Authentic Ventures

Authentic Ventures operates as a Chicago-based venture capital firm that has positioned itself across multiple investment stages from pre-seed through Series B and beyond since its 2015 founding. The firm distinguishes itself through a deliberately diversified sector approach, maintaining active investment practices across aerospace and defense, consumer technology, fintech, and climate sectors. This broad sectoral focus reflects the firm's strategy of capitalizing on emerging opportunities across different market cycles rather than concentrating on a single vertical. The firm's Chicago headquarters provides a strategic advantage in accessing Midwest startups often overlooked by coastal venture capital firms, while maintaining deal flow access to traditional tech hubs. Authentic Ventures has built its reputation on taking calculated risks across varying investment stages, allowing the firm to enter promising companies at different points in their development lifecycle. The firm's investment approach emphasizes identifying authentic market opportunities and founders who demonstrate genuine problem-solving capabilities rather than following trending investment themes. Their portfolio construction strategy appears designed to balance risk across sectors and stages, with the firm writing checks appropriate to each investment stage rather than maintaining rigid check size parameters. The aerospace and defense focus is particularly notable given the specialized knowledge required for this sector, suggesting the firm has developed specific expertise or partnership capabilities in this area. Their climate investment thesis aligns with broader venture capital trends toward sustainability and clean technology, while their fintech investments reflect the continued digitization of financial services. The firm's willingness to invest across such varied sectors from pre-seed to Series B demonstrates significant capital deployment capabilities and suggests they manage substantial assets under management, though specific fund sizes have not been publicly disclosed.