TEC Ventures is a seed fund based in Palo Alto, California that finances internet and software startups specialising in IoT, education, security, big data, and SaaS. In their own words: “We invest at the very early stage in extraordinary people who think out-of-the-box, are committed to disrupt big markets and change the world”.
TEC Ventures believe in people first; their philosophy is that a company’s fate depends on its team. Therefore, they invest in people, rather than ideas. If they love the team, that is a major factor in the final decision to invest. Other factors are as follows:
Substance: clear, sound, innovative, technologically feasible over a short horizon
Scale: there must be a large upside in case of success
Commercialisation: market applications should be obvious from the beginning
Competitiveness: idea’s advantage over competition should be apparent