Early-stage · India · SEA · US

We back deeptech,
built by young people,
on top of AI.

MLB4 writes the first cheque into companies where the hard part is genuinely hard — and where the people doing it are early enough in their careers that nobody has told them it can't work.

Companies backed
Exits
1stCheque, usually
What we believe

Three filters. Everything else is negotiable.

We're not trying to have an opinion on every category. We have one thesis, and we run every conversation through it.

01 / DEEPTECH

The hard part should be hard

We look for companies whose advantage lives underneath the interface — in the physics, the biology, the model, the substrate. Things a competitor can't copy in a weekend because they'd have to solve the same problem first.

Distribution is a real advantage. It's just not the one we're underwriting.

02 / YOUNG PEOPLE

Talent compounds earlier than credentials

Most of our pipeline is people within a few years of graduating. They've had less time to learn what's supposed to be impossible, they move at a pace incumbents can't match, and the first cheque means more to them than it ever will later.

We'd rather be early on a person than on-time on a market.

03 / AI-NATIVE

AI as substrate, not as a feature

We're interested in companies that would not have been buildable three years ago — where intelligence sits in the execution layer, not in a banner on the pricing page.

The durable value is in the routing, the data, and the workflow underneath whichever model is fashionable this quarter.

We move at founder speed

First conversation to decision in days, not quarters. A no comes fast and with reasons.

Conviction over consensus

We don't wait for a lead. If we believe it, we're in — often before the round exists.

Operators, not observers

Our mentor bench has actually built and scaled the thing you're about to attempt.

Small cheque, full weight

We're early and we know it. What you get is time, network and honesty — not board theatre.

Portfolio

The companies we're lucky to be in.

What we're backing against the current thesis. Follow them directly — that's where the real updates are.

See the full portfolio →
Mentors

The bench behind the cheque.

Founders, operators and researchers who take our calls. Every company we back gets introduced to the two or three who are actually useful to them.

Meet the mentors →
Intake

Building something hard?

Send the deck. No warm intro required — we read everything that comes through this form, and you'll hear back either way.