protect | innovate | build

Durin Ventures is building a cohort of student founders dedicated to pioneering technologies that strengthen U.S. defense against global adversaries.

While defense is a booming industry, student founders are crushed by high barriers to entry: bureaucratic red tape, inaccessible DoD contracts, and a critical lack of pre-seed funding. Durin Ventures empowers students by providing them with capital, connecting them with our venture capital and defense partners, and exposing them to the breadth of Harvard and MIT’s political and technological resources.

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DURIN CAPITAL

For Founders

Founder-Centric Model

DoD grants and government funding is narrowly focused on immediate product deliverables and often doesn’t accommodate your interests or vision. As your peers, we understand your needs. We prioritize you and your company's long-term success, keeping your vision front and center.

Immediate Support

We give you immediate support with no red tape. We believe in your potential even before a working prototype exists, enabling you to transform innovative ideas into groundbreaking technologies without the typical barriers that hinder early-stage defense startups.

Mentorship

The defense industry is remarkably complex and presents founders with substantial barriers to entry. We connect you with leaders in the defense industry and venture capital who provide guidance and open doors to future funding opportunities. As of now, we have advisorial interest from former senior leadership in the Department of Defense, United States Air Force, the Intelligence Community, and leading Defense Industry firms.

Collaborative Community

Join a network of the most talented students on campus. We facilitate connections to foster innovative partnerships via an accelerator program, weekly dinners with founders and VCs, and on campus presentations from industry leaders.

Durin Capital is a student-run defense venture capital firm focused on pre-seed investment in Harvard and MIT student-led startups. Leveraging the rapid innovation in software and deep tech for defense emerging from these universities, we bring a unique student-founder perspective. Our goal is to bridge the contracting bottleneck, helping defense startups navigate complex regulatory and DoD contracting landscapes and address the funding gap faced by capital-intensive, early-stage defense ventures. By combining technical expertise with a strategic understanding of defense policies and DoD contracts, we empower student founders to secure funding and contribute to the defense of the United States.

Investing with Durin

Unique Deal Flow

As students, we at Durin Ventures offer LPs access to a unique deal flow that otherwise would go unnoticed via Harvard and MIT’s ecosystem. We leverage our student partnerships with various organizations, student research projects, Professors, and more to invest in cutting-edge technologies at their inception.

Peer Evaluation

We invest in people above all else. As students, we are part of the same academic and social circles as our founders and thus have the ability to discern genuine talent, integrity, and commitment. At the earliest stage of investment where founders have few KPIs, we have a unique edge.

Priority Investment Opportunities for VC LPs

For our LPs who are venture capitalists, we provide the unique advantage of first-look opportunities in our portfolio companies. We ensure our VC partners have the first right of refusal to invest in subsequent funding rounds of the startups we incubate.

Talent Incubation

We specialize in discovering the most brilliant and hardworking of our peers who may not have previously considered defense. By pairing these exceptional individuals together and introducing them to our VC and defense partners, we incubate companies poised to drive advancements in national security.

Last But Not Least: Fun Moments

Behind-the-scenes at our viral challenge shoot

Our amazing teams celebrating the successful app launch

So.Far & YouR team at the Beauty Tech ֿ Awards (We won!)

We're Not Playing Around When It Comes to Birthdays

Candid moments from our joint product development workshops