J2 Ventures, a Boston venture capital firm focused on technologies that could improve national security, raised $150 million for its second investment fund.
Founded four years ago by combat veteran Alexander Harstrick and Jonathan Bronson, a PhD chemist who has worked on Wall Street, J2 has backed startups including Mesaquantum in New Mexico, which is developing locating technology alternatives to GPS, and California-based Femtosense, which is adding artificial intelligence to smart devices. The firm does not invest in startups developing guns, weapons, or products that hurt people.
“Working in the interest of our national security apparatus, just as the first venture capitalists observed and designed for, is the best way to scale world changing companies,” Harstrick said. “Innovation is not only the best deterrent for conflict but working for a higher purpose and the preservation of freedom is the best way for entrepreneurs to build value in any sector”
The pair have unusual resumes for the VC industry.
Harstrick was a health care consultant and a military intelligence officer in the Army reserves who deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq in 2017. After returning, he worked on the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, trying to find startups developing technology useful to the Pentagon.
Bronson earned a PhD in chemistry at Columbia University where he focused on applying computer machine learning techniques to molecular biology. Later he was chief operating officer at medical records startup Betterpath and was a director in the private equity investing unit at New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw.
The pair first met about 15 years ago working as emergency medical technicians at Columbia University, where Harstrick was an undergraduate. Bronson was pursuing graduate studies.
Unlike many in the VC industry who shun bureaucratic government agencies, Harstrick and Bronson back startups working closely with governments and want to help their companies win grants and other sources of public funding.
The goal is to develop technology not just with military and defense applications but also with the potential for civilian uses, Bronson said. “Department of Defense funding has been behind every major tech development from airplanes to computers,” he said.
The firm’s advisers include retired Navy vice admiral Raquel Bono, who was the director of the Defense Health Agency. J2 is “bringing best in class capabilities to our men and women in uniform,” she said in a statement.
J2′s $150 million second fund is more than double its original $68 million fund from 2021, despite a rough climate for raising capital. VC firms raised $37 billion in the first half of 2024, on track for the lowest amount of annual fundraising since 2019, according to a report from market researcher Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association.
Investors in J2′s new fund included Wall Street bank JP Morgan, the State of New Mexico Investment Council, and insurance company MetLife.
Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.