ROBOTICS & DEFENSE
Dual-Use Autonomous Systems: Federal R&D Without Losing Commercial Velocity
AUTHORING PARTNER
Vikram Deshmukh
PARTNER TITLE
General Partner
CORE THESIS METRIC
<90-Day Pilot Cycle
EXECUTIVE INVESTMENT THESIS
Structuring SBIR/TACFI non-dilutive contracts alongside high-margin commercial industrial deployments so your startup never becomes a cost-plus services contractor.
ARCHITECTURAL & MARKET ANALYSIS
Federal non-dilutive R&D grants are extraordinary leverage when they fund core autonomy IP you own 100%, and fatal when they pull engineers into bespoke non-recurring custom builds.
WHAT WE LOOK FOR AT PRE-SEED & SEED
100% commercial IP retention under DFARS · Shared hardware/autonomy SKU across commercial & defense · Gross hardware + software margins >62%.
01 // APEX VENTURES
DeepTech Seed & Series A
$420M Fund IV leading $1.5M–$12M checks in AI silicon, robotics, computational bio, and grid infrastructure.
02 // CAPITAL & PORTFOLIO
Mandate & Ledger
Clean 1x non-participating preferred governance plus $350K non-dilutive H100 compute access.
03 // PARTNERSHIP
Bench & Research
Every memo read directly by former-founder General Partners in San Francisco, New York, and Zurich.
04 // GOVERNANCE & DOCS
Disclosures & Manual
SEC/Advisers Act non-solicitation notices, founder confidentiality, and 12-station owner manual.
© 2026 APEX VENTURES MANAGEMENT LLC · SAN FRANCISCO · NEW YORK · ZURICH · NOT AN OFFER TO SELL SECURITIES OR LP INTERESTS.
FUND IV DEPLOYING // 48-HR GP REVIEW SLA