Building the Missing Capital Infrastructure: How We Get More Tough Tech Into the World Faster

Portmanteau Capital, Schmidt Family Foundation, and The Engine invite you to join a session on one of the most important challenges in tough tech: completing the capital continuum from validated science to commercial scale. Breakthrough science is not the bottleneck. Commercialization is. Too many promising technologies become stranded between research funding and traditional commercial capital. This convening will bring together the institutions positioned to change that: investors, lenders, government agencies, philanthropists, and founders. This session is intentionally not a conversation about conventional venture capital. We’re focused on the companies that too often get stranded between public R&D funding and sustainable commercial markets, not because their technology or businesses aren't promising, but because they don't fit the traditional venture model. We’ll explore the alternative commercialization and financing pathways being built across philanthropy, government, nonprofits, and private capital, and what it will take to make those pathways more available at scale. This event also marks the public launch of Portmanteau Capital, a new nonprofit investment fund, while bringing together the broader community needed to build a stronger commercialization ecosystem for tough tech. The program will feature keynote remarks, a panel discussion with leaders pioneering new approaches to commercialization finance, and an interactive networking session.