Prime Movers Lab Adds Two Investment Veterans to Help Fuel Scientific-Based Company Growth

JACKSON, Wyo., March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Prime Movers Lab – an investor in breakthrough scientific startups working to revolutionize the world's most important industries and transform billions of lives – today announced the addition of general partners David Siminoff and Zia Huque, two respected investment veterans, to focus on later-stage, growth investments.

Prime Movers Lab, which invests in science-based ventures reinventing human augmentation, energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture, has quickly become a leading choice for startup company founders who are on a mission to do two things: commercialize breakthrough science and serve humanity. 

Prime Movers Lab Fund I, a nearly $100 million investment fund, is supporting portfolio companies that are, among other innovations, advancing sustainable food production, working to end the global pandemic, providing clean energy and pioneering space infrastructure. Prime Movers Lab Fund II has raised $245 million to invest in early-stage companies reinventing human augmentation, energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture. In addition, Prime Movers Lab has made several later-stage, growth investments through single-purpose investment vehicles.

"We knew there was a massive opportunity to serve founders of breakthrough scientific startups at an early stage when we started Prime Movers Lab," said Founder and General Partner Dakin Sloss. "We have since recognized there is a similar opportunity and need for our special blend of investment and development support for later, growth-stage scientific companies. We have the opportunity to scale our impact for founders, their partners, and the world far more rapidly than planned thanks, in large part, to the support of two seasoned investment legends in David and Zia, who will oversee the effort."

Siminoff has been an active investor in technology companies for more than four decades, having played a meaningful role in the advent of the dot-com era. Siminoff brings Prime Movers Lab and its growing portfolio of scientific-rooted companies a unique knowledge base, his knack for seeing  what's coming in the world and a track record of recognizing patterns that define startup winners. After graduating from Stanford Business School, Siminoff joined Capital Research, where he focused on the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors as an investment research analyst and portfolio manager. A top-performing fund he helped lead was an early investor in Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, PayPal, and America Online. After retiring from public money management duties, Siminoff helped lead the turnaround at JDate/Spark Networks, eventually guiding the company to a public listing on the American Stock Exchange. Additionally, he served as a general partner at Venrock, the Rockefeller family's venture capital arm and is the co-founder of Shmoop, an online educational technology publishing company that specializes in test preparation materials and study guides. He has served on many boards, from the Athletic Board at Stanford University to the Audit Committee before and after the IPO for Coupons.com/Quotient.

"I'm truly excited about the growth investing opportunities ahead for Prime Movers Lab. I consider it a privilege to get to work with world-leading founders commercializing mind-blowing technologies that could dramatically improve quality of life for billions," Siminoff said.

Siminoff's new colleague Huque brings to the team a wealth of experience around later-stage financing, with a background in the business of risk investment and risk management across credit, rates, equities and derivatives asset classes. He also brings vast operational expertise to Prime Movers Lab and the sizable portfolio of companies it supports.

Previously, Huque served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the U.S. broker dealer of Deutsche Bank, until his departure from Wall Street in 2019. During Huque's 30-year finance career, he has held multiple executive positions in the United States, Europe and Asia while leading investment banking, sales and trading functions spanning many industries, products and clients.

"It is a real honor to serve and share decades of leadership and finance knowledge with Prime Movers Lab's founders to assist them in addressing the most important challenges of our time," Huque said. "The next decade will be defined by how we address climate change, longevity, water shortages and other problems for which we have the technological solutions available. I am thrilled to support CEOs in solving mission-critical problems for humanity."

In addition to Siminoff and Huque, Jon Layman joins Prime Movers as Partner and General Counsel and Gaetano Crupi joins as a Partner focused on growth investments. Layman brings decades of operational and legal experience as a Partner at Hogan Lovells and Wilson Sonsini, having advised hundreds of high growth startups from incorporation to IPO. Crupi founded and led Cabin, a Prime Movers Lab portfolio company, and before that served as the Chief Operating Officer of Betable.

About Prime Movers Lab

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in early-stage companies reinventing human augmentation, energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, and agriculture. Our team is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in their mission to commercialize breakthrough science and serve humanity. For more information, visit: www.primemoverslab.com.

Media Contact:
Jami Schlicher
JConnelly
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SOURCE Prime Movers Lab