Humba Ventures

Quick read

Humba Ventures is a pre-seed and seed-stage VC firm founded in 2022, headquartered in San Francisco, CA. It backs founders in deep tech and hard sectors — nuclear reactors, surgical robots, drone swarms, industrial batteries, biotech — areas most generalist funds avoid. The firm manages a $40M fund and targets check sizes of $250K–$1M, aiming to bring in $2–3 from co-investors for every $1 deployed.

Key facts

Founded

2022

Founders

Leo Polovets, Anna-Sofia Lesiv

Employees

1-10

Sectors

hardware, ai, healthcare, climate

Website

humbaventures.com

Investment thesis

Humba backs pre-seed and seed-stage founders building in hard tech and critical national sectors — defense, nuclear, robotics, biotech, energy, and advanced manufacturing — where technical complexity keeps most VCs away. Check sizes run $250K–$1M with a goal of catalysing $2–3 in follow-on capital per $1 invested.

Recent activity

• Jun 2026product
  Humba opened applications for its 2026 Deep Tech Fellowship, running three cohorts starting July, late August, and early October. Fellows spend six weeks attending pitches and diligence sessions alongside the partners. Applications close July 9, 2026. blog.humbaventures.com
• Dec 2024fundraise
  Humba closed its oversubscribed second fund, Humba II, at $40M, focused on deep tech and American Dynamism. Check sizes run $250K–$1M at pre-seed and seed. blog.humbaventures.com
• Sep 2025product
  Leo Polovets and Anna-Sofia Lesiv kicked off Humba's first deep tech fellowship cohort, a program for operators and researchers to observe deal-making at the firm. blog.humbaventures.com
• Sep 2025press
  Leo Polovets appeared alongside a16z GPs Martin Casado and Erik Torenberg in a discussion on non-consensus investing and venture returns. cbinsights.com
• ~Mar 2025press
  Humba Ventures posted on LinkedIn that it's 'pivoting' away from deep tech toward 'AI and vibes' — linking to an external post. The timing and tone suggest an April Fools' style joke rather than a genuine strategy shift, but no official clarification was published in the search results. linkedin.com
• 2025product
  Humba launched its Deep Tech Fellowship, a compensated 5-week part-time program embedding scientists and engineers directly into the firm's investment process. Applications for the first cohort closed; the next set is expected to open in early 2026. The firm plans to run three cohorts per year, with 1–2 Fellows at a time. humbaventures.com
• Oct 2023investment
  Humba Ventures invested in Danti, an AI-powered geospatial search company. Danti simultaneously announced a $1.2M Direct-to-Phase II contract from AFWERX to support the U.S. Space Force and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. danti.ai
• May 2026investment
  Invested in Furientis, an aerospace and defense company, marking Humba's most recent portfolio addition per PitchBook. pitchbook.com
• Dec 2024fundraise
  Closed a $40M fund dedicated to deep tech and hard sectors including defense, robotics, energy, and biotech. linkedin.com
• 2024product
  Launched the Deep Tech Fellowship, a compensated 5-week part-time program embedding scientists and engineers directly into Humba's investment process. humbaventures.com
• Oct 2023investment
  Invested in Danti, an AI-powered geospatial search platform serving the U.S. Space Force and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. danti.ai
• 2023investment
  Invested in Antares Industries' $8M seed round — Antares builds micro-sized nuclear reactors targeting remote off-grid and defense markets. antaresindustries.com

Notable investments

• Anvil RoboticsSeed2026tracxn.com
• FurientisSeed2025briefthecall.com
• AntaresSeed2024blog.humbaventures.com
• WindBorneSeed2024blog.humbaventures.com
• MytraSeed2024blog.humbaventures.com
• Conductor AISeed2024joltoo.com
• DantiSeedOct 2023cbinsights.com
• GovForceSeedFeb 2023cbinsights.com
• Antares NuclearSeedUnknownvcsheet.com
• Northwood SpaceSeedUnknownlinkedin.com
• AirboundSeedUnknownhumbaventures.com
• Ambient FinanceSeedUnknownhumbaventures.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Leo Polovets · General Partner
  LinkedIn
• Anna-Sofia Lesiv · Partner

Sources

• Humba Ventures — Official Website
• Deep Tech Fellowship — Humba Ventures
• Humba Ventures Investment Portfolio — PitchBook
• Humba Ventures Investor Profile — Tracxn
• Humba Ventures: The Early Stage Founder's Guide — Superscout
• Humba Ventures: Funding, Team & Investors — StartupIntros
• Humba Ventures — VC Fund Breakdown
• Danti Secures $1.2M AFWERX Contract — Danti
• Antares Announces $8M Seed Round
• Humba Ventures: Investing in Deep Tech Startups — Lab to Startup
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/humba-ventures
• https://blog.humbaventures.com/p/humba-ventures-2026-deep-tech-fellowships
• https://blog.humbaventures.com/p/humba-ii-doubling-down-on-deep-tech
• https://blog.humbaventures.com/
• https://www.cbinsights.com/company/humba-ventures

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