Countdown Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm specializing in hard tech industrial companies, will close down by March and return invested capital, its founder Jai Malik said in a letter to shareholders.
“Funding industrial startups is not inefficient enough to justify our existence,” he wrote. “Larger, multi-stage venture firms are best positioned to generate strong returns on the most valuable industrial startups.”
Malik wrote that, despite the firm’s performance to date, he has concluded that new investments are unlikely to yield strong returns.
“As a result, I no longer believe that Countdown’s existence is justified, for both our limited partnerships (LPs) and Countdown management,” he wrote.
Malik declined to comment on the letter.
Among Countdown’s investments are satellite bus startup K2 Space, aerial vehicle manufacturer Swarm Aero, industrial infrastructure-focused cybersecurity firm Galvanick and flight safety artificial intelligence (AI) assistant Beacon AI.