Francis Ho at Walden Catalyst has an unusually deep technical background, having been lab partners with IonQ cofounder Jungsang Kim in quantum physics research at Stanford 25 years before investing in the company, and he personally reads academic papers to form independent technical views rather than outsourcing diligence to external experts. He focuses on technically non-obvious problem areas like making disordered proteins druggable through his Peptone investment, while also serving as Walden's internal expert on advanced cryptography and photonics with published work on zero-knowledge proofs and photonics hardware.
About their Fund
Sectors
AI, Chips, Data, Deeptech / Hardware, Biotech
Rounds
Seed - Series A
Avg Check Size
$550K
Notable Investments
Walden Catalyst is co-founded by two unusually senior semiconductor operators—Young Sohn (former President & Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics) and Lip-Bu Tan (founder of Walden International and longtime CEO/Chairman of Cadence Design Systems)—giving the fund rare depth of chip and systems experience. The fund positions itself explicitly between the improbable and the impossible, focusing on companies whose technology looks almost unreasonable at first but has a credible path to transforming entire industries, with a concentrated thesis on deep tech infrastructure like semiconductors, AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and automation.
Other partners at the fund
Notable Fund
Investments
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Sheets they're in
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Sheets they're Fund is in
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