that experience to founders building companies at the frontiers of technology.
TEAM
Humba is principally run by Leo Polovets and Pratyush Buddiga, with support from the larger Susa team.
Leo (
blog)
- Numerous Top 100 finishes in national math, programming, and science competitions in high school and college.
- 10 years of software eng experience: 2nd engineering hire at LinkedIn, 3 years at Google working on payment fraud detection, 4 years at Factual working on data cleaning and deduping software.
- Co-founded Susa Ventures ($500m+ AUM, seed investor in companies like Robinhood, Flexport, Mux, Expanse, Mashgin, and Andela)
Pratyush ( blog)
- Won US Spelling Bee.
- Professional poker player for 6 years, reaching #2 in the world for tournament play.
- Early employee at a crypto gaming company and Chief of Staff at Volley (YC-backed voice gaming startup)
Team’s previous fund and angel investments: CloudTrucks ($850m), Dusty Robotics (🤫), Hightouch ($615m), Mashgin ($1.5b), Placer ($1b), Scalyr (acquired), Veho ($1.5b), Vetcove (🤫).
PORTFOLIO
Categories:
🧬 Biotech
🔋 Climate/Energy
💰 Crypto/Web3
🛡️ Defense/Security
🏫 Education
🤖 Robotics/Manufacturing
🚀 Space
🤝 Supportive Check
Most of the companies below are in stealth mode, unless their homepage links are included.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| 🤖 | 3D printer that can produce production-grade carbon fiber parts quickly and affordably. |
| 🤖 | Adaptable ASRS (automated storage and retrieval system) for warehouses. |
| 🤖 | Automated wig manufacturing. |
| 🤖 | Automation solutions for fish processing. |
| 🤖🛡️ | Autonomous drone swarms for military applications. |
| 🛡️ | Compliance and collaboration software for government primes and subcontractors. (GovPort) |
| 🤖 | Cybersecurity risk assessment and insurance platform. |
| 🔋🤖 | Distributed network of balloon-based weather sensors. (Windborne) |
| 🔋🤖 | Forest monitoring and inventory management using drones and robots. (Treeswift) |
| 🤖 | Hardware-based precision crop load management. (Orchard Robotics) |
| 💰 | Highly efficient decentralized exchange. (Ambient Finance) |
| 🏫 | K-12 math practice software. |
| 🤖 | Marketplace for industrial components. (Volition) |
| 🚀 | Modern ground station network for satellites. (Northwood Space) |
| 🤝 | Next gen property management platform. |
| 🔋🛡️ | Nuclear microreactors for defense applications. (Antares) |
| 🧬 | Organoids for drug testing and drug development. |
| 🧬 | Platform for designing and testing oncolytic viral therapies. |
| 🧬 | Protein design using generative AI. |
| 🛡️ | Search engine for geospatial data that targets defense & government use cases. (Danti) |
| 🛡️ | Security middleware platform that gives users control and visibility over their security posture. (LimaCharlie) |
| 🔋 | Site selection and permitting software for large cleantech projects. (Blumen Systems) |
| 🤖 | Software infrastructure for robot arms. |
| 🛡️ | Software platform that makes it easier for the US to share info with its allies in a faster, more secure way. |
| 🤝 | Super app for solopreneurs that helps with payments, scheduling, marketing, and more. |
| 🤝 | System of record for account managers. |
| 🤝 | Telehealth dietician platform. (Nourish) |