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
Most of the companies below are in stealth mode, unless their homepage links are included. Companies are listed in each theme that they fall into.
Automation, robotics, and manufacturing
🚁 Autonomous drone swarms for military applications.
🖨 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. (Shinkei)
🌦 Distributed network of balloon-based weather sensors. (Windborne)
👓 Fast, automated eye exam platform. (Eyebot)
🌲 Forest monitoring and inventory management using drones and robots. (Treeswift)
🍏 Hardware-based precision crop load management. (Orchard Robotics)
🔩 Marketplace for industrial components. (Volition)
🪚 Next gen sawmills.
🦾 Software infrastructure for robot arms. (Jacobi Robotics)
Bio and food
🐟 Automation solutions for fish processing. (Shinkei)
🖥️ Data warehouse for genomic data.
🍏 Hardware-based precision crop load management. (Orchard Robotics)
🧪 mRNA sequence optimization that enables more mRNA therapeutics.
🫁 Organoids for drug testing and drug development. (Parallel Bio)
🦠 Platform for designing and testing oncolytic viral therapies.
🧬 Protein design using generative AI. (Diffuse Bio)
🧠 Restoration of neural circuits and reversal of neurodegeneration.
Climate and energy
🏭 Affordable, dispatchable baseload geothermal power.
🌦 Distributed network of balloon-based weather sensors. (Windborne)
🌲 Forest monitoring and inventory management using drones and robots. (Treeswift)
⚛️ Isotope enrichment for fission and fusion reactor fuels.
🏭 Nuclear microreactors for defense applications. (Antares)
📝 Site selection and permitting software for large cleantech projects. (Blumen Systems)
Defense (including govtech and cybersecurity) and Aerospace
🚁 Autonomous drone swarms for military applications.
📝 Compliance and collaboration software for government primes and subcontractors. (GovPort)
🛡 Cybersecurity risk assessment and insurance platform.
🛰 Modern ground station network for satellites. (Northwood Space)
🏭 Nuclear microreactors for defense and space applications. (Antares)
🌎 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)
🧑🤝🧑 Software platform that makes it easier for the US to share info with its allies in a faster, more secure way.
Other deep tech/American Dynamism areas
💱 Highly efficient decentralized exchange. (Ambient Finance)
🏫 K-12 math practice software. (Edia)
Supportive checks
(These were checks written very early on, between Humba’s creation and the establishment of its focus on deep tech and American Dynamism.)
🏢 Next gen property management platform.
📱 Super app for solopreneurs that helps with payments, scheduling, marketing, and more.
🧑💼️ System of record for account managers. (Callypso)
🥗 Telehealth dietician platform. (Nourish)