Procyon Ventures

Procyon Ventures is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based early-stage deep-tech venture capital firm founded in 2014, now operating under the First Star Ventures brand (firststar.vc) — Procyon Ventures I remains the legacy debut fund. The firm was co-founded by Drew Volpe (background in conversational AI, search, unstructured databases, computational biology, and blockchain) and Millie Liu (background in AI and machine learning analytics, and co-founder of Sequoia China-backed Infervision, an AI medical imaging company). The firm's articulated thesis is 'computing x real-world' — with concentration in techbio, climate, robotics, and industrial infrastructure, and legacy coverage spanning computational biotech, connected sensors, AR/VR, and blockchain. First Star primarily writes pre-seed, seed, and selective Series A checks. The firm is headquartered at 245 Main Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. As of early 2025 the combined platform has made 48 disclosed investments across ten-plus years, including 4 investments in 2024 and 1 in 2025. Notable portfolio companies include Bedrock Energy (advanced geothermal heating and cooling with proprietary boring technology up to five times faster than conventional methods — Series A, January 2025), Plus One Robotics (pick-and-place warehouse robotics), Scoot Science (ocean and aquaculture data science), and Infinite Analytics. The Procyon/First Star team's technical depth — spanning conversational AI, biotech computation, and machine learning at the co-founder level — allows the firm to engage credibly with founders working on genuinely hard scientific and engineering problems. This hands-on scientific orientation is rare among early-stage VCs and positions the firm as a valued partner for researchers and technical founders who find conventional VC feedback lacking in domain rigor. The firm's Cambridge location provides direct access to MIT and Harvard's deep-tech research ecosystems.