# Fifty Years

> Fifty Years is a VC fund backing Biotechnology and Health Care. See 185 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 185
- Last investment: Feb 2026
- Lead investor: 17%
- Fund size: $90M
- Last fund: Oct 2021
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10774072
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/fiftyyears
- Website: http://fiftyyears.com/

Fifty Years is a venture capital firm that backs founders using technology to solve the world's biggest problems.Entrepreneur-run and based in San Francisco, Fifty Years invests in companies that inspire. Specifically, they fund companies that, if successful, will be both massively profitable and make a serious dent in achieving one ormore of the Sustainable Development Goals.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Fifty Years. Shizune tracks 6 team members at Fifty Years. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/fifty-years?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $2M–$15M |
| Series A | $8.5M–$37M |
| Series B | $16M–$91M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 32 | 17% |
| Health Care | 26 | 14% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 14 | 8% |
| Medical | 12 | 6% |
| Software | 12 | 6% |

115 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 70 | 38% |
| Series A | 48 | 26% |
| Series B | 16 | 9% |
| Pre-Seed | 13 | 7% |
| Series C | 5 | 3% |

8 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 77 | 42% |
| Germany | 4 | 2% |
| Canada | 3 | 2% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 1% |
| Senegal | 1 | 1% |

6 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ela Madej | Co-founder and Partner | 6 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ela-madej |
| Seth Bannon | Founding Partner | 20 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/seth-bannon |
| Chris Waclawek | Impact Investor | 3 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chris-waclawek |
| Drew Moxon | Head of Platform and Product | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/drew-moxon |
| Peregrine Badger | Instigator | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/peregrine-badger |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Adaption Labs | Adaptation creates AI systems that adjust to changing real-world circumstances. | $50M | Seed | Feb 04, 2026 |  |
| Onepot.ai | Onepot.ai offers automated synthesis of small molecules from basic building blocks using a unified, end-to-end process. It generates around fifty distinct compounds in a single workflow, eliminating the need for bespoke methods for each target. The platform employs modular couplings, deprotection, and streamlined purification steps to rapidlyassemble structurally diverse molecules. It supports chemistries that produce both sp²- and sp³-rich frameworks, enabling applications across pharmaceutical, materials, and probe development. By leveraging a catch-and-release purification protocol and iterative building-block assembly, Onepot.ai enables efficient production of complex small-molecule libraries. | $13M | Seed | Nov 19, 2025 |  |
| Gridware | Gridware offers a grid-intelligence platform that equips utilities with real-time visibility into the physical, electrical, and environmental conditions of their overhead infrastructure. Its core product, GridScope, is a small, solar-powered sensor mounted on utility poles that continuously monitors mechanical vibrations, electrical activity, andambient stressors even during outages. On-device analytics identify hazards, localize faults, and classify their severity, allowing line crews to respond efficiently and safely. Through its Active Grid Response system, Gridware helps utilities detect issues before they escalate, supporting timely maintenance and more stable grid operations. | $55M | Series B | Nov 17, 2025 |  |
| Red Queen Bio | Red Queen Bio works with frontier labs to map AI-enabled biothreats and pre-build medical countermeasures against them. | $15M | Seed | Nov 13, 2025 |  |
| Electroflow Technologies | Electroflow Technologies is a chemical manufacturing company that specializes in developing battery materials for energy abundance. | $12.8M | Seed | Sep 30, 2025 |  |
| Deepcell | Deepcell uses AI to isolate and capture cells based on morphological features for multiple research and translational applications. |  | Venture - Series Unknown | Apr 24, 2025 |  |
| Elicit | Elicit is an artificial intelligence research assistant that uses language models to help users automate research workflows. This research assistant finds relevant papers without a perfect keyword match, summarizes takeaways from the papers, and extracts key information from the papers. | $22M | Series A | Feb 26, 2025 |  |
| Gridware | Gridware offers a grid-intelligence platform that equips utilities with real-time visibility into the physical, electrical, and environmental conditions of their overhead infrastructure. Its core product, GridScope, is a small, solar-powered sensor mounted on utility poles that continuously monitors mechanical vibrations, electrical activity, andambient stressors even during outages. On-device analytics identify hazards, localize faults, and classify their severity, allowing line crews to respond efficiently and safely. Through its Active Grid Response system, Gridware helps utilities detect issues before they escalate, supporting timely maintenance and more stable grid operations. | $26.4M | Series A | Jan 08, 2025 |  |
| Aalo Atomics | Aalo Atomics designs and builds small nuclear fission reactors, to sell affordable and reliable clean power and heat. | $27M | Series A | Aug 14, 2024 |  |
| Waypoint Bio | Optimizing cell therapy with spatial biology | $14.5M | Seed | Jun 28, 2024 |  |

10 of 185 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Y Combinator](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/y-combinator) — VC Fund, 45 deals together
- [Refactor](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/refactor-capital) — VC Fund, 20 deals together
- [Liquid 2 Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/liquid2-ventures) — VC Fund, 17 deals together
- [SOSV](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sosv) — VC Fund, 16 deals together
- [Andreessen Horowitz](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andreessen-horowitz) — VC Fund, 12 deals together
- [Khosla Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/khosla-ventures) — VC Fund, 11 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Fifty Years invest in?

Fifty Years invests primarily in Biotechnology, Health Care and Artificial Intelligence startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 185 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Fifty Years's check size?

Fifty Years typically joins rounds of $2M–$15M at Seed, $8.5M–$37M at Series A and $16M–$91M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Fifty Years participates in.

### How do I contact Fifty Years?

Public channels for Fifty Years 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 Fifty Years?

The team at Fifty Years includes Ela Madej (Co-founder and Partner), Seth Bannon (Founding Partner) and Chris Waclawek (Impact Investor), among 6 team members tracked by Shizune. 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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