# BlueYard Capital

> BlueYard Capital is an early-stage venture firm, split between Berlin and the US, that writes $500K to $5M checks into technical founders working on problems most investors avoid - fusion energy, hypersonic defense, decentralized money, and engineered biology. Founded in 2016, it manages roughly $500M across three funds and has backed Solana, Groq, IonQ, Filecoin, and Privy.

- **Founded:** 2016
- **Headquarters:** Berlin, Germany
- **Founders:** Ciarán O'Leary (General Partner & Co-Founder), Jason Whitmire (General Partner & Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** Approximately 17-19 people (11 investment team, 8 operations)
- **Products:** Early-stage venture capital, Fund I, Fund II, Fund III
- **Notable:** Fund I reported a 7x markup and a 53% IRR as of 2024, Grew to roughly $500M AUM across three funds since 2016, Early backer of Solana, Groq, IonQ, and Filecoin

## Products & services

- **Early-stage venture capital** — Lead or co-lead checks of $500K to $5M into pre-seed, seed, and Series A companies across four theses: Computation & Intelligence; Engineering, Aerospace & Defense; Biology & Chemistry; and Crypto.
- **Fund I** — Debut ~$120M fund raised in 2016; reported 7x markup and a 53% IRR as of 2024.
- **Fund II** — Second fund, roughly $120M, continuing the concentrated deep-tech and crypto thesis.
- **Fund III** — $185M fund closed in 2022, still being deployed across the four verticals.

## Achievements

- Fund I reported a 7x markup and a 53% IRR as of 2024
- Grew to roughly $500M AUM across three funds since 2016
- Early backer of Solana, Groq, IonQ, and Filecoin
- Portfolio company Privy acquired by Stripe after 100M+ user accounts
- IonQ reached the public markets via IPO

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Published its 'Utopia or Oblivion' manifesto reframing the thesis around four verticals: computation, aerospace & defense, biology & chemistry, and crypto.
- **2024-01** — Fund I from 2016 reported a 53% IRR and roughly 7x markup.
- **2022-01** — Closed Fund III at $185M.

## Links

- Website: https://blueyard.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/blueyard-capital
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/blueyard
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/blueyardcapital/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/blueyard-capital
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-16