# Duke Capital Partners

> Duke Capital Partners is a VC fund in Durham backing Software and Health Care. See 16 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Durham, United States
- Total investments: 16
- Last investment: May 2026
- Lead investor: 13%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dukecapitalpartners
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/DukeCapPartners
- Website: https://dukecapitalpartners.duke.edu

Duke Capital Partners is a VC fund in Durham focused on Software and Health Care. Duke Capital Partners' investment process educates the next generation of investment professionals and startup founders through their associate program. If you want any information please contact them through email or phone call.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Duke Capital Partners. Shizune tracks 3 team members at Duke Capital Partners. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/duke-capital-partners?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 5 | 31% |
| Health Care | 3 | 19% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 3 | 19% |
| Apps | 2 | 13% |
| SaaS | 2 | 13% |

26 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 6 | 38% |
| Pre-Seed | 2 | 13% |
| Series A | 2 | 13% |
| Series B | 1 | 6% |
| Series C | 1 | 6% |

6 stages tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Kurt Schmidt | Managing Director | 7 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kurt-schmidt-4 |
| Willa Townsend | Venture Capital Investment Associate | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/willa-townsend |
| Samir Shah | Angel Investor | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/samir-shah |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Corvera.ai | Corvera.ai is an autonomous operations layer that automates supply chain and operational tasks for consumer packaged goods companies. | $4.2M | Seed | May 05, 2026 |  |
| Ten63 Therapeutics | Ten63 Therapeutics is a venture-backed startup developing durable therapeutics against some of the most lethal diseases. It combines low-residual, ML-based computational chemistry and mathematically guaranteed, superlinear search algorithms to find optimized drug candidates. The company's platform, COPPER, leverages its proprietary AI andstate-of-the-art physical models to explore an unprecedentedly large chemical space, allowing them to discover new therapeutics to targets previously believed undruggable. |  | Venture - Series Unknown | Feb 19, 2026 |  |
| Extellis | Extellis is a satellite imaging company focused on delivering reliable Earth observation data at an industrial scale with affordable and high-volume capacity. which allows satellites to capture real-time images in all weather conditions, 24/7. This technology enables Extellis to offer high-capacity satellite imaging that can monitor changesanywhere on Earth as they happen, overcoming limitations of current satellites that cannot take enough images daily for continuous monitoring. | $6.8M | Seed | Nov 10, 2025 |  |
| Pryon | Pryon is an artificial intelligence company focused on enterprise knowledge management. Its natural language processing platform transforms unstructured data into experiences that increase productivity with unmatched accuracy and speed. Pryon’s automated machine learning engines deliver rapid time to value by enriching existing content. Thisno-code approach prevents operational disruption and allows organizations to quickly maximize the business value trapped within their information assets. Pryon was founded by Igor Jablokov, whose previous company defined the state of the art for AI assistants and was acquired by Amazon to form the basis for Alexa. | $20M | Convertible Note | Apr 25, 2025 |  |
| Octane | Octane is a developer-focused platform that leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence to battle-test smart contracts. | $6.8M | Seed | Apr 08, 2025 |  |
| VQ Biomedical | VQ Biomedical is developing a revolutionary, minimally invasive catheter that delivers supplemental oxygen directly into the bloodstream in hospitalized patients with respiratory failure. | $1.7M | Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |
| Acre | Acre is a real estate technology platform developed to improve the homeownership experience. Acre provides assistance at the time of purchasing a house by allowing to invest the amount of the home that is convenient, allowing customers to buy a new home at a lower monthly payment and lower risk than a traditional mortgage. | $10M | Seed | Dec 17, 2024 |  |
| Liquid AI | Building AGI, AI as Service, Generative AI | $250M | Series A | Dec 13, 2024 |  |
| Dannce.ai | Dannce.ai is creating digital movement assessments to accelerate neurological drug development and increase the accessibility of quality neurological diagnoses. DANNCE (3-Dimensional Aligned Neural Network for Computational Ethology) is a markerless motion capture approach that uses deep learning to quantify behavior and detect disease. DANNCE hastwo core innovations: the acquisition of fine 3-D patient movement without using markers, and the analysis of movement to create distinct behavioral fingerprints corresponding to disease states and drug effects. | $2.6M | Pre-Seed | Nov 21, 2024 |  |
| RetailReady | RetailReady specializes in streamlining retail compliance through directed workflows that eliminate the need for traditional paper SOPs and spreadsheet tracking. By digitizing warehouse processes, which traditionally relied on extensive manuals, into a more accessible mobile app format, RetailReady aims to reduce the financial burden of retailerchargebacks on brands and third-party logistics (3PLs). The company leverages AI to revolutionize retail fulfillment strategies, offering insights into common pitfalls in meeting retailer requirements and providing a 360-degree view of the in-store customer journey. RetailReady's solutions are designed to enhance the efficiency of supply chain, fulfillment, and logistics operations. | $3.3M | Seed | Jun 12, 2024 |  |

10 of 16 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Triangle Tweener Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/triangle-tweener-fund) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Breyer Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/breyer-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Bull City Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bull-city-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Chugai Venture Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chugai-venture-fund) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Front Porch Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/front-porch-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [OSS Capital L.P.](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/oss-capital-l-p) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## Similar investors

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- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Duke Capital Partners invest in?

Duke Capital Partners invests primarily in Software, Health Care and Artificial Intelligence startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 16 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Duke Capital Partners?

Public channels for Duke Capital Partners include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Duke Capital Partners?

The team at Duke Capital Partners includes Kurt Schmidt (Managing Director), Willa Townsend (Venture Capital Investment Associate) and Samir Shah (Angel Investor). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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